Allan Rodrigues Martins is 24 years old, studies tourism at the Federal University of Tocantins (TO), and is one of the young leaders of the Kalunga do Mimoso Quilombola Territory, in the municipality of Arraias (TO). This story is about Allan, his community, and also about Brazil.
In 2019, Martins, some university colleagues, and other young Kalunga people started the project. "Community-Based Tourism: Sustainable Use of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Kalunga do Mimoso Quilombola Community" next to his community in Arraias, which is about 420 km from Palmas. This territory is located in one of Brazil's most threatened biomes, the Cerrado, and, being in Tocantins, falls within the Legal Amazon. Traditional communities, such as Allan's community, are true protectors of the environment, now also through community-based tourism.
“The idea for the project arose from a desire to bring the knowledge from college to my community, to contribute to our growth and development in a region so threatened by large landowners. The focus on community-based tourism was also a way I saw to strengthen our social organization and our cultural traditions, especially for the youth, which also strengthens our history,” says Allan.
In this project, the logic of young people leaving the countryside to try their luck in the big city is reversed. In the Kalunga Territory, there are boys and girls who resist because of their history. Through community-based tourism, Allan and his companions intend to generate job and income opportunities for the community, which has about 300 families. To this end, they are structuring the lodging and food services offered by residents, encouraging the consumption of Cerrado fruits and other local foods, marketing handicrafts developed in the community, providing guided tours for trails and waterfalls, among other things.
Beyond strengthening the local economy, tourism is also a way to engage in dialogue with visitors about the importance of traditional territories for environmental conservation and respect for ancestral knowledge. Allan explains that they also want to reaffirm to the quilombola communities the logic of conservation through the conscious use of natural resources. Sustainability, in this context, is also a learning process across generations.
During the pandemic, the project's activities focused on building a headquarters to receive visitors and strengthening the association. With the prospect of gradually and cautiously resuming activities, the group is already preparing to finalize the inventory of natural and cultural heritage, conduct training to prepare local guides and reception staff, structure trails and other activities of the tourism executive plan, and thus begin the experience of receiving the first tourists in the territory. This experience goes beyond a purely economic logic, since the practice of responsible tourism brings the richness of intercultural exchanges and the experience of "Buen Vivir" (Good Living).
Community-Based Tourism and the Discovery of a Country
Community-Based Tourism, unlike other models found in Brazil and around the world, has a logic that values living in a place and with its people, based on care and respect. In this model, interculturality is fundamental for building experiences that are valuable both for those who receive visitors and for those who visit a traditional community. To this end, protocols are implemented that guide tourists towards practicing respect and experiencing life in an open way, learning and listening to ancestral knowledge, understanding that this experience happens in harmony with the appreciation of natural and cultural heritage fundamental to the construction of a nation.
From this perspective, in addition to observing, people can experience the surrounding environment, including learning from local cultures and the relationships that can be established with nature, understanding that different ways of life exist and are possible. “During these visits, we can perceive the joy generated by children playing in the streets, by conversations on balconies, and by various outdoor activities detached from computers and cell phones. Connections with nature and with people in a gentler time, different from our accelerated pace in cities, in the logic of intense production and the anxiety generated by consumer society. We perceive the joy of having freedom,” says Silvana Bastos, the ISPN technical advisor who accompanies the project and is also a master's student in Sustainability with Traditional Peoples and Territories.
According to Allan, this sustainable practice does not involve the invasion and distortion of local traditions, nor the depletion of nature. On the contrary, it demonstrates the importance of conserving and respecting local socio-biodiversity. This is also, according to him, a way to resist the deforestation committed by the region's unregulated agribusiness. “We don't want tourism to transform the community, but to recognize our cultures and traditions, to be sustainable, and to show those who come from outside the potential we have in the Cerrado. We want the community to be the protagonist in this activity, and in this way we can also resist the deforestation offensive coming from large [enterprises],” he assesses.
Allan wants his territory to always be autonomous. And to achieve this, he believes in the continuity of agro-extractive activities so that different sources of income are possible, while maintaining their way of life and environmental conservation. For him, tourism is a force that contributes to local sustainable development, but it will not replace the community's traditional path.
And when considering tourism within the Kalunga Territory, it's also necessary to talk about the importance of the connection between those who arrive there and the country's own history. It's about raising awareness of the importance of Black culture in the construction of the nation and the need to overcome the structural racism that still plagues our society. It's an invitation to get to know Brazil better: this Black country, of the sussa, bolé, and chorado dances, of the tambor de crioula, the folias de reis, and syncretic faith. A country born from the struggle of people for freedom and justice for all, without distinction of class, color, ethnicity, or religion.
The future is community-based.
“The climate emergency invites us to rethink today's world; the market-driven consumer society, generating so much inequality and destruction, is not a good path for humanity. We want quality of life, comfort, and much joy, but for this to be possible for everyone, the planet demands a great transformation from humanity and ways of life compatible with sustainability,” comments Silvana.
Learning about communities that have lived sustainably for millennia leads us to find solutions in ancestral wisdom that has found its way of existence in respect for the environment. The experience of the Kalunga Territory tells of this journey of much struggle to conquer the rights and protection of the territory and, thus, to cultivate the freedom and autonomy of its people. It also teaches that innovations do not necessarily mean the weakening of the cultural identity and traditions of a people; we are beings of exchange. That our country can be more supportive and community-oriented, and that it is possible to find strength in its cultural and environmental diversity. Allan, the Kalunga, and their history teach us that with Black people, Brazil is more Brazil.
The project “Community-Based Tourism: sustainable use of the natural and cultural heritage of the Kalunga do Mimoso Quilombola Community” receives support from the Fund for the Promotion of Productive Eco-social Landscapes (PPP-ECOS), with funding from the Amazon Fund. PPP-ECOS is a strategy adopted by the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN); learn more about the initiative by clicking here.