Valuation of Environmental Services: an analysis of the beach landscape of Ponta Negra/RN, NE Brazil

Abstract

This research was performed in the years 2017 and 2018. In this context, the present work had as study area the Ponta Negra beach, which is one of the most significant postcards of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, presenting diversified physical, social, economic and environmental characteristics. The objective of this research consisted in valuing the environmental services present in the area, considering the perspective of Managers and Non-Managers of that location. The methodology adopted included bibliographic surveys, production of reviews, workshops and lectures, preparation of image letter of the environmental services identified by the respective groups, field work with application of the methodology for identifying environmental services and the levels of importance of each one, through the social cartography, as well as laboratory and office work, for meetings and preparation of the respective thematic maps. Finally, we concluded that the regulatory services were more listed by the groups of Managers, and we found that the groups of Non-Managers were able to accurately indicate the location of provision services, mainly due to the fact that they experience the daily dynamics of the beach.In the other hand, the groups of Managers indicated more the regulatory services, which covers the entire spatial area of the study area.