The Park is one of the most frequented conservation areas of São Paulo state, Brazil with around 150,000 annual visitors, mostly concentrated in the southern hemisphere winter (July and August). The peak visitor pressure has been highlighted as a major threat to conservation objectives. There are plans to increase four fold visitor numbers in the next 20 years by the private company that has been managing visitation / public areas on a for-profit basis since April 2019. This project aims to undertake a transdisciplinary study with a wide stakeholder involvement to establish the limits of visitor carrying capacity. These limits will be calculated based on the assessment of how habitat quality may be affected by increasing visitor pressure and, in turn, how acceptable visitor pressure could be best managed to minimise negative impacts on conservation objectives. The project will employ agent-based modelling to explore simultaneously multiple ecosystem service and biodiversity impacts / values.
Timeline
-