O TURISMO DE BASE COMUNITÁRIA COMO ESTRATÉGIA PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO SOCIOECONÔMICO DE COMUNIDADES TRADICIONAIS EM RESERVAS EXTRATIVISTAS: o caso da Ilha dos Lençóis em Cururupu-MA.

Abstract

Thinking about the development of a sector of the global economy committed to social, economic, political and environmental issues should be based on ethical principles. Therefore, developing tourism in a locality must respect the traditions and identity of the local community. Based on the mentioned aspects, the object of study is Ilha dos Lençóis, located in the archipelago of Maiaú, which has 70% of its area composed of white sand dunes. The island belongs to the municipality of Cururupu, located in the Amazonian part of the State of Maranhão, in the Environmental Protection Area (APA) of the Maranhão Reentrâncias,has about 560 hectares and 14 kilometers of perimeter, of mangroves and the rest of beaches, being the only form of access by sea. These characteristics were the basis of the project "Community Based Tourism on the Ilha dos Lençóis in the Cururupu Marine Extractivist Reserve", developed by the Centro Nacional de Pesquisa Associada a Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais (CNPT) of the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio) and financially supported by the United Nations Development Program (PNUD) through PNUD call BRA / 08/023. In this sense, the present dissertation had the objective of analyzing this experience in course since the year 2011 in the Ilha dos Lençóis. A qualitative approach was carried out and the instruments used were the application of questionnaires to the community and interviews scripted with public managers and local leaders. In order to reach the complexity of the object of study, the strategy of triangulation of methods was finally accomplished. Throughout the composition of the work, we sought to understand the approach to theory and what actually takes place in practice, given that community-based tourism should be promoted and managed by the community itself, with the support of public and private spheres .