Across the globe, conservation has been increasingly in conflict with other human activities. National parks are an important concept in nature protection and probably the most recognized institution in nature tourism worldwide. The concept of sustainable nature tourism became a part of the planning and management of Finnish national parks at the beginning of the new millennium. We analyze the environmental conflict and the idea and practices of sustainable nature tourism from a historical perspective in one Finnish national park: Koli. The main research question is how has the concept of sustainability been used to resolve the conflict between tourism and nature protection? Our perspective is based on the essence of sustainable nature tourism as humanity's interaction with the environment. The main data of the study consists of interviews with park managers and planners and archival material from local newspapers. In Koli, the history of the founding of the park and tourism development were strongly affected by diverse nature relationships between different actors. In the human-nature relationship perspective, it was a matter of how the land was to be utilized, on an anthropocentric or eco-centric basis. From the park management point of view, sustainable nature tourism was a conceptual and practical tool to diffuse the conflict. Experiences in Koli show how eco-utilitarian perspectives toward nature conservation can help to resolve conflict. Today the idea of sustainability has been adapted by large-scale tourism developers and earlier failed vast plans for Koli are alive again, only reconceptualized with the idea of sustainability. This kind of economy-based sustainability in turn pushes the idea of sustainable nature tourism further from nature itself and eco-centric perspectives and provides foundations for a new conflict.
In the past few decades, sustainable nature tourism has become one of the most growing and debatable fields of the tourism industry. This article focuses on analyzing the possibilities and threats regarding sustainable nature tourism of two Finnish national parks: Koli in North Karelia and Urho Kekkonen National Park in Lapland. The main data of the study consists of the interviews of the park managers and planners and of the survey study of the companies and societies cooperating with the parks. The main findings of the study suggest that the entrepreneurs operating in the national parks have adapted to the sustainability thinking and are developing their businesses in that regard. From the park management’s point of view, the concept of sustainable nature tourism and local cooperation by that means has been an effective tool to improve tourism and the positive attitudes towards the parks. Nevertheless, the concept of sustainability is complex, and there are multiple factors setting different expectations for tourism and the parks. This means that reaching a compromise between the park and tourism development and the limits of sustainability is more or less debatable.
L uonto on keskeinen osa aineellista, aineetonta ja elävää kulttuuriperintöä 1 , ja luonnonpaikoilla on paikallisesti tärkeä merkitys elinkeinojen valikoitumisessa, mutta myös yhteisöllisen muistin, identiteettien ja elämäntapojen rakentumisessa. Viimeisen neljänkymmenen vuoden aikana museologiassa ja museotoiminnassa tapahtuneiden muutosten myötä ihmisen suhde luontoympäristöön on alettu ymmärtää kiinteäksi osaksi kulttuuriperintöä, mutta luonnonperinnön ja luontosuhteen museoiminen ja välittäminen niin sanotulle suurelle yleisölle ei ole ollut yksinkertaista. Museokentällä vallinnut työnjako kulttuuri-, taide-ja luonnontieteellisten museoiden välillä on usein rajannut luontoaiheet kulttuurihistoriallisten museoiden työkentän reunalle. Toisaalta juuri kulttuurihistoriallisilla muistiorganisaatioilla, etenkin museoilla, olisi tietotaitoa, jonka avulla olisi mahdollista tarkastella ja edistää luontosuhteen ja jopa ekologian linkittymistä kulttuuriperintöön. Taloudellis-sosiaalisten rakennemuutosten myötä muuttunut maaseudun elämäntapa ja keskustelu kestävästä kehityksestä sekä elävän kulttuuriperinnön ja luonnossa oleskelun psykofyysisten vaikutusten kasvava arvostaminen ovat kaikki tekijöitä, jotka puoltavat ihmisen ja luonnon jälkien tarkastelua yhdessä, kulttuurihistoriallisin menetelmin.
“A world which doesn’t exist – even though it does.”The urban space and past of Vyborg in Finnish and Russian interpretations The article analyses the interpretations of the past given to the town space of Vyborg. Utilising survey and interview material collected from Finnish and Russian target groups, it examines which places in the city become the main objects of description and what meanings are attached to these. The article looks at the urban space in Vyborg via an assessment of public-level meanings on the one hand and private-level meanings on the other, and the space is strongly understood as a social product for which the users of the space actively create meanings. In both Finnish and Russian interpretations of the history of Vyborg’s urban space, the city appears as a kind of imaginary space, and, especially in the speech of Finns, is romanticised by the tradition of remem- brance. The Russians have built new memory environments in Vyborg to create national memory sites in the city space. For both Finns and Russians, history is an important part of Vyborg’s urban space, but its contents and starting points are related to different layers of recognition.
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