Gestão Integrada de Unidade de Conservação Costeira - Parque Estadual de Itapeva, Torres-RS, Brasil

Abstract

The National System of Conservation Units was created in order to preserve fragile environments that need to be protected in Brazilian territory. In Torres municipality, located in the northern coast of Rio Grande do Sul state (RS), there are beaches with singular scenic attractivity in southern Brazilian coast, due to their natural characteristics, and five conservation areas/units. The Itapeva State Park (Parque Estadual de Itapeva – PEVA, in Portuguese), where this study was conducted, was created in 2002, in order to protect dune fields, swamps and native vegetation in the RS coastal zone. However, anthropic pressure and its consequences continues until today. In this study a diagnosis of the environmental impacts in the north limit of the PEVA conservation unit was carried out, as well as the local community characterization and its relationship with the environment in which they live, and a survey of existent management actions in the city was conducted, in order to subsidize the conservation unit management. The methods used were interviews, field observations and analysis of documents. Among the observed impacts stands out: disposal of solid waste, water contamination due to lack of sewage collection network, sand removal, flooding due to ongoing intervention of water course and groundwater outcropping, and vehicles movement on the beach. Despite urban infrastructure problems reported in the interviews, local people like the place where they live because of the characteristics related to the environment and most of the interviewed people are users of Torres beaches. For 58% of them, the existence of the PEVA is good. However, they criticize the instability of living inside the PEVA conservation unit limits, with the possibility of removal. Existent management actions in the municipality are dunes and beaches management (from the “Orla Project”), urban planning (PEVA Management Plan, Municipal Environmental Licensing, Master Plan of the Municipality, PEVA Strategic Plan for Land Regularization) and environmental education actions (projects: “Praia Limpa”, “Torres - minha história, nosso mundo!” and “Guardiões da Praia”). Even with the control and supervision to prevent new buildings, the enclosure of the northern boundary of PEVA could partly solve other environmental impacts diagnosed. Another important measure for the area conservation is the development of a beach use ordering plan for the beach close to PEVA, since there is no way to separate the beach environment from the adjacent environments. Integrated management actions are necessary to sort the uses of the beach close to PEVA (with restricted vehicle access and facilitation of pedestrian access to the beach), which should be conducted together with education actions for sustainable tourism in the region. For the conservation of the environments protected by PEVA, it is necessary the integration of municipal and state levels in the management actions, which should have as guiding point the knowledge and the needs of the local population.