Avaliação do potencial para aviturismo no Parque Nacional de Banhine

Abstract

Birdwatching tourism, commonly known as avitourism, is one of the fastest growing segments of ecotourism in the world, being carried out by people who seek to know or simply observe birds in their natural environment. In this context, Mozambique assumes itself as one of the main potential destinations for this type of tourism, since it is the 44th country with the most birds in the world, with 676 species, some of them among the most popular and sought after by tourists globally and two endemic . In this sense, it is important to take advantage of the potential of existing birds to attract the avitourist segment as an alternative to the already traditional sun and beach tourism. In this sense, this work seeks to evaluate the potential for avitourism in the Banhine National Park (PNB). It was based on data on the occurrence and characteristics of 443 bird species and data on land use and land cover, hydrography, roads, altitude and slope, all submitted to a hierarchical process analysis (AHP). The results indicate that the PNB has an enormous spatial potential for the practice of avitourism (about 1511.89km2; 13.04% of the total area), which can be enhanced by the occurrence throughout the year of globally popular species with enormous potential for attractiveness such as the ostrich (Struthio camelus). These results have implications for the Park's management structure, since they can serve as a subsidy for the territorial management of the Banhine National Park (PNB) by indicating the areas with the greatest potential for birds and the areas suitable for the development of avitourism and by indicate the main species and characteristics of birds that occur in the park and the time of occurrence during the year.(TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)