Geoconservation in Ceará: a look at state protected areas

Abstract

Recently, due to the Earth Science professionals and the consolidation of the geodiversity concepts, geological patrimony and geoconservation, the efforts focused on the protection of natural resources have given more attention to the abiotic elements. The main aim of this study is to identify which state conservation units (protected area) in Ceará were created aiming at the geodiversity protection or the elements of geological heritage. For this purpose, an analysis of the legal mechanisms for creating the 27 conservation units in the state of Ceará was made. In order to verify if the legal devices held the creation objectives focused on geoconservation, two variables (Geodiversity and Geological Heritage) were created and three scenarios, each one corresponding to a response (Directly, Indirectly, Does not have), which defined the objectives of creation of the conservation units. The results showed that, for the variable Geodiversity, only one conservation unit has specific creation objectives for geoconservation and 19 conservation units have only considerations and protective intentions. As for the variable Geological Heritage, 6 conservation units were created with specific objectives for the protection of such local aspect. In the others, there is not even indirectly, the objective or intention to protect geological heritage. From this analysis, it was also possible to verify the disparities in the number of conservation units in relation to the geoenvironmental units of Ceará, having as the main example the lowered surfaces (sertões), which constitutes the most expressive geoenvironmental unit of the Ceará state, at the same time it is the least contemplated with the creation of protected areas, despite its considerable extension, threats, vulnerabilities and recognized lithological complexity.