Masters Theses

KayAnn Vance

Date of Award

5-1999

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Major Professor

Frank McCormick

Committee Members

George Bowen, John B. Rehder

Abstract

From their inception, national parks have had two partially conflicting mandates: 1) to conserve and protect nature and 2) to provide for the enjoyment of people to view these areas.Today people are visiting national parks in larger numbers every year. Park budgets nor staff are increasing to accommodate such increased visitation. The decade of the 1990's has seen tourism development touted around the world as the new economic development tool. Tourism is now the world's largest employer and commands 10.9% of world GDP. The goal of this project was to minimize these conflicting mandates in Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela, Portugal. The Approach was to guide tourism planning by identifying ecologically sensitive areas deserving of protection.GIS was used to assimilate data that was made available by the Portuguese government and various researchers. Data that needed to be digitized was entered using MicrosoftMicrostation software. Gap analysis was used to organize various layers of spatial information with distribution of protected species . A manual assessment based on the Worldmap software approach was used to evaluate species data for areas of richness/rarity. Areas rich in protected animal species were delineated and centers of richness were ranked for conservation priorities.Conclusions and recommendations include:1) The initial use of the 1000 meter contour line to delineate a zone of species protection was reasonably appropriate. However three areas richest in protected species fall outside of this zone.2) Based upon richness of protected animal species, areas most deserving of protection are areas A, B and C totaling 125 Km2. For the same reason area E of approximately 40 Km2 may be deleted from protection. The tradeoff between addition and deletion represents an addition to the protected zone equal to only .0008% of the total area of the park.3) The use of Gap Analj^is is a potentially useful logical framework for integrating and analyzing spatial information. However, the utility of Gap Analysis is heavily dependent upon uv integration of multiple compatible data sets. In this study the use of secondary data collected by several different investigators with several different objectives caused Gap Analysis to be of limitedvalue.In spite of limitations this study resulted in several useful recommendations concerning park management. Recommendations to guide tourism planning include the following.1) The current protected zone should be expanded in the southwest to include all of areasA and B and in the north to include area C.2) Reduce the protection zone by eliminating area E.3) Place high priority upon protecting these additional areas A, B and C which are rich in protected species and further deserve protection because of potential conflicts with expanding tourism development.4) Special attention should be given to area D with regards to special protection for the breeding area of Ciconia nigra.5) Detailed resource management plans should be developed for areas with potential conflicts between tourism and biological conservation. Resource management plans should include environmental impact assessments (EIA’s) as a requirement for all development projects.Mitigation procedures should include the training of park personnel to conduct mitigation withdevelopers, local governments and property owners.6) Construction of roads and tourism facilities within the present and proposed expanded protection zone should be based on careful planning including environmental impact assessment and risk assessment analysis. Construction without careful planning would only further disturbs protected species and cause further habitat degradation especially around the glacial lakes surrounding Torre.7) Further field research in species distributions should be undertaken to enhance the understanding of wildlife - habitat relationships especially in the area of the glacial lakes (UTMcoordinates 6154465, 6154460, 6204460, 6154470 and 6204470).V8) Tourist interviews should be undertaken to determine where tourists use non-paved roads and trails. This should include activities they undertake and estimates of approximate number of visitors.9) Park management should be made aware of all studies conducted within the park and should receive progress reports and final results. A standard format should be adopted for all park studies involving collection of spatial data so that results may be integrated into a common geographic information system.

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