Percepção ambiental na Área de Proteção Ambiental de Canoa Quebrada/CE: uma abordagem voltada ao turismo.

Abstract

The Environmental Perception (EP) deals with the interrelationship between man and habitat, it is an essential variable for implementing environmental policies to optimize this relationship, in order to maximize the expression of topophilic feelings and the reflection of these in the behavior of social actors. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the PA of the natives and tourists of the Environmental Protected Area of Canoa Quebrada (EPA-CQ) in order to serve as base to programs aiming the APA’s goals, based on sustainable system, that takes into account the expectations and needs of users in the area. The methodology for achieving this involves the application of stratified sampling mixed questionnaires. The exploitation of these by content analysis and plot charts in Microsoft Excel allowed delineate characteristics of the relationship in spatiality, such as strictly economic link among tourists and residents; the presence of topophobic feelings in natives caused by turistic impacts; the absence of co-responsibility in the conservation of the environment by visitors, once they don't have the feeling of belonging to there, and the reduction of all the environmental issues into just the correct disposal of waste. Thus, it is necessary to mitigate the cause of topophobic feelings and optimization of topophilic elements, besides the application of the work that enhance the audience's understanding about the environmental issue, so that social actors feel responsible for the maintenance of the area in order to promote improved quality of life and touristic experience.