Uakari Lodge: how guests help protect the rainforest

Reaching Uakari Lodge takes patience: first a flight from Manaus to Tefé, then a boat ride deep into the Mamirauá reserve. There, on a side channel of the river, floats a small wooden lodge – just a handful of bungalows, solar power, flooded forest all around.

Named after a monkey with a red face

The lodge takes its name from the uakari, a rare monkey with a bright red face that lives almost exclusively in the flooded forests of this region. Protecting it was one of the reasons the area was put under protection in the first place. Today it is one of the reasons guests come from all over the world.

Tourism that belongs to the communities

The lodge opened in 1998 and is run jointly by Instituto Mamirauá and the reserve’s communities – a Harvard Business School case study mentions eleven participating communities. Most staff come from the surrounding riverside communities: they guide guests through the forest, cook, steer the boats and look after the lodge. In the long term, ownership and operation are to be handed over entirely to the communities.

• Local income: revenue creates jobs and flows into the participating communities.
• Knowledge that counts: local guides share what they know about wildlife, plants and life with the floods – and are paid for it.
• A reason to protect: when intact forest attracts guests, keeping it standing pays off economically too.

This is what we mean: conservation that belongs to the people who live there.

Why we support Uakari Lodge

Uakari Lodge shows on a small scale what is possible on a large one – much like the conservancies in Namibia we wrote about in the journal. We help make the lodge better known in Europe, connect it with partners and invite you to visit: a stay is perhaps the most direct way to support the forest and the people who protect it.