scholarly journals Hortobágy National Park

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
István Gyarmathy ◽  
Zoltán Kolláth

National parks and protected areas have an important role in protecting starry sky and the undisturbed nighttime environment. Hortobágy which is one of the darkest areas in Hungary, became an International Dark Sky Parks recently. Its significance is mostly related to the protection of the high biodiversity which is endangered by the effects of light pollution. A special monitoring program has been started to survey the nocturnal species and also to monitor the quality of the night sky using   digital cameras. Stargazing night walks are frequently organized. There is a high interest by the general public to attend these night adventures.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 358-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Widawski ◽  
Zdzisław Jary ◽  
Piotr Oleśniewicz ◽  
Piotr Owczarek ◽  
Julita Markiewicz-Patkowska ◽  
...  

AbstractThis article examines the tourist role of protected areas important for their unanimated nature potential. In Poland the highest form of legal protection is a national park. Babiogórski National Parks is one of 23 national parks in Poland. The aim of this article is to present its tourist attraction based on its geotourist potential considered by tourists who visit this park. At the beginning a brief history of protection of Babia Góra is presented. Based on stock-taking sightseeing method an analysis of the most important tourist attractiveness elements (like infrastructure or tourist values) is done. The focus on the values of unanimated nature is made grouping them into four main categories. As the result of research on infrastructure the most important accommodation units were indicated present at the surroundings of this National Park which is vital for its tourist capacity. For the correct functioning of tourist movement at the protected area the supporting infrastructure is important bearing a lot of functions. The function of channeling of the tourist movement as well as the didactic function are the most important for protection and correct use of geotourist values. Among the many elements of the supporting infrastructure the most important ones are tourist and didactic routes (their course and themes are presented). The most important part of the article is the presentation of the participants of the tourist movement opinions on the Babiogórski National Park tourist attractiveness. A survey was conducted and then analysed on 308 respondents in 2011. They were asked to judge both the quality of infrastructure as well as attraction of geotourist values together with their adaptation to reception by the tourist movement. The results analysis served as a base to appraise the state and perspectives for the geotourism development in Babiogórski National Park from the point of view of the receivers of tourist product i.e. the protected area.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britton L. Mace ◽  
Jocelyn McDaniel

Natural lightscapes are an important resource for parks and protected areas, including Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Both locations offer night sky interpretive programs, attracting over 27,000 visitors annually, equaling all other interpretive programs combined. Parks need to understand what drives visitor interest and park managers need to assess if night sky interpretation is meeting expectations. A total of 1,179 night and day visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument served as participants and completed a 36-item survey measuring knowledge, attitudes, benefits, and behaviors related to the night sky. Results show those who attended a night sky interpretive program gained a significant amount of knowledge about night sky issues. Both day and night visitors have strongly held attitudes about light pollution and the protection of the night sky in national parks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6831
Author(s):  
Rosa Marina González ◽  
Concepción Román ◽  
Ángel Simón Marrero

In this study, discrete choice models that combine different behavioural rules are estimated to study the visitors’ preferences in relation to their travel mode choices to access a national park. Using a revealed preference survey conducted on visitors of Teide National Park (Tenerife, Spain), we present a hybrid model specification—with random parameters—in which we assume that some attributes are evaluated by the individuals under conventional random utility maximization (RUM) rules, whereas others are evaluated under random regret minimization (RRM) rules. We then compare the results obtained using exclusively a conventional RUM approach to those obtained using both RUM and RRM approaches, derive monetary valuations of the different components of travel time and calculate direct elasticity measures. Our results provide useful instruments to evaluate policies that promote the use of more sustainable modes of transport in natural sites. Such policies should be considered as priorities in many national parks, where negative transport externalities such as traffic congestion, pollution, noise and accidents are causing problems that jeopardize not only the sustainability of the sites, but also the quality of the visit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cormac Walsh

AbstractNational parks and other large protected areas play an increasingly important role in the context of global social and environmental challenges. Nevertheless, they continue to be rooted in local places and cannot be separated out from their socio-cultural and historical context. Protected areas furthermore are increasingly understood to constitute critical sites of struggle whereby the very meanings of nature, landscape, and nature-society relations are up for debate. This paper examines governance arrangements and discursive practices pertaining to the management of the Danish Wadden Sea National Park and reflects on the relationship between pluralist institutional structures and pluralist, relational understandings of nature and landscape.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (31) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Khakhishvili

Georgia is famous for wine, hospitality, culture, and history at the international level. Before now, tourism in Georgia was only related to wine tourism and sea resorts, but in recent years, the country is positioning itself as an emerging destination for adventurous tourism. Industry potential is not fully utilized and it has more hidden possibilities to attract more visitors. This paper focuses on assessing the need for ecotourism cluster establishment in Georgia. In fulfilling this objective, a survey was conducted. Questionnaires were distributed to ecotourism service providers of the country. 54 managers of national parks and other protected areas (Lagodekhi Protected Areas, Kazbegi National Park, Martvili Canyon Natural Monument, Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park and Machakhela National Park) were chosen for the survey. The selected respondents are the managers of the most popular ecotourism destinations among Georgian and foreign ecoturists. Due to the various locations in different parts of Georgia, it took about two weeks to conduct the survey. The results of the survey showed that ecotourism industry representatives agree on the need of cluster establishment for more development of the field. The paper also demonstrated that building promising ecotourism industry through strong cluster development is directly related to increasing the country’s competitiveness.


Parasite ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Louis J. La Grange ◽  
Samson Mukaratirwa

Knowledge on the epidemiology, host range and transmission of Trichinella spp. infections in different ecological zones in southern Africa including areas of wildlife-human interface is limited. The majority of reports on Trichinella infections in sub-Saharan Africa were from wildlife resident in protected areas. Elucidation of the epidemiology of the infections and the prediction of hosts involved in the sylvatic cycles within specific ecological niches is critical. Of recent, there have been reports of Trichinella infections in several wildlife species within the Greater Kruger National Park (GKNP) of South Africa, which has prompted the revision and update of published hypothetical transmission cycles including the hypothetical options based previously on the biology and feeding behaviour of wildlife hosts confined to the GKNP. Using data gathered from surveillance studies and reports spanning the period 1964–2019, confirmed transmission cycles and revised hypothesized transmission cycles of three known Trichinella species (T. zimbabwensis, Trichinella T8 and T. nelsoni) are presented. These were formulated based on the epidemiological factors, feeding habits of hosts and prevalence data gathered from the GKNP. We presume that the formulated sylvatic cycles may be extrapolated to similar national parks and wildlife protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa where the same host and parasite species are known to occur. The anecdotal nature of some of the presented data confirms the need for more intense epidemiological surveillance in national parks and wildlife protected areas in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa to unravel the epidemiology of Trichinella infections in these unique and diverse protected landscapes.


2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 274-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
SCOTT E. REID ◽  
JEFFREY L. MARION

The expansion and proliferation of backcountry campsites is a persistent problem in many parks and protected areas. Shenandoah National Park (SNP) has one of the highest backcountry overnight use densities in the USA national parks system. SNP managers implemented a multi-option backcountry camping policy in 2000 that included camping containment with established campsites. These actions were intended to reduce the number of campsites and the area of camping disturbance at each site. This paper describes a longitudinal adaptive management assessment of the new campsite policies, applying quantitative measures of campsite conditions to evaluate the efficacy of management interventions. Physical campsite measurements combined with qualitative visitor interviews indicated SNP had successfully reduced the number of campsites and aggregate measures of camping-related disturbance in the Park, while minimizing the use of regulations, site facilities and staff resources. Implications for managers of other protected areas are that an established site camping policy can minimize camping disturbance, including the number and size of campsites, provided managers can sustain rehabilitation efforts to close and restore unneeded campsites. Experiential attributes, such as the potential for solitude, can also be manipulated through control over the selection of established campsites. Integrating resource and social science methods also provided a more holistic perspective on management policy assessments. Adaptive management research provided a timely evaluation of management success while facilitating effective modifications in response to unforeseen challenges. Conclusions regarding the effectiveness of a visitor impact containment strategy involving an established site camping option are offered.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1046-1060
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Widawski ◽  
Zdzisław Jary

Abstract The article considers the tourist traffic as possible to elements of inanimate nature in protected areas. The highest form of protection in Poland - national parks, has been taken into account. The main goal is to diagnose the situation based on the analysis of official documents elaborated by the national park authorities. One of the important elements is to diagnose the threat to nature and indicate ways to neutralize it. At the beginning, the geotouristic potential of these parks was presented, where this type of resources is considered important from the point of view of tourism. The tourist function of the most important attractions in Poland was indicated. In the top ten there are as many as 4 national parks, including Tatrzański which takes first place. The size of tourist traffic in all 23 parks was analyzed. As a result, it was shown that the most popular, where tourist flow is of mass character, include mountain parks with significant geotouristic potential. Next, the current protection plans for them were analyzed: Tatrzański, Karkonoski, Table Mountains and Pieniński, where the annual tourist flow varies between 0.5 million and almost 4 million visitors per year. Threats were assigned to 4 groups: existing internal threats, potential internal threats, existing external threats and potential external threats. In each of the types of threats special attention was paid to those related to inanimate nature. It also indicated the ways in which park managers want to influence the change of negative trends. The basic conclusion was indicated, which boils down to the postulate of a balanced approach to the protection of both types of nature: animate and inanimate. In the case of animate nature, threats and suggestions for improving the situation seem to be much better diagnosed than in the case of inanimate nature.


Author(s):  
M. Toker ◽  
E. Çolak ◽  
F. Sunar

Abstract. Protected areas are important with land or water body ecosystems that have biodiversity, flora and fauna species. In Turkey, National Parks are one of the protected areas managed according to the National Parks Law No. 2873. Among them, the İğneada Floodplain Forests National Park, located in İğneada town in the province of Kırklareli, Turkey has been declared as a national park in 2007, and has an importance being a rare ecosystem, which consists of wetland, swamp, lakes and coastal sand dunes. Planning of Protected Areas can be done in a variety of ways, taking into account the balance of protection/use and should follow policies and guidelines. Today, for the sustainability and effective management of forest ecosystems, remote sensing technology provides an effective tool for assessing and monitoring ecosystem health at different temporal and spatial scales. In this study, potential temporal changes in the National Park were analyzed with Landsat satellite time series images using two different methods. First method, the Landtrendr algorithm (Landsat-based Detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery) developed for multitemporal satellite data, uses pixel values as input data and analysis them by using regression models to capture, label and map the changes. In this context, Landsat satellite time series images were taken quinquennial between 1987 and 2007 and biennially until 2017 for Landtrendr analysis (i.e. before and after its declaration as a National Park, respectively). As a second approach, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud-based platform, which facilitates access to high-performance computing resources to process large long-term data sets, was used to analyze the impact of land cover changes. The results showed that the area was subjected to various pressures (i.e. due to illegal felling, pollution, etc.) until it was declared as a National park. Although there was general improvement and recovery after the region declared as a Park, it was seen that the sensitive dynamics of the region require continuous monitoring and protection using geo-information technologies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document