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Geografia d'Europa: textos de suport |
Mountain tourism is a leading recreational activity worldwide. The
Alpine nations of Europe (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Slovenia, Switzerland) share a yearly product of 52 billion dollars (25
per cent of the world production in tourism), and 70 per cent of the 12
million people in the Alps live directly or indirectly from the revenues
of the tourist industry (Partsch and Zaunberger, 1990). Tourism thus forms
an important base of the Alpine economy. However, tourism activities are
also accompanied by a number of serious environmental repercussions affecting
the very quality of the recreational values being exploited, having impacts
on the state of Alpine landscapes and mountain ecosystems. On the whole,
landscape damage from tourism derives from the construction of facilities
required for sports activities, increased traffic and its associated infrastructure,
as well as from the indirect effect of agricultural abandonment.
Sports activities and facilities
According to official estimates, about 3000 cable-lifts move approximately 1.3 million individuals each year in the Alps (Weizäcker, 1990). The development of mountain climbing and skiing into mass-tourism activities puts tremendous pressures on Alpine resources. Heavy damage is done to soils and vegetation. Due to physical adaptations of the regional topography by scraping and earth construction works, the morphological structure of soils is altered, making them extremely vulnerable to (water) erosion.
The resulting artificial landscapes are mono-functional (skiing) and
lack natural vegetation cover such as various forms of snow-patch communities,
acidophilous and calciphilous grasslands, and scree communities. During
the summer months, the runoff from the hillsides, which often have heavily
compressed soils and reduced vegetation cover, can be extremely high, increasing
risks of flood and erosion. The growing number of cable-lift facilities
and the necessary deforestation along the cable-tracks have similar effects
and have become dominating features of the mountain landscape. The operation
of snow cannons to provide artificial snow can also affect seasonal changes
of the natural vegetation and is accompanied by high water consumption
(Partsch and Zaunberger, 1990).
Traffic and infrastructure
The increase in tourist activities is enhanced by the infrastructure network of most Alpine regions. In fact, the accessibility of mountains at certain elevations is often the pre-requisite for tourist developments. Noise and air pollution follow an increasingly dense network of roads, serving mainly individual car traffic, into once-remote regions. Parking areas, petrol and repair stations additionally impact the landscape.
Agricultural abandonment
Two-thirds of Alpine landscapes are a result of agricultural landuse practices. Hence, mountain farmers have an important function in maintaining and caring for these landscapes. However, as a consequence of being forced into competition with the growing tourist industry, mountain farming nowadays concentrates substantially on the intensification and mechanisation of production. This has led to an abandonment of remote and less accessible Alpine regions where a high degree of manual work is required (MAB, 1984). The result of these factors is a loss of ecological stability and of traditional habitats for especially adapted flora and fauna.
In 1992, after more than 40 years of work, the Commission for the Protection
of the Alps (CIPRA) succeeded in presenting a framework for the implementation
of an Alpine Convention (CIPRA, 1993). CIPRA lists 15 possible actions
to reduce the impacts of tourism on the Alpine environment, and comments
critically on the official protocols of the convention.
REFERENCES
Fuente:
European Environment Agency
The Dobris Assessment
Chapter 08: Landscapes
Última actualització: 13 de junio de 2002