Where Does Your Money Go When You Stay at Uakari Lodge?
- Lábia Comunicação
- Aug 26
- 3 min read
Traveling to the Amazon is always a transformative experience — both for those who visit and for those who live here. But at Uakari Lodge, the impact of your stay goes far beyond experiences, memories, and photographs. Each night you spend with us helps conserve one of the most precious ecosystems on the planet and strengthens the communities that call this forest home.
In this article, we open our floating doors to show you transparently where your money goes when you stay with us — and how it turns into real benefits for people, nature, and culture.
Tourism That Redistributes Wealth and Strengthens Communities
Uakari Lodge is a pioneering Community-Based Tourism (CBT) project in Brazil. Our model places local riverside communities at the center of operations and management, ensuring that tourism here becomes a legitimate and lasting source of income, autonomy, and stronger local governance.
The residents who work at the lodge — guides, cooks, maintenance staff, boat drivers — are members of AAGEMAM (Association of Ecotourism Guides and Assistants of Mamirauá), a local association. They work on a rotation system, around 12 days per month, ensuring that income opportunities are shared among different families while allowing each person to remain connected with their daily lives and activities in the community.
Numbers That Tell Stories
In 2024 alone, communities surrounding the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve received R$ 525,681.00 in direct benefits from lodge operations. Of this total:
R$ 487.941,00 was paid for services provided by the communities — from guiding excursions to maintaining facilities.
R$ 37.740,00 came from the Socio-Environmental Support Fee, already included in your lodging rate, which funds community projects and environmental monitoring initiatives.
These funds reach 10 communities — including Vila Alencar, Caburini, Boa União, Boca do Mamirauá, and others — directly improving the lives of dozens of families.
Looking back since 1998, the total transferred directly to communities surpasses R$ 5.8 million.
From the Floating Lodge to the Forest: How the Money Flows
When you stay with us, the amount you pay unfolds into multiple areas:
Local jobs and income
Daily wages for community guides, kitchen staff, boat drivers, maintenance, and cleaning.
Infrastructure and maintenance
Ongoing care for the floating structures, renovations, structural improvements, and equipment.
Socio-environmental projects
The Socio-Environmental Support Fee funds everything from purchasing boats for community transportation to building community centers and installing radio communication systems.
This way, every guest helps keep alive a virtuous cycle in which tourism, community, and conservation sustain one another.
Impact You Can See and Feel
This management model is not just about numbers. It translates into richer experiences for visitors and better quality of life for local residents. Throughout your stay, you will meet and learn directly from those who were born and raised here — listening to stories, discovering the forest, and taking part in activities guided by those who truly know every detail of the territory.
At the same time, your contribution helps ensure that the forest remains standing — because here, responsible tourism is worth more than predatory exploitation.
An Invitation to Transparency and Transformation
By choosing Uakari Lodge, you are choosing a way of traveling that leaves a positive mark: on the environment, on the local economy, and on your own way of seeing the world. Our commitment is to continue showing with clarity where every cent goes, because we believe trust is the foundation of responsible tourism.
When you return home, you take with you memories of a vibrant Amazon — rich in biodiversity and culture. And we remain with the privilege of continuing our work so that this forest and its people keep thriving responsibly until your next visit.
Stay at Uakari Lodge and experience the Amazon with purpose. Your journey can change destinies.
We look forward to welcoming you!
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