Sustainable Management of Natural Areas: The Role of Population to Support the Protection Categories

Abstract

The increase of environmental problems due to the tourist activity has given rise to conservation of environment in destinations. In this sense, regional, national, and international regulatory provisions have proliferated during the last years. This article analyses the perception in the society about this kind of distinguishing signs, for the specific case of protected natural areas. Since local population participates in the appropriate development of protected areas, the knowledge and the communication of protection’s forms are necessary to achieve the purpose for which they were created. This article uses a structural equation model to know the relationship between implication of local population, knowledge and perception of forms to protect natural areas, and the influence on the support of actions related with these forms of protection. This article represents a sustainable innovation with the aim of getting recommendations about the use of distinguishing signs by tourist authorities, to achieve a good knowledge and communication of these signs, and an optimal management of destinations. The main result is that the perception of the effects produced by figures of protection influences on the support of actions related with these figures; in this way, the more positive perception is, the higher the support is.

Tourism Business in Spanish National Parks: A Multidimensional Perspective of Sustainable Tourism

“…Among the different types of tourism, nature tourism is highly relevant, representing 15% of total tourism in 2018 [4][5][6].…”

Hacia un modelo de ecosistema sostenible

“…En relación con las primeras, el sector público, a través de gobierno nacional, regional y local, es el responsable de la formulación de estrategias, normas y políticas turísticas. La sostenibilidad es uno de los principales inductores de cambio en el modelo de desarrollo turístico, como demuestra el incremento reciente de políticas, estrategias y normas desarrolladas por los gobiernos para lograr un desarrollo turístico equilibrado (Cordente-Rodríguez et al, 2021). Así pues, los gobiernos juegan un papel destacado para lograr un desarrollo turístico sostenible al fomentar activamente comportamientos sostenibles del sector privado, sociedad y turistas.…”

“…Este modelo teórico permite contribuir a aportar consistencia teórica a la demanda previa de que el sector turístico, a través de su unidad de análisis básica, los destinos turísticos, está obligado a avanzar hacia una transformación sostenible para mantener su competitividad y sostenibilidad conforme a las exigencias actuales de gobiernos, sociedades, turistas y comunidades locales (Buhalis, 2000;Segui-Amortegui et al, 2019;Cordente-Rodríguez et al, 2021). Los argumentos aportados para justificar el papel de los destinos turísticos, desde un enfoque de clusters, como ecosistemas turísticos sostenibles refuerzan la literatura.…”

Sustainable Tourism Destinations

“…Cordente-Rodríguez et al (2021) analyzed the influence of the public’s perceptions of the protection of natural areas—considering the economic, environmental, and social dimensions—on their support for actions related to these protection measures in natural areas. They also considered how variables such as the population’s involvement in sustainability actions and knowledge of the different protection measures in these areas impact these perceptions.…”