Photo courtesy, Augusto Miranda – Agência Pará. Retrieved from brasildefato.com.br

Excerpt from brasildefato.com.br

In recent years, the island of Combu, in the state of Pará, has become a tourism hotspot, where people can know the river and riverside communities in the region. But residents complain that the government’s lack of attention to the rise in the number of tourists in the area is contributing to increased violence, environmental degradation and, consequently, a shortage of products essential for extractive activities and the local way of life.

Combu Island is part of Belém’s riverside area. As one of the city’s main tourist routes, it will certainly be a destination for many people attending COP30, which will be held in November in the capital of Pará.

Combu community leaders argue that the municipal and state governments will be “embarrassed” if, in the middle of the climate conference, visitors see that the residents of one of the main tourist routes in the capital of Pará deal with a lack of drinking water and the negative impacts of extractive activities.

“The island’s residents have historically lived off extractivism and, depending on the period of the year, they dedicate themselves to growing food. When it’s not açaí season, they fish for shrimp or fish. However, with the increase in the flow of boats on the island, particularly in the last seven years, both shrimp and fish have disappeared, and it’s dangerous for river dwellers to fish,” says Iva Nascimento, president of the Piriquitaquara Igarapé Residents’ Association.