JOSÉ KOECHLIN VON STEIN, INKATERRA FOUNDER & CEO

Since 1975, José Koechlin pioneers ecotourism and sustainable development in Peru through Inkaterra, winner of Travel+Leisure’s 2020 Global Vision Award (American Express Group).

Aiming to underscore Peru’s biodiversity and cultural legacy, Inkaterra works under a holistic approach – it produces scientific research as a basis for conservation, education and the wellbeing of local communities.

President of NGO Inkaterra Asociación, José Koechlin sponsors major flora and fauna inventories since 1978, defining natural areas where its luxury hotels are located: the Amazon rainforest in Madre de Dios, the Andean cloud forest, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco and the Cabo Blanco tropical ocean, desert and dry forest.

Among Inkaterra’s main achievements in scientific research and biodiversity conservation, stands out: the inventory of 903 bird species within Inkaterra areas of influence (almost equivalent to Costa Rica’s total bird diversity); the Andean Bear Rescue Center, which conserve South America’s only bear species; the world’s largest native orchid collection (372 species); the first genetic lab in the Amazon Basin; and the technical proposal for the creation of Peru’s first marine reserve in the tropical sea of Cabo Blanco.

To promote travel experiences in Peru, he co-produced Werner Herzog’s classic films Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) and Fitzcarraldo (Best Director, Cannes Film Festival 1982), and Les Blank’s documentary Burden of Dreams(1982).

José Koechlin has also produced various publications on Peru’s biodiversity and culture, such as Cusco Amazónico: The Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonian Rainforest (Cornell University Press, 2005), considered by Cornell University as “the baseline against which all future studies of Amazonian amphibians and reptiles (and even other organisms) will be compared”; Flórula de la Reserva Ecológica Inkaterra (Missouri Botanical Garden and Inka Terra Asociación, 2007); Orchids at Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel (Inkaterra, 2007); The Last Days of the Incas, by Kim MacQuarrie (Inkaterra, 2012); and Lord of Miracles (Inkaterra, 2014).

Winner of the 2015 PURE Award for his Contribution to Experiential Travel and acknowledged by AACSB in its ‘100 most influential world leaders’ list, José Koechlin is also Chairman of Sociedad Hoteles del Perú, and E-Meritus Board Member of Conservation International (Washington D.C.).