UAKARI - Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá

PAIM, F. P.; AQUINO, S. P.; VALSECCHI, J. Primate monitoring in Mamirauá Reserve.INTRODUCTIONEcotourism can be described as “trips to naturalareas to understand the cultural and naturalhistory of the environment, without altering theecosystem’s integrity, while creating economicopportunities so that nature conservation bringsfinancial benefit to the local community” (THEINTERNATIONAL ECOTOURISM SOCIETY,2011). The Mamirauá Institute, throughUakari Lodge, invested in a Community BasedTourism program, in the Mamirauá SustainableDevelopment Reserve (SDR), aiming to promotethe conservation of natural resources and generateincome for the local population (PERALTA, 2002).The Lodge has the logistical capacity to host twentytourists at a time, with an established capacity tosupport a maximum of one thousand tourists peryear. The Lodge offers a variety of activities, suchas canoe rides, visits to traditional communities,meeting with researchers, lectures and videos,interpretative trails and wildlife observationtrails. What makes this project unique is that allservices are carried out by the residents of localcommunities. However, like any human activity,ecotourism can cause environmental and socialimpacts, both positive and negative. The positiveimpacts include: 1. Increased conservation andpreservation of natural areas, archaeological sitesand historical monuments; 2. Creation of programsto protect flora and fauna; 3. Appreciation ofcultural and artistic heritage; 4. Ethnic prideand improvement of local infrastructure andmeeting basic needs. The negative impactsinclude: 1. Water, air, soil and noise pollution;2. Degradation of the local flora and fauna; 3.Animal population reduction; 4. Possible changeof values and traditional customs of local peoplewhen confronted with the lifestyles of the tourists(RUSCHMANN, 1997).To assess environmental impacts, the EcotourismProgram includes ongoing monitoring of faunaobserved on the trails, as well as control of thenumber of tourists on the interpretative and wildlifeobservation trails. One of the most common waysto assess the impact on fauna is to conduct a surveyof abundances and densities of species occurringin the region of interest. This result can show ifa population of a particular species is declining,increasing or remaining balanced over a period oftime (CULLEN JR.; VALLADARES-PADUA, 1997).Due to lack of experience monitoring touristimpact on Amazonian fauna, especially infloodplain areas, it was necessary to find a suitablemonitoring method for the activities at UakariLodge and for the floodplain environment. Theimplementation of a census of arboreal vertebrateswas proposed in 2005. Using the line transectmethod, the density and abundance of local faunaon six trails (transects) were estimated. Five speciesof primates were chosen (Cacajao calvus calvus,white uakari; Saimiri vanzolinii, black headedsquirrel monkey; Saimiri sciureus cassiquiarensis,squirrel monkey; Alouatta juara, red howlermonkey; Sapajus macrocephalus, large-headedcapuchin) and two bird species from the Cracidaefamily (Crax globulosa, wattled curassow; Mitutuberosa, razor-billed curassow) were targetedfor monitoring (PAIM, 2005). The primates wereselected for being the most sighted mammalson the trails while the cracids were selected forbeing hunting targets of local human populations(VALSECCHI, 2005).Between 2006 and 2007, the method had to bereassessed, as it was considered inadequate forthe local reality due to the large number of trailsand sampled species. Of the previously selectedspecies, only the primates were kept, while the44