Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the re-definition of natural resources in the Protected Areas of Southern Spain, related to the promotion of nature tourism, and reflects on the role that certain socioeconomic interests play in the design of environmental conservation policies.

Paper long abstract:

The re-definition of many rural areas in Europe, following changes introduced by the Common Agricultural Policy over the last few decades, has given rise to a shift in the way local resources are managed. These regions are no longer meant to depend on highly subsidised farming practices, but on numerous other activities, such as tourism, in order to diversify and boost the local economy. This process has exerted a strong influence in the design of environmental policies within Protected Areas in so-called 'Peripheral Europe', where new resource management plans aim to achieve both environmental conservation and sustainable development through the promotion of nature tourism.

In relation to this phenomenon, this paper focuses on the adjustment in the definition of 'environment' that has paralleled it, as natural resources become attractive and accessible products for touristic consumption. My aim is to reflect on the socioeconomic interests that underlie new environmental readings in the Protected Areas of Southern Spain, which legitimise the introduction of conservation measures through the strategic use of certain concepts such as wilderness, nature and tradition. I analyse the particular case of the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park, and examine the role that certain criteria, for example, tourists' motivations and expectations, play in the Park's land-use zoning plan. In doing so, I pay special attention to how this plan defines local resources so that old farming fields become 'natural' areas for tourists' contemplative use; a process that has prompted significant changes in the way humans have historically managed them.