Valoración del ecoturismo como servicio ecosistémico en el bosque de Polylepis, de la Reserva de Producción de Fauna Chimborazo

Abstract

This research proposes: value ecotourism economically as an ecosystem service in the Polylepis Forest of the Chimborazo Fauna Production Reserve; by means of methodologies such as: TEEB 2010, MEA 2005, and stratified random sampling for finite populations; methods with which an identification of 4 cultural ecosystemic services was obtained, where, according to national and foreign tourists the greatest use of such cultural ecosystem services is done, it is the Nevado Chimborazo with (0.96) and (0.83) respectively, followed by the Forest of Polylepis whose frequency of use was greater by national visitors (0.50) versus foreigners (0.35); In addition, there is unawareness of places such as: Machay Temple and Lonely Tree. These cultural ecosystem services in national tourists are mostly perceived by men (1.88) before women (1.36), which correspond to ages of 64 to 75 years (5.85), their levels of education are unknown (5.85), they have an independent job ( 2.10), and an income of $1,031 a $1,353 (3.74); in foreign tourists the perception of women (0.92) was higher than of men (0.83), their ages range from 52 to 63 years (0.83), which have a specialization (1.10), but most of them are pensioned (1.06), and have incomes of $ 1,677 to $ 2,000 (1.02). Results that contribute to know that in relation to the qualification range the Chimborazo Nevado has the greatest capacity to provide recreation (7.51), ecotourism (7.24), aesthetic values (7.13) and religious values (6.38), followed by the Polylepis Forest with ability to provide recreation (5.60), ecotourism (5.55), aesthetic values (5.34) and religious values (4.82); with regards to foreign tourists, the Nevado Chimborazo has the capacity to generate mainly the recreation service (7.91), ecotourism (7.48) aesthetic values (7.23), and religious values (6.20).