Territorial planning and rural development in wild protected areas’ hinterland

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to present the interactions between the tourism system of protected areas and the local communities. The location of populated centers near protected areas, it is supposed to be an advantage for including the people living there in the tourism system. However, there are many cases of such communities with no socioeconomic relations with the protected areas adjacent to them. Therefore, chis paper assesses two tourism development plans with the objective of improving the participation of local communities in tourism. The project was developed for the Sustainable Urban Development Research Program of the University of Costa Rica (ProDUS-UCR). This paper highlights the most recurrent problems that were identified as lessons to be learned. These lessons are as well the most common issues that emerged like indicators to support the analysis of territorial cohesion and tourism during the research process.