Tourism as a tool for building environmental governance in the Comarca Minera Geopark

Abstract

In this article we analyse environmental governance, that is, the tools, mechanisms and programmes used by the government, civil society and an international organization (UNESCO) in the control, access to and use of natural resources in the area called “Geoparque Comarca Minera”, in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico. By conducting interviews and consulting official materials and a conceptual proposal on environmental governance, we analyse five dimensions (administration, coordination, resource management, social participation and sustainable development) of the relationship between the government, social organisations, local actors and the natural environment in a specific programme that seeks to generate territorial planning, conservation and change in the relationship between the government and the local population through a tourism project: the Archaeological Mining Route.