The Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve had been the first unit of conservation this category implemented in Brazil.
Location: The Reserve Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve is located in the Amazon Region known as the Middle Solimões, at the confluence of the rivers Japurá and Solimões, the State of Amazonas, northern Brazil.
It is the largest reserve made exclusively to protect the Amazonian floodplain. Because the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve is a flooded area of international importance, it is one of Brazilian sites covered by the United Nations Ramsar Convention, which protects floodable areas all over the world.

CHARACTERISTICS: The season flooding of the river Solimões causes a rise in the water level of 10 to 12 meters from the dry to the flooded season each year. The movement of the water is caused by rains in the river springs of region associated with the annual defrosting of the Andean ice caps.
The floods, with the resulting annual sediment deposition, define the floodplain geomorphology, its fauna and flora, its biogeography and even patterns of human occupation. The flood brings a large amount of sediments from the Andean slopes with a high concentration of nutrients. This is the main cause of the huge productivity in Amazonian floodplain, observed in both aquatic and terrestrial system.

The fauna observed in environments within Mamirauá is highly endemic. On the one hand, the harsh conditions imposed by prolonged floods every year limit number of species able to survive such drastic conditions. On the other hand, in the course of time, they allow the emergence of unique adaptations that may define speciation and endemism in that environment.
The present human occupation in the Reserve exists since beginning of the twenty century. Nowadays the local populations are basically result of the interbreeding among people, they are called Ribeirinhos.

Mission

The Uakari Lodge is linked to the Mamirauá Institute’s Ecotourism Program. Its planning and development were carried out in the past 10 years by local communities, researchers and technicians of the Institute. The Uakari Lodge was created to provide services for ecotourists that have great interest in the Amazon as well as in its conservation. The Lodge is inserted inside a pioneering conservation project in Brazil (the Mamirauá Reserve). Its main objectives are to generate income for the local communities, to strengthen their organization and to create incentives so that these communities promote the conservation of the natural resources of the area. The Uacari Lodge generates income through the purchase of local products and services and through the division of its profits among local communities – which are invested in projects for the improvement of the quality of life in the communities. The lodge also supports local research projects that generate scientific subsidies for the conservation of the natural area.

Uakari Lodge’s Mission
 
To be the best example of ecotourism in the Amazon, providing leisure, lodging and food services of excellent quality in the Mamirauá Reserve, supporting conservation and generating income to the local population, with minimum social and environmental impacts.