Jericoacoara concession is questioned in Ceará – 10/09/2023 – Environment

The fourth attempt to transfer the management of the Jericoacoara National Park, in Ceará, 370 km from Fortaleza, to the private sector has raised alarms and questions from environmentalists, residents of the region and the government of Ceará.

The concession project for the site, which houses marine ecosystems and areas of dunes, mangroves and restingas, was published on September 15th by the federal government, which argues that investments in this model are necessary for the maintenance of the park.

In the notice, the concession area encompasses 7,850 hectares, out of the 8,854 hectares of total park surface. The document was designed by BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), at the request of ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation).

The modeling foresees the transfer of management of the park to the private sector for 30 years, starting with the company that wins the dispute in January 2024. The value of the contract is R$298 million.

Investments of approximately R$116 million are expected in infrastructure in the park — the majority of which should occur in the first five years of the concession. R$91 million is also planned for research projects, species management and support for mobility projects for residents and workers in Vila de Jericoacoara.

The current notice has already been modified, according to ICMBio, after previous discussions with the government of Ceará. The change included the exemption from paying tickets for people registered in the federal government’s CadÚnico (Cadastro Único), expanding the scope of exemptions for visitors to the national park.

There have already been attempts to carry out the concession in 2014, under the Dilma government, in 2018, under the Temer government, and in 2022, under the Bolsonaro government.

In 2014, the project was canceled during the public consultation phase, after criticism from the population and environmentalists. In 2018, ICMBio held meetings with segments of Jericoacoara, but the proposal did not move forward.

In 2019, ICMBio requested the inclusion of the concession project in the Jericoacoara National Park in the federal government’s Partnership and Investment Program and, through a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Tourism, contracted, in 2021, the creation of new studies for the concession project with the assistance of BNDES. These studies culminated in the current process.

“We believe that, if there is no concession, we will lose an opportunity to bring necessary investments to the park and also to the population that survives from the park”, says the superintendent of the BNDES project structuring area, Luciene Machado.

Currently, ICMBio is the managing body of the Jericoacoara National Park. In the case of a concession, he will be the manager of the concession contract and monitor the actions of the private company, in addition to being responsible for monitoring the areas of conservation units.

According to the notice, vegetation areas that are not accessed by users and visiting areas and trails will not be considered under the responsibility of the concessionaire.

The new concession contract establishes the maximum amount to be charged to visitors per day, ranging from R$50 in the first year to R$120 from the fifth year of the concession.

Entrance fees will only apply to visitors to the Jericoacoara National Park. Residents, visitors and workers in the region, children up to six years of age, students and teachers for environmental education activities, researchers, civil servants and public security agents in the exercise of their functions, tour guides or transport drivers will not have to pay the entrance fee. registered visitors.

The contract does not provide for the construction of large structures, one of the fears of environmentalists regarding the risks to biodiversity. However, the government of Ceará defends that there is an explicit veto on new constructions.

“My biggest concern is that the notice guarantees the preservation of the environment, with a clear determination of the need for prior authorization for construction in the park. The document also needs to include mechanisms that protect people who depend on the tourism production chain in Jericoacoara” , stated Governor Elmano de Freitas (PT), in a note.

The Ceará government defends shared management within the concession, with the participation of the state administration, the federal government and the municipalities that are in the park’s territory. At BNDES, the expectation is that the Union and the state of Ceará will reach an agreement so as not to make the concession unfeasible.

For professor Davis de Paula, from the geography course at Uece (State University of Ceará), Jericoacoara’s main challenge today is to maintain coexistence and use of a conservation area without exhausting the beauty of the place or degrading the environment.

“Most of the time, visitors are unaware of sustainable coexistence with the environment. The great challenge of any concession is to bring the perception of possible human impact on the landscape to visitors”, says the geographer, who assesses that Jericoacoara is on the way to saturation in the current format of tourism and management.

“Today, the park suffers from visual and physical impacts that are in the biological sphere, resulting from growing tourism. There is disorderly growth, for example, with constructions that enter the polygonal [o território] of the conservation unit, which should not happen”, he states.

The Jericoacoara National Park is one of the main tourist attractions in the country. From January to July, more than 600 thousand tourists were received, an increase of 12% compared to the same period in 2022.

One of the adjustments advocated by the government of Ceará is the inclusion of greater benefits for the state’s population, which depends economically on tourism in Jericoacoara.

“Around 35% of the park’s visitors are from Ceará, which reinforces the need for a proposal that also includes this public”, says Yvana Albuquerque, Secretary of Tourism for Ceará.

The recommendation is also that the concessionaire prioritize companies in the region when defining food and transport service providers, for example. The winning company will not be able to implement internal road transport services that compete with those provided by park operators authorized by ICMBio.

Also contacted by the report, ICMBio did not provide a representative to comment on the notice.