Founder, Team & Handover
AWAKEN Sanctuary was founded and is led by Olga Sytnyk, a Ukrainian who has lived in Peru for the past six years. Her career has run along the two lines that meet in this property — tourism and the environment. In Ukraine she co-founded Unique Ukraine (Унікальна Україна), which grew into one of the country's largest domestic tour operators, was named by Forbes Ukraine among the country's most successful women entrepreneurs, and earned national recognition including the Ukrainian Travel Awards. After roughly a decade building that company, she was invited into public office, serving as Deputy Chair of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council and then as an advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine on forestry and ecological reform. In Peru these two threads — premium tourism and the protection of forests — came together in one place.
Core team
Handover — two ways
Structure B — the founder stays. With 70% sold and 30% retained, the founder stays on as a partner inside the team, supporting the property's development — not necessarily as its operator; the buyer may run day-to-day operations with its own operator or with the existing team. What she keeps in place are the relationships the property depends on — the Santa Clara de Ojeal community (cooperation agreement since 2020), the Regional Government of Loreto, the local contractors who built the property and who carry out the restoration, and the guest and partner network from the first season. For a buyer who wants a working model rather than real estate alone, this is the structure designed to keep it working.
Structure A — full handover. With 100% sold, the founder completes the restoration inside the price and provides transitional support for up to 6 months: introductions and handover of the community and government agreements, the team and contractor relationships, the operating playbook (programs, experiences, suppliers, listings) and the guest records. The property is designed to be run by a professional operator; the transition period exists so nothing that lives in relationships is lost in the transfer.
What transfers in both cases: the on-site team structure (supervisor, guest managers, guides, maintenance, security, kitchen), the contractor relationships used in the original build and in the restoration, the community and GOREL agreements, the tourism licence, the brand and listings, and the full operating playbook.
A group, not a single company
AWAKEN operates as a regional group running several initiatives in Loreto — in conservation and ecological monitoring as well as hospitality — with CeibaQ (an ecosystem-data product) as a flagship project. The group has its own scientific institution, TERI (Tropical Ecosystems Research Institute), a research NGO and independent scientific validator. The Sanctuary has benefited from this institutional depth, and under structure B continues to.
Strategic partnerships
Government & institutions
- Ministry of the Environment of Peru (MINAM)
- Regional Government of Loreto (GOREL)
- National Meteorology and Hydrology Service of Peru (SENAMHI)
- National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP)
- National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR)
- Forest and Wildlife Resources Supervision Agency (OSINFOR)
- Indigenous Chamber of Commerce of Peru (CCPIP)
Science & research
- UNAP — National University of the Peruvian Amazon (Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana)
- IIAP — Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana)
Institutional and field engagement across Loreto — universities (UNAP), government and science partners, work on AI-based forest monitoring and digital MRV, conferences, and field programs.
Governance and the mandate to sell
The property was capitalised by 45 shareholders under a single Shareholders & Project Stakeholders Resolution across the two companies, with a Shareholders' Assembly and defined Reserved Matters. Disposal of the project is a Reserved Matter, and the shareholders have mandated the sale. The founder is the company's General Manager and the counterparty for the transaction.
Confidential.