Valoração econômica dos serviços ambientais do controle de erosão da praia do Icaraí, Caucaia-Ce

Abstract

The urban growth and real state speculation in the coast of Ceará are leading to uncontrolled use and occupation of the soil. As result, the negative impacts upon the environment and population in those areas are causing high socio-economic losses and environmental damages. The coastal erosion is one of the most serious problems that are affecting the Ceará’s coast which is related to the human intervention through out the uncontrolled constructions, fixing dunes, and disrupting the sediment balance. Such impacts can be observed in Icaraí Beach at the municipality of Caucaia, located in the west coast of Ceará State, at a distance of 20 km from Fortaleza. Aiming to contribute to the solution of the erosion problem in Ceará’s beaches, this work had as goal to do an economic valuation of the environmental quality augmentation of the Icaraí Beach that is severely affected by the coastal erosion process. It was used the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) to elicit the potential benefits that the beach users could get by the mitigation of the erosion impacts promoted by the beach erosion control’s projects. The primary data were gathered by semi-structured questionnaire applied to a random sample of 70 beach users, among dwellers, businessmen, surfers, and tourists. The results showed that 97% of the interviewed people are willing to pay for increasing the environmental quality of the Icaraí Beach, summing up an annual total amount of R$ 1,561,031.60, that is insufficient at once to control the erosion process in that beach. However, it is sufficient to develop policies of coastal management and revitalization of the Icaraí Beach, after the erosion control infra-structure had been built.