Theoretical contribution to the notion of public-community partnerships for leisure and tourism in protected areas

Abstract

The commons, has obtained more space in the debate about the use of resources and the ways of thinking management and governance of protected areas. This paper presents a theoretical-conceptual reading of Dardot and Laval's theory of the “common” (2017) as a contribution to interpret “public-community” partnerships to support leisure and tourism in protected areas. Through a bibliographical review on partnerships and community-based tourism in protected areas, the research, of an exploratory nature, seeks to characterize “public-community” partnerships as arrangements established between the public sphere and initiatives and collectives led by peoples and traditional communities and local people. Recognizes that these partnerships are multiple and diverse, but are identified by being promoted by collectives, networks, and formalized forms of social organization that conduct actions guided by political principles in search of the construction of self-management of territories and counter-hegemonic forms of tourism. However, the theory of the “common” still needs to advance with regard to the specific guidelines of indigenous peoples and traditional communities and local people, especially those rooted in the global South. This work can contribute as a theoretical contribution to highlight the composition of partnerships for leisure and tourism in protected areas that value the sociocultural and economic diversity of territories and their contribution to nature conservation, supported by forms of social organization led by traditional communities and local people.