Page 43 - A bird’s-eye view of recreation - Rogier Pouwels

3.1 Introduction
Many nature areas in Northwestern Europe are open for recreational use. Visitors enjoy
restorative health benefits of contact with nature and they experience many other
valued aspects of visiting the countryside such as tranquility, open space, fresh air,
unpolluted waters and scenery (Natural England 2006, Natuurmonumenten 2006).
Health programs are set up to stimulate more people to visit nature areas (e.g., Natural
England 2006) and managers must accommodate an increasing number of visitors. The
policy of opening nature areas for recreation can conflict with the policy of protecting
species in these areas (Drewitt 2007). In England, the Countryside and Rights of Way
Act 2000 (CRoW) integrates freedom of rambling with protecting biodiversity. This 3 integration should be evidence-based instead of believe-based (Bathe 2007). While the
last decade has witnessed significant research on the impact of recreational activities on biodiversity, there is a need for more research to balance or integrate recreation and biodiversity (Sutherland et al. 2006, Sutherland 2007, Haider 2006).
In industrialized countries like the Netherlands, the persistence of many populations in the landscape depends on nature areas. Next to fragmentation, eutrophication, desiccation and pollution, recreation can be an extra stress factor for these populations and can threaten their persistence. Many studies have stressed the negative effects of recreational disturbance on bird behavior, distribution and breeding success (Blanc et al. 2006, Gill 2007, Mallord et al. 2007). However from a conservation viewpoint, the impact at the population level is of paramount importance (Sutherland 2007). Modeling the consequences of alternative recreational access scenarios will help policymakers choose appropriate mitigation measures (Taylor et al. 2007, O'Connell et al. 2007, Mallord et al. 2007). These models should include a recreational as well as a conservation viewpoint (Sutherland 2007). The main questions that should be answered are: does the area fulfill the expectation of the visitors? What are the impacts of recreation on species persistence? And is the viability of a population affected by the impact?
Models should be seen as part of a conceptual planning/managing framework that includes both scientific and managerial perspectives (Haider 2006). Scientists need the managers to give their research more focus as much as managers need the empirical data of scientists to help them develop standards (Cole 2004). The framework integrates three dimensions for managing multifunctional land use problems, including goals,
Linking ecological and recreation models
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