Capacidade de suporte do circuito das águas, Parque Estadual do Ibitipoca, Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

The milestone of the Protected Natural Areas (ANP) systems was the creation of the Yellowstone National Park, which covered both conservationist and preservationist ideals. The “Parks” category is the most illustrative and recognized ANP, due to the possibility of public use related mainly to ecotourism provided by circulation on trails. As a result, the Brazilian Parks are in the dilemma of the integral protection required versus the visitation allowed by the law. That is because an expressive number of tourists is linked to environmental and social impacts. The Ibitipoca / MG State Park (PEIb) is one of the most visited by tourists annually, requiring load capacity studies that support managers and planners to make decisions related to the management of environmental impacts caused by anthropic factors. Thus, this research aims to survey the state of the art of support capacity methodologies with application in the Water Circuit, Ibitipoca / MG State Park. The research carried out culminated in the use of the Cifuentes methodology with changes in the Correction Factor Accessibility and Exposed Roots aiming at greater precision in determining the maximum number of visitors per day/year as well as the methodology of the Visiting Beacon Number (VBN) for comparative effect. The result of the first field (dry season) of this study pointed to a total of 155 visitors per day), of another amount, in the second field (rainy season) the CCT found was 82 daily visitors. The VBN resulted in 852 visitors/day and it is necessary to consider the support capacity depending on the greatest attraction. Despite the Costa Rican methodology being the target of frequent criticism, it proved to be adequate in the present research, due to its low cost, dimensions of the object of study (trails), and ease of application. However, it does not dispense with continuous environmental monitoring. The VBN proved not to be suitable for application in Conservation Units (UC) that have more than one attraction located along the same stretch of the trail. Hence, VBN is indicated for large open spaces