Fronteras y territorios: la gestión de las áreas protegidas en cuestión

Abstract

Over the last three decades the number and extension of interterritorial protected areas have increased dramatically, giving way to an unusual and very complex situation, whose consequences have not yet been well estimated. Methodologically, this work deals with the evolution of this type of areas, as well as the processes that explain its recent growth and the different scalar configurations that they adopt today. Andalusia has been selected as a research area both for its status as the first Spanish region in protected areas and because it reflects very well the scope of a phenomenon that is witnessing at all main scales of analysis. In this regard, the case study of some significant examples such as the Intercontinental Mediterranean Biosphere Reserve (intercontinental scale), the new protection corridors on the Portuguese border (international scale), the great corridor of Andalusia-Castile-La Mancha protected areas (interregional scale) and the natural parks system of western Sierra Morena (interprovincial scale), has allowed to identify the particularities of the new interterritorial protection complexes on each scale, the various consequences that their existence holds, the stingy achievements in the field of collaborative management between adjacent protected areas and, lastly, the essential changes that the policy of protected areas must face in order to reach higher levels of efficiency.