Managing the environment in tourism regions: The case of the Canary Islands

Abstract

The relationships between environmental and economic systems in the Canary Islands have been conditioned by a development process based on the expansion of tourism. This paper focuses on the principal environmental problems resulting from the development process and how the local authorities are dealing with these problems. Environmental policy has been concentrated on managing land and water resources through direct regulation. Regulatory policy measures have not produced the expected results because their application has been uneven and incomplete. An attempt to introduce a systematic approach to environmental policy is the Environmental Action Plan 1995–2000. Although this plan has important advantages over the previous approach, it may fail because of the absence of a reliable system of quality indicators tpat would allow the objectives to be defined more precisely. A necessary condition for a sustainable development process would involve a substantial reduction in the dependency on exploiting natural resources to generate economic growth. Copyright © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd