Carrying Capacity as a Tourism Management Strategy in a Marine Protected Area: A Political Ecology Analysis

• Published in: Conservation and society 2019-10, Vol.17 (4), p.366-376
• Main Authors: Llausàsa, Albert, Vila-Subirós, Josep, Pueyo-Rosb, Josep, Fraguell, Rosa Maria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beef cattle; Carrying capacity; Carrying capacity (Ecology); Case studies; case study; commodification of nature; Conservation; Decision making; Dependence; Ecological monitoring; Ecosystems; Ecotourism; Electric power distribution; Environmental degradation; Fieldwork; Marine parks; Marine protected areas; Medes Islands; Natural resource management; Natural resources; neoliberal governance; Political ecology; Politics; Pressure; Protected areas; Resource management; Scuba diving; Studies; Tourism; Tourism development; tourism management; visitor cap
• ISSN: 0972-4923; 0975-3133
• DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_18_154

Natural protected areas are often required to concurrently support conservation and tourism development. Estimating the ecosystem’s carrying capacity and setting up visitor access limitations is a common approach in maximising resource use to avoid environmental degradation. Our research used a case study strategy and a political ecology approach to analyse the conflict surrounding a carrying capacity-based management plan implemented in a Mediterranean marine protected area under severe pressure from scuba diving. A mixed documental and discourse analysis method based on fieldwork, grey literature and 16 semi-structured interviews with representatives of seven groups of stakeholders was used. Results indicate that although the carrying capacity approach was instrumentally supported by all groups, conventional scientific ecological knowledge played only a specious role in decision-making. Factors related to path dependency, neoliberal governance frameworks, uneven distribution of power among stakeholders and regulatory weaknesses were found to be the most influential in facilitating increased visitor pressure in the reserve. We conclude that, in order to be effective and mitigate social conflict, natural resource management strategies based on the carrying capacity concept must be complemented with a precursory assessment of the biopolitical context to align the goals of planning with the possibilities of the socially constructed environment.