ID: 18
Presenting Author: Henry Mooney
Status: pending
This work examines how tourism and communication in Argentina’s Aconcagua Provincial Park reproduce misinformation, commodify nature, and sustain unequal power relations within protec
This presentation analyzes how the communication systems surrounding mountaineering tourism produce structural misinformation about nature, conservation, and governance in Argentina’s Aconcagua Provincial Park. The research situates the park within a political-ecology framework that connects core–periphery power relations to the construction and circulation of environmental narratives. Evidence from participant observation during a 2023 guided ascent and document analysis of the Plan de Gestión y Uso Público shows that state and corporate actors use technical and eco-touristic language to normalize extractive management practices and to portray the park as a pristine, depoliticized wilderness. The resulting discourse conceals ecological degradation, labor precarity, and semi-permanent settlement patterns that conflict with existing regulatory definitions of conservation land use. Communication within the impact-assessment process becomes a mechanism through which unequal access to information and representation is reproduced. Addressing these distortions requires communication frameworks that are transparent, participatory, and rooted in local ecological and labor realities. The study contributes to IAIA26’s inquiry into misinformation and public trust by demonstrating how environmental communication not only transmits information but also structures authority, legitimacy, and the perceived boundaries of “nature” itself.
Henry Mooney has over 11 years of experience in socio-environmental impact management, environmental assessment, energy transitions, and sustainable development across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin