Determinación de senderos ecológicos interpretativos como herramienta de planificación del ecoturismo y conservación ambiental en la Reserva Forestal Protectora Vanguardia (Villavicencio, Meta)

Abstract

The Vanguardia Protective Forest Reserve located within the Vanguardia, San José Bajo and Puente Amarillo districts of the municipality of Villavicencio, is a protected area that has restrictions on the development of economic activities and limitations on land use; the local community has been carrying out practices around hiking in an inadequate manner, as an alternative for economic development; this activity has been developed without planning based on technical criteria and without taking into account the environmental impact caused to the biotic components of the Reserve. For this reason, there was a need to determine interpretive ecological trails as a tool for ecotourism planning and environmental conservation through three phases: in the first, three trails were identified (Trail Saltarín Barbiblanco, Trail El Zocay and Trail Cascada Aguas Claras) means of participatory planning, carrying out the inventory and evaluation of tourist attractions; this was complemented with the quantification of the tourist load capacity through the methodology of Cifuentes (1992), obtaining as a result for the Saltarín Barbiblanco Trail 148 visits / day, El Zocay Trail 56 visits / day and Aguas Claras Waterfall Trail 64 visits / day . In the second, based on the information obtained, the routes of the trails were designed with their respective interpretive stations and signage (preventive, informative and restrictive) through the manual for the modification of interpretive trails in ecotourism. Finally, in the third, the assessment of these was carried out through a matrix of influence / dependence for its ranking, with which the main characteristics of each path were considered and qualified. Thus, the project gives an account of considering three paths that comply, to a greater or lesser extent, with ecological elements that can be used and interpreted in a way that allows adequate planning of ecotourism and environmental conservation.