Submitted by N. Jones on Sun, 11/04/2021 - 15:01
Our new paper is now available! We explore how COVID-19 has changed the way Protected Areas impact local communities. We analyse over 700 structured questionnaires which were distributed in Snowdonia National Park (Wales) during the first lockdown (March 2020). Our research shows that lower visitor numbers during lockdown were seen in a broadly positive way by a large part of the community while benefit sharing issues from tourism also emerged. With the upcoming lifting of lockdown restrictions, respondents were also asked what would be their most preferred tools to manage overcrowding in case of a surge of visitors in the area. The most popular option was restricting access to certain paths, the development of mobile applications to alert people to over- crowding and reporting irresponsible behavior. We hope our findings are useful for PA managers and local communities currently developing post-COVID-19 recovery strategies.
The paper is available to download via this link: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/conl.12800
