1. How can sustainable tourism support local
communities in the protected areas?
Dominika Zareba
Partnership Fund ///
Environmental Partnership
Association
Poland ///
Central & Eastern Europe
Tourism in Protected Areas Conference
Soomaa National Park, Estonia

2. Table of content:
1. My story on ecotourism
2. Ecotourism and local communities
3. Ecotourism in the protected areas
4. Case studies from Polish protected areas
5. Conclusions

3. My experience and inspiration
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

4. Environmental Partnership
Association
Since 1992 / network
of 6 independent
foundations established
by the US founders.
Methodology:
community-based
approach
Over 20 years
of supporting local
environmental initiatives
and building civil society
in Central Europe.

5. Ecotourism is about
local communities

6. Ecotourism and local communities
1. Ecotourism brings direct
economic benefits for local
communities and improves the
quality of life (tourist
expenditures invested directly
in local economy).

7. Ecotourism and local
communities
2. Ecotourism actively
strenghtens local
identity and sense of
place. Ecotourism is
about telling stories of
a place and its people.

8. Ecotourism and local
communities
3. Ecotourism empowers all generations of
people and maintains social equity.
Ecotourism contributes to maintaining the
diversity and authencity of the place...

9. Trends in tourism
HEALTH – active forms of leisure
AWARENESS & EDUCATION – specialist offers with
cognitive value
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – ecological
awareness of tourists
EXPERIENCE & AUTHENCITY – looking for
authencity, sensations, emotions
LIFESTYLES – product related to hobbies and
personal interests.
1/3 rd
tourists
globally

Consumers are demanding more individual and
authentic travel experiences! / ITB

10. Protected areas and ecotourism

11. 209.000 protected areas (terrestrial and marine), 30 million km2
15,4% land area, 3,4 % ocean area
http://wdpa.s3.amazonaws.com/WPC2014/2014_UN_LIST_REPORT_EN.pdf
2014 United Nations List of Protected Areas

12. Protected areas can only properly function if their
management is tied and interlinked with regional,
national and international socio-economic and
political developments and support of local people.
Managing protected spaces has to go hand in hand
with creating opportunities for and meeting the
needs of local communities and the society.
Parks for Life, WCPA of the IUCN, 1994.
The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism
in Protected Areas, 1999, 2002.

13. Ecotourism in protected areas
Objectives:
Environmental
Community
Economic
Ecotourism developed in parallel with other forms
of sustainable tourism and in combination with food
production, traditional and artistic crafts and other
services can be a powerful impulse for reinforcing the
strategy of environmentally-friendly economic growth.

14. Ecotourism is the core
of sustainable tourism
Agroturism & rural
tourism
Heritage tourism,
Culinary tourism
Active & adventure
tourism
Nature-oriented
tourism
Educational
tourism
Ecotourism
Health-oriented
tourism

15. Poland
some case studies

16. Protected areas in Poland - overview
Sources: map - http://www.gis.geo.uj.edu.pl (Dorota Kwaśna)
Statistics: www.protectedplanet.net

17. Pilot partnership projects in the
protected areas – Parks for Life
* Open small grants program for community initiatives
in the protected areas (90.ties) – NGOs, schools.
* Landscape Stewardship Exchanges in the Carpathian
national parks – builiding cross-sector partnerships
around the buffer zones (methodology - QLF):
Babia Góra National Park (1999)
Bieszczady National Park – East Carpathians (2002)

18. Babia Góra National Park / The Carpathians
1954 / 33,92 km2 / 60,000 tourists / 52 km of trails
84,37 km2 buffer zone

19. Babia Góra National Park & Babia
Góra region
- 90.ties - conflict between
National Park administration and
the Municipality of Zawoja
(round tables and mediations with
the Polish Ecological Club –
Parks for Life)
- 1999 Landscape Stewardship
Exchange
- Babia Góra links us together and
the Carpathian Convention
- community initiatives in the
buffer zone.
Map: Compass

20. Babia Góra links us together!
Map: Compass

21. Bieszczady National Park / Eastern Carpathians
1973 / app 292 km2 / 200,000 tourists / 206 km of trails

22. Map: Compass

23. East Carpathians ecotourism brand
- Landscape Stewardship
Exchange 2002
- Poland – Slovakia – Ukraine
- 900 km of trails
- 6 ecomuseums in PL, 3
ecomuseums in SK
- Certification of services
- Network of agrotourism
homestays and eco-initiatives

24. East Carpathians ecotourism brand

25. Biebrza National Park / North-East Poland
1993 / app. 592 km2 / 54,000 tourists / 789 km of trails

26. Biebrza National Park
/ Kingdom of Biebrza River
- Biebrza
marshes and
wetlands
- over 270 bird
species,
49 mammals
(elk, beaver)
- unique
combination
of nature &
heritage

27. Biebrza National Park
kayaking and rafting
birdwatching

28. Biebrza National Park
Kingdom of Biebrza River
Agnieszka Zach – Biebrza Witch

29. Biebrza National Park
Kingdom of Biebrza River
www.biebrzanskawiedzma.com.pl

30. White Stork Trail
Cycling route 412 km long +
kayaking options
4 national parks / undiscovered
places, villages, monuments
Local municipalities and
enterpreneurs
Greenways concept

31. Community support for protected areas
– key factor for a success story and long-term effect

32. Collaborative, community-based approaches to development
planning help local people advance strategies that make sense
for their communities and that incorporate environmental and
cultural considerations. Approaches to planning that engage
local people from all sectors do, however, require creativity,
dedication and patience and, usually, good facilitation and
appropriate leadership. Proceeding step by step, from the
bottom up and on a cooperative basis with neighboring
communities, does not often produce the kind of early, visible
results that a large commercial development project might.
However, such step by step, local and cooperative approaches
avoid most serious mistakes; and the results are that local
people have a better chance to define and realize their own
development vision for their community and region.
William Moody, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

33. Community support for protected areas
– key factor for a success story and long-term effect

34. Tänan väga!

35. References
Zaręba Dominika, „Ekoturystyka”, Wyd. Naukowe PWN, 3rd
edition, Warszawa
2010.
Zaręba Dominika (red.) „ Greenways. Practical manual”, Polish Environmental
Partnership Foundation, Krakow 2007.
“Loving them to death. Sustainable tourism in Europe’s Nature and National Parks,
Federation of Nature and National Parks of Europe, Grafenau 1993.
“Parks for Life. Action for Protected Areas in Europe”, the IUCN Commission on
Natural Parks and Protected Areas, Gland 1994.
„The Case for Responsible Travel: Trends and Statistics”, CREST Center for
Responsible Travel, Washington D.C. 2013.
The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas, 2002.
„Tourism and Environment”, Council of Europe, Strasbourg 1997.
UNWTO Tourism Hightlights, 2014 Edition.
Own research and inteviews with experts.
Sources: map - http://www.gis.geo.uj.edu.pl (Dorota Kwaśna)
Statistics: www.protectedplanet.net. 2014 United Nations List of Protected Areas,
UNEP, 2014.

36. www.environmentalpartnership.org
www.ffp.org.pl
Drawings: Kazimierz Wiśniak, Iwona Siwek-Front
Photos: Dominika Zaręba, Tomasz Ostrowski, Barbara
Tekieli, Jarosław Grudziński | dreamstime.com (road),
archives of Partnership Fund and Polish Environmental
Partnership Foundation, Stanisław Strzyżewski
(bieszczady.pl), U Flika Agrotourism, podlaskieit.pl.,
podlaskiszlakbociani.pl, biebrzanskawiedzma.com.pl.

37. Dominika Zareba is the author of the first book on ecotourism
and Poland and is recognized a pioneer of ecotourism in her
country. Her book “Ecotourism” was republished 3 times by
the Polish Scientific Publishing House PWN (Warsaw, 2000,
2008, 2010).
She works with many NGOs and institutions from Europe and
the Americas such as: Partnership Fund and the Polish
Environmental Partnership Foundation in Poland,
Environmental Partnership for Sustainable Development in
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania,
Pennsylvania Wilds Program of the PA Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources, European Greenways
Association, and many others. In 2000-2008 she introduced
the greenways movement to Poland and Belarus and co-
initiated the “Central & Eastern European Greenways”
program.
She is also a journalist, writer and photographer, avid traveler
and co-founder of the Travel Publishing House “Bezdroza”
- first publishing house in Poland promoting responsible
travel. /// See more: www.atitlan.pl