From Kenya to Thailand, natural environments are protected from overcrowding | community

Quotas for access to paradise beaches and archipelagos or restrictions on visiting wild species and nature parks are some of the measures countries are taking to preserve natural environments from mass tourism, after images of queues of mountaineers ascending to the planet’s highest peaks.

“Natural environments, due to their enormous ecological value, must be preserved against massive tourism that could lead to their degradation, with regulations in place that allow citizens to enjoy them, although there are safeguards for their preservation,” says Pau Monasterio, a spokesperson for the ecologists at work.

In southern Europe, Spain, an outstanding orographical presentation, rich in flora and fauna, with diverse climates, in peninsulas and islands, with sixteen national parks and many other parks of regional, European and local nature, increasing restrictions on it are deployed to preserve natural environments against tourism collective.

Some examples are the Galician Beach of the Cathedrals, a natural monument of sand and rocks carved by the sea, as well as the Doñana Nature Reserve in Andalusia, or the Teide Volcano, on the island of Tenerife, are some of the many enclaves in this country with limited public access.

Also in Europe, attractive Italy has a variety of protected natural areas; For example, it is forbidden to set foot on the island of Bodelli (east), on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, but the most emblematic case is Venice (northeast) and the lake in which it is located: for a year the entrance to tourist excursions In addition, it will be the first in the world to enter In it the visitor to its streets, the visitor will have to book from 2023.

To the north, with about 250 million visits per year, the UK has 15 national parks and 46 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, although some of the still unretouched mountain peaks like Snowdon (in Wales) and Scavell (England) are very crowded.

On the other hand, in the crowded French Natural Park of Calanques de Marseille, access to the bay of Sogiton was limited to only 400 people, and the island of Corsica has quotas for visiting the Lavese archipelago so as not to exceed 2,000 visitors at a time. .

On the other side of the Atlantic, there are restrictions on tourism in the Galapagos (Ecuador), and in some parks in the United States; Similarly, in Brazil, access to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, 375 kilometers from the coast, has a limit for daily visitors (675) and environmental fees and fees for access to the National Park and Iguazu Falls, which limit with Argentina and the authorities try not to exceed 3,500 daily visits.

In Venezuela, public policies to preserve protected areas and national parks sparked controversy after NGOs condemned the spread of illegal mining and other activities in ecosystems such as Canaima, a World Heritage site. The Los Roques archipelago has no boundaries beyond habitability.

In Africa, to avoid interfering with the behavior of wild gorillas or transmitting diseases to them, only eight tourists a day can visit a “usual” family, that is, a wild family although they are somewhat accustomed to human presence. This species, endemic to the mountain range bordering Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was on the verge of extinction at the end of the last century.

Conversely, in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania or the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, repeated requests from ecologists for a share of visits have not worked.

In Southeast Asia, in Thailand, most nature parks charge entrance fees and limit the number of visitors. In the case of the Maya Bay beach, immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio’s film “The Beach”, on Phi Phi Island, it reopened in 2021, although there were a limited number of tourists.

In Indonesia, authorities have just increased entry fees to two of the islands of Komodo National Park, an archipelago home to the world’s largest dragon, while in New Zealand they are considering reducing visits to Milford Sound-Biopotahi (South Island), a World Heritage site and one of the world’s most The most attractive natural destinations in the world.

The country is also studying the request to provide camping vehicles with a fixed toilet to reduce the problem of tourist waste on public lands.

In Australia, in areas such as Queensland, with the Great Barrier Reef, a possible new tax is being considered on tourism as well as on natural parks. In Uluru, with its giant red monolith, sacred in the indigenous culture, climbing to its zenith after the sustainability crisis is forbidden due to a wave of tourists spreading all kinds of waste, including excrement. EFE