UK Challenge 3

Question 1

What is a National Park?

Answer 1

National Parks are areas of outstanding value in terms of their natural beauty, recreational value and environment. The first UK National Parks were set up in 1951 and there are now 15 across the country.
They were set up in order to protect these areas from over development, whilst balancing the needs of residents who live in the parks and people who visit them (tourists).

Question 2

Aim of the National Park?

Answer 2

Conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the areas (i.e. keep it in its current state and try to improve the environmental quality if possible).
Promote opportunities for the public to be able to use the National Park (i.e. for leisure or to educate them in the importance of natural landscapes).

Question 3

Who owns most of the land in National Parks ?

Answer 3

Much of the land in National Parks is privately owned (by individuals and businesses) and some is also owned by organisations like the National Trust.

Question 4

Why might it be difficult to manage the land in National Parks?

Answer 4

There are a lot of different stakeholders, with competing priorities for how the park should be used, which can bring these different groups into conflict
EG. a farmer may wish to convert part of their land into a new caravan site, but from an environmental perspective this will change how the area looks and may also bring in too many people for the narrow roads to be able to cope with.

Question 5

Consequences of Tourism

Answer 5

• Traffic congestion as most visitors arrive by car; National Parks are very rural and roads are often narrow, so not designed for lots of vehicles, causing long traffic delays at peak times, which can be very inconvenient for locals who live there.
• House prices have risen due to the popularity of people from outside the Lake District buying holiday homes / second homes.This makes some parts unaffordable for young people and then they have to move away; this can damage communities over time and cause local services to close (as during the winter months some settlements have very few people living in them).

Footpath erosion as large numbers of people go to - - - National Parks for walking, but they trample the grass, which then dies and exposes the soil to being washed away by the rain. This leaves ugly scars on the landscape.

Question 6

Management of problems caused by tourism

Answer 6

• Encouraging people to use public transport within national parks; for example there is a subsidised bus service that goes around the base of Mount Snowdon, with a park and ride facility so visitors can leave their cars away from the most congested areas. This also reduces emissions of carbon dioxide

-The National Park Authorities organise for footpaths to be repaired; the busiest paths are covered with hard wearing stones that are carefully placed and with drainage so they don’t get washed away when it rains. This is called ‘fix the fells’ in the Lake District.