Since the mid-1980s, the Indigenous community of Zabalo has lived mainly off tourism — a conscious choice, made to reduce dependence on commercial farming, livestock, and timber sales. He describes it almost mischievously: tourism, done right, is a legal way of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, with far less environmental damage than the alternatives it replaced.
I don't think it means we sell our integrity. On the contrary, I think it makes it stronger.
Traditions, oddly, have come back to life because of tourism rather than in spite of it. There was a time, not long ago, when many in the community felt embarrassed to wear traditional clothing. Tourists' genuine appreciation for that authenticity helped dissolve the embarrassment, and traditional dress is more visible again now than it was.
To keep tourism's influence from overwhelming the community, they built a museum and visitor centre across the river some years back — a controlled point of contact where families sell souvenirs, an income source that matters. Ten families have also entered a joint venture with a major tour operator, employing community members directly and indirectly.
The environmental awareness that's come with it is concrete, not abstract: the community has zoned its own territory into walking routes for tourists, hunting areas, zones for traditional use, and quiet areas left largely undisturbed — a system that's kept wildlife visibly present in a way it might not otherwise be.
There was even a proposal, at one point, to build a small landing strip to cut down on boat traffic on the river. The community turned it down — it would have made it far more expensive for most members to travel in or out of the area without a shared canoe, an everyday cost too high to justify for the sake of limiting river traffic.
What tourism has given the community, above all, is the ability to educate the next generation — one he expects will need to hold its own against oil exploration and colonisation in ways his own upbringing, split between both worlds, prepared him for.