We examine how geoconservation and geotourism can help the local development of an economically underdeveloped karst area. First, we briefly present the geoheritage of Aggtelek National Park, which largely overlaps the area of the Aggtelek Karst. The area is built up predominantly of Triassic limestones and dolomites. It is a typical temperate zone, medium mountain karst area with doline-dotted karst plateaus and tectonic-fluvial valleys. Besides caves, the past history of iron mining also enriches its geoheritage. Aggtelek National Park was set aside in 1985. The caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst became part of the UNESCO World Heritage in 1995 due to the high diversity of cave types and morphology. Socially, the area of the national park is a disadvantaged border region in NE Hungary. Baradla Cave has always been a popular tourist destination, but visitor numbers fell significantly after 1985. Tourism is largely focused on Baradla Cave, and thus it can be considered "sensu lato" geotourism. Reasons for the changes in visitor numbers are discussed in this paper. Tourist motivations, the significance of geotourism and other tourism-related issues were explored in our study by questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, the balance of geoconservation versus bioconservation is also examined. Finally, the relationship of geotourism, nature protection and local development is discussed. We conclude that the socioeconomic situation of the Aggtelek Karst microregion is relatively better than that of the neighbouring regions, and this relative welfare is due to the existence of the national park and Baradla Cave.
In this article we analyse the human-environment relationships in geographical research from the end of the 19 th to the beginning of the 21 st century. We highlight paradigms, which aff ected our way of thinking about man-environment relations. Discussing scientifi c approaches and paradigms in geography the leading scientists who had infl uential thoughts and helped the shaping of a paradigm will also be mentioned. The research on human-environment relations has appeared in geography from time to time, but the connecting paradigms had also diff erent stories through time and space. Undoubtedly, the nowadays reviving determinism had the greatest infl uence, but possibilism has also had a signifi cant impact on our discipline. Research on human-environment relationships reappeared in a new form through the discourse on global climate change. Postmodern, poststructuralist, and postcolonial approaches changed radically the basis of human-environment research. In this paper, we argue that geography needs to renew not only its philosophical basis and theoretical context, but the connections between the two subdisciplines of geography (i.e. between physical and human geography) must be refreshed too.
Karst areas, which are less involved in productive activities are often declared protected areas that can have a positive impact on the lives of the local communities. To verify this hypothesis, we examine karst areas, where national parks have been established to preserve mostly geological but also biological values. According to the threefold system of objectives in national parks, not only protection and conservation, but also the presentation of the natural values to the outside world is important. Thus, tourism and related services are essential and often exclusive economic activities in these protected areas. Our questions are how national parks appear in the daily lives of the local communities and how much locals perceive the beneficial effects of national parks. The selected area of our study is the Gömör-Torna / Gemer-Turňa Karst on the Hungarian-Slovak border, where national parks have been established on both side of the border (Aggtelek National Park in Hungary and Slovak Karst National Park in Slovakia) to preserve karst landforms and caves. We conducted structured interviews with leaders of settlements in and around the national park. Interviews reveal the ambivalent system of everyday relationships. Local communities are experiencing multiple conflicts with national parks. The conflicts stem from the contrast that usually occurs within the threefold system of objectives of national parks (the tension between the practice of protection/preservation and presentation). Locals are negatively affected by the presence of national park as an authority, which limits to some extent their economic activities. They perceive national parks as barriers that prevents them from building a more diversified economy, so the existence of the national park is seen by the majority as a disadvantage rather than an advantage. Some people even question the need to protect nature, which can be seen as a legacy of the former socialist regime. Thus, we conclude that there is a need to change the attitudes of local communities more positive towards nature conservation.
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