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Park−People Relationships: The Socioeconomic Monitoring of National Parks in Bavaria, Germany
(2021)
Questions about park–people relationships and the understanding and handling of the conflicts that may result from the creation and management of national parks in the surrounding area are prerequisites for both successful park management and sustainable rural tourism development. This paper analyzes the roles that research may play in relation to park–people relationships in the context of the two oldest German national parks located in Bavaria. The different fields of action of national parks are used to identify the potential for conflict, using detailed case studies from the Bavarian Forest and Berchtesgaden National Parks using quantitative population surveys carried out in 2018. The overall attitude towards both national parks is overwhelmingly positive, with trust towards park administrations and the perceived economic benefits from rural tourism being the attitudes most strongly correlated to the overall level of park–people relationships. Nevertheless, some points of contention still exist, like the ecological integrity approach towards strict nature conservation and related landscape changes (e.g., deadwood cover). A comparison over time shows in both cases that the spatial proximity to the protected area negatively influences people’s attitudes towards the parks, but less so than in the past. Recommendations for national park management include communicating proactively and with greater transparency with locals and decision-makers, to identify conflicts earlier and, where possible, to eliminate them. Furthermore, developing a standardized method to monitor park–people relationships in Germany is a must and would benefit integrated approaches in research and management based on conservation social science.
Contact to nature and greenspace is important for emotional well-being and can promote human health. Forest landscapes provide such access to greenspace, especially in protected areas. However, forested protected areas are impacted by natural disturbances such as bark beetle infestations. On the one hand, such disturbances have positive impacts on ecological processes and biodiversity. On the other hand, they have allegedly negative impacts on the recreational value of a landscape. Limited knowledge about the public’s perception of forests subject to natural disturbances still hampers forest management to balance ecological functions and visitors’ recreational experience. Thus, our aim was to determine how attitudes towards nature influence the personal well-being in a naturally disturbed landscape. We investigated self-reported well-being and attitudes towards nature in a standardized questionnaire-based survey of 1008 German inhabitants in an experimentally adapted landscape visualization. Self-reported well-being was generally highest in landscapes with relatively few bark-beetle-killed trees. This was especially the case for people who felt included with nature and preferred an appreciative use or preservation of nature. Conversely, people who had previously visited a national park with visible bark beetle infestations rated their personal well-being highest in landscapes with larger proportions of beetle-killed trees. Our results indicate that it is necessary to analyze people’s knowledge about and relations to forest landscapes as well as concepts of nature conservation, natural landscapes, and biodiversity to gain a better understanding of people’s perceptions of natural disturbances.
Open Spaces in Alpine Countries: Analytical Concepts and Preservation Strategies in Spatial Planning
(2020)
Open spaces in the Alps are becoming noticeably scarcer, and the long-term consequences for humans and the environment are often overlooked. Open spaces preserve ecosystem services but are under pressure in many Alpine valleys due to demographic and economic development as well as corresponding technical and tourism infrastructure. This article conceptualizes and measures open spaces in Alpine environments. In addition to analyzing existing spatial planning instruments and the open spaces resulting from 2 of them-the Bavarian Alpenplan in Germany and the Tyrolean Ruhegebiete in Austria-we identify open spaces in Switzerland using a geographic information system. More generally, we discuss how spatial planning deals with open spaces. Results show that both the Alpenplan and the Ruhegebiete have contributed significantly to the protection of open spaces in the Bavarian and Tyrolean Alps since the 1970s. Indeed, both approaches prevented several development projects. In the Swiss Alps, open spaces cover 41.9% of the Alpine Convention area. A share of 40.3% vegetation-free open spaces shows that they are concentrated in high alpine areas. Of the open spaces identified, 64.6% are covered by protected areas. Hence, about one third of the open spaces still existing in the Swiss Alps need preservation, not only for ecological connectivity reasons but also to preserve them for generations to come. We conclude that different sectoral approaches for the conservation of open spaces for people and natural heritage in the Alps and other high mountain ranges should be better coordinated. In addition, much more intensive crossborder cooperation in spatial development and planning is needed to preserve open spaces throughout the Alpine arc.