© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: The battle on the water continues

Is it possible to bring tourism to a paradise like Jericoacoara, and do it in an environmentally sustainable way? It’s a question that Paolo Piatti, co-owner of Vila Kalango, has been looking to answer over the past 25 years.

This is the third year that the world’s best riders have been coming to Vila Kalango to compete in the Wingfoil Racing World Cup Brazil. “We need all your help to preserve Jeri,” Piatti told the competitors at the opening ceremony in Vila Kalango a few days ago. “You have your influence, your credibility as riders. You have your contacts all across the world, and together we need to work to make sure Jericoacoara keeps its natural beauty and is not overdeveloped in an unsustainable way.”


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Mathis Ghio fighting hard to retain his men's world title

BLACK LETTER DAY

Meanwhile the competition continues and Thursday saw the riders complete eight short-course races in an action-packed afternoon. Many riders were falling foul of the black flag in the high-speed reaching starts, crossing the line marginally too soon. Among them were the reigning World Champion Mathis Ghio, the Frenchman picking up three disqualifications in the early session before bouncing back with some better scores in the late afternoon races.

Top performer in his side of the men’s qualifying groups was Francesco Capuzzo, the Italian getting the better of Ghio and the rest of the fleet to finish the day in second overall. On the other side of qualifying Kamil Manowiecki reigned supreme, the ambitious Polish rider taking six victories from eight races and currently topping the leaderboard as the men’s fleet now gets regrouped into Gold and Silver Fleet finals for Friday.


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Paolo Piatti - passionate to protect the soul of Jericoacoara

PROTECTING THE WAVE

In the women’s fleet Nia Suardiaz was in even more dominant form, the Spanish teenager winning seven of eight heats to take a 10 point lead over reigning World Champion from Italy, Maddalena Spanu. Further back in the women’s fleet, enjoying her first international wingfoiling event, is Josefa Asalgado from Chile.

When she’s not riding a wave on the ocean, as an environmental lawyer she is working hard to help protect those very same waves. “Back home in Chile I work for an organisation - Fundacion Rompientes [The Surfbreak Foundation] - that protects marine ecosystems, with a special focus on surf breaks in Chile. So it’s interesting to come here to Jeri and see that there are similar problems and challenges. I think this is a worldwide situation for places that have important conditions for watersports like surfing, wingfoiling, windsurfing or whatever it is.

“They're all experiencing this migration of people. So little towns - what used to be fishermen towns - are getting lots of people and tourism and they're growing faster than regulations can cope with. So I think it is a very worldwide issue and I hope authorities and people can come together and put some order into this uncontrolled growth.”


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Josefa Asalgado - lawyer, environmentalist and wingfoiler

RESPONSIBLE TOURISM

Asalgado believes Vila Kalango are pursuing a model of sustainable eco-tourism that respects the surrounding environment. “Vila Kalango have a great approach because they're trying to keep things as they were, but they’re also putting it out there that they're worried about unregulated development. They are showing the example of what we can do, that we need to be loud about these issues, and tell people what’s happening before it’s too late.”

So if tourism brings too many people to a small place like Jericoacoara, how do wingfoiling competitors justify their right to visit Jeri compared with other visitors? Paolo Migliorini, an Italian who emigrated to Brazil many years ago and set up a watersports resort - Dr. Wind - further along the Brazilian coast at São Miguel do Gostoso, is competing in the men’s fleet at the Wingfoil Racing World Cup. “There are different types of tourist,” says Migliorini. “I think that sports tourists like ourselves tend to live healthy lives and we respect the environment around us because without this we can’t do what we love.


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Paolo Migliorini believes sports tourists can play their part in protecting places like Jeri

SOME TOURISTS IMPACT MORE THAN OTHERS

"We have a low impact on the environment," continues Migliorini. "We don’t do drugs, we don’t leave garbage around the place, we might have a beer after we’ve been on the water but we’re not getting drunk in the evening. I don’t want to judge anybody, but there are different types of tourist and that’s just the way it is.”

Like Migliorini, two of the co-owners of Vila Kalango are Italian ex-pats. Paolo Piatti along with his friend Marco DalPozzo and his Brazilian wife Morgana Masetti, recognised the magic of Jeri more than a quarter of a century ago. “Part of the magic of Jeri is the wind that blows here so consistently,” says Piatti, who fell in love with Brazil and decided to make it his home. “We built Vila Kalango in a very sustainable way 25 years ago when sustainability was not even being talked about in the world.


© IWSA media/ Robert Hajduk: Jericoacoara - a paradise in peril

KEEP THE MAGIC ALIVE

“We built the rooms without televisions, without air conditioning, because the wind in Jeri provides the air conditioning," says Piatti. "We could see that there was a growing demand for a different kind of tourism where people wanted a new kind of luxury, a more silent space. And we have proven that you can create a business model that is environmentally sustainable and also do good business in a commercial way.”

Now there are plans to bring in much bigger commercial developments to Jeri which Piatti fears will kill the ‘magic’ of Jericoacoara. “This proposal to bring in typical 400-room properties - that’s good for some places in the world, but not here. Not here. We have sand in the streets, not pavements, and that’s part of the magic of Jeri, that’s what we are fighting to preserve here. And that’s why we are asking our wingfoil riders to help us in this important fight for the soul of Jeri.”

#PreserveJeri

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