Tourism as a Strategy for Geo-Education and Cultural Valorization of Territories: Promoting Ecocultural Values and Geoconservation in Estrela Geopark, Portugal

Introduction

Tourism assumes an important role in the management and conservation of natural areas, so the link between protected areas and tourism is vital for its sustainability and enhancement as a territorial asset. This mutual relationship is complex, sometimes the opposite, but tourism is always a critical component to consider when planning and managing protected areas, such as potential geoparks. Sustainable tourism practices in protected areas represent long-term commitments and ways to implement the geoconservation process, stimulating learning, formal and non-formal, for territorial enhancement.

The mountains are reservoirs of resources and services that are fundamental in the regulation of natural cycles, in biodiversity, in the preservation of cultural values associated with local ways of life, as natural museums of geomorphological history, as living labs and teaching resources for sustainability. At the same time, they are territories of increasing demand for tourism and leisure activities, which must be constituted with means of promoting geoeducation and geoconservation. In Portugal, mountain areas of high environmental/natural value have been classified as protected areas, based on their management by a conservationist logic that tends to preserve the environment and the implementation of a heritage design of the territory often in conflict with the communities. The frequent mismatch between global needs for nature protection and local needs for socioeconomic development has, in many situations, hampered the management of such spaces, as it may disqualify their perception and the activities established by their people. These positions require specific attention and coordinated the various stakeholders, especially management entities, able to create conditions for sustainability and qualification of these spaces, valuation of their products, greater ability to leverage the resources held as goods and services value to society and the economy.

The philosophy in the creation of geoparks focuses on the development of networks for an exchange of experience and joint promotion of concept and each member of the network. The three main areas of activity of a Geopark are (i) conservation of geological heritage; (ii) education for sustainability, and (iii) tourism and local development. In this sense, the Geoparks introduce a great responsibility in the creation/development of economic, tourist and social value. Their potentialities may be transversal in helping to create territorial value in a given geographical area. On the other hand, their potentialities may be appropriate to tourism based on the development strategies for the welfare of the community and enhancement of the territory, promoting a sense of belonging and collaborative work.

Thus, the Estrela Geopark (EG) introduces a great responsibility in the development of economic, tourist and social value. Its integration into a global network will allow the dissemination of its values and heritage, fostering its conservation and projecting the Estrela Mountain to a wider market, allowing the emergence of new products and services based on nature and local ways of life. In summary, EG seeks the development of an integrated and collective development strategy, allied to the valorisation of heritage, fostering geoconservation, education, and tourism.

In this context, this chapter seeks to analyse the importance of mountain territories, in respect of the resources and functions, it hosts, the relevance of its heritage, the educational value associated with its geological history, biodiversity, and ways of life. The role of Geoparks is acting as instruments of territorial valorisation, dissemination of geosciences, and promotion of sustainability strategies. Estrela Geopark’s object of research is identifying its strategies of geoconservation and geoeducation, the initiatives of promotion of territorial and cultural value associated with their communities. It promotes the systematisation of good practices and actions built between the different actors of the territory, in the promotion of heritage, mountain lifestyle, and the geoconservation, in a sustainability strategy. In this context, tourism takes centre stage as a strategic process for the enhancement of the Estrela Mountain destination, promoting initiatives and developing geoeducation programs for sustainable tourism, committed to the territory and its communities.