Abstract
Wildlife Protected Areas (PAs) are set aside with the primary objective of conserving native species and their habitats. The increasing use of such PAs for wildlife-related tourism has the potential to adversely impact the biota they seek to conserve. The main challenge for sustainable tourism is, therefore, to balance the flow of visitors while conserving the wildlife resources within the PAs. The concept of “carrying capacity” has been used to guide sustainable tourism strategies, through the generation of information on how many visitors can be accommodated within a given PA without inflicting damage. In this article, we report on the physical and real carrying capacity values calculated for the Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka, one of the most visited PAs in the island by both local and foreign travelers. Calculations are based on standard formulae modified to include a set of variables that are locally appropriate. The disturbance caused to the elephants, the main attraction of the Udawalawe National Park, by visitors was also factored in when calculating the carrying capacity values. Based on the generated values it is seen that the current mean vehicle and visitor loads are within acceptable ranges, although there is still a risk of over visitation, particularly during the peak periods and when guidelines are not met. Challenges of using this approach for setting visitation limits are also discussed.
Highlights
Tourism, which is the largest service-sector industry in the global economy, accounts for roughly 10% of GDP worldwide
There is a progressive reduction in the carrying capacity values by 25% and 40% when the inter-vehicle spacing increases to 400m and to 500m, respectively
The results are novel with respect to two aspects: Firstly, this is the first attempt in Sri Lanka to generate Physical Carrying Capacity (PCC) and Real Carrying Capacity (RCC) values for any of the local Protected Areas (PAs) which takes into consideration the potential adverse impacts to wildlife; and secondly, we present our results of PCC and RCC in terms of both recommended vehicle and visitor loads
Summary
Tourism, which is the largest service-sector industry in the global economy, accounts for roughly 10% of GDP worldwide. In 2018, wildlife parks were among the top three contributors to the national revenue of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2018). Despite this positive impact on the local economy, over visitation has been shown to impose many adverse impacts, threatening the species and habitats that are targets of conservation (Belsoy et al, 2012). The nature and degree of adverse environmental impacts depends on the intensity and frequency of visitation, behavior of visitors, type of recreational activity, and site-specific biotic and abiotic factors such as the type of ecosystem and biotic community (Sun & Walsh, 1998)
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