scholarly journals Impact of Recreational Activities on an Unmanaged Alpine Campsite: The Case of Kuro-Dake Campsite, Daisetsuzan National Park, Japan

Environments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Wang ◽  
Teiji Watanabe

The Kuro-dake Campsite in Daisetsuzan National Park is situated in a fragile alpine setting. Since it opened in 1992, it has not been under formal management. With camping increasingly affecting the Kuro-dake Campsite, this study aims to gain deeper insights into the soil erosion and overcrowding at the campsite and to suggest a corresponding strategy for future management. A detailed topographic map was created using pole photogrammetry to understand the ground surface condition of the campsite in 2017. Aerial photographs taken in 2012 and 2017 were used to understand the long-term changes in the ground surface. Furthermore, questionnaire surveys with campers, interview surveys with organizations related to the park management and secondary data collection were conducted. Two gullies were identified on the topographic map of the campsite. From 2012 to 2017, the campsite size increased by 48 m2. The daily-use level on busy days is nearly seven times the mean daily-use level for the year. Some campers illegally pitch tents on nearby trails on such busy days. The questionnaire surveys in 2017 and 2018 (n = 346) show that most respondents oppose a future closure of the campsite and two-thirds oppose a use limit. The 2018 survey (n = 210) shows that 71% of respondents were not aware of the reservation system in national parks elsewhere; however, 76% agreed to a reservation system to secure their tent space. Introducing formal management oversight, along with a reservation system, is urgently needed.

Oryx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Okot Omoya ◽  
Tutilo Mudumba ◽  
Stephen T. Buckland ◽  
Paul Mulondo ◽  
Andrew J. Plumptre

AbstractDespite > 60 years of conservation in Uganda's national parks the populations of lions and spotted hyaenas in these areas have never been estimated using a census method. Estimates for some sites have been extrapolated to other protected areas and educated guesses have been made but there has been nothing more definitive. We used a lure count analysis method of call-up counts to estimate populations of the lion Panthera leo and spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta in the parks where reasonable numbers of these species exist: Queen Elizabeth Protected Area, Murchison Falls Conservation Area and Kidepo Valley National Park. We estimated a total of 408 lions and 324 hyaenas for these three conservation areas. It is unlikely that other conservation areas in Uganda host > 10 lions or > 40 hyaenas. The Queen Elizabeth Protected Area had the largest populations of lions and hyaenas: 140 and 211, respectively. It is estimated that lion numbers have declined by 30% in this protected area since the late 1990s and there are increasing concerns for the long-term viability of both species in Uganda.


Koedoe ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mmoto L. Masubelele ◽  
Michael T. Hoffman ◽  
William Bond ◽  
Peter Burdett

Fixed-point photo monitoring supplemented by animal census data and climate monitoring potential has never been explored as a long-term monitoring tool for studying vegetation change in the arid and semi-arid national parks of South Africa. The long-term (1988–2010), fixed-point monitoring dataset developed for the Camdeboo National Park, therefore, provides an important opportunity to do this. Using a quantitative estimate of the change in vegetation and growth form cover in 1152 fixed-point photographs, as well as series of step-point vegetation surveys at each photo monitoring site, this study documented the extent of vegetation change in the park in response to key climate drivers, such as rainfall, as well as land use drivers such as herbivory by indigenous ungulates. We demonstrated the varied response of vegetation cover within three main growth forms (grasses, dwarf shrubs [< 1 m] and tall shrubs [> 1 m]) in three different vegetation units and landforms (slopes, plains, rivers) within the Camdeboo National Park since 1988. Sites within Albany Thicket and Dwarf Shrublands showed the least change in vegetation cover, whilst Azonal vegetation and Grassy Dwarf Shrublands were more dynamic. Abiotic factors such as drought and flooding, total annual rainfall and rainfall seasonality appeared to have the greatest influence on growth form cover as assessed from the fixed-point photographs. Herbivory appeared not to have had a noticeable impact on the vegetation of the Camdeboo National Park as far as could be determined from the rather coarse approach used in this analysis and herbivore densities remained relatively low over the study duration.Conservation implications: We provided an historical assessment of the pattern of vegetation and climatic trends that can help evaluate many of South African National Parks’ biodiversity monitoring programmes, especially relating to habitat change. It will help arid parks in assessing the trajectories of vegetation in response to herbivory, climate and management interventions.


Author(s):  
Michael Getzner

-National parks and other categories of protected areas are often assumed to enhance regional economic development due to park tourism. The current study attempts to estimate the impact of the Hohe Tauern national park (Austria) on tourism by exploring whether and to what extent the national park may have had an influence on tourism development. For most national park communities, the results suggest that the establishment of the national park had some impact by enforcing an already positive trend or by weakening or reversing a negative trend of tourism. However, breakpoint tests exhibit turning points up to several years after the establishment of the park, indicating that taking a national park as the basis for tourism development is a medium to long term development strategy. In the short term, the impact of a national park on tourism is not measurable. Tourism increased by 1 to 3% annually after the breakpoint, indicating that the establishment of a national park has to be incorporated into the tourism and development strategy of a region right from the start. The causal relationship between the establishment of the national park and tourism development may be weak, in particular in communities where the difference between the actual and the forecast numbers of overnight stays is small. Marketing national park tourism and building up a brand or distinctive label may therefore contribute to regional development particularly in the long term.Key words: Tourism, national park, protected area, time series, stationarity, breakpoint test, ARIMA.JEL classifications: R110, L830, C220.Parole chiave: Turismo, parco nazionale, area protetta, serie temporale, stazionarietŕ, test di breakpoint, ARIMA.


2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry F. Recher

REGARDLESS of the merits and values of individual national parks and nature reserves, Australia's conservation reserves do not ensure the survival of the continent's biota. There are many reasons for this. Reserves, even the largest, are too small and vulnerable to broad area disturbance. Consider that, in January 2003, fires burnt more than two-thirds of Kosciuszko National Park, which at 690 000 ha is the largest park in New South Wales and one of the largest in Australia. This shows how even the largest conservation reserves are at risk of catastrophic disturbance. The much smaller Nadgee Nature Reserve (21 000 ha) in southeastern New South Wales has burnt almost in its entirety twice in the 35 years I have worked there. The Nadgee fires and those in Kosciuszko were started by lightning and were the result of prolonged drought, events common across the continent. When small size is coupled with isolation, the long-term survival of populations and the exchange of propagules within the reserve system becomes problematical. Small size and isolation do not leave much scope for plants and animals to adapt to long-term climate change, either through dispersal or by evolution. Even reserving 10 or 15% of land for nature conservation, as recommended by some international conservation agencies, will be inadequate; a target of 30% would have better ecological credentials, but even this could prove inadequate unless the nature conservation reserve system was designed to allow for long-term evolutionary change, which it is not (see Archer 2002; Recher 2002a,b).


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Bosch ◽  
Amparo Mora-Cabello de Alba ◽  
Susana Marquínez ◽  
Stephen J. Price ◽  
Barbora Thumsová ◽  
...  

Amphibians are the most highly threatened vertebrates, and emerging pathogens are a serious threat to their conservation. Amphibian chytrid fungi and the viruses of the Ranavirus genus are causing disease outbreaks worldwide, including in protected areas such as National Parks. However, we lack information about their effect over amphibian populations in the long-term, and sometimes these mortality episodes are considered as transient events without serious consequences over longer time-spans. Here, we relate the occurrence of both pathogens with the population trends of 24 amphibian populations at 15 sites across a national Park in northern Spain over a 14-year period. Just one out 24 populations presents a positive population trend being free of both pathogens, while seven populations exposed to one or two pathogens experienced strong declines during the study period. The rest of the study populations (16) remain stable, and these tend to be of species that are not susceptible to the pathogen present or are free of pathogens. Our study is consistent with infectious diseases playing an important role in dictating amphibian population trends and emphasizes the need to adopt measures to control these pathogens in nature. We highlight that sites housing species carrying Ranavirus seems to have experienced more severe population-level effects compared to those with the amphibian chytrid fungus, and that ranaviruses could be just as, or more important, other more high-profile amphibian emerging pathogens.


Koedoe ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mmoto L. Masubelele ◽  
Michael T. Hoffman ◽  
William Bond ◽  
Peter Burdett

Fixed-point photo monitoring supplemented by animal census data and climate monitoring potential has never been explored as a long-term monitoring tool for studying vegetation change in the arid and semi-arid national parks of South Africa. The long-term (1988–2010), fixed-point monitoring dataset developed for the Camdeboo National Park, therefore, provides an important opportunity to do this. Using a quantitative estimate of the change in vegetation and growth form cover in 1152 fixed-point photographs, as well as series of step-point vegetation surveys at each photo monitoring site, this study documented the extent of vegetation change in the park in response to key climate drivers, such as rainfall, as well as land use drivers such as herbivory by indigenous ungulates. We demonstrated the varied response of vegetation cover within three main growth forms (grasses, dwarf shrubs [< 1 m] and tall shrubs [> 1 m]) in three different vegetation units and landforms (slopes, plains, rivers) within the Camdeboo National Park since 1988. Sites within Albany Thicket and Dwarf Shrublands showed the least change in vegetation cover, whilst Azonal vegetation and Grassy Dwarf Shrublands were more dynamic. Abiotic factors such as drought and flooding, total annual rainfall and rainfall seasonality appeared to have the greatest influence on growth form cover as assessed from the fixed-point photographs. Herbivory appeared not to have had a noticeable impact on the vegetation of the Camdeboo National Park as far as could be determined from the rather coarse approach used in this analysis and herbivore densities remained relatively low over the study duration.Conservation implications: We provided an historical assessment of the pattern of vegetation and climatic trends that can help evaluate many of South African National Parks’ biodiversity monitoring programmes, especially relating to habitat change. It will help arid parks in assessing the trajectories of vegetation in response to herbivory, climate and management interventions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 508-518
Author(s):  
Edy Saptono ◽  
Ribka Keiza ◽  
Joni Wijayanto

Boundary is an important part of the state's sovereignty and becomes a fortress of all kinds of threats. The threat about security of natural resources is one of non-military threat which affects Indonesia’s security. Betung Kerihun National Park adjoins to Malaysia in northern of Indonesia, so it can be vulnerable to threats. The purposes of this research are to analyze the threat of security toward management of Betung Kerihun National Park (TNBK), the efforts made to overcome the security threat, and the management of TNBK on the border of Indonesia and Malaysia. The research uses qualitative method using in-depth interviews and later analyzing the primary and secondary data. The results show that the security threats of TNBK are agarwood stealing, gold mining, illegal logging, wildlife distribution, lack of security staff, no security forces (Satgas Pamtas) on the northern boundary of TNBK, and border patrol inspection line construction. The efforts to overcome security threats are preventive, pre-emptive, and repressive. The management of TNBK on the border of Indonesia and Malaysia in order to protect border security are including management functions of planning, organizing, leading (directing), and evaluating.  The recommendations to overcome the security threat of national parks on the border between Indonesia and Malaysia are the active role of security forces and the establishment of buffer zone management.


Author(s):  
Agita Livina ◽  
Mahender Reddy

The aim of this comparative article is to show the differences between the visitors' purposes and habits in two national parks: Gauja National Park (GNP) in Latvia and Kasu Bramhananda Reddy National Park (KBR) in Hyderabad, Telangana in India. As well as that, the article aims at highlighting differences in the functional use of the national parks and their locations in the urban and rural context. The study has used the secondary data analysis, such as the analysis and overview of the literature, previously conducted studies and information sources, visitors’ surveys in the national parks, and the exploration of the park areas for the evaluation of tourism infrastructure. The results of the study show distinct differences in the national park functions, target groups and their needs. The main target group in KBR is local inhabitants of the million city, and the national park basically fulfils the function of a city park –it is a green area for passive and active (jogging) leisure rather than a nature tourism offer. GNP has three target groups: the local population for a healthy leisure time, domestic visitors and foreign visitors for nature and cultural purposes. Thus, KBR status as a national park is misleading for the international traveller. In the future research it is planned to compare GNP with a national park in India which is located outside the urban environment, carrying out an in-depth study of visitors’ opinion on the purpose and elements of infrastructure.


Author(s):  
Narayan Prasad Bhusal

Maintenance of eco-system diversity is often carried out by establishing national parks, wildlife reserves and other protected areas. The fourth amendment of the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act in 1992 made the provision of buffer zone for protected areas considering buffer zone, an area of 2km in the vicinity of the park could benefit from park revenue (30-50 percent) and in return the community is supposed to participate and assist in park management activities. Between 1996 and 2010 Government of Nepal demarcated buffer zones of 12 protected areas covering a total area of 5602.67 square kilometer in 83 VDCs and two Municipalities of 27 districts where benefiting human population is over 0.9 million. In the buffer zone management programme emphasis has been given on the natural resource management where need of eco-friendly land use practices and peoples participation in conservation for long term sustainability are encouraged. This paper is an attempt to outline the various activities that have been executed under buffer zone management programme of Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation with the internal resources, local communities and support from UNDP, WWF Nepal, CARE Nepal, NTNC and other various partners for the conservation and development of buffer zones in Nepal.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ttp.v11i0.11558The Third PoleVol. 11-12, 2012Page : 34-44


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