19. The Economics of Wilderness
Economic impact of Finnish National Parks
through visitation
• 85 M EUR / year
• 1,100 man-year
• visitor related income in Oulanka NP 14,7 M
EUR
http://www.metla.fi/julkaisut/workingpapers/2010
20. The Economics of Wilderness
Tatra and Slovensky raj National Park
• One possible conclusion: Smaller park but
better mgmt practice and more value
28. Annual land take in Europe between
2000-2006 was over 111,000
ha/year
29. If continues
with the
current
trend, we
will have 5%
artificial
surface by
2017
4% of Europe is
covered by
artificial surface 1% (CR + BiH) is
in 2006 (annual often quoted as
increase of 3,4%) existing
wilderness in
Europe
The size equal
to Crete was
covered by
concrete in 7
years
(2000-2006)
The Million
Project aims
to protect
Our goal: 5% of
the size of
Europe must be
Cyprus!
wilderness
31. PAN Parks works to protect
Europe’s wilderness, the
continent’s most undisturbed
areas of nature
www.panparks.org
Editor's Notes
I will speak about our roadmap to change and how we (together with you) enhance wilderness protection in Europe.
But do we actually deliver on this if we keep focusing only on verification?
Wilderness is a human concept, which can be interpreted in a very different ways depending on cultural and / or national background. Therefore the understanding of wilderness will always be very emotional. Nature conservation or protected areas in most continent started with the protection of what was left relatively untouched. The designation of protected areas got a boost in Europe after the 70s when IUCN introduced the new protected area categories (IV, V and VI) which applied much more to the European context. Wilderness was almost a forgotten category in Europe. Quite often 1% of Europe’s territory is stated as wilderness. However the existing data sets are misleading. However in order to apply the PES or develop policies, there is a need for a broadly accepted technical definition
Highlight that these maps were produced not on the basis of checking the actual management practice. So the maps very often present opportunities or human perceptions of European citizens
There is marine wilderness ...
Fabulous mountains also host wild areas ...
The Message from Prague also ask for actions quantification of the value of non-extractive economic benefits identify and promote the linkage of ecosystem services to wilderness key economic dimensions, challenges and opportunities of wilderness areas in E urope. TEEB report not penetrated yet into PA management particular importance to define the ecosystem services and potential payment methods for wilderness
Refer again to previous sentence regarding the European boom of PA designation, which led to forgetting about where conservation has started: to protect the relatively unspoiled areas
We need to argue that the more natural the area is the higher value and ecosystem services potential it has. Wilderness management is not only more sustainable in terms of financing management practice, but can potentially bring more ecosystem services value.
Communications is an essential part of our work to raise professional and public support for wilderness protection. Creating positive protection of wilderness could be the basis of successful protection In order to do this we use the parks of the network as examples of the best of Europe’s wilderness ‘ You can go there and experience wilderness yourself, earn about it in the field’
Through the partnership with PA management authorities we can help the practical implementation of the recommendation of TEEB report
We have to work with already protected improve management effectiveness, involve local communities in the management (visitor management), increase the public support (awareness raising through making visitation possible -> tourism model) and create new funding opportunities for protection (in the current economic decline there are budget cuts and the gap might be filled through tourism related incomes)
Independently
We welcome not only protected areas to join our campaign for wilderness, but also researchers to develop a strategic European wilderness research agenda.
