Supporting the Amazon

Everyone has to do with the Amazon. Especially when the media shows us for a whole month, every day, millions of hectares being devastated by fire. Apparently they have calmed down, but they have definitely not disappeared and the root of the problem has not been eradicated either.

The media climax and the climate strike coincided with the ATTA Summit Sweden where some of us, adventure tourism agents, met and were able to share ideas and projects regarding environmental conservation and protection through this industry. We talked about the strike, we talked about our efforts and challenges in this regard, we inspired and renewed our speeches. We also talked to many about Brazil, the different controversial positions in the Amazon fires, the image of the country affected by this and other factors, and the urgent need to generate counterweight strategies.

The Amazon is in danger due to the livestock industry, illegal and legal mining, soy plantations and public policies that put sectorized economic growth before the sustainable preservation of nature, completely necessary for our survival. However, as we have talked, the best we can do in addition to joining the global environmental struggle with our presence and our resistance, is to focus the efforts of our companies to generate and support local conservation initiatives through adventure tourism.

Today we want to talk to you about two incredible projects that we know and support through our experiences in this region whose headquarters are in Manaus, capital of the Amazon state and starting point of all the expeditions in the Brazilian jungle.

MUSA (Museu da Amazonia)

“The Amazon Museum (Museu da Amazonia) is a space totally dedicated to the discovery of nature and its biological diversity. It occupies an area of 100 hectares of the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, of the INPA (National Research Institute of the Amazon). It is a living museum, whose proposal integrates the forest, animals and human beings in a journey of knowledge, respect and admiration in favor “living together”, an ideal that inspires MUSA since January 2009, when it was created.”

The Museum develops a series of projects and has spaces such as the Botanical Garden, the Musa Puraquequara, the Musa do Largo, and the Agroecological Training Center in which you can perform activities such as ecological walks, exhibitions, workshops, training and also has structure to spend the night, perform professional and research practices.

Proyecto REUSA (Programa de Restauração Ecológica e Urbanizacão Sustentável na Amazônia)

Founded by a group of women in 2015, this project began in a peripheral neighborhood of Manaus with the aim of educating and motivating residents to reuse and recycle materials to transform them into art, and thus also transform urban communities of high socio-environmental and economical vulnerability in the Amazon.

Today, the REUSA program is divided into four projects: ecological restoration, environmental education, sustainable urban planning, strengthening of associations, income generation and public health, which are developed in collaboration. The project encourages the exchange of resources: money, skills and time, the connection between people with similar interests and who wish to exchange knowledge or carry out projects of collective interest in a selfless way, involving voluntary work and donations.

At our hand

Community and environmental tourism is a tool within our reach that serves to give strength to the different places that face difficulties. Not only because it generates employment and increased productivity, but because making a destination known and inviting to get involved with it automatically encourages the love and care for it and sows in others the need to protect it. At the same time, local initiatives for protection, conservation, optimization of resources and improvements in the quality of life of its inhabitants are supported. It is a way to open each other’s eyes to realities, educate and unite to be better; as we become more global, the bonds of brotherhood solidify and create links with communities and their territories, because we are one planet and one humanity.

In the end, we all have to do with the Amazon and it is not because the media says so, simply because we live in the same world and breathe the same air, which is largely breathable thanks to this huge portion of green territory.