The death of an 11-year-old girl inside the Serra Geral National Park draws attention to safety in conservation units, which are also open to adventure and contemplation tourism. Shortly after the accident at Cânion Fortaleza, in the municipality of Cambará do Sul (RS), the concessionaire responsible for the tourist facility declared that it complies with a set of required safety policies and protocols.
“Tourists are instructed to adopt the appropriate practices for the activity amid the trails, especially on the edges of the canyons. Signs mark the path and alert visitors along the route about the risks and precautions that must be taken,” highlights the statement released by Urbia Cânions Verdes, which operates in the Aparados da Serra and Serra Geral National Parks.
According to the company, a security team with trained civil firefighters for emergency or accident response is also maintained. And, as the trails are classified as medium and intermediate level, hiring tourism guides registered in Cadastur is optional, but not intermediated by the park administrator.
All these rules integrate the Safety Management System at Serra Geral National Park, a plan presented in the Operational Visitation Protocol (Prov), a document approved by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) within the requirements of the concession contract.
The document is a detailed plan of how each area accessible to visitors will function and what types of activities they can practice. In addition to information on operating hours, available services, visit monitoring, and visitor restrictions, it also describes all safety components, whether for individual use or those comprising the environment, such as signage, guardrails, and fixed or natural anchors. Everything must be approved by ICMBio, the technical body capable of assessing the feasibility of activities and equipment.
In the case of the accident at Serra Geral National Park, the agency informed, via a statement, that no systemic failures were detected in the safety and signage of the visitation areas, but added that “as the managing and supervisory body of the concession contracts for visitation support services in the conservation unit, it will take measures to review and possibly reinforce safety in national parks open to visitation.”
Tourism
For the executive director of the Brazilian Association of Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism Companies (Abeta), Luiz Del Vigna, it is important to remember that whether it is a hike on a park trail, a horseback ride, or a zipline descent, all these practices involve risk.
“The fact is that adventure tourism activities in natural, uncontrolled environments evidently carry higher risks of accidents and incidents. So, given this risk, we must prepare, and that is why we created a set of technical standards on safety management,” he says.
Del Vigna explains that there are 44 rules regulating the adventure tourism sector, as provided in the Consumer Defense Code. Among the measures in these standards is the consumer’s right to know they are paying for an activity that involves risk.
“This Brazilian technical standard is so good that it was adopted by ISO. So, what was a Brazilian technical standard became an international one, issued by ISO in Switzerland, which is ISO 21101 Safety Management System for Adventure Tourism,” he explains.
Brazil has 75 national parks, with 11 concessions under public-private partnerships with companies operating the visitation and adventure tourism systems. These conservation units vary greatly in size and service complexity, but are generally safe, explains the executive director.
“ICMBio has adopted in its internal regulations that concession processes for nature tourism services in federal conservation units require a safety management system. So, the parks and concessionaires work toward that.”
Risks
Within the parks, risks are minimized through inspection processes and the inclusion of these technical standards in concessions, affirms Del Vigna. The same does not apply to the external adventure tourism market.
The Abeta representative says that informality, lack of oversight, and consumer practices prioritizing cost over safety are the main challenges for the sector in minimizing risks.
“Brazilian national parks are safe; they do not pose additional risks beyond those characteristic of the region, like security in Rio de Janeiro, for example. It is not a different risk from being in Copacabana or on Avenida Paulista.”
Source: Agência Brasil