Identifying and assessing visitor impacts and attitudes: A case study in the kure mountains national park

Abstract

Identifying probable threats and trying to remove them in order to preserve the values of national parks, form the basis of national park management strategies. While determining management strategies, it is essential to identify which features the fields possess and to take protection-utilization decisions accordingly. It is necessary to provide accurate protection-utilization balancc in national park areas especially where human impact is tried to be taken under control. Kiirc Mountains National Park is one of the 100 Forest Hot Points to be preserved in Europe and it is the 1st area in Turkey and the 13th in Europe being at the quality of a protected area taking the PAN (Protected Area Network) Parks certificate. Through this study, in what directions the effects of visitors to the area are identified and probable preventions arc tried to be dcscribcd by regarding the views of all stakeholders (visitors, specialists, administrations and local people) in order to balance the supply and demand of tourism and recreational activities on Kiirc Mountains National Park and to minimize the negative effects. Moreover, the relation between the impacts of re-source values and visitor attitudes is examined in order to form an appropriate management model. In this study, a total of350 surveys are held. The SPSS 16.0 programme is used in input and assessment processes. The data is evaluated through ANOVA, factor analysis and regression analysis. It is identified that the most significant visitor impacts arc on water and air qualities. Also the results showed that the most significant preventions to be taken in order to avoid visitor impacts on vegetation, fauna, air quality, soil quality, historical and cultural values are nature protection and information activities.