TOURISM AND EDUCATION IN PROTECTED AREAS
The only justifications for allowing tourism in protected areas are:
1) The tourists generate income which is used directly for conservation of the area or which provides an incentive for local people to accept and support the protected area.
2) The tourists become actively involved in conservation by contributing labour or expertise.
3) The tourists receive education or inspiration in the protected area which persuades or enables them to become better conservationists.
Tourism Management
TOURIST CARRYING CAPACITY - the maximum number of tourists which can visit the PA at any one time, without disturbing the wildlife or reducing the scenic beauty of the area.
There are two main tourist management strategies in protected areas:
1. Promote main attractions e.g. waterfalls which attract high concentrations of visitors, but provide facilities in such areas which minimize the impact of large numbers of people e.g. car parks, toilets, garbage disposal etc. Damage is limited to a small area but use is intensive and the risk of degradation of main attractions is high.
2. Spread the visitors more thinly. Encourage them to spend time away from main attractions by providing information about trails and other areas of interest or dissuade them from visiting main attractions by charging an entrance fee. The concentration of visitors in any one area is reduced but visitors are spread over wider and more remote areas, making control difficult.
Tourism infrastructure includes car parks, roads, accommodation, visitors' centres, toilets, waste disposal and food and water supplies. Such construction must be carefully designed to blend in with the scenery and to minimize disturbance to wildlife.
When tourists visit national parks, they expect to see wildlife. Viewing wildlife in tropical forests is difficult because visibility is poor and most animals are nocturnal, but there are many ways to give tourists an increased chance to see wildlife:
1. Habituation - animals are visited every day so that they become used to seeing people e.g. mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
2. Hides - many animals will approach hides if they cannot hear, see or smell anyone inside.
3. Clearings - large herbivores grazing in clearings are easily seen. Clearings may be created by felling a few trees and burning the grass annually. Hides can then be built in the clearings.
4. Salt licks - many tropical soils are low in mineral nutrients. Large herbivores sometimes dig in areas where the soil contains such nutrients and lick the soil. Such areas may be made more attractive by placing solid bricks of nutrients in them.
5. Platforms or aerial walkways - most animal life in tropical forests is concentrated in the canopy. Platforms and bridges linking trees can make the canopy accessible to tourists.
6. Baiting - in Nepal, visitors are shown tigers by placing meat in front of hides. A danger with this technique is that the behaviour of wild animals could be changed.
All of these services can be used to generate income for the PA and to provide employment for local people.
Educational Facilities and Activities
Educational facilities and activities in a protected area should aim to:
1) Persuade visitors to behave in an appropriate manner (e.g. to take litter home with them, not start fires etc.).
2) Inform visitors about how ecosystems function.
3) Help visitors identify commonly seen species.
4) Explain to visitors how the area is managed and why.
5) Explain about human use of the area (e.g. natural products used in local crafts, industries etc.)
6) Inspire and enable visitors to become actively involved in conservation.
The facilities to bring visitors in contact with wildlife, mentioned above, also have an educational function, but there are three additional facilities which are the mainstay of educational programs in protected areas.
Nature trails - short trails with marked points where information is provided. The information can be provided either by sign boards or by a booklet which refers to numbered posts on the path. Booklets can provide more information than sign boards and the information can be taken away, referred to later and shared with others. However staff are needed to sell the booklet and make sure that a steady supply is always available. Booklets can be sold at a profit and generate income for the area. Sign boards require maintenance and can be vandalized. Circular paths on fairly flat terrain make the best nature trails
All materials used along the trail must be weather-resistant and vandal-resistant. Laminated plastic sign boards, engraved aluminium or acrylic paints are suitable but expensive and not always readily available. Nature trails usually provide ecological and conservation information, but there are two variations i) trails which seek to inspire rather than inform. These usually have quotations and poems etc. along the way instead of scientific information and ii) nature trails designed to stimulate the senses "touch, smell, feel trails" - often aimed at the disabled or elderly.
Nature Education Centres
Education centres can provide educational facilities when the weather is too bad to use the trails. They are also points where educational materials can be sold or loaned to visitors. Quite often nature trails follow a circular route, starting and finishing at an education centre, with the trail booklets being sold at the centre. Most centres also provide drinks or snacks which generate income to support the centres.
Education centres usually provide static displays of objects or printed materials and slide shows or films. Displays should be as interactive as possible, by requiring visitors to do something to obtain information e.g. lift up a flap, press a button etc. Computers with CD-ROM's are now becoming common in education centres in developed countries.
Guided Walks - like nature trails except that trained guides accompany visitors, explaining the wildlife as they go. More expensive to set up than ordinary nature trails, but the opportunity for the visitors to ask questions of the guide, greatly increases the educational value of such walks. Provides an opportunity for employment of local people as guides.