Fewer barriers for more benefit from nature

Natural tourism (Ecotourism) is an effective and commonly used tool in the world, applied mainly in protected areas. It is a real option for improving nature protection, employment and increasing the self-sufficiency of local communities. At the same time, it is a suitable alternative to mass tourism. In Slovakia, however, its application in practice was very problematic and it lacked conceptual and legislative support. Therefore, the Fewer barriers for more benefits from nature project focused on removing barriers that prevent a more efficient and sustainable exploitation of natural resources, especially in protected areas in Slovakia, which we succeeded to a significant extent.

In cooperation with VIA IURIS, we processed a legal analysis of the current state of the thematically related legislation of the relevant departments and prepared 3 proposals for specific legislative changes at the national level (the Act on Forests, on Nature Protection and Mountain Rescue Service) and in the case of amending the Act on Nature and Landscape Protection already also submitted to the parliament as a parliamentary proposal.

As part of the project, together with experts from various related fields, we analyzed the status of related strategic documents and prepared 2 pilot drafts of natural tourism development strategies (for the Banskobystrica region and the city of Snina). Thanks to the involvement of these experts, our proposals were incorporated into the Tourism Development Strategy of the Muránska Planina National Park and also into the Concept of Natural Tourism Development in the Banská Bystrica Region until 2030.

In cooperation with our Norwegian partner LT&C, a unique study of examples of good practice from abroad was created, which have the potential to be applied in the conditions of Slovakia. It was based on the fact that this organization creates a platform for other 220 organizations from around the world that are dedicated to sustainable tourism and biodiversity conservation and offers them the opportunity to actively present real examples of good practice not only from Europe. Together, we managed to create excellent material full of practical experience and inspiration for national parks, which we presented together with the participation of LT&C representatives at the international conference “Opportunities for the development of nature tourism in Slovakia” organized as part of this project. We published this good practice guide in both English and Slovak and made it available not only to participants but also to the general public online. Among other things, this material has also become recommended literature within the online learning program ECO-TANDEM Training Program at the University of Graz.

Thanks to all our activities and activities, we managed to get the concept of nature tourism into the awareness of professionals as well as the general public, other organizations began to devote themselves to it, ministries and other state organizations use it, and thanks to our activity it became part of the Vision and Strategy of the Development of the Slovak Republic to in 2030.

These successes encourage us to further activities in the field of nature tourism, and we are very pleased that we no longer have to explain to everyone what nature tourism is when talking to people. We also owe this to the project “Less barriers for more benefits from nature” supported by the ACF – Slovakia program.