Nóbrega, Wilker Ricardo de MendonçaUrano, Débora Goes2022-12-132022-12-132022-09-21URANO, Débora Goes. Tourism and environmental crimes: a critical analysis of the environmental impacts of tourism through the lenses of Green Criminology. Orientador: Wilker Ricardo de Mendonça Nóbrega. 2022. 161f. Tese (Doutorado em Turismo) - Centro de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2022.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/50123Environmental crime is a worldwide complex problem, and one of the most profitable international criminal activities. Although the environmental impacts of tourism have been explored, there are few studies in tourism literature on environmental crime in the past 60 years. In this sense, this thesis aims to elucidate one central question: “What is the relationship between environmental crime and tourism?”. Both Critical Tourism and Green Criminology are used as an umbrella theoretical framework which guided the research process. The research is based on the dialectical scientific method and navigates through different research approaches and techniques. The thesis was divided into three moments; in the first moment, it is intended to understand how the Tourism and Green Criminology fields interconnect in the literature. Next, bibliographic research demonstrated that tourism research on the nexus tourismenvironment has had little critical progress over time. In addition, it reinforced that tourism from a local perspective does not need a healthy environment to happen, and critically, researchers need to think globally, perceiving that the focus should not be in sustaining tourism, but to preserve the ecological basis of the planet. Furthermore, it proposed a theoretical framework based on Green Criminology that can help researchers to critically approach environmental impacts of tourism which focus on the structures and mechanism of oppression that allow these impacts to happen. In the second moment, it attempted to identify the patterns of tourism-related environmental crimes. To do so, secondary data analysis of environmental infraction notices issued in Brazil, semi-structured interviews and a discussion of Brazilian environmental legislation and environmental law structure were conducted. The analysis was based on descriptive statistics and content analysis. The results showed that tourism-related crimes were connected to non-compliance with the environmental license for construction and operation (among other factors), especially in permanent preservation areas and indigenous territories; deforestation; irregular fishery commercialization, which relates to illegal fishing; and illegal captivity of wildlife. Lastly, the third moment tried to understand the processes involving tourism-related environmental crime. In this moment I employed the study-case technique of one of the main tourism-related environmental offenders in the state of Ceará, Vila Galé, located in Cumbuco, one of the main tourist destinations of the state. The results revealed that many of the tourism-related environmental crimes studied were State-facilitated corporate crimes. Moreover, the State, corporations, and the media try to legitimize these crimes and undermine environmental social control through discourses of economic growth. In addition, there is a power imbalance between native residents and big corporations when environmental law enforcement is put in place. Finally, the thesis demonstrated that Green Criminology could help tourism researchers to perceive that most of the so-called environmental impacts of tourism are now perceived as crimes and the main victim is Mother Earth. Also, Green Criminology gives tools to tourism researchers to approach the impacts of tourism in the environment through understanding the processes behind these crimes and exposing a whole system which sustains the relationship tourism has with the natural environment.Acesso AbertoCritical tourismEnvironmental crimesGreen criminologyTourismdoctoralThesisCNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::TURISMO