Tourism and recreation as a driving force for forecasting biodiversity changes: Lake Engure watershed area as an example

Abstract

Tourism and recreation as a driving force for forecasting biodiversity changes: Lake Engure watershed area as an example The aim of the research was to evaluate tourism as a driving force and its pressures in the Lake Engure drainage basin area to forecast the possible long-term changes in biodiversity, in accordance with the DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses) framework, used by European Environment Agency (EEA). A map of the territory, divided into three tourism zones, was charted using secondary data sources, field research data and surveys of holiday-makers. Tourism enterprises and service providers as driving forces and the pressures created were evaluated, and statistical data on capacity of tourist accommodation, a number of people employed in the tourism industry and a number of tourists in the territory were summarised. Owners of summer houses and recreationists were surveyed in regard of their behaviour, the local services offered, the involvement of local municipality in the process and their future plans, and these factors were studied to evaluate the possible impact of second house tourism. The results indicate that tourism and recreation as a driving force is most active in the coastal zone, however, there is not a big tourist flow. In the future the territory will be mainly used for transit tourism, second-home tourism and recreation.

Untitled

“…Šajā teritorijā ietilpst 5 novadu -Tukuma, Talsu, Mērsraga, Engures un Kandavas -un 11 pagastu teritoriju daļas. No tūrisma viedokļa pētījuma teritorija iedalāma 3 atšķirīgās zonās gan pēc dabas un kultūrvēsturiskajiem resursiem, gan infrastruktūras, kas nosaka tūristu plūsmas intensitāti un attiecīgi arī tūrisma ietekmi (Rozīte, Vinklere 2011).…”

Conceptual Model of the Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Platform of Engure Ecoregion, Latvia

“…Heracleum sosnowskyi). However, the flow of tourists is too small to provide considerable inputs to the local economy (Leitis, 2011;Rozîte and Vinklere, 2011). It seems that funding of nature protection, research and monitoring programmes should come from external sources.…”

“…For the Lake Engure Nature Park, the core area of the Engure LT(S)ER region, maps of distribution of vegetation, plant and bird species were prepared. The data on soil, sediment and water chemistry (Briede et al, 2000;Kïaviòð et al, 2011a;2011b;Kïaviòð u.c., 2013), analysis of the main influencing factors of Lake Engure (Springe et al, 2011), plant community structure and species distribution (Auniòð et al, 2000;Gavrilova and Baroniòa, 2000;Laime, 2000;Gavrilova et al, 2011;Laiviòð u.c., 2013;Rûsiòa u.c., 2013), available long-term data on population structure of birds (Vîksne, 1997;Vîksne et al, 2011), freshwater and marine aquatic communities (Strâíe, 2000;Kokorîte u.c., 2013;Strâíe u.c., 2013) and sea pollution (Seisuma and Kuïikova, 2000;Seisuma et al, 2011); lake and coastal marine fish (Aleksejevs un Birzaks, 2013;Strâíe u.c., 2013), insect communities (Karpa, 2000;Melecis et al, 2000; were collected and analysed in relation to human activity, including fishery, agriculture, and tourism (Rozîte and Vinklere, 2011;Pençze et al, 2013;Strautnieks and Grîne, 2013). Synthesis of these data allowed to come up with a conceptual integrated model of socio-economic biodiversity pressures and drivers for the Engure LT(S)ER platform.…”

Exploring amenity migration towards coastal areas of Latvia: A case study of the Engure coastal area

“…This study at first presents a brief review of literature related to main aspects of the concept of amenity migration, then describes residential patterns and dynamics in the Engure coastal area and compositional differences of population, as well as identifies trajectories for out-migration intentions. In Latvia, research of coastal areas has focused more on geological processes (Lapinskis, 2005;Eberhards et al, 2009), changes in coastal landscapes (Bunkse, 2001;Bell et al, 2009;Veidemane, 2011;Sture, 2012), problems of spatial planning (Puzulis, 2010;Brunina et al, 2011) and tourism development (Klepers et al, 2009;Rozite and Vinklere, 2011;Laakkonen and Vasilevska, 2011). Little attention is paid to settlement pattern and migration issues in coastal areas (Bçrziòð and Kriðjâne, 2008;Strautnieks and Grine, 2011;Bçrziòð et al, 2011).…”

“…This also largely explains the ongoing processes of rural restructuring in Latvia. The economic activity relating to fishery and agriculture has been diminishing in the coastal municipalities (Rozite and Vinklere, 2011).…”