‘It creates a sense of belonging’: Brazil bets on hiking trails for conservation

Follow the yellow footprints along Brazil’s newest long-distance trail, and they will take you through lush green forests and sandy shrubland, past sweeping vistas and bizarre rock formations, into grottos and rural communities.Spanning 186km (115 miles) of paths once used by 19th-century merchants, the Caminhos da Ibiapaba is the first waymarked long-distance footpath in Brazil’s north-east region, adding to a growing network of hiking trails in the country.Unlike the US or European countries, which have networks of hiking paths dating back more than 50 years, Brazil only recently established a system of trails with standardised markings – black and yellow footprints – with the aim of increasing access to national parks, developing local economies, and better preserving the environment.Map showing where the Caminhos da Ibiapaba footpath is located in Brazil’s north-east regionThe idea that hiking trails are a tool for conservation is based on a simple premise: people protect what they know. That requires making conservation areas accessible, says Pedro Cunha e Menezes, director of protected areas at the environment ministry and the main architect of the government’s policy for long-distance trails and connectivity, launched in 2018.“There’s no point telling people, you only protect what you know, if you don’t give them the tools to know. The trail is this tool,” says Menezes. “People who hike, people who camp, these people often become defenders of the environment.”Trails also help control wildfires, serve as a deterrent for illegal activities like poaching, and can double as corridors for wildlife, particularly when they connect protected areas as the Caminhos da Ibiapaba does.The trail starts in the Ubajara national park in the state of Ceará and ends in the Sete Cidades national park in Piauí, crossing contrasting landscapes in three different biomes – the tropical Atlantic forest, the dry Caatinga, and the Cerrado, a biodiverse savannah. Forests are being restored along stretches of the path.A hiker on the Caminhos de Ibiapaba trail, in the Cerrado biome. Photograph: João Luiz/MTUR“The long-term goal is to connect all conservation units with trails within vegetation corridors,” says Menezes, as this helps species migrate and avoid extinction.So far, Brazil has 22 officially recognised long-distance trails spanning 7,000km (4,350 miles), as well as hundreds of shorter paths that have adopted the distinctive signage and created their own design of a black footprint on a yellow background.“New trails are appearing every day,” says Menezes. “It’s bottom-up, [coming from] civil society, a local community, a hiking or cycling group. This means the process is slower, but it’s more robust because it creates a sense of belonging.”In São João da Fronteira, one of the municipalities through which the Ibiapaba trail passes, local people created a secondary trail, designing and putting up signs that take visitors past scraggly carnauba wax palms and rock art engravings, only recently discovered and believed to be thousands of years old.“Besides being a valuable resource that enhances our local history and local culture, the trail also brings an economic dimension to our community,” says Darlene Glória Fausto, 27, who led these efforts.There is hope that the Caminhos da Ibiapaba will bring opportunities to an overlooked region and grow the income of small businesses offering food, lodging and a taste of local culture to hikers and cyclists.“I believe the trail will bring more people to our property,” says Teresinha Moura, 60, who set up a bed and breakfast in the plain outside Ubajara park after producing sugarcane stopped being profitable. “I love hosting people and sharing our experience.”This also offers an alternative to small-scale farming, which often comes with clearing land and using fire. “The trail will show farmers that they can make an income by protecting the forest,” says Diego Rodrigues, the 37-year-old director of Ubajara park.Local guide Francisco Welio Gomes remembers the tension between conservation authorities and farmers with the park’s creation in 1959, and expansion in 2002. “Things have changed positively,” he said. “[Park authorities] now go to the communities, encourage them to use their areas for tourism.”Inspired by the Caminhos da Ibiapaba, Darlene Glória Fausto, pictured, set up a secondary trail in São João da Fronteira. Photograph: João Luiz/MTUROvertourism is not yet a concern in this part of Brazil, but Menezes added trails were not a panacea for conservation. “There has to be management … but inaction could be a bigger risk,” he said.And Brazil is not the only country to see trails as a positive tool. “There is a growing global movement of organisations working on a national scale to use trails as vectors for conservation and rural development,” says Fivos Tsaravopoulos, manager and founder of Paths of Greece, an organisation building trails there. Examples include the 1,400km (870m) Via Transilvanica, recently opened in Romania, and long-distance trails in Lebanon and Jordan, set up with funding from the now-extinct USAID.In Brazil, plans for new trails are under way. As well as 9,000km (5,600 miles) already in the works, the inaugural hike of the Caminhos da Ibiapaba in February left park managers, like Tathiana Chaves Souza, from other parts of Brazil inspired to repeat the experience back home.“This shows that it is possible,” she said.