Resumen

In developing nations preoccupied with the enormous challenges of political, economic and social reorganization and recovery during the 1990s, caring properly for natural protected areas and archaeological heritage is not always a high priority. In Peru, the search for revenues during the past decade has taken a significant toll on the nation’s natural and cultural resources, a trend that culminated in the recent controversy over the Lima government’s plans to expand tourist infrastructure at the Inca “palace” of Machu Picchu, arguably South America’s greatest tourist attraction. Yet while a political storm drawing international interest raged over Machu Picchu, a quieter but similar dilemma had begun emerging decades earlier at another remarkable ancient settlement in the eastern Andean cloud forests of northern Peru. The equally spectacular Chachapoyas site of Gran Pajatén was targeted for tourism development soon after its 1964 discovery