Geoturismo no MoNa dos Morros do Pão de Açúcar e Urca a serviço da geodiversidade

Abstract

The Pão de Açúcar and Urca hills are institutionalized as heritage under various administrative spheres and under different adjectives. It was first considered cultural heritage by the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) in 1973 due to its importance in the composition of the cultural landscape and historical importance (foundation of the city of Rio de Janeiro), culminating as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. From 2006 onwards, they became Natural Heritage through the creation of a Municipal Conservation Unit (Fig. 1), Natural Monument category (MoNa) (RIO DE JANEIRO, 2006). However, since it presents natural and cultural heritage characteristics in the same space: the presence of rock formations, the Atlantic Forest biome, human constructions used for artistic expression, sports, leisure, and tourist visits, MoNa is an Integral Heritage (CARNEIRO & MACHADO, 2018). In addition to its heritage status, MoNa undergoes a museological process that integrates action in the territory, collective heritage, and community of inhabitants, characterizing it as a Territory Museum, legitimizing heritage already institutionalized in other spheres, through collection or registration, safeguarding, researching, and disseminating its material and immaterial goods, acting for and with society and aiming at its cultural and socioeconomic development (OLIVEIRA, 2015). This paper aims to discuss how geotourism, in this space with a wealth of geodiversity and biodiversity, can contribute to a greater knowledge of geodiversity and its interaction with the biota and society. Unfortunately, geodiversity is a concept that is still little recognized by society, consisting here of minerals, rocks, fossils, soils, water, air on Planet Earth, which can be in situ or ex situ, as well as landscapes and associated processes, such as in the case of the touristic landscape of Sugarloaf Mountain (CASTRO et al., 2018). Geodiversity with tourist and educational value should be the object of geoconservation (BRILHA, 2016). At MoNa, it is observed that the museological processes of communication about geodiversity need to be better explored so that society can understand the concept and help in the geoconservation and preservation of the geological heritage. Thus, the first two authors considered carrying out Geotourism activities as a tool for disseminating geosciences and disseminating the concepts of geodiversity and geoconservation to MoNa's visiting public. They developed educational geotourism projects involving 19 children, from 6 to 10 years old, enrolled in Elementary School T and TI; and developed a guided tour, offered through the Airbnb platform, for 78 foreign tourists from 5 different continents and 46 Brazilian tourists from various states. These experiments presented the geological concepts of rock formation and relief (magmatism, tectonism), rock types: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, physical-chemical-biological weathering processes, erosion and sediment transport, minerals: its composition and alteration, highlighting the importance of geodiversity as a substrate for the development of life. Therefore, it needs to be preserved and conserved by human beings, aiming to minimize the environmental impacts and risks arising from the misuse of these resources. Over a year of activities, the results are learning from the information received, measured by the level of questions raised by visitors, and by the change in attitude resulting from awareness of the need to value and preserve the elements of geodiversity. In the educational projects, children make associations with drawings and films, easily assimilating geoscientific concepts presented in a playful way, thus modifying their look and behavior, adding the perception of the importance of the rocky substrate for life on the planet to issues of the importance of biodiversity, currently so widespread. As all the proposed activities were paid by the visitors themselves and those responsible for the students, it is evident: (1) that society is seeking to learn about Geodiversity, as they could take the tourist tour by cable car, without this extra cost, and (ii) the potential of Geotourism as a tool for the dissemination of geosciences that allows the need for geoconservation of the Earth to be presented in a relaxed, dynamic, playful and pleasurable way.