Natural Resources, Protected Areas, and Conservation

1. Natural Resources, Protected Areas, and Conservation The Foundation of Ecotourism

2. The Exploitation of the Natural World • Resources are “not static, but expand and contract in response to human action • The pursuit of touristic needs occurs along a broad physical site development continuum, - substantially altered to pristine environments • Difference perceptions of what is “developed” and what is “not developed” in relation to tourist settings

3. Outdoor Recreation & Nature Based Tourism Diverse Natural Resources • Geographic Location • Climate and Weather • Topography and Landforms • Surface Materials • Water • Vegetation • Fauna

4. Natural Resources • Act as catalysts for facilitating and drawing people to a tourist region or as a constraint to visitation • Humans have become the exploiter of natural resources • Humans have a fear of the unknown

5. Human Attitudes towards Development through History • The Creation of livable places, and usable spaces • The regarding of the wilderness areas as waste and desolation • Human activity gives significance to the world • Conquest of Wilderness as a sign of human Achievement

6. The Roots of Conservation • Harmony between humankind and nature • Conservation relates to the efficient use of resources • Ideally to be attained through a standpoint of spirituality

7. Harmony • Harmony can only be achieved between human influences and the natural world through commitment of moral and social responsibility to future generations

8. Efficient Use • Conservationism became a vehicle to manipulate the new frontier at the turn of the 20th Century • Battle of how resources should be utilized- if at all • Need to acknowledge resources are finite

9. Spirituality • Romanticism embodied deeper spiritual awareness that a simpler life was attainable without materialism • Untouched spaces had greater significance • These spaces had a purity that human contact degrades • Wilderness is a place of deep spiritual significance • Conquest of Nature is a fall from grace

10. The transcendentalist movement provided for a radical change in American society • Emergence of Green Movement in the 1960’s as a response to the increased use of technology in society

11. Parks and Protected Areas • Have a mystique to travelers interested in some of the best represented natural regions • Parks set up to protect the environment, wilderness, and wildlife, while providing a place for people to explore recreational opportunities • Debate surrounding Parks and Park Management • Ex- Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

12. Parks • Serve a variety of purposes, but have many pressures • Overuse of Park Resources • Overpopulation • Political Interests • Habitat Fragmentation e.g. Yosemite National Park

13. National Parks Zoning: • Zone 1: Special Preservation • Zone 2: Wilderness • Zone 3: Natural Environment • Zone 4: Outdoor Recreation • Zone 5: Park Resources

14. Critics of Zoning • Zoning is resource based and does not outline levels of recreational opportunities that can occur in such regions (Rollins, 1993) • 2% of Canada’s landmass is protected within the National Park system • Taken 110 years to establish 38 National Parks - too slow

15. Bruntland Report • 12% of all countries’ territories should be set aside as National Parks and protected areas • Level that would ensure a degree of protection for all the world’s physiographic regions

16. Canadian Green Plan • Developed in response to the Bruntland Report • Goals: • To establish at least 5 new Parks by 1996 • To negotiate agreements by the Year 2000 for the remaining 13 national parks

17. Parks • Have evolved globally to be managed accordingly to the ecological and human conditions of the environments they inhabit • Parks in Great Britain have a different sense than those in N.A. • Conservation is based on a steady state of human intervention designed to maintain a given habitat at a particular stage in perpetuity

18. The Evolving Role of Parks Scientific and Management Complexity Integrated Management Management Protection Management Concern Preservation Penetration by Extra-park influences 1850 1900 1950 2000 1872 1st National Park Yellowstone 1885 1st National Park (Canada) Banff 1911/1916 1st Park Services (Can/US) 1976 1st Biosphere Reserve

19. Categories of Conservation Management • 1- Strict Nature Reserve • 2- National Park • 3- National Monument / National Landmark • 4- Nature Conservation Reserve / Managed Nature Reserve / Wildlife Sanctuary • 5- Protected Landscape or Seascape

20. 6- Resource Reserve • 7- Natural Biotic Area / Anthropological Reserve • 8- Multiple Use Management Areas • 9- Biosphere Reserve • 10- World Heritage Site • 11- Wetlands of International Importance

21. Protected Areas: The International Scene • Use these categories to plan, establish and manage protected areas globally • Biosphere reserves with 3 distinct zones • Core • Buffer • Transition

22. Ecosystem Management and Protected Areas • Development of ecosystem management philosophy • “The Integrated management of natural landscapes, ecological processes, wildlife species and human activities, both within and adjacent to protected areas” (Canadian Environmental Advisory Council) • Never separate human and biospherical elements within an ecosystem

23. Human Ecology and Ecosystem Management • Human Ecologists and Biologists should find common ground through: • Presenting a historical understanding of an area in terms of nature and humans, and their interaction • Doing a history systematically in terms of the culture which defines humans • Presenting the history spatially in terms of similarities and differences over space • Linking human studies to concepts or ideas that are the concern of other professionals • Presenting historical understanding in terms that are meaningful and attractive to a wide range of citizens, by drawing people to the human nature interface - the dynamics of ecosystem management

24. Approaches to Human Ecology • Domination - Rule by monarch • Stewardship - Humans are earth caretakers • Participation -Humans in symbiosis with other species • Abdication - All rights to prosper are relinquished. Humans are caught in a predator-prey relationship • Peterson (1996)

25. Conclusion • Issues relating to place and role of the human in the environment have been explored through conservation and preservation • Employ new strategies to enable people to strike a balance between humans and the earth