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Abstract |
The UNESCO list of World heritages includes both cultural and natural sites. Nature parks and cultural landscapes can assigned to the latter group. These sites are often located in sensitive areas and could be threatened by environmental pressures, climate change and crowds of visitors. Despite this, natural (as well as cultural) heritage sites are increasingly used as tools for national tourism marketing campaigns. This in in combination with signs of strong visitor growth raises the discussion of over-visitation (Adie, 2017; Job, Becken and Lane, 2017; Scuttari, and Orsi, Bassani, 2019). Subsequently, there are suggestions that the social and environmental carrying capacity of WHSs should be carefully monitored including an emphasis on information on visitor density (Shelby, Vaske and Heberlein; 1989; Kaltenborn et al., 2013). Previous research show that inclusion of natural areas in the UNESCO WHS list has a significant impact on tourism (Buckley, 2004). However, the management perspective of these aspects is still unknown.The aim of this study is to examine the management perspective on presumptive environmental issues relating to Natural World Heritage sites. The analysis focuses on four perceptions: (i) visitor accommodation (buildings) and associated infrastructure, (ii) ground transportation infrastructure, (iii) visitor impact (iv) climate change and severe weather events. An ordered Probit model is used to estimate the perceptions of the management.Data is based on the UNESCO World Heritage Management Report 2014 and encompass 90 World Heritage sites that are either purely natural or mixed. Cultural landscapes are also included. The explanatory factors include year of inscription, size (measured as land area in hectares), type (full natural site, mixed natural site or archaeological or cultural landscape), covered by the danger list (with risk of losing the inscription) and country of location. Indicators at the country level capture the general environmental performance and attitudes. |
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