Turismo e recreação nas praias do baixo rio Negro - uma avaliação retrospectiva de impactos ambientais

Abstract

This study examined tourism and recreation on the beaches of the left margin of the lower Rio Negro, between the mouth of the Tarumã-Açu and the village of Arara. The main objectives were to examine the degree to which these activities are directly or indirectly responsible for environmental impacts, and to describe the environmental quality of this section of the Rio Negro is shores. The Introduction includes a review of tourism and recreation with regards to their impacts on soil, vegetation, fauna and water resources. Prior studies that describe the climate, geology, geomorphology and vegetation of the study area were reviewed. This background information helped to define field data collection procedures that led to a retrospective evaluation of environmental impacts. Deforestation for the purposes of agriculture and other land uses, as well as alterations of vegetation, were the most extensive type of impact. Litter and trash were the second most important form of environmental impact on the beach areas. The sources of this detritus, in order of importance, were local residents, visitors, and transport and deposition by the river. The trash and litter problem was much aggravated by the absence of trash bins and lack of regular and complete cleanup efforts. Other types of impact could also be attributed to both residents and visitors. Though of lesser intensity and frequency, when summed together, they constituted an important contribution to degradation of the landscape. Overall, the beaches of the lower Rio Negro are still in a satisfactory state of preservation – and therefore still able to attract visitors – but some individual sites are in a worse state, with higher levels of impact and little or no mitigating infrastructures. The final chapter presents a simplified and easily applied method for evaluating environmental quality in natural spaces subjected to tourism and recreation, organized or otherwise. Its use should allow wiser management of these activities and consequently improved environmental conservation.