Collective building the Environmental Interpretation Program for the Iguaçu National Park (PR, Brazil)

Abstract

Iguaçu National Park (INP) receives approximately 2 million visitors per year, which means not only a huge management challenge but also offers great opportunities for communicating with this audience. Despite this significant amount, the park never had an environmental interpretation plan. The Iguaçu National Park Environmental Interpretation Program was designed to improve the visitor experience through a more effective communication with the different subgroups of visitors, prior, during, and after the visitation experience to the PNI. Documentary analyses were carried out considering the management plan, the public use plan, thematic publications etc., and also nine remote (virtual) meetings were held with specific groups of key stakeholders, totaling more than 70 people involved, which provided support for the development of the interpretation program. Six target audience groups considered to be priorities were identified and eighteen interpretative goals were established covering three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. A main theme for interpretation of the park and four sub-themes were developed, each addressing a group of resources collectively identified. Finally, minimum guidelines were produced for twenty-seven interpretative projects, each one establishing the target audience, application/implementation location, interpretative goals and themes to be worked on, in addition to the expected deadline, among other guidelines. Until then, the experiences of gathering input for environmental interpretation planning within the scope of ICMBio had been through in-person workshops that brought together the diversity of key stakeholders involved in the management of the protected area at the same time. The holding of specific and online workshops proved to be satisfactory, being fundamental for the construction of the Program. Considering that the document is part of a dynamic and adaptable plan, which must be integrated into a PDCA management model, it is expected that, for the next revisions of the Environmental Interpretation Program, there will be monitoring of the implemented interpretative projects, as well as mapping of the profiles of the INP visitors. Such monitoring data will make it possible to identify the effectiveness of the projects and the more specific perceptions, demands and preferences of each niche, allowing for the adaptation and improvement of the interpretation strategies.