Sports Management in the Natural Environment: Effects of Collaborative Network Governance on Sustainable Development

This study aims to determine the impact of a collaborative network governance structure for the management of sport in protected natural areas on the degree of sustainability of its territorial development. This paper shows the results of the analysis of existing governance in the decision-making processes of eight conflict situations generated by sport in four protected areas in Catalonia, and the effects on the dimensions of its development in each case. The method used to collect the data was in-depth qualitative interviews with key stakeholders. To allow the comparison between cases, qualitative information was quantified by the definition of indicator indexes. The results show that there is a correlation between the collaborative network and sustainability indexes, which means that the greater the degree of networking and collaboration between stakeholders, the higher the degree of sustainability of the development generated by the solution strategy adopted in each of the analyzed cases.