The Challenge of Sustainable Development in Tourist Areas: The case of APA Dunes Lagoinha, Paraipaba, Ceará

Abstract

The Lagoinha Beach has a great landscape potential which motivates investment in tourism and summer holidays vacation. The landscape is made up of beaches and a broad field of Holocene dunes vegetated or free that moves with the action of trade winds. The comparison of satellite images and photographs from 1968 and 2008 shows that the landscape of the Lagoinha Beach is changing. Although legally protectedas an Area of Environmental Protection – AEP, it’s known that there is, on this beach, an important infrastructure facility that causes adverse environmental impacts. The objective of this work was to perform an integrated environmental analysis of the dunes of Lagoinha and to determine their environmental vulnerability to the issues of use and land cover. The environmental analysis was conducted using the Tricard methodology (1977), adapted by Sousa (1995). Data integration was performed using the UNESCO Integrated Coastal Zone methodology (1997). We have observed that theoccupation of the dune field of Lagoinha Beach is primarily by large resorts, structure composed of horizontal and vertical housing, water parks, golf course and airplane runway. This structure is being built on an environment considered environmentally unstable and highly vulnerable. In conclusion, we can say that the dune field of Lagoinha Beach is a fragile and vulnerable environment that is being intensely occupied. The creation of the AEP is not effectively ensuring the environmental sustainability of the area against the adverse impacts caused by the installation of summer vacation infrastructure and tourism resort.