Llangahua community

Llangahua is a community of Tomabela Kichwas whose ancestors worked as servants at the local hacienda in slave-like conditions. When a reform law allowed them to buy 8000 hectares of the hacienda’s land, they declared most of it a community reserve, the Reserva Comunitaria de Páramo Llangahua. For their dedicated conservation work, they were awarded the prestigious Premio Verde award in 2014, using the prize money to build the infrastructure for their community tourism project. Another source of income for Llangahua is a dairy factory, which collects milk from the local campesinos and processes it into yogurt and cheese, including mozzarella and queso andino with oregano.