Evaluación de los impactos ambientales generados por actividades turísticas en las Cascadas de Manuel, cantón El Guabo

Abstract

The tourist center Las Cascadas de Manuel, with 43 ha of area, has been located in Mollepongo-Molleturo Protective Forest and Vegetation, which houses a wide variety of environmental attributes aimed at the recreational use of visitors. The main objective was evaluating the environmental impacts resulting from tourism activities in order to generate an Environmental Management Plan that provides alternative mitigation, conservation and restoration. The methodologies used were a series of tools that made it possible to collect information from multiple perspectives, surveys of environmental aspects and impacts to visitors to the study area, identification of the main alterations through a checklist, assessment of environmental impacts based on the Leopold magnitude and importance matrix indicators was biotic, abiotic and socioeconomic obtained in situ for greater objectivity and bibliographic review of alternatives for the proposal of the Environmental Management Plan. The results obtained from the survey carried out on 72 tourists allowed us to identify that the activity is being managed inadequately, it also showed that there is a concern and willingness of visitors to collaborate with the care of the environment. Regarding the evaluation of environmental impacts, it was obtained that tourism activities generate a low impact; however, the environmental conditions make Las Cascadas de Manuel a place with high vulnerability and predisposition to degrade if its natural conditions are abruptly modified, demonstrating the need to implement a model focused on ecotourism