Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
7
TOURISM AND RECREATION IN THE
PLEASURE PERIPHERY
Wilderness and National Parks
There are few really wild areas left in Britain today, and
yet the lure of a 'wilderness' experience acts as a strong
attraction to outdoor purists. The danger of overuse and
degradation by outdoor recreationalists creates an urgent
need to comprehensively identify, map and manage these
wilder areas. It is possible to map both wild land quality
and recreational use, and use the resulting overlays to
identify spatial patterns and possible conflict areas. This is
essential to developing an understanding of the conflicting
needs of different stakeholders in landscape character
and/in wilder areas. Only from such an understanding can
we then hope to develop appropriate and well-founded
policies on protected areas and wild land that are required
to protect these unique parts of our natural heritage for
future generations.
(Carver 2000)
Historically, wilderness has been one of the main sources of 'the other' in western
society. Wilderness was what lay beyond the boundaries of a 'civilised', ordered
landscape. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, wilderness and wild
areas began to assume a more favourable impression under the influence of the romantic
and transcendentalist movements which favoured wild nature as an antidote to an
increasingly industrialised and technocratic society. More recently, the conservation and
commodification of wilderness has become entwined with the growth of recreation and
tourism which has seen national parks established not only for outdoor and adventure
recreation enthusiasts but also as one of the main sites in which eco-tourism occurs.
Geographers have long played a significant role in understanding and contributing to
the conservation of natural resources and natural areas and their relationship with
recreation and tourist activities (e.g. Graves 1920; Marsh and Wall 1982; Sewell and
Dearden 1989). Indeed, recreation and tourism has long been used as an economic and
