Coastal National Park Research Articles

Integration process and stakeholders' interactions analysis around a protection project: Case of the National park of Gouraya, Algeria (South-western Mediterranean)

Among the most important instruments used for the protection of the Mediterranean marine environment, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have demonstrated their efficiency in the preservation of sensitive marine ecosystems and the sustainable management of their resources. In Algeria, only two sites are officially classified as “Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance” and six others are in project, including the extension of the coastal National Park of Gouraya (NPG) to the marine area. This paper addresses the issue of stakeholder involvement in the governance process of high ecological coastal protected areas, highly coveted and exposed to the constraints related to the multiplicity of actors. This study is considered as an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) mini-project based on the steps set out in the ICZM Mediterranean Protocol and inspired by the concept founded on ecosystem approach of problems by associating multiple stakeholders around a common project. The management process of the NPG and the involvement of actors were evaluated through direct interviews and a stakeholder analysis using the “MACTOR” method. Results indicate that the current management and the local context are not mature regarding the involvement of the actors. The challenge around issues of sustainable development, especially for civil society, is a relatively new and demanding matter. The human dimension is a top-priority aspect that the sustainable management of the Park and the marine area should be based upon.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY OF COASTAL ECOTOURISM IN BALURAN NATIONAL PARK WITH METHOD MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING


 Coastal resources Baluran National Park (TNB) has been used for coastal marine and ecotourism activities. The increasing number of tourists has led to an increase in tourism activity and related activities. This condition will affect coastal habitat and air quality. This research is intended to embrace the effective management of the ecological, economic, social and institutional dimensions of coastal ecotourism in Baluran National Park. Data analysis using multidimensional scaling method (MDS). The results showed that the effectiveness index of ecotourism management in Baluran National Park is currently in the category quite effective (65.69%). Partially, the ecological dimension (84.15%) is in the effective category, while the social dimension (63.10%), economic dimension (56.46%) and institutional dimension (59.06%) are quite effective. The analysis results show that coastal ecotourism management strategy that implements integrated policy between conservation programs of coastal ecotourism resources, optimization of coastal ecotourism activities based on mangrove, coral reef and culture, increasing comfort among tourists with local communities and increasing provision of coastal ecotourism support infrastructure in the Baluran National Park.
 
 
 Keywords
 Ecotourism Strategy, Baluran National Park, multidimensional scaling

Balancing tourism development and nature protection across national park borders – a case study of a coastal protected area in Norway

The study examines the relationship between nature management and land use planning in order to balance nature protection and tourism development within and outside national park borders. Applying theory about local networks and social learning, we highlight how responsible actors coordinate in order to strike a balance between protection and tourism. Based on this study of a Norwegian coastal national park, we state that competent key individuals are crucial preconditions for fulfilling the management and planning objectives in a wider regional context. In our case study, such personnel within the national park management and municipal land use planning system serve as bridge builders between nature protection and tourism. However, we argue that the existing management system is very vulnerable, and an important implication of our study is that the present local network should be more firmly institutionalized in order to become sufficiently robust and resistant to changes.

Marine debris in five national parks in Alaska

Marine debris is a management issue with ecological and recreational impacts for agencies, especially on remote beaches not accessible by road. This project was implemented to remove and document marine debris from five coastal National Park Service units in Alaska. Approximately 80km of coastline were cleaned with over 10,000kg of debris collected. Marine debris was found at all 28 beaches surveyed. Hard plastics were found on every beach and foam was found at every beach except one. Rope/netting was the next most commonly found category, present at 23 beaches. Overall, plastic contributed to 60% of the total weight of debris. Rope/netting (14.6%) was a greater proportion of the weight from all beaches than foam (13.3%). Non-ferrous metal contributed the smallest amount of debris by weight (1.7%). The work forms a reference condition dataset of debris surveyed in the Western Arctic and the Gulf of Alaska within one season.

America's first century of marine national park stewardship

ABSTRACT A review of coastal national park stewardship reveals a rich history that provides evidence of how nature and human history shaped current conditions along America's coasts. Case studies of Dry Tortugas National Park and Everglades National Park in Florida, and Channel Islands National Park in California exemplify how such experiences can help identify future directions and challenges for protecting coastal areas. Discoveries include (1) ecological and political borders are often incompatible because shorelines are ineffective ecological boundaries, (2) scales of protection are critical for management efficacy, (3) forging effective management solutions requires strategic, innovative public involvement, and (4) misperceptions of connectivity, sustainability, and relevance impair effective coastal conservation. This history and these stewardship experiences also demonstrated the potential power of protected areas to halt shifting ecological and moral baselines, thereby defining realistic imagination and hope for the future. Learning from national park experiences how to understand ecosystems, how to repair damage to their integrity, how to protect and mitigate human stresses to them, and how to better connect people to these special places has not only improved the condition of nature and human heritage in parks, but also has enhanced society's capacity to improve the human condition more broadly with small, but critical success stories.

Composition and Functional Diversity in Bird Communities in a Protected Humid Coastal Savanna

Our current understanding of the vertebrate communities of a newly gazetted Tanzanian coastal national park is limited and strongly taxonomically biased towards large mammals. We conducted bird assessments in three sites in Saadani National Park using species lists to analyze some parameters to inform biodiversity conservation in the area. We recorded 3112 individuals in 268 species falling in 66 families, including 2 endangered, 2 vulnerable, and 6 near threatened species. Both species richness and species diversity varied between sites. Species relative abundances were not different between the sites although some functional groups, especially granivores, were more abundant than others. Bird assemblages included 21 forest specialists (FF-species), 35 forest generalists (F-species), and 68 forest visitors (f-species) overlapping among bushland, wooded grassland, grassland, and thickets suggesting presence of important microhabitats for the forest-associated species in this ecosystem. Bird species richness in a feeding guild also showed marked overlap between habitats suggesting availability of rich food resources for the birds. This paper highlights the importance of maintaining a structurally heterogeneous landscape to sustain diverse bird communities in the area.

Determinants of visitor length of stay at three coastal national parks in South Africa

This study identified the determinants of length of stay at three of South Africa's coastal national parks: the Addo Elephant, Tsitsikamma, and Wilderness National Parks. The overall impact of tourists in a given economy hinges on a variety of factors, including length of stay. South African National Parks should aim to attract visitors who stay longer, particularly during off-peak seasons, since literature states that visitors who stay for a shorter period do not travel much except to visit only the major tourist attractions. Longer-stay visitors visit a wider range of attractions, explore more peripheral regions, and generate more diverse economic, social, and environmental impacts. Identifying the factors that make visitors stay longer thus benefits any destination seeking to increase visitor spending. Destination-based surveys based on self-administered questionnaires were conducted at the three Parks during 2012 and 2013 and 496 completed questionnaires for the three Parks in total were included in the analysis. Stepwise linear regression analyses were performed to identify the determinants of length of stay at each of these Parks. The results showed clear similarities and differences between these determinants for the three Parks, indicating that park management should focus on the specific attributes of each Park in order to encourage longer visits to these ecotourism destinations.

Zoning Coastal Marine Boujagh National Park and Sustainable Management by Geographic Information System

Zoning is a basic step to separate protected areas for planning and sustainable management purposes of a region. The objective of this study was to obtain potential zones in Boujagh national park within an area of 3266 ha, in Guilan province, Iran, by using grid method. For this purpose, after recognizing ecological, social and economic resources, data analysis was performed with grid method in Geographic Information System (GIS) feature in a 1/25000 scale. The gridding of studied area was conducted by using satellite image of IRS 2007 and Arc GIS 9.3 software. A number of 160 grid cells and 40 micro grids were recognized in the studied park and the data of each grid cell was imported in cell characteristics table, using GIS. According to ecological characteristics of Boujagh national park and based on the classification for the parameters, some specific ecological models were designed. Also, ecological capability evaluation of area was performed by several agent techniques for different zones. After recognizing and organizing of zones, zoning map of the studied national park was created. The results indicated that in coastal marine Boujagh national park, the strict nature, protected, extensive use, intensive use, recovery, administrative, scientific use and multiple use zones are consisted of 21.85, 56.05, 3.35, 6.09, 0.82, 0.05, 1.64 and 10.16 percents of the total studied area, respectively.

Assessment of Inundation Risk from Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge in Northeastern Coastal National Parks

Murdukhayeva, A.; August, P.; Bradley, M.; LaBash, C., and Shaw, N., 2013. Assessment of inundation risk from sea level rise and storm surge in northeastern coastal national parks.Sea level rise and an increase in storm frequency and intensity are two major impacts expected to result from climate change in coastal ecosystems. Coastal national parks have many low-lying areas that are at risk from inundation resulting from these impacts. To help park managers meet their goal of preserving resources, we developed a methodology to evaluate risk of inundation from sea level rise and storm surge at sentinel sites, areas of importance for natural, cultural, and infrastructural resources. We selected the most recent, readily available, and appropriate geospatial tools, models, and data sets to conduct case studies of our coastal inundation risk assessments in two northeastern coastal national parks—Cape Cod National Seashore, MA, and Assateague Island National Seashore, MD/VA. We collected elevation data at sentinel sites using real-time kinematic global positioning system (RTK GPS) technology. We used three modeling approaches: modified bathtub modeling; the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM); and the Sea, Lake, and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model to assess the likelihood of inundation at sentinel sites. Cape Cod's sentinel sites, which in many cases occurred in high-elevation settings, were found to be less vulnerable to inundation than were Assateague Island's sentinel sites, which were distributed in low-lying areas along the barrier beach island. This inundation risk assessment methodology can be applied to other coastal areas and to the same coastal parks at different times as more accurate elevation data sets and updated sea level rise projections become available.

Hurricane impacts on southeastern United States coastal national park visitation

As a major contributor to local economies, the tourism industry has been greatly impacted by natural disasters. This study demonstrates the association between tourism economies and impacts of hurricanes in the southeastern United States containing coastal national parks, known for attracting a large number of tourists and having experienced hurricanes. In keeping with two longitudinal data methods (i.e. panel logit model and autoregressive integrated moving average), this study focused on the relationship between the (1) duration, intensity, and damage of hurricanes; (2) existing climate conditions; and (3) tourism demand on park visitation during hurricane and tourism seasons. As a whole, the impacts of hurricanes and climate conditions (precipitation, temperature) were found to have a negative effect on tourism demands (park visitation). With regard to the response of tourism economies to natural disaster damage, parks that experienced stronger natural disasters may be closed for a longer period in order to reconstruct facilities or natural/cultural resources damaged by storms. In an attempt to improve tourism-based regional economies, overcome the challenge of natural disasters on tourism economies, and increase opportunities for establishing disaster management, it is necessary to make an effort to allay unexpected damage to tourism-based areas through proactive plans for disaster mitigation activities.

Pollutant impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore from urban runoff and septic leachate

The sandy barrier islands of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, USA, attract large seasonal influxes of tourists, and are host to numerous motels, rentals and second homes. To investigate the impacts of nearby urbanization on public trust waters, sampling was conducted in nine brackish water bodies within this coastal national park. A large tidal urban ditch delivered runoff-driven fecal-contaminated water directly into public beach waters. At all sites except the control, ammonium, phosphorus and fecal bacteria concentrations were high, strongly seasonal and significantly correlated with community water usage, indicating that increased septic tank usage led to increased pollutant concentrations in area waterways. Nutrients from septic systems caused ecosystem-level problems from algal blooms, BOD, and hypoxia while fecal microbes created potential human health problems. Septic system usage is widespread in sensitive coastal areas with high water tables and sandy soils and alternatives to standard septic systems must be required to protect human health and the environment.

People, Communities, and Education at the Coast

This special issue titled “People,Communities, and Education at the Coast” of the Journal of Coastal Conservation, Planning and Management (JCCPM) gathers 8 of the submitted contributions to the 3rd International Conference on Coastal Conservation and Management in the Atlantic and Mediterranean (ICCCM10), held at Estoril, Portugal, in April 2010. The conference was attended by 800 participants from twenty-one countries, providing an expanded forum for scientists, engineers, planners and managers to discuss recent and new advances in scientific, technical, and socio-economic understanding of environmental issues related to coastal processes. The eight papers in this issue cover several aspects from governance, social sustainability, public perception to environmental education. The paper by Vasconcelos et al. presents the MARGov project, using as a case study the Marine Park Professor Luiz Saldanha (Portugal) to build a Model of Collaborative Governance for Marine Protected Areas, to empower local communities enabling them to be agents for change for the sustainable governance of the Ocean, through an eco-social dialogue supported by active participation. Kalisch examines the crowding effects in a coastal National Park in Germany, using the social carrying capacity concept as a tool to coastal recreation management. Concerning coastal protection of sand dune systems in Portugal, Mendonca et al. describes an application of the Boussinesq-type COULWAVE model to study the wave hydrodynamics in the vicinity of a multi-functional artificial reef. From the public perception perspective, Baumann et al. examine the impact of the occurrence of jellyfish along the German Baltic coastline, show different methods to learn more about jellyfish accumulations and discuss information strategies in terms of improved beach management. Ferreira et al. present a beach profiling method to improve understanding of coastal processes by providing quantitative information on the spatial/ temporal evolution of beaches, which is crucial for coastal management and useful for environmental education. Quintela et al. focus on public perception of bathing users regarding Bathing Area quality in Sao Miguel (Portugal), namely litter, one of the top concerns of the users. Root-Bernstein et al. discuss and propose innovative and effective design solutions of multiple product proposals that would support a range of human-sea lion interactions in public parks and the fish market in Valdivia, Chile. Using local tidal records to identify relative sea level change, Powell et al. examine some of the key sources of error when working with historical tidal datasets in local geographic areas. They also identify the limitations of locally derived data thereby assisting in the determination of relative sea level trends that are of widespread value to infrastructure and policy makers. We wish to thank the authors and the reviewers for their valuable efforts, and the Editor for his support in producing this special issue Paula Sobral, Jose Carlos Ferreira and Francisco Taveira Pinto P. Sobral (*) IMAR – Institute for Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences & Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal e-mail: psobral@fct.unl.pt

Relevance of crowding effects in a coastal National Park in Germany: results from a case study on Hamburger Hallig

Coastal environments are popular sites for tourism and faced with an increasing recreational demand. Most of European coastal areas attract numerous visitors annually. In recreation research this management problem can be described in terms of carrying capacity which expresses the ability of a site or region to absorb recreational use without deterioration of natural resources and the quality of the visitor experience. As social aspects of recreation in Europe still have received little attention, the purpose of this study is to examine the applicability of the concept of social carrying capacity in a German coastal national park. The article addresses if the relationship between perceived visitor encounters, crowding perception and visitor characteristics is applicable by using data from an on-site survey (N = 509) of visitors conducted on Hamburger Hallig, Germany. It examines whether effects of overcrowding are measurable on a popular daytrip destination with established approaches. Results demonstrate that visitors to Hamburger Hallig are characterised by a heterogeneous visitor composition of local residents and domestic tourists with different motivations and who mainly visited the area for hiking or cycling. Study findings show that valuation for reported encounters and perceived crowding differed substantially among origin of visitors and sampling dates. All in all, respondents report a high level of encounter with others and in contrast a very low level of perceived crowding.

AN ANP APPROACH TO ASSESS THE SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURIST STRATEGIES FOR THE COASTAL NATIONAL PARKS OF VENEZUELA / VENESUELOS PAKRANTĖS NACIONALINIŲ PARKŲ DARNAUS TURIZMO STRATEGIJŲ VERTINIMAS ATP METODU

Decision‐making for sustainable development involves high levels of uncertainty. In the present paper a study about sustainable management of tourism in national parks is presented. A case study approach is applied to coastal national parks (NP) in Venezuela. Tourism can contribute to the sustainability of national parks but currently it is their main cause of environmental impact. The Government of Venezuela and its natural park managers are therefore looking for new sustainable tourism development strategies. To help managers in making decisions about NP sustainability a new multicriteria approach based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP) technique is proposed. ANP provides a more realistic approach for modelling complex situations such as decision making for sustainable tourism management because ANP allows the general study of the quantitative and qualitative explanatory variables and the incorporation of feedback and interdependence relationships among variables. A case study has been carried out with the help of two experts closely related to the 12 coastal NP analyzed and 8 stakeholders of “Los Roques” national park who provided most of the information needed. Santrauka Priimant darnios plėtros sprendimus kyla labai daug neapibrėžtumų. Straipsnyje pateikta darnios nacionalinių parkų turizmo vadybos analizė. Straipsnio tyrimo objektas – Venesuelos pakrantės nacionaliniai parkai. Turizmas gali prisidėti prie nacionalinių parkų darnos didinimo, tačiau šiuo metu jam būdingas tiesiog didelis poveikis aplinkai. Todėl Venesuelos Vyriausybe ir gamtos parku vadovai ieško naujų darnaus turizmo plėtros strategijų. Nacionalinių parkų vadovams straipsnio autoriai siūlo taikyti daugiakriteriniais metodais sukurtą analitinio tinklo proceso (ATP) techniką. Jis padėtų vadovams priimti su nacionaliniu parkų darną susijusius sprendimus. ATP leidžia tikroviškiau modeliuoti tokias sudėtingas situacijas, kaip sprendimų priėmimas darnaus turizmo vadyboje, nes su ATP įmanoma ištirti kiekybinius ir kokybinius kintamuosius, galima įdiegti grįžtamąjį ryši ir tarpusavio ryšius tarp kintamųjų. Ištirtas “Los Roques” nacionalinis parkas. Tyrime dalyvavo ekspertai ir minėto parko darbuotojai, kurie suteikė dauguma reikalingos informacijos.

Importance of Coastal Change Variables in Determining Vulnerability to Sea- and Lake-Level Change

Abstract In 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey began conducting scientific assessments of coastal vulnerability to potential future sea- and lake-level changes in 22 National Park Service sea- and lakeshore units. Coastal park units chosen for the assessment included a variety of geological and physical settings along the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Alaska, Caribbean, and Great Lakes shorelines. This research is motivated by the need to understand and anticipate coastal changes caused by accelerating sea-level rise, as well as lake-level changes caused by climate change, over the next century. The goal of these assessments is to provide information that can be used to make long-term (decade to century) management decisions. Here we analyze the results of coastal vulnerability assessments for several coastal national park units. Index-based assessments quantify the likelihood that physical changes may occur based on analysis of the following variables: tidal range, ice cover, wave height,...

A Coastal and Marine National Park for Scotland: A Tactical or Strategic Affair?

Through a detailed discussion of attempts to create a Coastal and Marine National Park in Scotland, this paper critically examines the fate of an individual policy idea. It explains how this initiative succumbed to alternative political options to address strategically the problems of the marine. It identifies six critical issues for policy-makers: the validity of extending terrestrial national park experience into the marine; the nature of learning-based argumentation and practice evidence in legitimizing policy innovation; the role of politics in policy development; the tensions between tactical and strategic policy-making; and the institutional complexities of policy-making in the marine environment.

Geography, planning and the law: a coastal perspective

This paper examines how legal structures interact with land‐use decisions in the coastal zone. The emphasis is on NSW where there has been a steady evolution of legislative and other measures to regulate how the coast is to be planned and managed. These measures arise from a long history of individual, corporate, local government and State agency actions directed more at private benefit than at protecting and conserving environmental values for the public good. Alienation of foreshores, restrictions on access, buildings located in hazardous areas, canals exposing soils rich in acids, and pollution of waterways are examples of degradation on this coast. Yet much remains to be protected. Expansion of coastal national parks over the past decade has helped. But new planning controls have been introduced to support the NSW Coastal Policy (1997). In essence, there is evidence that the State government seeks to implement environmentally sustainable development principles to ensure that as the population continues to grow, decisions on future land uses will reflect the functioning of ecosystems and the dynamics of coastal and catchment geomorphology and hydrology. Pressures from individuals and corporations exercising traditional property rights need to be managed within a statutory framework that facilitates sustainability of coastal environmental values cherished by so many.

12th International Congress of Oriental Medicine

It was indeed an extremely well organized Congress; almost a full week filled with a multiplicity of organizational details accompanied by food, flowers and elegance coupled with the warmth of the Taiwanese organizers, although a few of us from northern climes were sweltering in the warm and humid weather. (Martin Richardson, Oxford University Press, England; Emiko Okudo, Oxford University Press, Tokyo, in charge of the publisher's booth, displaying our new journal Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM); Edwin Cooper, Editor-in-Chief; Nobuo Yamaguchi, Managing Editor; Patty Willis, Administrator). We found it especially warm at the lunches provided as voluminous buffets, served under lovely tents. It was indeed a community affair in which everyone literally dug in with chopsticks to partake of exotic foods. The opening ceremony held the night before had all the trappings of a usual gala—a live rock music band such as La Bamba, folk dancers from the highlands of Taiwan, graceful swan dancers and even the Flamenco, performed by superb Taiwanese artists, that was as authentic as if we were in southern Spain. Other hints of a real gala included multiple lights, large screen video of VIP tables and one that attracted the most attention—the Mayor of Taipei, who welcomed the delegates in the best of spoken English. This was followed by a monstrous buffet. Numerous excursions were designed to highlight Taiwanese culture. A. Taipei City Tour included a visit to (1) Martyrs' Shrine, (2) National Palace Museum, (3) Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, (4) Chinese Temple, (5) The Presidential Office (pass by) and (6) Handicraft Center. B. Culture Tour included a visit to (1) Lungshan Temple, (2) Pao-An Temple and (3) National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts (Chinese Opera Performance). C. Wulai Aboriginal Village Tour including (1) Push-car Ride, (2) Wulai Waterfall, (3) Aborigine Folk Dance, (4) Swallow Lake (pass by) and (5) Chieftain Statue. D. Folk Arts Tour included a visit to (1) Sanhsia Tsu Shih Temple, (2) Old Street Scene in Sanhsia, (3) Yingko's Pottery Factory and Show Room and (4) Pottery Street in Yingko. E. Taroko Marble Gorge Tour. F. Taipei Night Tour including (1) Mongolian Bar-BQ Dinner, (2) Lungshan Temple, (3) Hwashi Night Market and (4) Panoramic View from the Taipei Observatory. G. East Coast and Taroko Gorge National Park Tour. The enormous efforts that went into the organization of the event were all clearly evident, especially Supervisors: Department of Health, Executive Yuan; Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry, National Science Council and the Taipei City Government; Sponsors: China Medical University, Chinese Traditional Medicine Research and Development Fund, Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy, Department of Health, Council of Agriculture, National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, National Univion of Chinese Medical Doctors Association and ROC Chinese Medicines Association. There was a vast representation of people on the Organizing Committee, Executive Committee and Committee Members. There were numerous organizations and support and interest groups as well. Finally, there was widespread representation on the ISOM Organization. The conference included Lectures, Oral Presentations and Posters and Exhibitions in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean (simultaneous translations were provided). The first day of the Congress opened with three superb Plenary Lectures that set the stage for the later scholarly and research oriented presentations.

Genetic variation in three> Chersina angulata> (angulate tortoise) populations along the west coast of South Africa>

We investigated genetic variation within and among three populations of Chersina angulata; two in the southwestern Cape (West Coast National Park and Dassen Island) of South Africa and Kleinzee in the northwestern parts of the species’ range. Mitochondrial DNA sequences (274 base pairs) of the cytochrome b gene of 25 C. angulata identified 10 haplotypes in three lineages. Estimates of coalescence time for the three lineagesranged from approximately 1.3 to 3.8 million years, implying that the lineages’ present distribution may reflect radiation during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene Epochs. The mtDNA sequences of Dassen Island and West Coast NationalPark populations did not differ significantly. The geographic heteroge neity in haplotype frequency distribution suggests that the Kleinzee population represents a distinct lineage from the two southwestern populations. The observed genetic structure of C. angulata has management implications for the conservation of this species. Until more information is available, we recommend that C. angulata should not be translocated between the northwestern andsouthwestern regions, to prevent disruption of local gene pools.

Ecotourism options in coastal protected area management: a case study of North Head Quarantine Station, Australia

The challenges faced by coastal protected areas in both promoting highly attractive sites and preserving the natural attributes of these sites have been given a new dimension with the opportunities presented by ecotourism. Realising the market potential of a protected area and, at the same time, conserving the unique features of an area is a difficult task. This paper explores the possibilities that backpacker tourism may offer the Quarantine Station in Sydney Harbour National Park, in Australia. The Quarantine Station is a significant cultural heritage site that is located in a sensitive coastal national park within Sydney's metropolitan area.