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Funai pilot project in southern Amazonas allows fishing in Tenharim territory.
A project still under study by Funai (National Indian Foundation) intends to explore a destination still little known in Brazilian tourism: indigenous reserves.
With a pilot project in the south of Amazonas and other feasibility requests in the queue to be analyzed, the idea is to make tourism a livelihood for indigenous communities across the country.
The first experience, in Humaitá (AM), has existed for more than three years and consists of taking tourists to practice sport fishing in the Tenharim/Marmelos indigenous territory.
See the map Costa do Descobrimento
The Funai coordinator in the region, Walmir Parintintin, says that the initiative came from the Tenharim community itself and sought an alternative income to avoid the exploitation of loggers and miners.
Reserva Pataxó Porto do Boi
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Indios Kuikuro
In many places, where there is no alternative, the indigenous people mix with loggers and miners, exploiting wood and creating illegal mines. A lot of Indians end up being prosecuted and the land devastated. Tourism, on the other hand, is viable, it is a legal activity that does not degrade.
According to FUNAI, the resources generated by the activity vary from R$60,000 to R$80,000, depending on the contracts agreed each year between the indigenous people and the tourism company.
Generally, visits only take place for a period of 90 days, between July and October, when the Marmelos River and tributaries are drier.
Parintintin says that the income is used in a community way by the indigenous people, who invest in supporting students, cultural activities, housing, equipment, maintenance of vehicles and engines, among others.
Today there is much discussion about the demarcation of indigenous lands, but there is no discussion about an economic alternative for these peoples. There are indigenous people who prefer to stay within their culture, but there are others who have advanced, who want to study, want to have their own things and need a source of income.
The Funai coordinator, who belongs to the Parintintin ethnic group, says that another tourism project in the region is under discussion.
In this one, the idea is to build a hotel within the indigenous territory of the Parintintins, what he calls a jungle hotel. The project, however, is not yet a consensus in the indigenous community association itself.
Pataxó Indians in Bahia – Tourists in Indigenous Reservations
Even without consulting Funai, for about four years businesswoman Maria Luíza da Silva Cruz, from Pataxó Turismo, has been offering tourist packages to visit indigenous villages near Porto Seguro, in southern Bahia.
For R$799, the visitor buys a package that includes trails, hunting classes with indigenous techniques, traditional food from the Pataxó villages, as well as two nights in a quijeme (oca), sleeping in a tarimba (traditional wooden bed), hammock or mat in the village of Jaqueira.
Maria Luíza says that tourism in these villages began after the Indians themselves sought her out and showed interest. In addition to the money passed on to the villages by the agency, the Indians also profit from selling handicrafts.
It is a source of pride for the Pataxós to show themselves as Indians. There is a decades-long work to rescue their culture, language and identity. They have already suffered a lot from prejudice and ended up incorporating a lot of urban culture.
The preservation of indigenous culture is precisely the critical point of the initiative in the opinion of the deputy secretary of Cimi (Indigenous Missionary Council), Saulo Feitosa. For him, the contact of the Indians with the tourist can cause damage to the residents of the villages.
There is a prejudice against the indigenous and, unless it is a solidarity tourism, ethnic, and not aimed only at a profitable activity, it can cause damage to the indigenous culture, without any positive return.
For Feitosa, turning villages into tourist spots can bring to these areas problems common to other visitor destinations in the country, such as sex tourism and the spread of contagious diseases.
The Cimi representative, however, softened the issue in relation to the Pataxós villages in southern Bahia. According to him, the Indians of that region have greater contact with whites, which makes indigenous villages practically urban villages.
Funai says that its role is to protect, monitor and supervise activities in the villages, but that indigenous communities have autonomy to explore tourism in their territories.
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