Tourism and Conservation in Mozambique: complementarity or competition?

Abstract

With this article, we intend to open a reflection on the relationship between tourism and conservation in Mozambique, seeking to highlight the aspects in which they are competitors and complementary. For the development of this reflection, in addition to the authors' perception of the subject addressed, we sought to make interpretations of studies on the theme in question. Thus, it was based on a literature review and on official documents to which an interpretation was sought. The results of the study reveal that tourism and conservation are competitors because they compete for the same resources. While Conservation seeks to maintain the state of its components, tourism seeks to use or consume them. However, despite this competition, these two activities complement each other, since one ends up being a condition for the existence of the other. The conservation process involves costs, and tourism appears as a necessary condition to cover, if not all, at least part of the activities necessary to ensure the process is effective. Moreover, the conservation areas are being placed at the service of tourism and will contribute to the development. Thus, it can be said that, for economic reasons, conservation areas are alienated.