Sustainable Tourism Law

412 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW Thus, in 1975, a totally unpunished ecological-tourist crime was committed, given the inexistence, at that time, of lawful legal instruments that could be used to prevent harmful conducts of this type. A palliative measure had been attempted, authorizing the National Council of Tourism (CNTur), the normative body of the National Policy of Tourism at the time, to delimit priority areas of tourist interest for future use. But it anticipated that this exact type of exploitation would occur based on agreements that would be signed between EMBRATUR and the municipalities located in the so-called priority zones. That is, if the municipalities so desired. In practice, it proved to be innocuous, since no agreement was signed, for example, in the case of the Turis Project commented above.It was recorded how this coastal area was declared a priority area, but it had no practical effect, just like the Territory Occupation Rules contained in the Turis Project were approved by CNTur, also without practical effect. Similarly, other tourism priority areas were established, such as the Pantanal and Chapada dos Guimarães in Mato Grosso, Parnaíba Delta in Piauí, and Bela Vista Colonial Nucleus [Núcleo Colonial Bela Vista] in Manaus, Amazonas. No concrete effect was generated by these supposedly protective acts of tourism heritage, due to the lack of legal support to create obligations, leading to the realization that the special protection of this heritage would depend on the law. And that means a general law that could be applied, without distinction, by all levels of government. With this in mind, EMBRATUR prepared a preliminary draft, subsequently submitted as a bill of law by the Executive to the Legislative organs and converted into Act 6,513, dated of December 13, 1977 III. LEGISLATION IN EFFECT The Explanatory Reasons of the bill of law that resulted in Act 6,513 / 1977, which has been in force up to now, highlighted the seriousness of the issue, as follows: “One of the most serious problems of the development of tourism is the compatibility of the use of appropriate places for the practice of tourist