scholarly journals The significance of karst areas in European national parks and geoparks

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Telbisz ◽  
László Mari
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Adventure Tourism ◽  
Karst Areas ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Karst Terrains ◽  
Official Information ◽  
Visitor Numbers

AbstractKarst terrains have varied abiotic and biotic values. However, due to their unfavourable conditions for human settling, they are relatively sparsely populated areas. Thus, karst terrains merit and are suitable for nature protection. In this paper, partly or mostly karstic European national parks (NP) and geoparks (GP) are studied. We compiled a dataset based on official information and internet sources, and analysed NPs and GPs by location, morphology and timeline. Nowadays, there are 106 partly or mostly karstic NPs in Europe, that means 23% of all NPs. Many of the karst terrains became protected before the terms of geotourism and geopark came into being. 49% of all GPs contain karst terrains, which means that karsts are key issues in the study of geoheritage and geotourism. Tourism into karstic NPs and GPs can be considered sensu lato geotourism, since tourists travelling to these locations generally visit caves, gorges, travertine lakes and other karst features. Adventure tourism is also significant in karstic NPs and GPs. The most popular NPs host several millions of visitors a year, that implies economic benefits, but also poses environmental problems, thus certain parks already reached their carrying capacity, while other parks plan to increase their visitor numbers.

scholarly journals Tourism labor market impacts of national parks

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joakim Byström ◽  
Dieter K. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Regional Development ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Market Impacts ◽  
Public Perspective ◽  
Visitor Numbers

AbstractIn a Nordic context, economic impacts of tourism in national parks remained largely unknown due to lacking implementation of standardized comparative measurements. For this reason, we want to investigate the economic impacts of national parks in a peripheral Scandinavian context by analyzing employment in tourism. Theoretically, the paper addresses the idea of nature protection as a tool for regional development. The scientific literature suggests that nature can be considered a commodity that can be used for the production of tourism experiences in peripheries. In this context nature protection is applied as a label for signifying attractive places for tourists leading to increased tourist numbers and employment. This argument follows mainly North American experiences pointing at a positive impact of protected areas on regional development. Meanwhile European studies are more skeptical regarding desired economic benefits. A major challenge is the assessment of tourism’s economic impacts. This paper suggests an approach that reveals the impacts on the labor market. This is particularly applicable since data is readily available and, moreover from a public perspective, employment and tax incomes are of uppermost importance in order to sustain population figures and local demand for public services. At the same time accessibility and low visitor numbers form major challenges for tourism stakeholders and complicate the assessment of economic impacts through questionnaires and interviews. The paper shows that the assumption that nature protection promotes positive economic development through tourism is not applicable in a northern Swedish context. Hence, it rejects the often suggested positive relationship between nature protection and tourism labor market development.

Comparison of Parks, Reserves, and Landscape Protection, in Three Countries of the Eastern Alps

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary L. Barker
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Regional Planning ◽  
Eastern Alps ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
West Germany ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Power Utility

Conservation policies adopted in the Provinces of Tirol (Austria), Salzburg (Austria), Bavaria (West Germany), and Südtirol–Alto Adige (Italy), reflect the specific constitutional settings, management fields, and regional planning strategies, of these four regions in the eastern European Alps. Despite differences in historical–political heritage, their conservation programmes exhibit a number of similarities:1. Early conservation efforts by local communities were justified on the basis of perceived economic benefits, while those of organized conservation groups were directed towards establishing reserves with the objective of strict preservation.2. Government involvement in conservation increased in the 1970s, when comprehensive legislation covering Nature protection and regional planning was enacted by provincial authorithies.3. Much of the land in projected and existing parks or reserves remains in private ownership, and long-held traditional land-use rights are upheld.4. Reserves are established under individual legal ordinances which specify prohibited practices, allowable uses, and permit approval procedures. A land-use zoning approach is used only in the management of National Parks.5. Provincial legislation requires the integration of Nature protection into regional planning policies and programmes (e.g. the Bavarian Recreational Landscape Plan). Efforts to integrate government programmes on an international level have been limited to discussion and consultation.The controversy surrounding the proposed Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria) illustrates that, within a setting of long-established vested interests, it is difficult to reach agreement between provincial governments (with their power-utility corporations), local communities (with their economic self-interest), and environmental groups (with their often strict preservation philosophy).

scholarly journals ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF ŠUMAVA NATIONAL PARK

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Stemberk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
National Park ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Current State ◽  
Bavarian Forest

The main task of nature protection is to preserve or improve the current state of nature. Thus, it might seem that the economic benefits of the national park are not important for the management of the protected area, but calculating the economic benefits of protected areas for the region improves its acceptance among locals and visitors, as well as political and economic actors. From 2017 to 2019, Šumava National Park (Bohemian Forest National Park) in the Czech Republic and Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian Forest National Park) were subjected to extensive socio-economic monitoring, which included, among other things, research focusing on the economic benefits that visitors brought to both national parks. This article presents the results of research of the regional economic benefits that visitors brought to Šumava National Park compared with those in Bavarian Forest National Park, although the methods and findings were not absolutely identical and therefore difficult to compare.

Into Russian Nature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Roe
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
National Parks ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
National Park ◽  
World War ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

scholarly journals The basin-landscape approach to the protection and condition optimization of the lakes of the national parks

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Landscape Approach ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Landscape Characteristics ◽  
Condition Optimization ◽  
Basin System

The essence of the basin-landscape approach to the protection of the lakes of the national parks as an actual direction of research, which is formed at the junction of nature protection landscaping, hydrology and geoecology has been substantiated. The research algorithm, peculiarities of analysis and assessment of the status of the lake-basin system (LBS) have been found out, the factors that worsen the geo-ecological state in the lake and basin subsystems have been revealed, optimization measures in the objects of the nature reserve fund located within the natural reserve have been substantiated. The purpose of the study is to determine the parameters of the structure of lake-basin landscapes (on the example of Zasvitske lake, Nobel National Natural Park, Ukraine), liminary and landscape-metric indicators of the geo-ecological status of the LBS and the factors influencing it as an information and analytical basis for ensuring the protection and management of the LBS located in nature conservation area. The materials of the study were the long-term field landscape-limnological and geo-ecological studies of the authors within the Polesia region of Ukraine and, in particular, the LBS of the Nobel National Nature Park. The research methodology was based on complex physical-geographical methods, hydrological profiling and creation of bathymetric models of reservoirs, hydrochemical diagnostics of water masses of the lakes, geochemical analyses of bottom sediments, landscape mapping using GIS-technologies. The results of geo-ecological (landscape-ecological) researches of the lake-basin system of Zasvitske lake have been presented, in particular, original profiles and bathymetric model of the reservoir, landscape maps of the aqual complex and the lake catchment, limno- and landscape characteristics of the LBS have been shown. Considering the level of anthropogenic transformations of the LBS and the presence of a high proportion of ecologically-stabilizing lands (forests, reservoirs of natural origin), the level of sustainability of the LBS is estimated as high. An assessment of the hydrological characteristics of the reservoir and hydrochemical characteristics allows to attribute this lake to an oligotrophic type. The results of a comprehensive analysis of the geo-ecological parameters of the state of Zasvitske lake and its landscape-limnological functioning indicate the expediency of recreational specialization of nature management in the Nobel National Park, that includes this lake. Scientific novelty. The application of proposed landscape-basin approach and the algorithm of the LBS study increase the possibilities of functional zoning of national parks with high index of lakes, as well as solving the problems of nature protection and optimization of nature management. Practical importance. The created electronic landscape maps and the base of limnometric parameters can be used as reference documents for the certification and cadastral evaluation of the transboundary protected areas of Ramsar type, geo-ecological monitoring and an integrated management of lakes by the basin approach in conditions of intense climate change.

scholarly journals Lasy wybranych dużych obszarów leśnych = The forests in selected examples of Poland’s Large Forest Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-483
Author(s):  
Roman Zielony
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Proper Noun ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Key issues for spatial planning and development, nature protection and forestry in Poland relate to the problems encountered in determining the area of forests included within – and the boundaries of – what are known as the Large Forest Areas (LFAs) in Poland. Even as overall forest cover in the country has increased steadily – by about 2.5 million ha overall – since 1945, the data available for the LFAs relate to measurements made as long ago as in the 1960s and 1970s. Even then, it is often unclear whether it is total areas or areas of forest that are being referred to in relation to the LFAs. There is thus an urgent need for meas-urements to be updated, with a view to the present-day boundaries of the Areas being delim-ited. Some 80‑100 LFAs are in fact distinguished in Poland, in line with definitions relating to total area exceeding 10,000 ha (100 km2) and forest cover exceeding 35%. While many of the LFAs received Proper-Noun names at one point or another in their histories, as used locally in a given region, and in guides and publications, there are also less culturall-defined areas that still await naming. Efforts to determine the boundaries of the LFAs at this point allow, not only for renewed or de novo determination of their overall areas and areas of forest, but also for an advancement of our knowledge regarding any items of cultural heritage that may be present within LFAs. Such data will be useful or essential as new physiographic, economic and tourist guide-studies are developed; and they will encourage and facilitate the more-detailed analysis and assess-ment of forest management taking place within the limits of the LFAs. In line with the effort made to achieve the above goals, this article details selected problems encountered with the delimitation of forest boundaries and areas, as these are exemplified by the Polish LFAs of the Białowieża, Bolimów, Borki, Knyszyn, Kampinos, Noteć, Romincka, Tuchola, Łuków and Chojnów Forests. Figures for overall area and area of forest were indeed obtained and are presented here for the selected examples of LFAs, which are also augmented by the so-called Dobrzejewice and Lubniewice Forests not distinguished in this way before now.

scholarly journals Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous People and Protected Spaces of Nature

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Fishing Rights ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
Nature Preservation ◽  
Environment Sustainability

National parks and other preserved spaces of nature have become iconic symbols of nature protection around the world. However, the worldviews of Indigenous peoples have been marginalized in discourses of nature preservation and conservation. As a result, for generations of Indigenous peoples, these protected spaces of nature have meant dispossession, treaty violations of hunting and fishing rights, and the loss of sacred places. Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature brings together anthropologists and archaeologists, historians, linguists, policy experts, and communications scholars to discuss differing views and presents a compelling case for the possibility of more productive discussions on the environment, sustainability, and nature protection. Drawing on case studies from Scandinavia to Latin America and from North America to New Zealand, the volume challenges the old paradigm where Indigenous peoples are not included in the conservation and protection of natural areas and instead calls for the incorporation of Indigenous voices into this debate. This original and timely edited collection offers a global perspective on the social, cultural, economic, and environmental challenges facing Indigenous peoples and their governmental and NGO counterparts in the co-management of the planet’s vital and precious preserved spaces of nature.

The Economic, Social and Environmental Impacts

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Simon Hudson ◽  
Louise Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Sport Tourism ◽  
Winter Sport ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Analytical Frameworks ◽  
Social And Environmental Impacts

The unprecedented expansion of tourism has given rise to a number of economic, environmental and social impacts that tend to be concentrated in destination areas (Wall & Mathieson, 2006). Tourism research has typically emphasized the economic impacts and yet there are increasing concerns about the effects of tourism on host societies and their environments. A number of techniques have been developed to monitor these impacts. Common analytical frameworks include an environmental audit, environmental impact analysis, carrying capacity, and community assessment techniques. It is beyond the scope of this book to cover these techniques in detail, but the tourism manager needs to have knowledge of the most current models. Managers must also have an understanding of the principles of sustainable tourism, described as “tourism which is developed and maintained in an area in such a manner and at such a scale that it remains viable over an indefinite period and does not degrade or alter the environment (human and physical) in which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits the successful development and well-being of other activities and processes” (Butler, 1993, p. 29). As shown in the Spotlight above, Canadian Mountain Holidays is a good example of this. This increasing emphasis on sustainability has important implications for winter sport tourism, and this chapter focuses on the three pillars of sustainability – the economy, the environment and society. In the past, winter sport tourism was encouraged for its economic benefits with little consideration for the effects on the environment. But this is beginning to change. For tourism to be sustainable, it is vital that its impacts are understood, so that they can be incorporated into planning and management. Table 10.1 lists just some of the positive and negative impacts of winter sport tourism according to experts, many of which are covered in more detail throughout this chapter.

Protection and Usage Balance From the Perspectives of Visitors in National Parks

2020 ◽  
pp. 131-147
Author(s):  
Gulsun Yildirim
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
National Park ◽  
Ecological Indicators ◽  
The One

This study finds out how the balance of use and protection of Kackar Mountains National Park is from the perspective of visitors. In the study, a method based on tourist perception was used by using the website reviews of the tourists. The data was obtained using Trip Advisor, which is one of the most visited travel sites. Website reviews of the tourists for Kackar Mountains National Park is primarily collected through this website. 150 visitor comments were content analyzed. The themes were defined based on the report of Kackar Mountains National Park Directorate. The results show that Ayder plateau is the one which is under high risk related to the protection and usage balance in Kackar Mountains National Park, and it was found that the capacity of the ecological carriage and the administrative / physical carrying capacity were exceeded in that plateau. Ecological indicators have warned against significant danger. Therefore, authorities should take urgent measures as soon as possible.

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