Planificación y gestión sostenible de áreas recreativas en la Comunidad valenciana

Abstract

The recreational use of areas that are of ecological and landscape interest has significantly increased over the past few years, bringing about a huge flow of visitors that are endangering its preservation. Since the 1970s, the forest administration has created recreational areas with the aim to reduce the impact of unorganised access and avoid a drop in visitor satisfaction. In the Region of Valencia, these recreational areas are managed by the local administration, which may decide to intervene in environmental preservation and improvement. This constitutes an interesting incentive to boost high-quality tourist demands and helps reinforce more competitive market positions. In this paper, we present a number of criteria for the environmental management of recreational areas under sustainability principles.