Tourism activity, in its multiple modalities, is a global phenomenon that encompasses
complex perspectives of the indissociability between cultures and biodiversity. In this context,
women have been emerging as drivers of tourist praxis. This work, therefore, addresses the
theme of women and tourism in protected areas in the Pará Amazon. The research loci were
the communities of Vila de Anã, São Miguel/São Marco, Tucumã, Maripá and Resex Vista
Alegre do Capixauã, located in the Tapajós-Arapiuns, and the communities of Jamaraquá,
Maguari and São Domingos, in the Tapajós National Forest, in the municipalities of Santarém
and Belterra. The general objective of this study is to analyze the role of Amazonian women
in the development of Community-Based Tourism, their modes of organization and action in
the activity and for the environmental sustainability of the territories where they live. To this
end, it sought to know who are the women involved in tourism; what is their understanding of
TBC and to what extent it is composed of an effective tool for gender equality and
empowerment; identify the implications that TBC can generate for women involved in the
activity; and understand how they act to achieve the objectives of Protected Areas and
environmental sustainability. The research was based on a qualitative and quantitative
analysis with an interdisciplinary approach, based on a bibliographic survey focusing on
women, tourism, protected areas, and the Amazon. Documentary research was also carried
out, as well as data collection and observation through field research, the use of semistructured
interviews with agents involved in the relationship between tourism and protected
areas, and the use of audio and photographic recording. The results obtained indicate that the
practice of TBC is established as a constant in the communities studied in the TapajósArapiuns
Resex and the Tapajós Flona, as well as that female action constitutes the driving
force for its development and to think about the relationship of social actors with the
management of natural resources and sustainability. The insertion of women in Tourism,
especially of Amazonian women, are strategic and essential to break with prejudice and the
devaluation of female work and to recognize that they are protagonists to make the activity
feasible in contexts of protected areas. The focus on women can support reflections and
research on tourist activity in its varied practices, as well as to think about sustainability in
dealing with natural and social resources, and also in the sociocultural reproduction of the
Amazonian population.
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