Análise ambiental de trilhas em unidades de conservação, Parque Nacional do Caparaó, MG,

Abstract

Trails are basic equipment for the proper functioning of protected areas. Despite this, little effort has been spent to subsidize technical and financial resources and effective management of these important equipments in Brazil. There is a lack of effective methods in the diagnosis and monitoring of trails to be applied in the brazilian protected areas. The main goal of this work is to generate subsidies for development of methods to achieve this demand, focused on pedological and geomorphological aspects. The access trails to the Pico da Bandeira, in the Caparaó National Park – MG, were chosen to develop the research. The main results allowed the characterization of these equipments, pointing a scope of environmental alterations on the track with access through the side of Minas Gerais. These alterations are due to the heavy flow of visitors and permission to load animals utilization. Otherwise the track with access through the side of the Espírito Santo state was more conserved, mainly due to less intense use and non use of load animals. It was possible to define and to test environmental indicators, applicable to the processes of diagnosis and monitoring in the Park trails, based on pedological and geomorphological aspects. From these results it was created a graphic and cartographic system of representation, which constitutes an important tool to perform analysis, understanding and utilization of results related to trails diagnosis and monitoring in the Caparaó National Park. This system showed great potential for application in other brazilian protected areas, since it was based on comprehensive pedological and geomorphological concepts.