Percepción de los servicios culturales que provee la Reserva La Ceiba en los barrios: Cabeza de Toro, La Manga, El Oro de Pilares, Revolcaderos y Hualtaco del Cantón Zapotillo

Abstract

Ecosystem services are understood as the material and non-material benefits that ecosystems provide to the people. Within these are cultural services received by societies by the spiritual enrichment, reflection, recreation and aesthetic experiences. The reserve La Ceiba Located in the Zapotillo canton in the province of Loja, is a dry forest ecosystem that provides cultural services of importance for the communities, such as the scenic beauty and tourism. However little research has been developed with regard to this issue. Against this background the present investigation sought to know what cultural services are mostly collected by the inhabitants nearby to the Ceiba. To this end, it was applied a semistructured interviews with 14 key actors, including presidents neighborhood, environmental technicians, municipal officials. The results show that the cultural service more appreciated is the tourism, distinguishing between two types of perception on this service. Were also of importance and supply services regulation, by the dependence of the inhabitants toward the forest, the latter being that would motivate people to keep the reservation KEYS WORDS: agriculture; cultural services, dry forest; ecosystem; guayacan; tourism.