| dc.description | The development of tourism causes negative impacts
on the environment. It is in this context, through the Ecological
Footprint (EF) method that this study aimed to characterize the
impacts of ecotourism on the community of Mateiros, Jalap??o, Brazil.
The EF, which consisted in its original a method to construct a land
use matrix, considering some major categories of human
consumption such as food, housing, transportation, consumer goods
and services, and six other categories from the main land use which
are divided into the topics: land use, degraded environment, gardens,
fertile land, pasture and forests protected by the government. The
main objective of this index is to calculate the land area required for
the production and maintenance of goods and services consumed by a
community. The field research was conducted throughout the year of
2014 until July 2015. After the calculations of each category, these
components were added according to the presented method in order
to determine the annual EF of the tourism sector in Mateiros. The
results show that the EF resulting from tourism in Mateiros is
2,194.22 hectares of land required for tourism activities in the region.
The EF of tourism was considered high, nevertheless, if it is added
the total of hectares needed annually for tourism activities, the result
found would be 2,194.22 hectares needed to absorb the CO2
emissions generated in the region directly from the tourism sector. | |
