Leadership and Founder Joe Koechlin von Stein

The abundance of resources in the seventies were believed by many people to be inexhaustible; however José Koechlin (President of Inkaterra and Inkaterra Asociación) was ahead of his time in predicting that the future of our ecosystems depended, very heavily, on knowledge and consistent economic management of natural resources. Also, Inkaterra was a pioneer in hotel operation in the Southern Amazon Rainforest of Tambopata (1975) and in the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary (1991).

José Koechlin has been president of the Peruvian Association of Adventure Tourism and Ecotourism (APTAE), from 1998 to 2002. He was also President of the board of CANATUR, of the National Chamber of Tourism of Peru, from 1995 to 1997. In addition, Mr Koechlin has been a Board member and member of the Executive Committee of the National Confederation of Private Enterprises (CONFIEP) for 4 years, and at the same time he was the founding president of the Committee for Sustainable Development. He is presently a member of the board of SERNAMP (National Service of Areas Protected by the State) and president of the Hotel Society of Peru since 2003. In the world of film he was the Peruvian director of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), by Werner Herzog; The Burden of Dreams (1982) by Les Blank, and Fitzcarraldo, by Werner Herzog (Best Director award-winner, Cannes 1982), of which he is also the author.  He discovered the “Inca Road of Purification” to Machu Picchu, and the original route of Hiram Bingham. In the fishing sector Mr Koechlin was president of the Technological Institute of Fishing from 1995 to 1996, which is an entity of the Peruvian government responsible for research and development of fisheries.

José Koechlin donated five hectares to the village of Machu Picchu, designing the urban plan where the current train station of Machu Picchu was built, Machu Picchu’s school, the current market, the medical post, the soccer field, an area for housing construction, and negotiated the road that goes from the village to the ruined bridge, which leads to the citadel of Machu Picchu.