Increased patronage has also led to problems related to degradation; in safari areas such as the Serengeti Nation Park there have been large decreases in the number of animal sighting and in the Mount Kilimanjaro Nation Park there has been widespread erosion of the walking routes due to over use. The number of people visiting these places has meant that the attraction that they came to see is no longer there. Not only this but the industrialisation of tourism has meant that overcrowding and competition have been bought to these wilderness places, providing people with the stress that they attempted to get away from.
Sustainability Plans
Well planned Nation Parks limit the number of visitors in peak periods in order to decrease the number of people using the area, some now also charge entrance fees in order to provide revenue to run Nation Park authorities that manage the areas. In Tanzania, TANAPA; the Tanzania National Park Authority manage the areas and their usage. They help to prevent misuse of National Park areas, ensure correct usage by tourists, help stop poaching and repair paths in areas such as the Mount Kilamanjaro Nation Park.
The area that has the most successful scheme is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, their coral reef ecosystem is one of the most fragile that exists on earth, therefore it is vital to have an effective policy to protect the ecosystem. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has introduced a 25-year plan to combat the problem. They have developed a reasonable use policy that has been agreed by the tourist operators that allows the reef to be used as an attraction whilst spreading the visitors over a large area and limiting the activities that are allowed in those areas. This stops a lot of the damage that is caused in other areas.
In the Grand Canyon Nation Park, despite extensive attempts to increase cooperation of tourism operators and national park authorities, visitors are still causing very large amounts of erosion. There are many different ways in which people the grand canyon, but the most damaging is the trekking up and down paths the run along the edges of the canyon, these paths provide vital access for tourists but due to overuse they are being eroded faster than they can be rebuilt due to their precarious position. Something needs to be done about this kind of degradation or usage will become impossible.
Increased Patronage
Figures show that since 1980 there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people visiting national parks in MEDCs, in the last 10 years that increase has spread, especially to Africa. This increase is very good for the local economies, but it brings us back to the point in question, does this increase put the ecosystems highlighted by the Nation Park system under threat of collapse?
In Africa it can definitely be seen that people are causing irreparable harm to the most popular spots and this problem needs to be addressed. There are still some areas that are "natural" and have not had the massive influx of visitors over the last 25 years. These areas have the natural ability to support human life, but normally they only support a small number of people. When we ask any ecosystem to support more humans than it naturally would then there are going to be side effects, look at any urban settlement, the most densely populated areas are those which have the most human influence.
In Australia the problem is less pertinent, the Great Barrier Reef is so large, the size of a country in itself, that the tourism can be spread across its great size therefore stopping people from having any great influence on one spot. The size of it means that the amount of people visiting is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the number of tourist that it could support therefore there is very little effect from the tourists.
Conclusion
My response to the question of whether Nation Parks are a victim of their own success is that yes, in most cases nation parks are victims of their own success due to the amount of money that people realise they can make from an area. The initial realisation of the market value of the area means that the owners get carried away and exploit the area too much. Now, the areas of the world that are nearest to nature are those that whilst being National Parks, are not successful. Without intervention any national park that is able to attract large numbers of people to it will eventually corrupt the initial idea of protecting the area due to the amount of money to be made. That is why it is so important to initiate management plans in order to prevent damaging exploitation.
