Protected Areas, Tourism and Governance: capabilities and implications for the public use of Mata da Pipa Park, Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil.

Abstract

This study aims to understand the reality of a protected area called Mata da Pipa Park-PEMP regarding its public use for tourism purposes, relating it to the historical and political process of national parks creation in Brazil, and its capacity to develop ecotourism in the perspective of local governance. This, considering the premise that this territory composes the public patrimony and should, therefore, preserve its ecological and aesthetics attributes and guarantee the opportunity of visitation.
The research is based on document analysis of its Management Plan and others documents about the meetings of the Management Council, the in loco verification of actions directed at tourism, interviews with the social actors involved in this governance instance and its evaluation based on an Analytical Matrix Model. The results point to weaknesses in the governance process where the actions seem to be centralized in the governmental agency and the other social actors act as spectators, hindering the local tourist development. Problems related to land regularization, reception structure for visitors and financial resources demonstrate the Park’s inability to develop ecotourism.