El Projecto Esmeraldas evolved from a chain of events and relationships that led Lothar (the short one with the moustache) to move out to Ecuador in 1997. His task at the time was to review potential commercial gains in environmental projects within south America.  Unstable governments, policy changes with in  Ecuador as well as corruption led to those original plans not being fulfilled.  Despite all of that, Lothar liked the people, the climate and location in Esmeraldas and decided to stay.

Thomas (the tall one with the moustache) who is a long time and good friend of Lothar finally reacted to Lothar's business idea of selling the fantastic fish and seafood from Ecuador to the importers and wholesalers in Germany.  Thomas said "I will make two phone calls" (as he always does when a new idea comes along).

The business idea at the time was to buy up the fantastic fish and seafood from the fishermen in Esmeraldas, Ecuador and deliver it to the restaurants in Germany.  The opportunity and niche that arose from those initial calls made by Thomas was influenced by the following factors:

There is no certificate for organic fishing - only aquacultures are certified organic. Naturland a German organic certification company is developing a wild catch certification,  which we agreed would be our focus, we certainly do not want to get into or get involved in mass fishing.

The local fisherman live in poverty in Esmeraldas,  there livelihood is threatened by the aquacultures leading to cheap and partly organic fish and seafood, this in turn pushes down their prices also the large trawler companies decimating the fish stocks off the coastlines in front of them leave the fishermen of Esmeraldas  to travel much further to catch fish which on their small ill equipped boats is very dangerous.  

The fishermen are usually exploited by the owners of the boats and are poorly paid for their catch

I am Daniel (the good looking one without the moustache), I  joined little and large (sorry guys!!) having just completed an MBA at the Open University in the UK. I was seeking a challenge and a purpose in life. I had enough of working 50 hours a week in a job that was not going anywhere fast. Mutual friends introduced me to Thomas.  I liked the idea and so the journey began in November 2007.  

Through building our knowledge and skills and going down different routes to find a way to achieve our aims, we realised the following:

      - the importance of our help to the success of the reserve and the people living within it.

    - we can support the reserve in a number of ways without just building fish processing facilities.

    - we can generate funds to help by using the Internet to offer products and services that people like to buy without them having to pay more for their goods and services. We believe that people do want to help without having to continuously give their hard earned cash away - it is also not necessary.

    - using our knowledge and skills and to invite others to offer theirs we can help the people of Esmeraldas raise their standard of living and ensure the success of the reserve.

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