to be held in Sucha Beskidzka (Polen).
First Announcement and Call for Papers

Sustainable Tourism in the Montane Protected Areas - Building Partnership between NGOs’ and Managers of Protected Areas

Introduction
Montane protected areas are at the same time places of high natural values, great vulnerability and mostly very attractive for tourists. It is true paradox, described in many books including well known “Loving them to death” report, that the beauty and attractiveness of mountain is one of the reasons they are endangered. The concept of sustainable tourism is supposed to the answer to this dilemma. However, while theoretically the idea sustainable tourism is commonly accepted it is much more difficult to implement it. For sure, one of the conditions of the success in making tourism sustainable is proper co-operation between protected areas’ managers and NGOs involved in tourism. This is why the organisers have decided to invite people involved in the various aspects of this complex issue to present and discuss  first of all positive and negative examples from different mountain regions.
The objectives of the Seminar are to exchange information, experience and ideas on topics which include:

• new trends in mountain tourism and evolution of  protected areas management;
• identifying NGOs’ dealing with tourism in the mountains;
• the role of  traditional tourist societies in shaping modern mountain tourism;
• the reasons of disagreements between protected areas authorities and NGOs’;
• special role of biosphere reserves in implementing principles of sustainable tourism;
• case studies of  positive and negative examples.

The working language of the Seminar will be English!

organised by:

International Friends of Nature
Polish Tourist Country Lovers’ Society (PTTK) – Cracow Academic Section
Institute of Tourism and Recreation, Academy of Physical Education, Cracow
In co-operation with: Babia Gora Biosphere Reserve ( Western Carpathians )