The presentation which was made during the 6th Managing Visitors and Visitor Flow conference (www.mmv2012.se) in Stockholm on 22 August 2012

1. Soomaa NP © Arne Ader

2. THE ECONOMICS OF WILDERNESS
The role of policy and tourism for
enhancing the protection of wilderness
Zoltán Kun, Executive Director
PAN Parks Foundation
Paanajärvi NP © Viktor Gritsuk

3. Presentation outline
• introduction to PAN Parks
Foundation + personal intro
• developing wilderness policy
in Europe
• the economics of wilderness
• experiences of PAN Parks
Tourism Model
• conclusions
ALL IMAGES from EUROPE
Oulanka NP © Kimmo Salminen

5. Europe’s perceptive
wilderness
Peneda-Geres NP © Marcos Veiga

6. What is PAN Parks?
Soomaa NP © Mati Kose

7. What is PAN Parks?
PAN Parks works to protect
Europe’s wilderness, the continent’s
most undisturbed areas of nature
Paanajärvi NP © Viktor Gritsuk

8. What is PAN Parks?
The only
European-wide
organisation
focusing on the
protection of
wilderness areas
Central Balkan NP ©CBNP
Appenine Chamois © Bruno D’Amicis

9. What is PAN Parks?
PAN Parks links
wilderness
protected areas
in Europe:
European
Wilderness
Preservation
System
The size of
Spain
0,5 mio ha by
now

10. What is PAN Parks?
Integrated approach to mobilise
sustainable tourism development for
strengthening wilderness conservation
www.panparks.org
Borjomi-Kharagauli NP © Kote Gabrichidze

11. Developing wilderness policy
Retezat NP © Andreas Beckmann

12. Developing wilderness policy
Lobbying in Europe and
developing a wilderness
momentum
• 2008 Wilderness resolution
• 2009 European Parliament’s
special report on wilderness &
European Commission- ‘Agenda
for Wilderness’
• 2011 Wilderness in Biodiversity
Strategy
©iStock/Graeme Purdy

13. Developing wilderness policy
Defining wilderness
through the Wilderness
Working Group NO
extractive use such as
•hunting
•fishing
•mining
•logging
•grazing
•grass cutting
•road and building
construction
Fulufjallet NP © Vitantonio Dell’Orto
is allowed in wilderness

14. Developing wilderness policy
Wilderness guidance for Natura 2000 areas
• Alterra, Eurosite, PAN Parks
• guidance for manager
• best practice examples (also for restoration)
Wilderness register (by Oct 2013)
• Alterra, University of Leeds, PAN Parks
• public and government consultation based on preliminary list
BUT there is no overall Wilderness Research
Agenda

15. The Economics of Wilderness
Retezat NP ©Falk Kienas

16. Conflict between indirect
(ecocentric) and direct
(anthropocentric)
interpretation of Ecosystem
Services

17. The Economics of Wilderness
Why dealing with the
economics of wilderness?
• the EP report on wilderness
Calls on the Commission and
Member States to co-operate
with local non-governmental
organisations to promote the
value of wilderness (point 6);
Borjomi-Kharagauli NP © Kote Gabrichidze

18. The Economics of Wilderness
Wilderness is not a priceless heritage for future
generations!
• Europeans are not valuing wilderness as much as they
should!
Oulanka NP ©Michael Hennemann

19. The Economics of Wilderness
Two examples
• Oulanka National Park creating jobs
• Majella National Park regarding restoration
Oulanka NP ©Hannu Hautala

20. The Economics of Wilderness
Making wilderness areas
financially viable means
seizing opportunities of
emerging markets for
ecosystem services
• Payments for Ecosystem
Services
Rila NP © Nicolas Cegalerba

21. The Economics of Wilderness
To protect wilderness we need to difersify
incomes
• payments for carbon offset
• payments for water-related and nature disaster mitigation
• payments for recreational services
Archipelago NP © Heidi Arponen

22. The Economics of Wilderness
Several steps are
suggested for PA
managers
• define the wilderness
attributes and their services
• define stakeholders
benefitting from ES
• quantifying revenue and
externalities including cost of
inaction
Majella NP © Bruno D’Amicis

23. PAN Parks Tourism Model
Soomaa NP © Mati Kose

24. PAN Parks Tourism Model
• active promotion of local and sustainable tourism
and
• raising awareness and creating positive
perception of wilderness
Oulanka NP © Michael Hennemann

25. PAN Parks Tourism Model
Sustainable Tourism Development
• stimulates local cooperation
• involves local stakeholders
• aims for synergy between conservation and tourism
• improves the quality of tourism products
• improves the visitors experience
• includes local standard for businesses

26. PAN Parks Tourism Model
Partnership with Local
Businesses
• ensures the strategy is implemented
• partners are committed to the park
and PAN Parks
• different tourism service providers
• over 80 partners (typically SMEs)
Oulanka NP © Paavo Hamunen

27. PAN Parks Tourism Model

28. All about education
Managing expectation
Understanding the motives

29. Managing expectation
Fulufjället NP © Orsolya Haaberg

30. Something happening
Fulufjället NP © Orsolya Haaberg

31. Understanding the motive
Prove yourself
Competition
 New products: Father & Son weekend
Fulufjället NP © Orsolya Haaberg

32. PAN Parks Tourism Model
Expected outcome was 300,000 EUR
annually
We needed a more realistic plan in 2011
With investing in marketing and manpower it can
generate 150,000 EUR / year
Individual tourists
Groups
Corporate adventures

33. PAN Parks Tourism Model
Most important lessons learned
•marketing through social media (mouth
marketing)
•engaging clients
•offer a special trip
•sustainability across the product cycle
•pricing

34. Wilderness in
Europe
„...about 1% of
Europe’s territory
...can be called
wilderness area”
Ladislav Miko,
EC DG Environment
Wilderness is a
scarce resource in
Europe!
Borjomi-Kharagauli NP © Kote Gabrichidze

35. The Million Project
To ensure guaranteed protection of
1 million hectares of wilderness
in Europe by 2015
Archipelago NP © Seppo Keränen

36. European tendencies
Threats and
Opportunities exist
parallel
• wilderness comes up on the
agenda (catch phrase?)
• land abandonment provides
opportunity to restore
• wilderness disappears
• restoration is more attractive
than protection of existing
areas!
Archipelago NP © Janne Gröning

37. Research database
Setting up a searchable,
public Wilderness
Resource Bank (analogy
to Aldo Leopold
Wilderness Research
Institute website)
• top 3: PA management,
ecosystems, species
conservation
• down 3: climate change,
ecosystem services, financing
Central Balkan NP © Evgeni Diniev
wilderness protection

38. Challenge 1
How the definition of wilderness applies to the
case of indigenous / local needs (is it an excuse in
Europe?)
• Example 1: Nordic countries
• Example 2: Peneda-Geres, Portugal
• Example 3: Retezat, Romania
Archipelago NP © Heidi Arponen

39. Challenge 2
We are still in a stage in Europe when we need to
explain the biodiversity benefits of wilderness
Paanajärvi NP © PNP Archives

40. PROTECTED AREA ECOSYSTEM
MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY
Ecological
Hunter/ Integrity
Gatherers
Natural
Utilitarian Regulation
Pre-1900 1900s-1950s 1950s-1990s Post 1990s

41. How people interact with
nature? Wilderness helps to
re-establish the lost relation

42. Show (and not tell) a story!

43. PAN Parks works to protect Europe’s
wilderness, the continent’s most
undisturbed areas of nature
http://panparks.org
http://facebook.com/panparks
http://panparks.org/user/register
http://linkedin.com/panparksgroup
http://youtube.com/user/PANParks
http://storiesofwilderness.panparks.org
http://mymillionproject.ning.com
zkun@panparks.org