Lencois: Successful community development

On any night of the week, the central square in Lencois is a bustling place—the cafes are full, tourists are milling about, locals are sitting in the plazas, and guides are trying to recruit for treks and day hikes—there is a vitality in the air.

But it wasn't like this 35 years ago.

In the mid 1970s, Lencois was one of the poorest areas in the region. While the city was in the heart of a diamond mining area, the mining boom occurred 60 years ago, and the accessible deposits had all but dried up.


Young people didn't see much economic opportunity, and many left for Brazil's booming big cities. The people knew that diamond mining was no longer a very profitable business, but it was all they knew.

So in 1978, when Roy Funch arrived in the area, he came to a bunch of distressed, former-diamond towns. But as a Peace Corps volunteer working with the national parks system to develop protected area management plans (he was placed in the national capital of Brasilia), he came to see much more.

What he loved most during his visit were his treks into the countryside. Walking the hills, swimming in the pools, and scrambling over rocks with miners helped acquaint him with the beautiful region, roughly the size of Holland.

One day, while walking through the hills with the miners, Funch paused to look at the view and he thought to himself, "In the United States, this area would be a national park, and people would pay a lot of money to see this."

From that epiphany came the idea for the creation of the Chapada Diamantina National Park.  For the next seven years, Funch worked with members of the community to turn this thought into a reality. In 1985, his hard work paid off and the Brazilian government declared it a protected area.

The newly created park boasted Brazil's tallest waterfall, its most complete cave system, breathtaking grottos, unique geological formations, numerous accessible cascades, spectacular landscapes, and - thanks to the miners - an extensive trail network.

Slowly, a tourism industry developed. Miners who had spent their lives walking through the hillsides in search of diamonds were now leading tourists on treks along those same trails while colonial buildings constructed during the diamond boom were converted into hostels.

The industry continued to pick up.  All of the growth happened on a grassroots and local scale, employing the community and providing new opportunities to towns that surround the park, like Lencois, Palmeiras, and Capao.  It took a while for the park and the related tourism industry to establish itself. By the time big-scale tourist companies were interested in investing, urban growth boundaries and local incentives prevented them moving in.  According to Funch, every Chapada tour agency in Lencois has a local connection.

Local youth are training to be guides instead of heading to Salvador and Sao Paolo.  The industry is so attractive that people are moving into the communities to open cafes, pizzerias, or even start organic farms to support this eco-tourism economy.

This park has completely reversed the areas economic fortunes. With diamonds near-impossible to get at, the locals have unanimously championed the national park, natural resource conservation, and eco-tourism as their new lifestyle.

Funch has stayed in the area since the late 70s. He worked as the park's first director and continues to be involved in park-related activities. After years walking through the mountain trails with the miners and hearing the local legend, he published a visitor's guide to Chapada Diamantina, which contains directions for the area's most popular hikes and the local legends which explain their names and origin. He has since put out a revised edition in both Portuguese and English.


In more than three years of working in community development in South America, this seems to be the most successful example of sustainable economic development I have seen. It was the perfect storm of factors that allowed it to happen: an area with unique natural features, a local population base that was ready for an economic revolution, a population base that was enthusiastic about the changes, a community developer with the skills required to make the change happen, a government interested in natural resource conservation, etc...