EVALUATION OF THE TOURISM-EDUCATIONAL VALUE AND RELEVANCE OF THE KARST GEOSITES OF THE INTERVALES STATE PARK (SÃO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL)

Evaluation of the tourism-educational value and relevance of the karst geosites of the Intervales State Park (São Paulo state, Brasil)

Abstract

The most relevant natural elements should be the subject of conservation actions, such as the creation of protected natural areas, or even the expansion of their knowledge with the use of inventory strategies, among others. In this context, the classification of karst geosites in the Intervales State Park was carried out.. For this, adapted methods were used for the analysis of geosites in karst areas, with the inclusion of Educational Tourism Use Value (VUTE), as a function of the reality of public use of the area. The results showed the categorization of the geosites in the values: intrinsic, scientific, tourist, use/management and educational. Finally, the geosites were compared with the use of the rankings of Traditional Relevance (RT) and the new Proposed model (RP), with the identification of 10 geosites of national relevance in the region. It is concluded that such geosites should be subject to formal geoconservation strategies in support of their sustainable protection and use, such as: development of specific interpretive material; formal description of geosites in current inventories; and the possibility of including the most relevant geosites in the existing Geopark proposal for the Upper Ribeira.