Community-Based Tourism in the Amazon: Women’s Leadership in the Mamirauá Reserve
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Discover the leadership of women in community-based tourism in the Mamirauá Reserve and the impact it has on traditional Amazonian communities.
Community-based tourism in the Mamirauá Reserve is a model of sustainable tourism in which traditional Amazonian communities participate directly in management, operations, and decision-making. At Uakari Lodge, women play a central role in this process: they lead, organize, and help shape the community-based tourism experience.
Women Transforming the Forest: Female Leadership in Tourism in the Mamirauá Reserve
In the Mamirauá Reserve, community-based tourism is more than an economic activity. It is a collective process that integrates environmental conservation, participatory governance, and social empowerment.
Located in the Middle Solimões region of the Amazon, the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve is one of the largest protected floodplain areas in Brazil and an international reference for conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.
In this territory, sustainable tourism was developed as a complementary strategy to the traditional activities of riverside communities. The initiative is coordinated by the Mamirauá Institute, a social organization linked to Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation that develops applied research and participatory management models in the Amazon.
Within this model, women play an increasingly central role.
Tourism as an Alternative Built with the Communities
Since the beginning of the Mamirauá Project in the 1990s, the reception of researchers gradually evolved into a structured model of community-based tourism, consolidated through the creation of Uakari Lodge.
Tourism was introduced to communities as an economic alternative capable of integrating and complementing income sources traditionally developed by Amazonian riverside communities. Institutional records indicate that the participation of women and young people has been encouraged since the earliest stages of the development of the activity.
Today, this participation is visible at every level of the tourism experience.
Women Who Welcome, Organize, and Lead
In the daily operations of Uakari Lodge, women lead management activities, coordinate reception and logistics, guide activities, and help organize the operation of community-based tourism. They are also responsible for keeping essential cultural practices alive, such as regional cuisine and the sharing of knowledge about the forest, offering visitors an authentic and meaningful experience rooted in local communities.
Over the years, this presence has evolved beyond operational roles to include strategic positions in community decision-making.
This transformation has been studied by scientists Tharyn Machado and Patrícia Rosa, members of the research group Territorialities and Socio-Environmental Governance in the Amazon at the Mamirauá Institute. In the study titled Gender, Governance and Participation in Protected Areas of the Amazon, Tharyn investigated how gender relations are shaped within the socioeconomic activities developed in the Mamirauá Reserve.
According to Tharyn, one of the main objectives of the research is to map and analyze these relationships within community activities, understanding how women have come to occupy central roles in governance processes associated with community-based tourism, expanding their participation in decision-making and strengthening community organization.
Participatory Governance and Social Transformation
The consolidation of community-based tourism in Mamirauá has strengthened formal decision-making spaces within communities. Women’s participation has become increasingly active, including in strategic discussions about the future of the activity.
The event Dialogue Cycle Among Women in Community Tourism, held in September 2025, highlighted this transformation: women discussing challenges, achievements, and perspectives for the territory.
When women participate in decision-making, tourism becomes more than a source of income. It becomes a driver of social transformation.
Autonomy, Income, and Recognition
The impact of sustainable tourism is tangible: greater financial autonomy, access to training opportunities, income generation, and increased recognition within traditional Amazonian communities.
Women who previously had limited participation restricted to domestic activities now lead teams, manage resources, and represent their communities in institutional spaces.
Beyond economic return, there is also a profound symbolic transformation: they become recognized leaders.
Support Networks and New Generations
The strengthening of support networks among women is also part of this journey. The exchange of experiences, mutual encouragement, and collective problem-solving contribute to breaking long-standing patterns of inequality.
Girls growing up in communities within the Mamirauá Reserve now see women leading meetings, making decisions, and occupying leadership positions.
Leadership ceases to be an exception. It becomes a possibility.
The Future of Tourism in the Amazon Already Has an Identity
The community-based tourism model developed in the Mamirauá Reserve demonstrates that protecting the forest also means valuing the people who live in it.
A experiência oferecida pelo Uakari Lodge está diretamente ligada ao fortalecimento das comunidades tradicionais da Amazônia e à construção de um modelo de desenvolvimento baseado na participação, na ciência e na equidade.
The future of tourism in the Amazon is already taking shape, and it carries the mark of women.
Want to experience this community-based tourism model in the Amazon firsthand?
Discover Uakari Lodge, make your reservation, and meet the women leading community-based tourism in the Mamirauá Reserve. Follow Uakari on Instagram and stay up to date with the latest news.
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