Sustainable Tourism Law

LEGAL PROTECTION OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BRAZIL 411 From that point on, it was clear that the purpose of the tourist planning process was to institute legal protection for the tourism heritage, to regulate its proper use and not, as some environmentalists claim, to prohibit its use and occupation. This heritage cannot be considered an essential condition for the development of sustainable tourism, if it is not possible to use it for production and consumption. It is also true that if these economic facts are not organized, their degradation and consequent loss of attractiveness will be inevitable, damaging all the planning of the tourist economic cycle by the Estate. Brazil is prodigal in tourism heritage, but it also neglects the regulation of its use, allowing the rapid deterioration of places originally featuring great landscapes of natural or cultural value. A better example of the aforementioned is the coastal zone located between the cities of Santos, in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country’s main consumer hub, which was the focus of a detailed occupation project in 1973, contracted by EMBRATUR. It originated the Projeto Turis [Turis Project], with its main concepts being the rational occupation of this area and the vocations of use of each part of it, and the creation of Norms for Territory Occupation, with rules applicable to it and other coastal areas. The next step would be the implementation of the projected norms, which stumbled into the absence of legal rules that allowed its implementation, since it created restrictions on the use of existing properties along the area in question. In vain, EMBRATUR tried to convince the municipalities located there to enact local laws that would meet the norms for use and occupation outlined by the Turis Project. As this did not occur, many areas had a disorganized occupation and, therefore, suffered definite damages in their organized tourist use, in addition to those caused to the ecosystem. And it was not only private entities that caused them, but also the Government itself- when carrying out the works of the highway between Rio de Janeiro and Santos, three beaches were permanently destroyed in the area between São Sebastião and Bertioga. And it did so in defence of the interests of a state company, Petrobrás, which owned – and still owns – a pipeline passing through those places. Hence the convenience of a highway close to it .