DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7701-025-2-0361

YES OR NO TO THE REOPENING OF THE BELIANSKE TATRAS FOR TOURISM?

Veronika Piscová¹, Andrej Sedlák², Michal Ševčík², Juraj Hreško², Terézia Slobodová², Katarína Vitálišová³

¹ Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Branch Nitra, Akademická 2, 949 01 Nitra, Slovakia

² Department of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Trieda A. Hlinku 1, 949 01 Nitra, Slovakia

³ Department of Public Economics and Regional Development, Faculty of Economics of Matej Bel University, Tajovského 10, 975 90 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

In recent decades, recreational intensity in protected areas has increased considerably. Due to the impact of climate change, tourists are increasingly looking for alpine areas where the climate is cooler. Therefore, the question arises whether to open the limestone Belianske Tatras, which have been closed to tourists since 1978 due to destruction by mass tourism, again. Alpine ecosystems are generally considered to be sensitive and fragile to disturbance and slow to recover, due to short growing season and a harsh climate, in combination with poor soil conditions. In 1993, the National Park/Biosphere Reserve Administration opened one one-way hiking trail in the territory, since 2009 it has been accessible in both directions. However, it turns out that human recreational activities, such as walking, cause direct mechanical disturbance of natural ecosystems with undesirable effects on vegetation. That's why we conducted experimental trampling in the territory with monitoring of regeneration in selected communities, in 2008 in original communities and in 2022 in regenerated communities. The results showed that although communities respond somewhat more resiliently to trampling, this is at the expense of losing some species, with mosses and lichens responding with a delayed response and species loss.

Keywords: experimental vegetation trampling, vegetation resistance, hiking, national park, biosphere reserve

pages: 361-367, Published: 2025, online: 2025