Socio-economic analysis and stakeholders involvement: the case of the Bue Marino Caves tourist valorization

The authors are involved in the research project “Sustainable Exploitation of karst areas: study and conservation of biodiversity in the caves of Sardinia (KARSTBIOSAR)”, funded by the Region of Sardinia with LR 7/2007. The aims of this paper is to show the progress of the project, focusing on the case study of the ‘Bue Marino’ Caves. The area has been chosen mainly because it is characterized by a very vulnerable natural system for its high and fragile biodiversity joined to a heavy tourist pressure. More than annual 60000 visitors coming from all over the world, are distributed in a relatively short tourist season from April to October. During the winter time, the access to the Caves is impossible for the high level of the sea-waters. The Stakeholder Analysis is an useful tool to enucleate the complicated and multi-faced relations between local communities and policy-makers, also in order to reconcile private and public goals, helping local communities to better understand their actual goals and the political institutions to identify supporters and opponents to eventual and alternative protectionist/exploiting policies. We will identify the network of interests surrounding the ‘Bue Marino’ Caves, by analyzing: (1) the social network of interests and actors; (2) the key patterns of the interaction among the actors; (3) the values, interests, aptitudes and aspirations of stakeholders; (4) the reasons for opposition/support to the management patterns of the Caves; (5) the role of the public institutions in the governance process. Following an already tested method, we discuss the availability of quantitative and qualitative data, these latter regarding the stakeholders’ perceptions about the necessity of managing biodiversity of the Caves, balancing relevant socio-economic and environmental goals. We report some results about the cooperative involvement that has already been established between researches and some of the key stakeholders during several preceding meetings. The free commitment of participants during meetings and interviews shows us the possibility to further enhance the sharing of common ideas about the socio-economic convenience of improving a well defined managing policy, oriented to the reconciliation of environmental protection and tourism exploitation. The results of the field research will usefully support the development of a ‘common pool of knowledge' that both institutions and private actors can use in identifying a model for selecting a shared environmental policy, thus having more chances of successful policy choices.