In contrast to traditional nature protection strategies, UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Reserves (BRs) can be seen as a more pronounced perspective that includes nature, culture and sustainable development. Tourism is generally supported in BRs, which also are meant to function as "learning sites of excellence to explore and demonstrate approaches to conservation and sustainable development" (UNESCO, 1996 p. 16). The focus of BRs has centred on environmental sustainability, due to the concept's history in nature preservation. However, like all global concepts, the interpretation of sustainable development in BRs is filtered over time through national, regional and local conditions. Explicit or underlying development strategies are also in place when the concept is applied in practice. It is therefore important to gain a better understanding of how sustainable development is interpreted and how BR stakeholders see the role of tourism over time. It is against this background that a case study was carried out on the Lake Vänern Archipelago BR in Sweden, its tourism aspects and the interpretation of sustainable development. The findings illustrate an ambivalence with regard to which approach to sustainable development is preferred, but there are striking parallels between the evolution of environmental commitment during the 20th century and the changing profile of BRs in general. Further, it can be noted that studying concrete examples of situated cases of sustainable development efforts in terms of biosphere reserves can contribute greatly to the ongoing discussion about which development approaches are seen as more or less sustainable.

The pursuit for sustainability in biosphere reserve (BR) tourism entails the need not merely for tourism businesses to adapt to the changing environmental preferences of tourists but also for entrepreneurs to gain new knowledge about sustainability. Our study illustrates how place is central to grasp the processes of learning for sustainability. Drawing on qualitative interviews, we examine place-specific and social learning processes for sustainability among small-scale tourism entrepreneurs in a Swedish BR. The findings are discussed using an analytic framework, based on themes of place-specific learning emerging from the interviews. Learning for sustainability among tourism entrepreneurs entails an emphasis on both social and spatial processes. Our findings show how the small-scale tourism entrepreneurs engage in learning through their interactions with tourists at their tourism establishments, through networking with other tourism businesses and regional stakeholders, through engaging with local resources and cultural norms of the BR, and through their experiences and practices connected to their everyday lives and the private sphere.

There is a lack of critical engagement and a focus on practical solutions in sustainable tourism debates. Research on biosphere reserve (BR) tourists has focused mainly on descriptions, while not critically engaging in issues relating to sustainable tourism. This article explores tourists' reflections on sustainable development in the landscape of a Swedish BR. The findings indicate that BR landscapes can increase environmental awareness, that aesthetics are important to how tourists make sense of sustainability, and that the functionality of the BR landscape shows how people perceive environmental concerns and how they see their own roles in affecting the landscape.