Keywords
human geography
spatial planning
conservation management
tourism
Galicia
How to Cite
Abstract
This paper analyses protected areas in Galicia (Spain) by adopting the perspectiveof critical human geography. The paper begins by providing an overview of criticalliterature on protected natural areas. Then, it traces the evolution of the protectedareas in this case-study geographical region, correlated to the different socio-politicaland cultural contexts in which decision-making occurred. In this context the finalsection discusses the evolution of protected areas in Galicia in light of the theoreticalsection. The paper argues that protected areas in Galicia have to be understoodas political products and, despite the common (and rhetoric) mention of existingprotected areas in planning documents, tourism promotion, or signposting, thecontribution of these protected areas to effective spatial planning and conservationmanagement is marginal.Ambiente y Desarrollo is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights.
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