Boosting the Management of Public Use Equipment

The management of public use has extensive experience in Andalusia, covering more than 30 years of uninterrupted work. Previously, the concept of public use found its origin in the field of public mountains and basically consisted of the development of recreational activities of a family nature. An important turning point was the transfer of environmental competences to the Andalusian autonomous community. Since the beginning, it has sought the direct link between the conservation of natural areas and social development, a concept that was already contained in the explanatory memorandum of Law 2/1989 of 18 July 1989 approving the inventory of protected natural areas of Andalusia and establishing additional measures for their protection. Under this framework, public use is constituted as an area that synergistically combines and integrates social and environmental aspects. Gradually, it has also been necessary to incorporate the field of rural and nature tourism into the management of natural areas, given the growth of both supply and demand. This has had a significant impact on the development of a new service offer by the Environmental Administration. In fact, public use has received strong support from this administration throughout this time. Proof of this is the significant investment effort that has been dedicated to the increase in the number of equipment, which currently exceeds 1,000, new construction or installed in existing facilities, previously rehabilitated. As in any process, the management of this extensive heritage has evolved little by little, within the framework of a constant search for improvement in the services provided and with the objective always associated with making them less economically dependent on the Administration while maximising the efficiency of the budget invested. The evolution of reality must direct us towards an evolution of the strategy, based on three principles: 1. The generation of an economy associated with visitor activity. 2. The institutional collaboration and of all the dynamising agents of the territory. 3. The promotion of private participation in management. In this regard, there are two components of the Action Strategy that need to be reoriented and effectively driven. First, the planning of public use, which must be consolidated by its ability to rationalise and order the use of resources, taking into account, from its insertion in the integral management of the space where it is located and the environment to which it belongs, the conservation of values, the quality of experience and the possible economic use linked to the activities, services and equipment that make up the system, being an instrument that facilitates the formulas of co-responsibility, the participation of other entities and the approach to the territory, and that completes the regulatory framework of the sector. Secondly, formulas and tools for managing equipment and services, seeking the promotion of private participation, institutional collaboration and the generation of an economy associated with visitor activity. This aspect is the most widely developed in this document, focusing in particular on the dynamic role developed by the information and reception equipment of visitors. This document is in line, as could not be otherwise, with the strategic planning promoted by the Ministry of Tourism and Sport. Thus, most of the actions contemplated here will generate important synergies with those of the General Plan of Sustainable Tourism of Andalusia. Horizon 2020 — the Plan+Interior. Comprehensive Strategy for the Promotion of Sustainable Interior Tourism of Andalusia 2020 or the Tourism Quality Plan 2014-2020. The objectives, guiding principles and strategic lines of these documents complement each other, contributing to a more transversal and inclusive approach to the fundamental role played by public use in the territory as a driving force for the rural economy and a tool for the environmental awareness of the population. In short, this document aims to chart the path towards a more efficient management of public use in the use of public resources, more effective in generating employment and more dynamic in the provision of services to citizens.