Headlines: Ecuador's Ministry of the Environment allowed mobile phone company Porta to set up reception tower inside Podocarpus National Park...

Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people.  Ecotourism is considered as an effective way to bring development to undeveloped rural areas while conserving natural areas.

In 2005 the National Geographic Society named Ecuador as one of the top ten countries in the world to do adventure and nature tourism.  This should be no surprise since Ecuador is one of the most mega-diverse countries in world.  For instance, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which represents just 2% of the whole basin, live 1/3 of all the bird species in the entire Amazon region and 10% of all the tree species on earth.

Southern Ecuador is a region of great beauty and diversity that has been overlooked by Ecuadorian travel agencies and tour operators.  In this region you find places such as Vilcabamba, the world-renowned valley of longevity, and the Podocarpus National Park, one of the best places in the world for bird watching.  Moreover, in this region you find ethnic groups such as the Saraguro and the Shuar.  The region is highly biodiverse with three areas of high endemism (a high concentration of globally unique species): the Tumbesian endemic area and the Eastern and Western slopes of the Andes.

ETV is an Ecuador-based tour operator that offers foreigners and locals the chance of doing ecotourism in Southern Ecuador.  ETV's goal is to provide clients with a unique and memorable travel experience and at the same time help preserve Ecuador's biological and cultural diversity. 

Our tours are ecological in the sense that they take place mostly in national parks and small rural communities. We prefer to deal with small community-managed eco-lodges rather than big five-star hotels.  We work with and visit rural communities and employ people from these communities.