Determinación de la capacidad de carga aceptable para tres senderos ecoturísticos del Parque Nacional Natural El Cocuy

Abstract

The Cocuy National Natural Park has advanced in the process of ordering and regulating ecotourism activity. Since 2017, through resolution 118, three authorized trails have been established to carry out this activity, the trails are: Ritacuba, Laguna Grande and Lagunillas - Pulpito. As of that year, the tourist load capacity of these routes was established, based on the study by CARLDERÓN RAMIREZ, DR 2010. However, the protected area in its process of updating the Management Plan and Ecotourism Management Plan had to carry out again the study of tourist load capacity for the authorized trails. In addition to the need to update these documents, it was essential to determine the carrying capacity with the current conditions under which tourism services are provided, because the demand of visitors has increased a social problem between tourism service providers and peasant communities. and indigenous people who ensure the protection of natural resources. In accordance with these needs and the social problems that had been presented, we proceeded to "Determine the tourist load capacity of the Lagunillas, big lagoon and Ritacuba trails as an input for the ecotourism management and Management Plan of the Cocuy National Natural Park". The exercise was carried out in a participatory manner among farmers, tourism service providers, the indigenous community and National Parks, the methodology established by the entity was applied through the “Methodological Guide for monitoring the impacts of ecotourism and determining acceptable carrying capacity in the National Natural Parks of Colombia”. In the field phase, all the information was collected to obtain the correction factors that influence the physical, real, management and tourist carrying capacity, these factors are: erodibility, accessibility, precipitation, waterlogging, fauna, flora, sunlight. And social. The results obtained by this study were able to determine the number of people/day that can enter each of the trails depending on the high and low rainfall seasons. Among the recommendations, it is important to adjust the National Parks methodology in order to eliminate the subjectivity of some correction factors and implement other factors that contribute to the conservation of natural resources.