Estudo de identificação e valoração dos serviços ecossistêmicos culturais de recreação e lazer no Parque Estadual Botânico do Ceará (Caucaia-CE)

Abstract

We are currently noticing a greater concern with the activities that the economic system has triggered, since it has caused a growing scarcity of natural systems, compromising the capacity of these systems to sustain themselves and the right to a minimum guarantee of enjoyment and well-being for future generations. Thus, this study aims to identify and value the Cultural Ecosystem Services of Recreation and Leisure of the Ceará State Botanical Park, located in the municipality of Caucaia. The identification of the ecosystem services of the Park was made using the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) as a basis, and these services are grouped into the classes of Regulation and Maintenance, Provision and Cultural. The importance of this identification is due to the fact that many of these services and the corresponding benefits are often unknown, so that public policies are based on subjective assessments of the importance of these resources. After identification, the cultural services were valued through consultations with visitors to the Ceará State Botanical Park, through the application of questionnaires. The purpose of these surveys was to discover the individual preferences of the interviewees and, in this way, to discover the importance attributed to the Park by the users of these services. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was applied, based on the willingness to pay (WTP) of its visitors for a fee to protect the Park. In order to achieve the research objective, 99 visitors to the park were interviewed, of which 78% were willing to pay for the conservation of the park's environmental benefits, with an average WTP of R$5.91, resulting in an economic value of R$206,026.59/year (based on 34,872 visitors in 2019). It can be seen that, although the park is free to use, it has a significant economic value to its users. Ecosystem valuation should be seen as an indispensable tool in organizing information, assisting in the decision-making process regarding the provision of strategies that enable the creation of public policies that assist in the control and sustainable management of environmental resources.