Estação Gabiraba Community-Based Ecotourism in the Brazilian Amazon

Estação Gabiraba was founded as a result of more than ten years of discussion on what the impacts and roles travelers and students should and could have on their trips to the Amazon region and vice versa; the impacts that such visits could generate on them.
In one side, we noted that the tourist market was changing. The travelers arriving into the Brazilian Amazon were bringing an increasing social and environmental awareness. Conscientious consumers were asking more information and better distribution of the benefits of the money they were spending in the region. At the same time, they also wanted more interaction with the local communities and direct participation with the subjects of their visits; a shift from a demand from purely natural scenarios tours.
In the other side, the local communities and social initiatives started to see on the developing tourist industry a good potential to income generation for their social projects. However with also an increased concern and fear about the negative impacts that the uncontrolled mass tourism could bring.
Community-based initiatives started to be born mostly operated by the NGOs and organizations involved with them. However, accessing and acting in the tourist market at large, marketing, organizing tours and selling them, were not the main functions of the most of those organizations. Simultaneously, the limitations of such controlled activity, groups with reduced number of travelers, fair remuneration, transparent budgets and etc., were not attractive to the traditional tourist business.
The idea was then the creation of a tour operator that could work under those constrains, attending the growing market for fair trade tourism and demonstrating that it can be possible and profitable for private companies too. Estação Gabiraba is being this achievement for me, Ana Gabriela Fontoura; for my partner Gustavo Negreiros, a geographer with Ph.D. in ecosystem analysis and a vast experience coordinating groups of foreigner students on their study abroad programs in the Brazilian Amazon; and for all the riverine, quilombola, fishermen, artisans, midwifes, witch-doctors and other people that trust this proposal.
Gabiraba is a native fruit that grows in the backyards of many people in Brazil. Also known as Guabiraba, Guabiroba or Gabiroba (indigenous name), it is not normally commercialized in fairs and markets. In order to became familiar with this fruit and understand its significance, it is necessary to experience the land that produces it and to know the population that uses it.
This is the spirit of our work. In cooperation with local communities and governmental and non-governmental organizations, we develop journeys that are not easily found at the conventional tourist trade because they are not for attend only the demands of the commercial market. But is for attend special interests of community members and travelers who wish to have experiences that are not just pleasant and playful, but also educational, authentic, responsible and interactive.

We need to work on three different areas. One is to improve our reach within universities, building partnerships with colleges and travel agencies around Brazil and around the world that work already or want to work with conscientious responsible excursions in the Amazon. Second is to be able to participate on conferences and discussion tables to promote the idea and exchange experiences on the issues. Third is publicizing the initiative both academically, through papers and articles, and informally through hard and virtual media to spread the experience and increase the demand for it.