EUROPARC Webinar - Outdoor Sports - Engaging with or using nature? - 27th of April 11:00h CET

Webinar Programme:
1. Welcome and Introduction to the webinar, By Carol Ritchie, EUROPARC Federation
2. Dilemmas for an outdoor enthusiast, By Lissa Breugelmans, Outdoor sports practitioner and PhD student at University of Antwerp
3. The RESICETS project - Park and Outdoor Sports working together to minimise the impact of outdoor activities on wildlife, By Daniele Piazza, director of the Aree Protette dell’Ossola
4. The Adventure Travel Guide Standard - Showing how the Outdoor Sports sectors values nature though sustainability standards, By Myles Farnbank, Wilderness Scotland guide, fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and a Master Educator of Leave No Trace
5. The SEE project researching the issues and finding best practice, By Mike McClure, ‎Outdoor Recreation Development Officer, ‎Sport Northern Ireland
6. Closing remarks, Noel Doyle, Leave No Trace Ireland

All participants will have the opportunity to exchange on the topics discussed and/or ask questions.

The webinar will last aprox. 1h 30min and it will be hosted in English.

REGISTRATION at: https://outdoorsportssee.gr8.com/

#management #outdoor #ProtectedArea #Sport 0 comment

Sustainable recovery of tourism in protected areas from the COVID-19 pandemic  

In their guest post for Transforming One Planet Vision into Action, Spenceley et al share their reflections on working towards a responsible recovery from COVID-19 for the tourism sector.

Full paper “Tourism in protected areas amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is submitted to the Special Issue on Protected and Conserved Areas and Pandemics in the journal PARKS.

Some of their thoughts:

˝We recommend that protected area tourism is ‘built back better’ than before COVID-19, by not returning to business as usual, by taking into account climate change, biodiversity loss, and by being more inclusive, equitable and integrated with sustainable development principles. Nobody can predict how the pandemic will evolve, nor the recovery timeline, but stakeholders can identify plausible scenarios and create action plans that work towards sustainable tourism. Furthermore, market research suggests that post-COVID-19 people will seek out adventure travel, natural spaces, safe and quality experiences. Therefore, it is imperative that protected areas are prepared for directing this surge towards positive outcomes.˝

˝The way forward for tourism has five dimensions: (1) fostering openness to change, with a new way of thinking and acting; (2) developing a vision; (3) protecting natural and cultural heritage for their importance to the environmental services of the area and peoples’ dependency on tourism; (4) recovering and rebuilding local livelihoods and the health of residents and visitors; and (5) reframing tourism, including the resources it uses, to achieve productive and healthy livelihoods without degrading the biodiversity upon which it depends.˝

˝We recommend that planning be more holistic, inclusive, equitable, adaptable and focus on what tourism and outdoor recreation sustains.˝

Full post can be reached via the link: https://www.unwto.org/covid-19-oneplanet-responsible-recovery-initiatives/sustainable-recovery-of-tourism-in-protected-areas-from-the-covid-19-pandemic

#COVID19 #COVID19Impact #IUCN #management #PandemiaImpact #ProtectedArea #ProtectedAreaManagement #TAPASGroup #UNWTO #WCPA 0 comment

Editorial essay - COVID‐19 and protected and conserved areas

This special editorial provides a snapshot of how protected and conserved areas around the world are being impacted by COVID-19.

The essay brings a commentary on how effectively and equitably managed systems of protected and conserved areas can be part of a response to the pandemic that both lessens the chance of a recurrence of similar events and builds a more sustainable future for people and nature.

Editorial is concluded with a Call for Action made up of three elements:

• core principles (Principle 1: COVID-19 is a symptom of the wider environmental crisis; Principle 2: We must commit to and act to achieve a healthy, sustainable planet; Principle 3: Protected and conserved areas provide broad benefits to society, but these are now under severe stress due to our societal response to COVID-19)
• actions (1. Rescue: an immediate emergency response to cushion the shock from COVID-19; 2. Recover: a plan to overcome the damaging effects of COVID-19; 3. Rebuild Stronger, starting now: a strategy to put protected and conserved areas on a more secure and effective trajectory), and
• commitment from the IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Area (establish a Task Force to collect and analyze information on the impacts of COVID-19 on protected and conserved areas; develop, refine and promote the Call for Action; develop principles and good practice for protected and conserved areas across the three phases of the response to the pandemic - rescue, recovery and rebuilding.)

Full editorial can be found at this LINK  

#COVID19 #COVID19Impact #management #PandemiaImpact #ProtectedArea #ProtectedAreaManagement #WCPA 0 comment

Planning, management and monitoring tools for sustainable tourism management in protected areas

CEETO Inventory of tools and success stories for sustainable tourism in Protected Areas is a comprehensive collection of the existing planning, management and monitoring tools used for the management of tourist visits in protected areas in Europe; it also includes the most successful case studies from around the world.

The Inventory served as a basis for the implementation of CEETO pilot actions in 8 protected areas in the EU with an aim to test and establish the most successful and innovative governance model for sustainable tourism in those areas.

Inventory and the description of CEETO pilot action can be found in this post.

#CEETOMap #CEETOPilotAction #governance #inventory #management #monitoring #ProtectedArea #SustainableTourism #TouristVisits 1 comment

Understanding Visitors' Sedentary Behavior in Protected Natural Areas

Make Them Move: Understanding Visitors' Sedentary Behavior in Protected Natural Areas. A Case Study in S Thus, using the Alt Pirineu Natural Park (Spain) as a case study, the aim of this study is to determine the influence of sociodemographic, trip, motivational, and opinion descriptors on the likelihood of participating in sedentary behavior while visiting a protected natural area

Make Them Move: Understanding Visitors' Sedentary Behavior in Protected Natural Areas. A Case Study in Spain.

Protected areas are important attractions for promoting healthy life habits. Consequently, to date, a number of studies have examined the association between visitors' characteristics and physical activities. However, little is known about the specific users inclined exclusively to have sedentary behavior during a visit. Thus, using the Alt Pirineu Natural Park (Spain) as a case study, the aim of this study is to determine the influence of sociodemographic, trip, motivational, and opinion descriptors on the likelihood of participating in sedentary behavior while visiting a protected natural area.

RESULTS:

Metabolic equivalent consumption was used to empirically distinguish the sedentary (22.6%) from the active (77.4%) visitor groups. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the trip and motivational descriptors explained the highest degree of the overall variation in reporting sedentary behavior.

CONCLUSION:

The study contributed to documenting the information about visitors' behavior in protected areas, and the findings may aid park managers in developing effective management strategies for promoting and enhancing physical activity in protected natural areas.

#management #ProtectedArea #VisitorBehaviour 0 comment