Centro PUMA eco-tourism initiative nicaragua
Centro Puma’s eco-tourism initiative
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Centro PUMA is a café and community center that supports education and conservation for the local community and serves the needs of visitors and tourists. It is a cooperative of US Park Rangers and Nicaraguan tour guides who lead hiking tours around Ometepe Island.
PUMA stands for Protectores Unidos por el Medio Ambiente, or United Protectors of the Environment. Tour guides and teachers staff the Ingles café and visitor center and teach classes here.
Like many other communities, Ometepe, Nicaragua, was not spared from the devastating effects of political unrest and the pandemic. The tourism industry, a major source of income for the locals, was hit hard, leaving many struggling to make ends meet.
Centro PUMA is located on the freshwater island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua, Nicaragua. While revising its social and environmental sustainability goals through community projects, the business side of the organization is still struggling after a political crisis, and the pandemic shut down tourism for many years.
Their Eco-tourism Initiative will integrate information and decision-making processes for tourists and the community by offering tour guide training and development, leading to a more sustainable tourist industry.
"Currently, tourists are typically approached by guides on the street or their hotels," said Arlin Hernandez Barrios, co-founder of Centro PUMA. "The tourists have no way to evaluate or investigate the abilities and motivations of their guide."
Their mission is to improve Ometepe tour guide services while improving the local economy with a fair business. Guiding pays the locals a fair wage and provides various employment opportunities nationwide. The Eco-tourism Initiative would incentivize current and next-generation guides to pursue professional development by organizing guide quality standardization and a sustainable career option. Currently, there isn't an organized force, and Nicaraguan’s interested in guiding are often self-funded and under-educated.
The Centro PUMA cooperative is based on the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. Along with standardizing guide training and development, they would improve access to guides and tours by establishing a professional website offering better information to travelers and the ability to book a tour and pay online. This will allow tourists to provide feedback and comments to improve guide services via surveys and review sites.
Ligia Ortis from Centro PUMA took part in the Junior Ranger Training trek to Concepcion Volcano's viewpoint.
The Eco-Tourism Initiative has been provided a Crooked Trails grant for $4,000. Within the next year, Centro PUMA will train 25 junior rangers and graduate 15 with follow-up training to become guides. They will also provide up to 5 interns with on-the-job training opportunities, peer reviews, and visitation exchanges with three different off-island locations.
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November 2024 Updates
With a mission to improve the tour guide services and economy of the Ometepe Island region of Nicaragua, Centro PUMA has effectively utilized the 2024 Crooked Trails Grant funding to provide Junior Ranger and Guide Training, internship management, English classes, reforestation initiatives, and offer cooking classes at the café for visiting travelers.
Omtepe Island ornathologist, Nolan (back row, third from right in blue shirt and cream trousers), stands in the Centro PUMA café with guides in training after teaching a workshop about regional bird identification and behavior.
Geobiologist Fernada Tellez from Mexico, right, taught Junior Ranger and Guide Training students about the geology of the Concepción and Maderas Volcanoes.
Guide Training Program
The Guide Training Program provides instruction and hands on experience to young adults and adults interested in guiding as a career. Often accompanied by tour guide instructors, the students learn how to guide tourists through the landscapes of the Concpetion and Madera Volacnoes. and talk about the local flora, fauna geology, ecology, and volcanism.
Students also learn about protecting the region's natural resources through the Reforestation Program. Guide Training also includes English classes taught by volunteers and are offered every Saturday for three weeks.
Students, instructors, staff, and guides from the Centro PUMA Guide Training Program, photos on left, gather on the Conception Volcano on Ometepe Island as part of a nature, geology, and ecology educational trek.
Junior Ranger Program
The Junior Ranger Program provides exploratory classes for girls, boys, and young adults about the nature found in Ometepe Island and about guiding. This program is for those who are thinking about pursuing guiding as a career.
Often accompanied by tour guide instructors, the students learn how to guide tourists through the volcanic landscape and how to discuss the local flora, fauna, geology, ecology, and volcanism with tourists. Junior Ranger and Guide Training program students also learn about protecting the region's natural resources.
Reforestation Program
Every year, the reforestation program grows a nursery of saplings to be planted in different parts of Ometepe Island to help recover the eroded areas.
All people linked to the Centro PUMA programs - children, young people, farmers and tour guides - are invited to participate.
More than 80 children and young people are involved in the different stages of the Reforestation Program, learning how to promote environmental awareness and strategize how best to manage global warming.
In the photo to the right, students, instructors, and volunteers involved with the Guide Training program participate in the Reforestation Initiative with Centro PUMA.
Sinia, second from right in the backrow, holding a sapling is a tour guide and instructor for the guide training program. Lesy, third from left in the backrow, also holding a sapling, is a volunteer with the Reforestation program. Ines, first from right in front row, is an English student taking part in the guide training program.
Cooking Classes
Travelers staying on Ometepe can take cooking classes through the Centro PUMA Cafe to learn how to prepare regional dishes.
Here, Leonor, left, teaches how to peel plantains and cook "peor es nada," a typical dish enjoyed throughout the region.
The Cafeteria Initiative allows women in the region to earn an income. The cooking classes are culturally immersive and a unique experience for visitors to engage with the local community.