Another winner from the Top 100 – Every year, the global Green Destinations Top 100 competition invites candidates to submit stories about sustainable management of tourism and its impacts. In this selection from Brazil, strict regulation, research, and education enable protection of a lively species of dolphins. Synopsis by Ailin Fei, Purdue doctoral candidate in hospitality and tourism management and Data and Research Manager at Visit Austin.
A remote Brazilian archipelago turns dolphin protection into a sustainable tourism model
A common challenge in ecotourism is to both protect wildlife and benefit local communities. The Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha has succeeded through strict regulation and the development of a conservation culture.
The equatorial Atlantic archipelago is home to Brazil’s only oceanically insular civilian population. Spanning more than 10 km, the islands support a unique biological community and benefit from strong legal protections, including national and state parks, an environmental protection area, and designation as a UNESCO World Heritage and Ramsar site. It is also home to spinner dolphins. Known for their acrobatic leaps and offshore lifestyle, they feed in the open sea and rest in the island’s protected inner waters.
Media Exposure
As Fernando de Noronha gained media exposure and became one of Brazil’s most popular tourist destinations, increased visitation began to negatively affect marine life through noise pollution and boat-related injuries. In response, the Spinner Dolphin Center was established in 1992 to conserve marine sociodiversity–the deep interconnection between biological diversity (species, ecosystems) and human social systems (cultures, knowledge, governance), highlighting how they co-evolve and depend on each other for resilience and sustainability–and to promote sustainable tourism.
Regulation, Research, Education
The Spinner Dolphin Project introduced strict measures to reduce tourism and vessel impacts, including access restrictions, bans on swimming or diving with dolphins, and regulations on boat speed, access and tour routes. Dolphin diving is limited to authorized researchers using non-intrusive methods, with findings applied to science, education and conservation. Sustainable dolphin observation is encouraged from designated viewpoints or regulated vessels, in support of local employment. With 35 years of continuous operation, the Project has become a leading long-term ecological program integrating scientific research, environmental education, and local capacity-building for conservation-based livelihoods.
The Project’s environmental education program is deeply embedded in the island’s schools and families, reaching more than 25,000 students and training 200 teachers. Former participants now make up half of the Center’s staff. Additionally, the Project has delivered over 65 ecotourism and sustainability courses to 4,000 students and provided consulting to hundreds of local tourism businesses. While these measures might seem standard, the results are impressive for a small population. The continued presence of spinner dolphins in Noronha demonstrates their effectiveness.
The Spinner Dolphin Project shows that conservation success depends on the integration of research, community engagement, and core values such as science, cooperation, and sociobiodiversity. It offers a replicable model emphasizing clear regulations, sustained education, community involvement, cross-sector partnerships, and science-based communication to link knowledge with social action.
This project highlights opportunities to strengthen dolphin protection through aligned government action, education, research, and tourism training. Islands offer unique potential for effective governance, but their insularity is no guarantee. In less regulated contexts like Hawai‘i, weaker protections coincide with dolphin declines.
