Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Plate 18.2
The shire horse
centre near Plymouth,
Devon, where farmland has
been converted to a themed
visitor-pays attraction.
development has enabled geographers to apply
ideas formulated within social theory to concrete
examples of recreational marketing (Hall 1992;
Urry 1995). The outcome is a growing
understanding of the multiple roles that the
countryside fulfils and of the increasing
importance for entrepreneurs of their ability to
package and sell a rural image to recreationists.
parks systems have been managed by the public
sector for a long time and using common policies
and guidelines (Butler 1998:225). In national parks
in England and Wales, the landscape is the product
of long-term human impact and management. It
needs continuation of careful management to
maintain heather moorland, sheep and deer
grazing, grouse shooting and a diversity of
recreational activities. A summary of the typical
conflicts and interactions faced by managers of the
land is shown in Figure 18.2. However, this
management is widely shared: by farmers,
gamekeepers, landowners and their agents and
tenants, as well as parks and local authorities. This
division complicates many key management issues,
as demonstrated in Statham's (1993) analysis of the
North York Moors National Park. Here the
national park authority can use planning Acts to
control building development, but this does not
apply to control of most agricultural and forestry
land. Hence farmers have converted moorland to
improved pasture (the area under heather moor
has fallen by one-quarter since the park was
designated in 1952) and the Forestry Commission
has put large areas under conifers. National parks
usually encompass the jurisdiction of several local
authorities, so that multi-authority collaboration,
as in the Dartmoor Area Tourism Initiative
Managing recreation in national parks in
England and Wales
In many countries, one of the principal foci of
recreational and tourist pursuits in rural areas is
the national parks system. For example, over 100
million visitor-days are spent each year in the
national parks in England and Wales, contributing
up to £900 million annually to local economies.
A key factor in management practice has been
whether national parks are essentially wilderness
areas, as in North America (Blacksell 1993) and
most developing countries, or contain human
settlements and landscapes incorporating
commercial agriculture and forestry, as in many
European examples.
In the UK, it has been harder to develop
coherent management strategies in the much-
visited national parks than in countries where
