Les sports de nature dans le Parc national de la Guadeloupe : des conflits potentiels au potentiel de coopération

• Main Author: Nathalie Lahaye
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université des Antilles 2009-04-01
• Series: Études Caribéennes
• Subjects: outdoor sport; environmental conflict; participatory governance; national park; cooperation
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/3608

The probability that the Pigeon Islands, a Mecca for diving, will be classified as a protected “heart of park”, reopens the debate about outdoor sports in the National Park of Guadeloupe. Should we be worried about the prohibition of diving in this “heart of park”, as has happened in the case of canyoning, following an environmental conflict around this practice? Are regulations always acceptable, when at the same time the law on the national parks of 2006 exhorts the parks to make a commitment to participatory initiatives, and to create projects based on the principles of sustainable development and ecological solidarity between the heart of park and its surrounding spaces? At the same time, if the Park has to develop from a crisis management style, with hesitating and arbitrary decisions, to a more cooperative management style, what potential is there to use cooperation to overcome possible conflict situations such as the Pigeon Islands? Are there lessons to be learned from the conflict surrounding the canyoning, which would help model the process and benefits of cooperation?