Legal Issues of Tourism in Natural Spaces

The present work is an analysis of the regulations of international, European and national protected spaces is carried out, with special emphasis on the distribution of competencies and the categorization of the different types of protected spaces. In order to do so, I undertake a study of the existing regulatory instruments and levels of protection used by the administrations at each of the levels of action. The results show how touristic activities have traditionally been addressed as a menace or a threat to environmental protection, a believe which has resulted in approaches towards the minimisation of tourism in specially protected areas. However, from arguments stressed in international soft law and especially in national Spanish legislation, it is beyond doubt that a good number of touristic activities fall within this scope of the promotion of sustainability and environmental awareness among citizens, helping society to know why and how important protected areas are, and at the same time serving to foster social cohesion, economic development and to the conservation of local and rural folklore, and therefore, the current framework imposes a proactive attitude of the Administration towards tourism as a tool (and not just a threat) for development in protected areas