A huge achievement for 2026: We’ve Joined The Long Run!

This will come as music to the ears of our friends at Senderos, most specifically Simon Heyes, who has been telling us to make moves on this front for years! We'd nod politely, agree, and quietly get on with the work… However, this May, we finally made it official.

The Long Run is a global community of destinations, DMCs, travel representatives and tour operators who share one commitment: that travel can be a genuine force for good, for people and planet alike. To join, you need meaningful goals across what they call the 4Cs: Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce.

This is a really important step in the history of Zuleta because although we've always done this work, we've never been particularly good at measuring or communicating it. That's what this next chapter is really about.

Conservation

Conservation is our deepest root. For 30 years, Zuleta’s Andean condor programme has worked with one of Ecuador’s most emblematic endangered species, whose slow reproductive cycle means progress is measured in decades, not seasons.

We monitor over 70 spectacled bears now identified on the estate, whose forest habitat we're actively working to reconnect. Over the past decade, 70 hectares of former pastureland have been returned to native forest.

The truth is, our condors can't go home to a landscape that isn't healed yet, so healing it is the job.

Community

Community means 90% of our roughly 225 staff come from the surrounding area, and we invest in their training and development.

Our aspiration is to go further: more local leadership, more of our tourism revenue circulating through local employment and suppliers, and a stronger connection between Hacienda Zuleta and the communities around it.

Culture

Culture around the Hacienda is strong.

Zuleta's embroidery tradition was recently recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage by Ecuador's Ministry of Culture, a craft that's also long been a source of economic independence for the women who keep it alive.

Whilst the history of embroidery here stretches far back, it was Rosario, wife to President Galo Plaza who first worked with the women of the community to find routes to commerce, ensuring the women of the community had an income through their art.

Commerce

Commerce is the thread that ties it together: without being commercially viable, the Hacienda couldn’t continue work in the other three Cs.

A functioning, profitable business is the bedrock for the stability that it brings to people and place that are an integral part of it.

There’s lots to be excited about on this front as well. Beyond recent developments like our bar, and ongoing developments for new rooms, we're planning low-impact glamping.

The long-term aim is a hacienda where hospitality, farming and conservation genuinely depend on each other financially, not just in spirit.

What comes next

Joining is only the first step, of course.

The path ahead runs through identifying our impact and opportunities, embedding the 4Cs properly into the business, tracking and communicating that impact honestly, including where we're falling short, and working toward Global Ecosphere Retreat certification.

Johanna Barba, The Long Run's Regional Hub Manager for Latin America, is guiding us through it, and will visit Zuleta in person later this year.

For guests and agents, this means the story you've heard from us, about condors, about embroidery, about a community that runs this place, will increasingly come backed by data, checked against an international standard, not just our own word.

We're at the beginning. But we're glad to finally be doing it properly.