Tourism and sustainability in coastal communities: reflections about socio-environmental changes in Jericoacoara (CE, Brazil) and Barreirinhas (MA, Brazil)

Abstract

Tourism is a socioeconomic activity which provides local development and creates new socioenvironmental dynamics in Brazilians northeast coastal communities. Nowadays, the coastal area has become the main focus of touristic investments. In other hand, the economic overvaluation of tourism can involve negative effects such as mass tourism and touristification of spaces. Sustainable actions have been suggested and tested to restrain these adverse impacts in touristic communities on the coast. Recently, the focus is in the complex task of identifying climate change risks in coastal areas. Climate change emerges as an outcome of the environmental crisis and it signifies a challenge to researchers to define a worldwide climate scenario due to the uncertainties can provoke on it and on touristic destinations. The main objective of this study is to present the socioenvironmental changes experienced by two coastal communities located in northeast of Brazil, Jericoacoara/CE and Barreirinhas/MA, due to the practice of coastal tourism and related activities. They are also located nearby of the National Park of Jericoacoara and the National Park of Lençóis Maranhenses, respectively. The main changes related to the appropriation of space by tourism are evidenced by the displacement of the local population from its usual locus, intense real state speculation, expansion of the urban area and the increased construction of tourism and recreational facilities. In the case of tourist massification, the changes are related to the increase of the tourist flow and deterioration of the landscapes and the local tourist attractions. The study also outlines, as a secondary objective, the possible impacts of climate change that can affect the communities investigated. The possible scenario involves sea-level rise, disappearance and destruction of built infrastructures, loss of biodiversity, reduction of fishing resources and reduction of local attractiveness. Such changes are relevant to the sustainable management of communities, as they may impose new reconfigurations and may directly impact in tourism practices that are essential for the local economy.