national park

Preserving the unique puna ecosystems of the Andean Altiplano: A descriptive account of Lauca National Park, Chile
Lauca National Park forms a unique area of puna and prepuna ecosystems in the high Altiplano of northeastern Chile. Its extensive puna steppe shrublands lying above 4,000 m and high volcanoes reaching above 6,000 m provide some of many strong justifications for its designation as a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1983. The park also contains Lago Chungará, one of the highest...
Contemporary landscape change in the Huascarán National Park and Buffer Zone, Cordillera Blanca, Peru
As part of The Mountain Institute's monitoring and evaluation programme, historic landscape photographs from 10 photopoints of the 1936 and 1939 German/Austrian climbing and cartographic expeditions to the Cordillera Blanca (Huascarán National Park) were replicated in 1997 and 1998. Comparisons revealed contemporary changes in native forest cover, nonnative forest cover, glacial recession...
Trail preferences and visitor characteristics in Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park, Spain
Planning for recreational activities in protected areas involves an understanding of multiple and complex factors. Segmentation of the recreational supply and demand in natural areas, together with identification of the main conditioning factors of recreational use, are useful for park management. In this study, the recreational supply (trails) and demand (visitor characteristics), as well...
Protected areas: A resource or constraint for local people? A study at Chitral Gol National Park, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan
The authors investigated local people's perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes toward conservation planning and management in Chitral Gol National Park in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. A literature review was undertaken to unravel the historic drivers behind the formation of this protected area. Key informant interviews and questionnaire surveys were conducted to evaluate...
MRI Newsletter 6: Global change research in mountain biosphere reserves of the Russian Federation
Mountains and highlands occupy Russian Federation. In 2005, Russia had 36 Biosphere Reserves (BRs), of which 15 are Mountain Biosphere Reserves (MBRs). The MBRs represent different environmental and economic zones of Northern Eurasia; they lie far apart from one another. Laplandskiy MBR on the Kola Peninsula is an example of a reserve located in the arctic belt and affected by the mining industry...
New protected areas in Norway: Local participation without gender equality

In Norway, as in many other countries, new protected areas are currently being established and managed with strong policy references to “local participation.” Is this policy implemented in a way that incorporates the concern for gender equality? The present article provides data from a study of two cases in which new protected areas have recently been established...

Drawing the line: Nature, hybridity and politics in transboundary spaces

Protected areas - national parks, biosphere reserves, and the like - contribute importantly to the preservation of the ever more beleaguered wild plants and animals with which humankind shares this planet. The many thousand kilometres of national boundaries that separate the approximately 190 intensely sovereign nations (with at least half of those boundaries being undefined or contested) have...

The Majella Massif in Abruzzo, Italy: “The Mother of Mountains”

During the latter half of the 20th century, many mountainous areas throughout the Mediterranean experienced widespread economic and social marginalisation. The Majella Massif, perceived for centuries by local inhabitants as a sacred mountain, has since the advent of the Second World War witnessed a steady decline in the population of its surrounding villages and...

Sacred vs profane: Conflict over the San Francisco peaks
Mount Fuji (Japanese icon and revered mountain), Mount Kailas (sacred to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Bons), Mount Olympus (home of the early Greek gods and goddesses), and many other mountains around the world have special significance that should give them a protective shield against damaging development. However, as spiritual and cultural values seem to erode in our increasingly Westernised,...
Land use and land cover change in highland temperate forests in the Izta-Popo National Park, central Mexico
The long-term preservation of national park ecosystems requires scientific knowledge about land use/cover change (LUCC) that influences these ecosystems. LUCC in Mexican temperate mountain forests as depicted in satellite imagery was evaluated for three time intervals: 1970–1980, 1981–1990, and 1991–2000. Forest cover declined at an average rate of 0.35 ha per year due to...

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