Estudio de los servicios ecosistémicos de provisión y apoyo, en el bosque El Corazón del cantón Pallatanga para el fomento de la actividad ecoturística.

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the provision and support of ecosystem services in El Corazón forest, Pallatanga canton, for the promotion of ecotourism activities. The site was characterized through the diagnosis of the environmental component obtained on the potential services; from there it was directed to the application of the non-probabilistic snowball technical method of key informants generating segments to which interviews were applied, allowing the identification and categorization of the ecosystem services of provision and support in the forest. Subsequently, the services were evaluated in two stages, the first without segmentation and the second with segmentation; obtaining different levels of significance according to the perception of the respondents. The results identified 5 approaches in 2 ecosystem services such as: provision service; fresh water, raw materials (wood), medicinal plants; support services: habitat for species, and genetic conservation. Establishing from a general perspective without segmenting the service with greater importance to the provisioning service: fresh water. Then in the application of the segmentation, the groups called: local residents (PL) and engineers with expertise in environmental issues (IETA) highlighted the ecosystem service of provision: fresh water and medicinal plants, which show a predominant level of significance over the rest due to the benefits they provide to the neighboring residents, therefore a tourist use was made giving prominence to the services with a lower level of significance such as providing service with raw materials (wood) and support service with habitat for species. It was concluded, that the evaluation tool allowed the comparison of results when exposed to different perspectives of the environment where they are located. It is recommended to replicate the model in other sites with similar characteristics.