Environmental justice, well-being and sustainable tourism in protected area management

Abstract

Research on ecosystem service trade-off, environmental justice and equity has grown during the last years as significant approaches to effectively connect use and conservation. Although there are justice tourism studies there are many aspects related to environmental justice that have not been addressed. We develop a framework to analyze social feedbacks in tourism–people’s cognitive and behavioral responses to change- to promote a more just environmental governance. Spatial analysis and methods of measuring environmental justice and well-being were applied in Bahía de San Antonio Protected Natural Area in Argentina. The results revealed the existence of two-way relationships and social feedbacks between tourism and conservation. We conclude that linking approaches related to environmental justice and well-being with tourism can provide theoretical insights to promote positive social feedbacks and to highlight pathways to reconcile tourism activity with protected areas management. These could be a first step to develop more sustainable forms of tourism in protected areas.