Scientific publications

The growing need to discover and use the whole potential range of services Protected Areas (PAs) may provide is obvious. In relation to the network of Protected Areas along the Green Belt of Fennoscandia, this is even more clear due to its transboundary nature and thus varied management practices and objectives. Promotion of ecosystem services, recreation in particular, naturally creates challenges as regards the fundamental objective for protection – biodiversity. PA managers should more often recognize this pressure as a potential tool to secure the integrity and conservation values of PAs – it should not only be seen as a challenge but also as an opportunity. Recreational use of PAs can be divided into two major approaches: local use approach and tourism approach. Local use is intense in urban PAs and tourism concentrates on rural PAs. Especially within regions where tourism is/could form a backbone for the local economy, PAs need to be able to show the benefits they bring in and services they provide for regional development. PA managers should play an important role in turning the «business as usual» development of tourism destination towards creation of Green Destination, where destination level sustainable use of areas and resources is a key priority. The major elements for success are: ability to demonstrate the wide range of benefits provided by PAs, ability to create strategies by participatory approaches and lastly ability and commitment to use available methods and tools to execute the strategies at all levels – vertically and horizontally.