TY - JOUR
T1 - The Impact of COVID-19 on the Management of European Protected Areas and Policy Implications
AU - Mcginlay, James
AU - Gkoumas, Vassilis
AU - Holtvoeth, Jens
AU - Fuertes, Ruymán Federico Armas
AU - Bazhenova, Elena
AU - Benzoni, Alessandro
AU - Botsch, Kerstin
AU - Martel, Carmen Cabrera
AU - Sánchez, Cati Carrillo
AU - Cervera, Isabel
AU - Chaminade, Guillermo
AU - Doerstel, Juliana
AU - García, Concepción J. Fagundo
AU - Jones, Angela
AU - Lammertz, Michael
AU - Lotman, Kaja
AU - Odar, Majda
AU - Pastor, Teresa
AU - Ritchie, Carol
AU - Santi, Stefano
AU - Smolej, Mojca
AU - Rico, Francisco Soriano
AU - Waterman, Holly
AU - Zwijacz-kozica, Tomasz
AU - Kontoleon, Andreas
AU - Dimitrakopoulos, Panayiotis G.
AU - Jones, Nikoleta
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme (Project FIDELIO, grant agreement no. 802605).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/11/18
Y1 - 2020/11/18
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic led to many European countries imposing lockdown measures and limiting people’s movement during spring 2020. During the summer 2020, these strict lockdown measures were gradually lifted while in autumn 2020, local restrictions started to be re-introduced as a second wave emerged. After initial restrictions on visitors accessing many Nature Protected Areas (PAs) in Europe, management authorities have had to introduce measures so that all users can safely visit these protected landscapes. In this paper, we examine the challenges that emerged due to COVID-19 for PAs and their deeper causes. By considering the impact on and response of 14 popular European National and Nature Parks, we propose tentative longer-term solutions going beyond the current short-term measures that have been implemented. The most important challenges identified in our study were overcrowding, a new profile of visitors, problematic behavior, and conflicts between different user groups. A number of new measures have been introduced to tackle these challenges including information campaigns, traffic management, and establishing one-way systems on trail paths. However, measures to safeguard public health are often in conflict with other PA management measures aiming to minimize disturbance of wildlife and ecosystems. We highlight three areas in which management of PAs can learn from the experience of this pandemic: managing visitor numbers in order to avoid overcrowding through careful spatial planning, introducing educational campaigns, particularly targeting a new profile of visitors, and promoting sustainable tourism models, which do not rely on large visitor numbers.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic led to many European countries imposing lockdown measures and limiting people’s movement during spring 2020. During the summer 2020, these strict lockdown measures were gradually lifted while in autumn 2020, local restrictions started to be re-introduced as a second wave emerged. After initial restrictions on visitors accessing many Nature Protected Areas (PAs) in Europe, management authorities have had to introduce measures so that all users can safely visit these protected landscapes. In this paper, we examine the challenges that emerged due to COVID-19 for PAs and their deeper causes. By considering the impact on and response of 14 popular European National and Nature Parks, we propose tentative longer-term solutions going beyond the current short-term measures that have been implemented. The most important challenges identified in our study were overcrowding, a new profile of visitors, problematic behavior, and conflicts between different user groups. A number of new measures have been introduced to tackle these challenges including information campaigns, traffic management, and establishing one-way systems on trail paths. However, measures to safeguard public health are often in conflict with other PA management measures aiming to minimize disturbance of wildlife and ecosystems. We highlight three areas in which management of PAs can learn from the experience of this pandemic: managing visitor numbers in order to avoid overcrowding through careful spatial planning, introducing educational campaigns, particularly targeting a new profile of visitors, and promoting sustainable tourism models, which do not rely on large visitor numbers.
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/f11111214
U2 - 10.3390/f11111214
DO - 10.3390/f11111214
M3 - Article
SN - 1999-4907
VL - 11
JO - Forests
JF - Forests
IS - 11
M1 - 1214
ER -