O legado de Niède Guidon no semiárido brasileiro: a percepção de condutores de visitantes do Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify what archaeologist Dr. Niède Guidon represents for the Serra da Capivara National Park based on the perspective of the park’s guides, fifty of whom participated in the highly specific qualitative focal study through semi-structured interviews. We found that 40 (80 %) of the guides interviewed recognize Dr Guidon’s importance in the implementation of Serra da Capivara National Park and in the development of the region surrounding the protected area. The accounts reveal the positive social, scientific, and economic impacts of the Serra da Capivara National Park on the region’s population, as well as that of the implementation of educational programs focusing on environmental awareness and solid waste management, among others. Particularly noteworthy is the implementation in 1993, of systematized courses as part of a continuing education initiative for the park guides and the participation of the surrounding population in exchanges concerning the establishment of the protected area. The analysis also identifies the Serra da Capivara National Park as a Brazilian management model —maintained to this day as a result of Dr. Niède Guidon’s efforts— that meets the ecotourism and archaeological tourism goals, and that adopts the principles of the geopark concept, in which self-sustainability has been the primary foundation. Twenty-six years after the first training of park guides in the Serra da Capivara National Park, this is the first study developed on this topic.

Keywords

• archaeological tourism
• continuing education
• ecotourism
• full protection
• trail
• public participation