Tourism and preserved nature in Latin America

changes and continuities within the framework of the sustainability paradigm

Abstract

The text aims to analyse the tourist valorisation of nature subject to preservation systems, in what are generally called environmental protection areas, in Latin America. Although his inter-est is concentrated in current processes, he considers necessary to present a historical revision to recover both the process of creation and consolidation of these preservation units, as well as the modalities that tourism was acquiring in their use. In this tour, presents the relationships that this valorisation establishes with the social contexts in which it is inscribed, as well as with the ideas and representations of nature, preservation and tourism that support this valorisation.
For the current context, it recognizes two main routes or perspectives of tourist valorisation of preserved nature. One of them is fully inscribed in the coordinates of the global economy, hav-ing market interventions as a priority instrument. The other is oriented towards local and partic-ipatory development, having as a general framework the principles of sustainability. In both, achievements and limitations are observed, and presented synthetically in relation to the cur-rent expectations regarding tourism as a driver of development in general and for the places and populations involved.