Valoración del paisaje de la Reserva de la Biosfera Isla de Cozumel por la población local y visitantes

In recent years studying the perception of the landscape and evaluating its aesthetics has become an area of interest. The visual evaluation of the landscape assesses how beautiful a landscape is and tries to identify what motivates its preference. Knowing the valuation of a landscape can contribute to the development of proposals for its conservation and use. The landscape is a fragile resource, and difficult to renew, which is why it has undergone transformations on a global scale causing its deterioration or loss. The coastal landscape is one of those that has undergone great changes due to the pressure generated by the population and the economic activities associated with it, such as tourism that has had rapid growth on the coasts. In this work, a visual evaluation of the landscape in the Cozumel Island Biosphere Reserve was carried out, using photographs that represented the different visual units of the landscapes. The technique used was a peer test and it was applied to the local population and visitors. For all the landscapes evaluated, the results suggest that the preferences of both groups show the same trend. The natural landscapes most valued by both groups were those of sandy coast and the least valued those of mangrove and jungle. On the other hand, of the rural landscapes, both groups valued better those that had archaeological remains, in terms of urban landscapes, those of the malecon were better valued by both groups versus the landscapes of the interior of the city. Despite the fact that the mangrove swamp and the jungle have a high ecological value, they are the least valued, which shows their vulnerability to change; here lies the importance of these studies in order to establish strategies to achieve the revaluation of the landscape.