Landscapes Protection and Eco-development: The Case Study of Gargano National Park, Italy

Over the years, many interpretations have been given in terms of sustainable development and despite the different nuances in the concept interpretation, all the definitions tend to converge in a unique way within the environmental debate and everything related to the protection of territorial diversity. In these terms, even the Gargano National Park has moved in this direction, by promoting specific actions for the exploitation of natural resources and preparing the implementation of plans and programs for development of the territory. And it is just within the aspect of environmental sustainability that emerge the most critical points: the development of heterogeneous process has contributed to accentuate one of the main problems of the area - the road network - which, through a net shift of the tourists axis to the coast, has resulted in congestion of external road networks and lack in the internal networks. Therefore, although the tourism sector represents the largest source of actual and potential wealth of the Gargano's area, it doesn't yet reach the levels of development desirable relating to the major opportunities available over the region. In this work are highlighted lights and shadows of the development process that has characterized the last two decades about Gargano National Park, marking the aspects related to tourism, the promotion and development of the territory, highlighting the gaps and providing a key view about the possible construction of a real Local Tourist System.