\n<\/p>\n
F<\/span>ollow the yellow footprints along Brazil\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s north-east region, adding to a growing network of hiking trails in the country.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 black and yellow footprints \u2013 with the aim of increasing access to national parks, developing local economies, and better preserving the environment.<\/p>\n Map showing where the Caminhos da Ibiapaba footpath is located in Brazil\u2019s north-east region<\/p>\n The 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\u2019s policy for long-distance trails and connectivity, launched in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no point telling people, you only protect what you know, if you don\u2019t give them the tools to know. The trail is this tool,\u201d says Menezes. \u201cPeople who hike, people who camp, these people often become defenders of the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The trail starts in the Ubajara national park in the state of Cear\u00e1 and ends in the Sete Cidades national park in Piau\u00ed, crossing contrasting landscapes in three different biomes \u2013 the tropical Atlantic forest, the dry Caatinga, and the Cerrado, a biodiverse savannah. Forests are being restored along stretches of the path.<\/p>\n <\/span>A hiker on the Caminhos de Ibiapaba trail, in the Cerrado biome.<\/span> Photograph: Jo\u00e3o Luiz\/MTUR<\/p>\n \u201cThe long-term goal is to connect all conservation units with trails within vegetation corridors,\u201d says Menezes, as this helps species migrate and avoid extinction.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cNew trails are appearing every day,\u201d says Menezes. \u201cIt\u2019s bottom-up, [coming from] civil society, a local community, a hiking or cycling group. This means the process is slower, but it\u2019s more robust because it creates a sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n In S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o 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.<\/p>\n \u201cBesides being a valuable resource that enhances our local history and local culture, the trail also brings an economic dimension to our community,\u201d says Darlene Gl\u00f3ria Fausto, 27, who led these efforts.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the trail will bring more people to our property,\u201d says Teresinha Moura, 60, who set up a bed and breakfast in the plain outside Ubajara park after producing sugarcane stopped being profitable. \u201cI love hosting people and sharing our experience.\u201d<\/p>\n This also offers an alternative to small-scale farming, which often comes with clearing land and using fire. \u201cThe trail will show farmers that they can make an income by protecting the forest,\u201d says Diego Rodrigues, the 37-year-old director of Ubajara park.<\/p>\n Local guide Francisco Welio Gomes remembers the tension between conservation authorities and farmers with the park\u2019s creation in 1959, and expansion in 2002. \u201cThings have changed positively,\u201d he said. \u201c[Park authorities] now go to the communities, encourage them to use their areas for tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Inspired by the Caminhos da Ibiapaba, Darlene Gl\u00f3ria Fausto, pictured, set up a secondary trail in S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o da Fronteira.<\/span> Photograph: Jo\u00e3o Luiz\/MTUR<\/p>\n Overtourism is not yet a concern in this part of Brazil, but Menezes added trails were not a panacea for conservation. \u201cThere has to be management \u2026 but inaction could be a bigger risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And Brazil is not the only country to see trails as a positive tool. \u201cThere is a growing global movement of organisations working on a national scale to use trails as vectors for conservation and rural development,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThis shows that it is possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Follow the yellow footprints along Brazil\u2019s 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[5356,4702,3160,4566,4064,872,12885,13163,8672],"class_list":{"0":"post-45929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-belonging","9":"tag-bets","10":"tag-brazil","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-creates","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-hiking","15":"tag-sense","16":"tag-trails"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}