Ten years ago Rio State invested in the creation of a portfolio of state parks. Over Easter we visited Tres Picos, located 100k m outside Rio de Janerio, to field test our protected area asset framework.
The biophysical assets associated with Tres Picos are outstanding: scenic rock massifs rise out of rainforest clad mountains which harbour beautiful waterfalls and tranquil bathing pools and a fabulous birdlife. The area is also rich in cultural assets. Neighbouring the park in the heritage town of Nova Friburgo and the area supports a thriving ‘back to the land movement’ of organic farming, artisan crafts and guests houses. In addition the park has excellent human assets in the form of knowledgeable and well-equipped park staff and a small guiding community, and park infrastructural assets include visitors centres and a limited trail system.
The forest edges around visitors are an easy place to see and photograph the region’s spectacular bird life.
These assets could form the basis of a thriving vacation and out-door recreation culture generating quality-of-life values for people across the State and beyond. They could be promoted to enhance a sense of collective pride and identity with the nature and landscapes of Rio State and to strengthen a tourism economy providing local enterprise and livelihood opportunities.
At present though, it seems that only people in the know are capturing value from this PA asset – townsfolk who know the paths to the waterfalls and members of climbing and hiking associations who know the trails. As outsiders we struggled to get the most from our visit due mainly to the effort required to find out about and access attractions. The park has a limited internet profile, there are no maps or trail guides, and signage from roads is limited to say the least – we never did find the three peaks viewpoint!
Bathing in a tranquil rainforest pool is special for anyone. But currently only those with local knowledge can find the trail heads to these falls.
It was clear to us that Tres Picos had the potential to generate value for people across Rio State but to do this it needs investment in marketing. Application of our asset framework asks questions about public infrastructure that serves a park or that a park can draw on. This approach generated two ideas for investments that would enable a wider cross section of society to capture value from Tres Picos.
The first was to explore the possibility of creating a park radio information channel in conjunction with the company managing the concession of RJ-116 highway that transects the park from the town of Cachoerias de Macacu to Nova Friburgo. It is a gloriously scenic drive winding up through forest-clad mountains along a modern highway that provides a welcome break from the dreary monotony of a long drive.
Many UA parks have invested in scenic drives and park radio stations.
Offering motorists the opportunity to tune into a radio channel playing a loop-programme introducing the park, its nature, culture and people and promoting events, activities and places to visit, eat and stay would create awareness among the travellers along the highway and prompt some to return for a visit. Park information stations are common places in the US and elsewhere where they are created by specialist suppliers and often part funded by advertising revenues.
Our second idea was more modest and is simply for the park authority to take advantage of the popular Google navigation apps – Google Maps and Google Waze. Places and roads can be added to make attractions, trail heads, visitor facilities etc. The underlying maps of both can and are up-dated by users. Places and roads along with photos and descriptions can be added with relative ease using Google Map Maker or the Google Waze map editor. Park staff could do this as part of their regular patrolling duties. This small investment in time would make the park’s attractions more assessable to the ever growing population of Google app users in Rio State and beyond.
This is one of a short series of blogs on investing in Rio States PA assets. Please check out the others and leave your comments.
Our research is funded by Brazil CNPq-PVE Grant#400325/2014-4
