The material, a result of a collective effort involving more than 100 representatives of traditional peoples and communities, offers perspectives on the topic in Brazil.
How can tourism generate income, promote environmental conservation, and maintain the ways of life in the territories of traditional peoples and communities? This is the question that the publication "Community-Based Tourism Allied with Territorial and Environmental Management – Weaving Networks and Pathways" seeks to answer.
Released this Thursday, the material is the result of a partnership between the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), the Heritage Tourism course at the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), and the Kalunga do Mimoso Quilombola Association (AKMT).
Click here to access the full publication.
Community-Based Tourism (CBT) is a resistance strategy against the pressures caused by mass tourism, illegal fishing, labor exploitation, real estate speculation, and land conflicts, the material highlights.
The publication, which aims to support the development of public policies and contribute to discussions on community-based tourism initiatives in the country, is the result of a... seminar on the topic, held in October 2022, in the city of Arraias, Tocantins.
On that occasion, more than 100 community leaders, including quilombola, indigenous, artisanal fishermen, land reform settlers, and others, from four regions and nine states of the country, were present, exchanging experiences and lessons learned from the TBC.
Community experiences
Sleeping within an indigenous or quilombola territory. Eating food grown and harvested right next door by the host. Canoeing. Hiking and visiting local waterfalls maintained by community members. Listening to stories. These are some of the experiences offered by TBC.
In the Ivaporunduva quilombo, in the Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, for example, the quilombo leader Benedito da Silva, known as Seu Ditão, and his partner Elvira, work with ethnotourism, bringing a historical recovery of the quilombo struggle through conversation circles and walks through the quilombo. Community practices also involve family farming and care for the environment.
"Municipalities and local communities can better organize themselves to decide which types of tourism they want to encourage in their areas, as well as to meet the expectations of tourists by offering services based on community leadership in line with different market niches," the material explains.
According to the principles of Community-Based Tourism (CBT), the community decides what can and cannot be done within the territory. Decisions must be collective, made through assemblies, and the income generated by tourism must be distributed according to what has been collectively and previously determined, prioritizing the creation of an association fund.
"It's important to maintain naturalness: not to create artificial attractions that are not part of the communities' culture," says an excerpt from the material, adding a perspective focused on environmental conservation and social justice.
territories
Beyond these gains, there is also the issue of territorial protection. Given the various land conflicts in the country, which have intensified in the last four years, the TBC (Territorial Cooperation Agreement) also emerges as an instrument for defending and securing territorial rights for traditional peoples and communities.
Iracy Soares Sousa Araujo, a quilombola from the Kalunga do Mimoso territory in Tocantins, argued that "tourism can contribute to the recognition of the territory, since most of the population does not have land documentation."
The publication “Community-Based Tourism combined with Territorial and Environmental Management – Weaving Networks and Pathways” presents the following themes:
- Coexistence agreements;
- Benefit sharing and operational efficiency;
- Networking and scriptwriting;
- Value-added products (tourism supply chain);
- Sales to operators and agencies;
- Cultural aspects and values of the community;
- Pathways to financing CBT projects;
- Territorial rights and legal instruments associated with land use planning.
The seminar that led to this publication was supported by the Amazon Fund/BNDES, through the PPP-ECOS strategy, linked to ISPN, which has supported more than 700 projects since 1994 in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, and Mato Grosso. Learn more about the strategy. here.
To access the complete material, click here. here.
Text: ISPN Communications Office/Camila Araujo. Cover photo: ISPN Archive/Camila Araujo