Community tourism, tradition, and sustainable development reserve defending native territory: aventureiro (Ilha Grande - RJ)

Abstract

This work aims to develop a reflection around the idea of Communitarian, or Community-based Tourism stemming from an analysis of what goes on today in the Vila do Aventureiro - Ilha Grande, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and how it relates to the process of recategorizing the area for the Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), currently underway in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The tourism which occurs in Aventureiro is today considered as communitarian, or "community-based", for being promoted and organized exclusively by the native residents and for articulating the notion of "traditional populations" so as to guarantee their right to the territory. In this sense, the recategorization of the area for the Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS) has a reflexive, interdependent relationship with this type of tourism. The work is based upon two qualitative researches from an ethnographic perspective developed along the periods of 2003-2004 and 2008-2010, and capturing the perception of local population about their experience of tourism, as well as the social relations which emerged in this process, the native ways of facing the difficulties brought up by the creation of a restrictive protected area in their territory, and on the other hand, the innovative strategies for sustaining their economy and maintaining their culture.