Can one mountain be untouched by these damn tourists: Environmental management, nature relations and tourism

Abstract

This article describes the attitudes of the inhabitants of Öræfi, county of Austur-Skaftafell, to environmental management with reference to their experiences of relations to nature. The objective of the paper is to describe how environmental management gains meaning in a interplay of nature relations of local people and increasing traffic of tourists through Öræfi. The article is based on qualitative research among inhabitants in the area. The study shows that the way in which the inhabitants experience traffic and pressure by tourists brings forth the meaning and importance of environmental management for the area. At the same time, particular weaknesses are evident when it comes to environmental management schemes and how they have been conducted in the area. Those include a lack of local collaboration and especially that human-nature relations, as experienced by inhabitants, are not taken into account. The paper underscores the importance of local participation for successful environmental management and that environmental management tools need to be open towards diverse modes of relations between society and nature. The findings support the view that environmental management systems can serve to deal with management challenges of tourism, which underlines that tourism does not necessarily need specific management tools but rather clear access to the management mechanisms already in place.