Produção Nacional
Assessment of Visitor Management Methods at the Caparaó National Park
2018; International Network for Scientific Information Publication; Linguagem: Inglês
10.22587/ajbas.2018.12.11.11
ISSN2309-8414
AutoresMarcello Pinto de Almeida, Gumercindo Souza Lima, Sebastião Venâcio Martins, Gínia César Bontempo,
Tópico(s)Environmental Sustainability and Education
ResumoIn Brazil, there is a growing concern regarding the preservation and conservation of the environment, which can be attested by observing the amount of conservation units (UC) created in the last two decades (Peccatiello, 2011).The establishing of protected natural areas is an important mechanism for maintaining the enormous biological diversity that exists in the national territory as a whole (Vianna, 2008).In this regard, the country has international highlight, since it shelters 10 to 18 percent of all indexed species in the whole planet (Lewinsohn and Prado, 2005).Over the last few years, the search for natural environments for the development of recreational and leisure activities has been growing expressively in Brazil.The conservation units, especially parks, have been the most frequent destination of such visitors, in search of the opportunity to be in touch with nature (Lobo and Simões, 2010; Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade -ICMBIO, 2017).Among the activities realized in conservation units, Ikemoto et al. ( 2009), highlights trekking, since while walking the trails the visitor has the opportunity of directly interacting with the natural environment.According to Oliveira and Nishida (2011), the observing and direct contact with the different natural resources on the trail stimulate each individual's reflection on the importance of preserving nature.Since the 1970's, different initiatives have been pursued with the purpose of promoting proper visitation management of the protected natural areas spread out around the world (ICMBIO, 2011).Some of the employed methodologies throughout the years were: Recreation opportunity spectrum -ROS; Limits of Acceptable Change -LAC; Visitor Activity Management Process -VAMP; Visitor Impact Management -VIM; Capacidad de Carga Turistica en Areas Protegidas -CC; Visitor Experience and Resource Protection -VERP; Tourism Optimization Management Model -TOMM; Sustainable Recreation and Tourism -SRT (Limberger and Pires, 2014).In Brazil, however, the planning and development of visitor impact management actions still occur incipiently, in contrast to a significant greater number of visitors observed in Brazilian conservation units (ICMBIO, 2011).According to Limberger and Pires (2014), in Brazil, the most utilized methodology over the course of the last few decades has been Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC), proposed by Cifuentes in 1992.On the other hand, the Visitor Impact Management methodology proposed by ICMBIO in 2011 establishes the Benchmark Number of Visitors, which most likely consists of the most recent devised tool within the scope of visitation management in conservation units in the country.The aim of the present study is to determine the Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC) and the Benchmark Number of Visitors (BNV) for the trail to Pico da Bandeira from Tronqueira, in order to carry out a comparative analysis between both methodologies and point out their similarities and specificities. MATERIALS AND METHODS Study AreaThe Caparaó National Park (CNP) was established by the Federal Act number 50.646 of May 24th, 1961, and belongs to the group of conservation units under full protection.The park is totally inserted in the Atlantic Rainforest biome and has a total territorial extension of 78,485 acres (Ministério do Meio Ambiente -MMA, 2017).The Pico da Bandeira sits at an altitude of 2,892 meters, is the third highest peak in Brazil and is the most visited attraction at the CNP.The peak can be reached by two trails, the first starting at Tronqueira (which can be accessed through the entrance in Minas Gerais) with approximately 6,000
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