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Right where the arrival of PedroÁlvares Cabral, in 1500,
marked the beginning of Brazil’s modern history, in Santa Cruz Cabrália, in the state of Bahia, a tourism undertaking proves that it’s possible to harmonically combine economic investment, environmental preservation and social development. It’s the Costa Brasilis resort, located at the Santo André village and owned by the English group Samadhi, which fully sponsors environmental protection and social projects.
It’s easy to arrive at the Costa Brasilis resort from Porto Seguro, where several airlines have daily flights. You need to pick up the ferry and cross the João de Tiba River, but this apparent difficulty is actually what guarantees the peacefulness and preservation of Santo André. And the crossing takes only 10-15 minutes, giving you an opportunity to enjoy a sight with schooners and colorful lobster fishing boats in the tame waters of the João de Tiba River. The distance between the river and the hotel is only 3.5 kilometers (a little more than 2 miles).
Costa Brasilis is discreetly inserted in an area filled with trees between the woods and the historical waters in which Cabral’s ships sailed. In fact the Atlantic Woods we see today are not the original ones from Cabral’s time, since the region was devastated through several centuries of disorderly occupation. Nevertheless, what’s left of the forest suffices for assuring a cheerful sunrise at the resort, with the singing of great kiskadees, thrushes, tropical mockingbirds, troupials, hummingbirds, cardinals, red-rump caciques, tyrants, Brazilian tanagers, rufous horneros, pied water tyrants, woodpeckers, crested carcaras, white necked hawks and, especially, several loud scaly-headed parrots, that come together in large flocks. Among mammals, one can often see fast Brazilian squirrels (sciurus aestuans ingrami) and, at night, kinkajous. Some common marmosets also come around every once in a while.
Among the birds, the hummingbirds get special attention. There’s a project for attracting them to the resort, keeping them there to embellish the environment. However, there’s more to this project: they intend to observe and then develop conservation programs for the region’s species. All over the hotel, with an area of 50,000 square meters, 100 bottles of sugared water are spread – a sure way to attract these tiny birds. The Ruschi Marine Biology Station, headed by André Ruschi, is in charge of this project. Over a period of less than one year, about 500 individual birds of 11 species were observed at the Costa Brasilis. In the near future, the Hummingbird Museum will be opened in the hotel.
The resort is a quiet place, as the ferry crossing restricts car and truck traffic in the region, and it has an excellent infrastructure, even including the Maria Bonita spa. It also has a nightclub, workout center, game room, swimming pool (of course), two restaurants (one located in the center of the swimming pool), etc. So much comfort in such a beautiful place, it has even attracted nobility: Sweden’s queen Silvia has spent a few days in the hotel, founded in 2002 and still unfinished. It currently has 30 apartments and 19 cottages, with capacity for about 140 people. Another 63 units are being built, and after being concluded the Costa Brasilis will be able to accommodate about 300 people.
A conversation with the resort manager, Mikie Iwakiri, reveals concerns with the environment. She says that, in the first phase, the resort should have had 51 units instead of 49, but two of them weren’t built to prevent deforestation. The concerns with nature preservation go all the way to the hotel’s excellent kitchen, which provides guests with delicious fish and seafood options. During the closed season for lobster fishing, for instance, a note about the impossibility to serve the crustacean is included in the menus. Mikie Iwakiri explains that freezing the lobster would be an option for serving it during the months of closed season, in which its sale is forbidden. However, there would be a great loss of product quality. The same is true during the closed season for the snook, a noble fish also used in sports fishing found, for instance, in the mouth of the João de Tiba River, outlined by an island with reefs extending from its extremities.
Mikie says that, by not purchasing lobsters and fish during the closed season, the hotel is not only observing the law, but also helping disseminate environmental awareness among the region’s population. This work is not to be disregarded. Although it’s still a somewhat isolated village, Santo André has been through many changes over the past two decades. Twenty years ago, it had 100 inhabitants, members of just four families. Now there are 750 inhabitants. People made a living with fishing, and today their livelihood depends on tourism. The children of former fishermen, for example, now manage schooners that take visitors on sightseeing trips that reveal many of the region’s natural beauties, such as the João de Tiba River itself, bordered by mangroves where many little blue herons and some great egrets can be seen, and coroas, structures made of sand and reefs typical of the region. Nearby is Coroa Vermelha, where the first mass was held in Brazil, on April 26, 1500, four days after the country was discovered.
Regarding environmental aspects, Mikie observes that not only has Santo André’s population grown – naturally resulting in an increase in garbage, for instance, but there was also a change in waste features, which used to be essentially organic, such as shrimp shells and leftovers from the cleaning of fish. This waste went through a natural, quick decomposition process and physical agents took care of recycling them, when dumped in the river. Currently, part of the garbage is made up of plastic and people need to be educated in order not to harm the environment with materials that aren’t easily degradable. The Costa Brasilis manager also points out that day-to-day activities had less environmental impact – for doing laundry and washing dishes, people used bar soap, not detergents manufactured with complex chemicals. In fact, the livelihood of Santo André’s inhabitants – tourism – is guaranteed as long as the population learns how to conserve and protect the environment.
Over more than a year, Costa Brasilis has been developing a project, in a partnership with the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA, Universidade Federal da Bahia), that includes revitalizing the small core of Santo André, installing a residential water network, and environmental education. This project is partially funded by the Samadhi group. However, there are other simple ways for contributing to the region’s healthy development. And the resort actually implements them. When grocery shopping, the Costa Brasilis prefers local products, thus buying from local producers. Its recipes use products such as banana, cupuaçu, graviola, manioc and tapioca. “It’s cheaper and the tourists like it, because they taste different flavors,” explains Mikie. One of the desserts combines a sweet cashew pastry with tapioca ice cream.
The resort is located on the ocean. Through a short path consisting of a few meters, one crosses the restinga vegetation, steps out of hotel limits, and arrives at the Santo André beach, that unfolds deserted – or almost deserted – to the north and south. Turtles lay their eggs in this region, therefore the Turtle Friend Project (Projeto Amiga Tartaruga) operates in Santo André. And Costa Brasilis guests once had a very pleasant surprise when, at around 5 PM, a turtle came up to the beach in front of the resort and, unconcerned with the presence of people, laid its eggs, before an audience in awe. All those watching this wonderful scene allowed the animal to have a peaceful and safe environment so that it could arrive and leave without being bothered. The spot where the eggs were laid was fenced in, and the eggs remained protected until the baby turtles broke the shell and went to the sea to face a hard challenge – out of one thousand baby turtles, only one or two make it to adult age.
The Costa Brasilis also seeks solutions for its own trash, and it has a project aimed at its full collection and recycling, including the Santo André community. Today, the village counts on trash collection provided by city hall, but the destination of the waste is a sanitary landfill. The resort has already solved the issue of aluminum cans, cardboard and plastic bottles, which are selectively collected and sent to Porto Seguro, 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) away, where they are sold. The money obtained is divided among employees. Organic solid waste is collected by the city hall, but not for long: the hotel will have a vegetable garden, and the organic matter will be subject to composting to be used as a fertilizer. If this experience proves to be successful, it will be extended to the community.
Although the headquarters of the municipality of Santa Cruz Cabrália are served by water and sewage networks, such benefits have not yet reached the Santo André village. According to architect Luís Filipe Cachinho, who designed the hotel, at the Costa Brasilis, water is obtained from a deep well and goes through a small treatment station. Regarding the sewage system, the solution found was the adoption of international standard techniques compatible with the hotel’s situation.
The Costa Brasilis also develops social projects, such as the one involving the Association of Special People’s Parents and Friends (Apae, Associação de Pais e Amigos de Excepcionais) of Porto Seguro where, in 2003, the children learned how to make chocolate. It definitely was a pleasant experience. Part of the production was destined to resort guests and part was kept by the kids, who, in 2003, had the chance to visit the hotel. The Costa Brasilis also intends to include the manufacturing of recycled paper among the activities planned for the children staying as guests in the resort. Another possibility might be recycling paper with Apae members, producing artwork, such as Christmas cards.
Included among social initiatives is the use and improvement of local labor. Employees have access to foreign language courses and obtain basic accounting, computer technology and sanitary education knowledge, in addition to attending seminars on the environment and health. The professional development of employees is as important as their personal growth. These projects have led Samadhi to become a member of the Ethos Social Responsibility Institute.
The importance of the preservation initiatives at the Costa Brasilis can be better assessed when we know that the region’s native vegetation was dramatically devastated, according to Mario Mantovani, director of Institutional Relations at the S.O.S. Atlantic Woods Foundation (Fundação S.O.S. Mata Atlântica). In that region, he said, nothing´s left of the primary woods, those seen by Cabral and his crew. Mantovani says that the Monte Pascoal and Discovery national parks are abandoned, and hunting is still a pressure factor for the region’s fauna. In addition the mangroves need to be preserved and nautical tourism needs to follow some strict rules to prevent reefs from being irreversibly damaged by visitors. However, efforts such as the ones made by the Costa Brasilis, without a doubt, help tourism and nature conservation to have complementary functions. And the Costa Brasilis will participate in the next Bahia Qualitur Program of international quality certification in tourism.
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