Abstract
This paper investigates the Kalunga community demands for income generation through ecotourism enterprises in the north of Goias State, in the Brazilian savannah. As part of the analysis, the paper discusses the main aspects of the community empowerment framework. It identifies the existing natural and cultural assets of the Kalunga and the community need for capacity building aimed at dealing with a growing tourism business and managing visitors. This afro-descendant community expects ecotourism to serve as a development as a catalyst for economic development by propitiating financial independence through ecotourism community enterprises. These issues require the elaboration of an ethnic operational business model for the community, which is one of the main contributions of this paper. There is insufficient literature on the Kalunga maroon community, particularly related to ethnic-based business and enterprises. This paper investigating the Kalunga is important because it can reveal ‘the silences’ and the ‘innermost facts’ of a slow, but evolving process of social and economic emancipation of this African-descendant group, one that in the past (date) highly segregated itself from enslavement. This paper also makes an original contribution to research knowledge by comprehensively examining the possibilities for community empowerment from the within as an ethnodevelopment process. The main issues lie in the fact that the Kalunga cannot continue to be perceived by outsiders as ‘cheap labour’ on their own lands; they must take ownership of their own assets, means for survival and long-term fate. The research is predominantly qualitative based on field research, participant observation, interviews with key informants, and written survey with a focus group.
Highlights
Nature-based tourism within the high-mountain Kalunga communities corroborates what other acknowledged studies and research have revealed: there is great economic, de Lima et al Braz J Sci Technol (2016) 3:1 social and environmental values of tourism to be found with some isolated and culturally distinctive communities, (Lindberg and Hawkins 1998; Buckley et al 2003; Singh et al 2003; Lima 2011, 2014a, b; Lima and Weiler 2015; Lima and Kumble 2015; Almeida 2010, 2014, 2015; Ramos and Almeida 2014)
Community capacity building is understood as a process which can strengthen the capacity of individuals and of organisations to the extent they are able to support various aspects of a community life and development (Blackwell and Colmenar 2000; Aref and Redzuan 2009)
The initial criteria for selecting the interviews focused on individuals with significant medium or long-term contact and understand of the Kalunga community, their context, group dynamics, and more importantly those people who have significant contact with the Kalunga ecotourism activities. These criteria lead to the selection of individuals who became key participants in focus group interviews. Three of those were local inhabitants, including the Kalunga Association president and the main leader of those maroon groups; two individuals outside the community participated in the interviews, the main manager of the Cavalcante County Information Centre, and a 15 year guide working in the region and close to the Kalunga
Summary
Nature-based tourism within the high-mountain Kalunga communities corroborates what other acknowledged studies and research have revealed: there is great economic, de Lima et al Braz J Sci Technol (2016) 3:1 social and environmental values of tourism to be found with some isolated and culturally distinctive communities, (Lindberg and Hawkins 1998; Buckley et al 2003; Singh et al 2003; Lima 2011, 2014a, b; Lima and Weiler 2015; Lima and Kumble 2015; Almeida 2010, 2014, 2015; Ramos and Almeida 2014). Community capacity building is understood as a process which can strengthen the capacity of individuals and of organisations to the extent they are able to support various aspects of a community life and development (Blackwell and Colmenar 2000; Aref and Redzuan 2009) It was learned from interviews and a survey that the Kalunga have high demands for increased institutional support and development of on-site tourism structures and facilities, including a visitor hostel. This can be interpreted as a means for building or reinforcing local assets that can foster ‘social economy’ (Molloy et al 1999; Bennett et al 2010; Johnson 2010) based on ‘community learning’ (Falk and Harrison 1998; Kilpatrick 2000) with a focus on entrepreneurial spirit, social enterprises, and integrated planning for community empowerment (Sofield 2003; Beeton 2006). The Kalunga, a maroon Quilombola in Brazil The Brazilian Quilombo communities, among them the Kalunga, were officially recognised by the Brazilian government with the publication of Article 68 of the 1988
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