Tourism in the Biosphere Reserve of Serra do Espinhaço: Opportunities and Threats to the Cultural and Natural Heritage

Resumo

The Biosphere Reserve of Espinhaço (RBSE), locus of reflexion of this study, is the geographic platform of a process that encompasses an area rich in biodiversity and with a significant historical and cultural heritage. It is therefore an area of high ecological, social, cultural and economic importance. Established in 2005, it is considered one of the richest and most diverse regions of the world. With all this being presented, the area of Serra do Espinhaço eventually became an important destination for tourists. However, numerous studies have shown that the environmental heritage of the region has been systematically threatened by practitioners and tourism promoters. In a broader view of what is happening in the region in terms of tourist pressure, there is a pattern of socio-spatial transformation observed in different places and communities over time. Thus, in an exercise of understanding of how the tourist activity is occurring in the RBSE, this article seeks to examine how the historical and geographical aspects of the Reserve were appropriate and helped the region become the tourist hub that it is today. Later, it aims to reflect on the opportunities and threats that this activity has brought to the cultural and natural heritage of the region. For this, it was adopted as a methodological path, essentially qualitative, the consulting of works and researches on the RBSE, focusing especially on those that involve the tourist context of the region. It was noted that the appropriation of the territory of the RBSE by tourism is a reality full of conflicts and challenges.