From threat to opportunity: sustainability and tourism in Koli National Park

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Across the globe, conservation has been increasingly in conflict with other human activities. National parks are an important concept in nature protection and probably the most recognized institution in nature tourism worldwide. The concept of sustainable nature tourism became a part of the planning and management of Finnish national parks at the beginning of the new millennium. We analyze the environmental conflict and the idea and practices of sustainable nature tourism from a historical perspective in one Finnish national park: Koli. The main research question is how has the concept of sustainability been used to resolve the conflict between tourism and nature protection? Our perspective is based on the essence of sustainable nature tourism as humanity’s interaction with the environment. The main data of the study consists of interviews with park managers and planners and archival material from local newspapers. In Koli, the history of the founding of the park and tourism development were strongly affected by diverse nature relationships between different actors. In the human-nature relationship perspective, it was a matter of how the land was to be utilized, on an anthropocentric or eco-centric basis. From the park management point of view, sustainable nature tourism was a conceptual and practical tool to diffuse the conflict. Experiences in Koli show how eco-utilitarian perspectives toward nature conservation can help to resolve conflict. Today the idea of sustainability has been adapted by large-scale tourism developers and earlier failed vast plans for Koli are alive again, only reconceptualized with the idea of sustainability. This kind of economy-based sustainability in turn pushes the idea of sustainable nature tourism further from nature itself and eco-centric perspectives and provides foundations for a new conflict.