Evolution of ecotourism in Protected Areas in Brazil

Federal policies analysis from 2012 to 2022

Abstract

THe main goal of this research is critically discuss the evolution of ecotourism and community-based tourism (CBT) public policies in Brazil over the period from 2012 to 2022, comparing federal government actions implemented in public use areas in Full Protection and Sustainable Use Protected Areas (PAs). This is an exploratory and descriptive study using bibliographic and documentary research. In the first phase, bibliographic research was carried out in electronic media, articles and legislation to trace the history of public policies in Brazilian Protected Areas. In the second phase, news about ecotourism was collected from the electronic portals of the Ministry of Tourism (MTUR) and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA). The keywords used for the collection were: "ecotourism", "community-based tourism or CBT" and "conservation units or PAs" and it was limited to the period from 01/01/2012 to 31/12/2022. From the filtered news items, the following information was extracted: link to the information found, date of publication, type of government action, PAs mentioned and number of PAs covered, separated by Full Protection and Sustainable Use. The selected news items were categorized into: 1. Promotion and Dissemination Actions, 2. Investments in Tourism Infrastructure in the PAs, 3. Training and Qualification. In the third phase, the news items were analyzed using a qualitative approach. In this research, 1,057 news items were found on the MTUR and MMA electronic portals and 326 were selected, based on the criteria of highlighting public policies, dissemination strategies, investments and training carried out in PAs. Public policies have promoted nature tourism as a way of conserving the natural and cultural heritage in the UCs and generating employment and income in the communities surrounding the areas.