Digitalna knjižnica

Italijanka Nives Meroi in Beneški Slovenec Roman Benet sta leta 2017 osvojila še zadnji, štirinajsti osemtisočak, Anapurno. S tem sta postavila rekord: sta prvi par in prva naveza na svetu, ki se je skupaj povzpela na štirinajst zemeljskih osemtisočakov, in to brez dodatnega kisika in brez pomoči visokogorskih nosačev. O tej zadnji izkušnji govori potopisna pripoved Let plašnega krokarja. Med vzponom ju je večkrat obiskal krokar, ki v delu postane simbol svobode in prostosti, pravo nasprotje alpinistom, ujetih v krog odvisnosti od zunanjih dejavnikov in naravnih sil.

The special issue presents international experiences with COVID-19 in the years 2020 and 2021 on outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism. To set the scene, a bibliometric and qualitative analysis illustrates and clusters recent publications on COVID-19. Against this background contributions from Japan, China, Brazil, Indonesia, Austria, Croatia, the United States, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Sweden, Poland and Ireland draw a truly international picture of the pandemic crisis, the effects, coping behavior and related strategies. The papers contribute to the COVID-19 related research by documenting the shock in the field of outdoor recreation and tourism, by understanding the immediate consequences on behavior and the required managerial consequences and finally, by analyzing the possible follow up effects including long term effects, discussing resilient solutions and proposing new strategies. In the discussion section we try to answer the questions whether the high visitation rate in recreation facilities, forests, parks and protected areas will remain, and whether adapted visitor management concepts will be required. In addition, we discuss possible implications for urban planning and management. Finally, based on a changing connectedness to nature also possible positive effects by the pandemic are discussed which may lead to a new target group in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism.

Outdoor recreation is increasingly recognised for its deleterious effects on wildlife individuals and populations. However, planners and natural resource managers lack robust scientific recommendations for the design of recreation infrastructure and management of recreation activities. We reviewed 38 years of research on the effect of non-consumptive recreation on wildlife to attempt to identify effect thresholds or the point at which recreation begins to exhibit behavioural or physiological change to wildlife. We found that 53 of 330 articles identified a quantitative threshold. The majority of threshold articles focused on bird or mammal species and measured the distance to people or to a trail. Threshold distances varied substantially within and amongst taxonomic groups. Threshold distances for wading and passerine birds were generally less than 100 m, whereas they were greater than 400 m for hawks and eagles. Mammal threshold distances varied widely from 50 m for small rodents to 1,000 m for large ungulates. We did not find a significant difference between threshold distances of different recreation activity groups, likely based in part on low sample size. There were large gaps in scientific literature regarding several recreation variables and taxonomic groups including amphibians, invertebrates and reptiles. Our findings exhibit the need for studies to measure continuous variables of recreation extent and magnitude, not only to detect effects of recreation on wildlife, but also to identify effect thresholds when and where recreation begins or ceases to affect wildlife. Such considerations in studies of recreation ecology could provide robust scientific recommendations for planners and natural resource managers for the design of recreation infrastructure and management of recreation activities.

Ob Svetovneme dnevu meteorologije 2021

Tourism in protected areas was a fast-growing segment within the global travel and tourism industry prior to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a development pathway, tourism generated foreign exchange for countries endowed with natural assets (protected areas, pristine landscapes, forests, oceans, wildlife), contributed to conservation revenues, and provided local development benefits for communities. However, the spread of COVID-19 and its associated travel restrictions severely impacted this sector. In this review, we describe the main challenges preventing the sector from achieving its development potential. We propose a framework to steer tourism in protected areas as a green recovery initiative, so that it may rebound sustainably and continue to support biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development.

Gre verjetno za najpopolnejši izletniški vodnik po slovenskem zamejstvu, bogato opremljen s fotografijami, ki prikazujejo vso lepoto in pestrost pokrajin onstran meje. Dvojezični zemljevidi z vrisanimi poteki opisanih izletov pripomorejo k preglednosti in lažji orientaciji.

Dva popotnika v družbi legendarnega alpinista (Viki Grošelj) in zagretih pohodnikov v deželi, ki te pričaka s kulturnim šokom na eni strani ter nepopisno lepoto in mirom na drugi strani. Njihova skupna točka je ljubezen do gora. Dežela, ki te najprej šokira, potem odbija, nato pa neizmerno privlači, tako kot gore, ki so gospodarice tega dela sveta. S posebno energijo prežeta dežela, kjer sanje lahko postanejo resničnost. Zatorej poklon Himalaji, ki te s svojo neverjetno energijo privlači, odvrne ali pa sprejme v svoje domovanje.

TV Slovenija v sodelovanju z Nacionalnim inštitutom za biologijo predstavlja film o eni najbolj vročih točk biološke pestrosti na svetu, Kostariki. Ko se je kopno, ki mu pripada tudi današnje ozemlje Kostarike, pred tremi milijoni let dvignilo iz morja, je povezalo življenje dveh velikih celin. Razplamtela se je ena najbolj vročih točk biološke raznovrstnosti na Zemlji. Nikjer na svetu ni toliko habitatov kot v Kostariki, majhni deželi na mostu med Severno in Južno Ameriko. Na ozemlju, ki je le dvakrat večje od Slovenije, živi toliko vrst, da predstavljajo skoraj 5 % svetovne biotske raznovrstnosti. Kostariški neokrnjeni pragozdovi so dom 500.000 rastlinskim in živalskim vrstam. Med njimi so tudi tiste z vrha seznama ogroženosti, kot npr. priljubljena ara macao. Film nas popelje skozi nastanek tropskega deževnega gozda, ki v svojih divjinah skriva mnogo čudes, eksotičnost, smrtonosnost in neverjetno iznajdljivost rastlin in živali. Bogato življenje tropskih favne in flore s strokovnimi razlagami pospremita strokovna sodelavca filma prof. dr. Marina Dermastia z Nacionalnega inštituta za biologijo in prof. dr. Tom Turk z Biotehniške fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, ki že vrsto let vodita strokovne študentske odprave v ta mali raj na Zemlji.

TV Slovenija v sodelovanju z Nacionalnim inštitutom za biologijo predstavlja film o eni najbolj vročih točk biološke pestrosti na svetu, Kostariki. Življenje v Kostariki je močno zaznamovala ameriška korporacija United Fruit Company (UFC). S krčenjem gozdov za vzpostavitev plantaž bananovcev je globoko zarezala v tropsko življenjsko okolje. Pehanje za dobičkom in intenzivna reja goveda sta kostariške gozdove sklestila, da so pokrivali komaj 26 % države, uničila sta primarne habitate in razdrobila gozdne površine. Ko je UFC zapustila Kostariko, je za seboj pustila na tisoče brezposelnih ljudi in stotine hektarjev opustelih plantaž. Kostaričani so nekaj opustelih plantaž zamenjali s plantažami oljnih palm in ananasa, ostalo pa so s pomočjo mednarodnih nevladnih organizacij začeli pogozdovati in otoke sekundarnega tropskega gozda povezovati v biološke koridorje, po katerih lahko prehajajo rastline in živali. Tropski ekosistemi pa niso le dom 85 % živih vrst, marveč so tudi pljuča našega planeta. Eno tropsko drevo na leto namreč vsrka skoraj 12 kg ogljikovega dioksida. Zato s pogozdovanjem opustošenih območij tudi znižujejo koncentracijo toplogrednih plinov v ozračju. Film nas popelje skozi ponovni brst tropskega gozda na opustelih plantažah in travnikih ter predstavi najpomembnejše izzive pogozdovanja tropske znanstveno-raziskovalne postaje v srčiki tropskega deževnega gozda v La Gambi.

Disturbance to ecosystems in parks and protected areas from nature-based tourism and recreation is increasing in scale and severity, as are the impacts of climate change—but there is limited research examining the degree to which these anthropogenic disturbances interact. In this perspective paper, we draw on the available literature to expose complex recreation and climate interactions that may alter ecosystems of high conservation value such that important species and processes no longer persist. Our emphasis is on ecosystems in high demand for tourism and recreation that also are increasingly experiencing stress from climate change. We discuss the importance of developing predictive models of direct and indirect effects, including threshold and legacy effects at different levels of biological organization. We present a conceptual model of these interactions to initiate a dialog among researchers and managers so that new research approaches and managerial frameworks are advanced to address this emerging issue.

Humans profoundly affect animal distributions by directly competing for space, not only transforming, but actively using their habitat. Anthropogenic disturbance is usually measured via structural proxies such as infrastructure and land use that overlook the impact of human presence, or functional disturbance. In this study, we propose a methodology unifying two paradigms, human mobility and animal movement, to fill this gap. We developed a novel spatially-explicit index of anthropic disturbance, the Cumulative Outdoor activity Index (COI), and validated it with ground truth observations derived from camera trapping (r = +0.63, p < 0.001). Building on previous work from Peters et al. (2015, Biol. Cons. 186, 123–133) on a Critically Endangered brown bear population in the Alps, we used Resource Selection Analysis to assess the influence of different forms of anthropogenic disturbance on the relative probability of habitat selection. The intensity of COI provided an effective measure of functional anthropogenic disturbance, and it outperformed all alternative and commonlyused proxies of structural disturbance in predicting bear habitat use. Our predictions suggest that brown bear shrinks its ecological niche as a consequence of intense human use of otherwise suitable habitat. These constraints may limit the potential range expansion of bears to establish a viable Alpine-Dinaric metapopulation. Conclusive conservation and future land use planning towards human-wildlife coexistence should account for the functional presence of humans on the landscape. The proposed COI could help determine where mitigation measures should be enforced.

V Združenih državah Amerike je devetinpetdeset narodnih parkov, ki so med seboj precej oddaljeni. Ker smo bili časovno omejeni, smo se odločili za ogled območja Velikega kroga/Grand Circle, ki se nahaja v jugozahodnem delu ZDA. Tu je zgoščenih največ narodnih parkov, obiščemo pa jih lahko po bolj ali manj krožni poti. Obsegajo južni del držav Utah in severni del Arizone.