Conexão Norte: Amazon Birding Experience

Conexão Norte is a collective of entrepreneurs specialized in birdwatching and wildlife tourism in the Amazon. It was founded in 2023 during the Avistar event—the largest birdwatching fair in Brazil—as a response to the lack of visibility and representation of Amazônidas and Northeasterners in both national and international nature tourism.

The Amazon has historically been a contested territory: between those who seek to explore it sustainably and those who aim only to extract its resources; between those who portray its landscapes as silent paintings and those who recognize Amazônidas as active protagonists. This space of dispute must be understood by both those who use the Amazon as a source of livelihood—through tourism, mining, agriculture, and other activities—and those who live in the territory and must engage to occupy these spaces. The invisibility of Amazonian peoples in birdwatching tourism directly affects the development of public policies, the creation of opportunities, and the shaping of role models. It is essential to value those who live and work in the region, promoting a more just, diverse, and representative form of tourism. Therefore, the goal of this collective is to strengthen birdwatching tourism in Amazonian territories led by local residents, to highlight and give visibility to Amazônida actors who operate birdwatching tourism in their regions, to occupy spaces of dialogue that currently discuss the Amazon without listening to its people, to engage communities and local businesses with the potential to participate directly or indirectly in birdwatching tourism, and to contribute openly and collectively to a more equitable and pluralistic landscape.

Conexão Norte is composed of three enterprises specialized in birdwatching and wildlife observation in the states of Pará, Amazonas, and Rondônia. These include Pará Birding Tour, led by Fernanda Freitas and Danielson Aleixo; Amazonas Birdwatching Ecotour, led by Vanilce Carvalho and Luiz Fernando Carvalho; and Proaves Rondoni Birding, led by Glauko Corrêa and Anne Karoline. These initiatives operate within the sustainable and responsible tourism chain, generating income through the bioeconomy of the standing forest.