Panparks leipzig zoltankun

Paanajärvi NP © Viktor

Gritsuk

Zoltan KUN, Executive DirectorPAN Parks Foundation

THE ECONOMICS OF WILDERNESSPES in Europe’s Wilderness Areas

Paanajärvi NP ©Viktor Gritsuk

What we do

• PAN Parks works to protect Europe’s wilderness, the continent’s most undisturbed areas of nature

• the first European-wide organisation focusing on the protection of wilderness areas

Fulufjallet NP © Vitantonio Dell’Orto

NO extractive use such as:•hunting•fishing•mining•logging•grazing•grass cutting•road and building constructionis allowed in wilderness

How to define wilderness?

Wilderness Quality Index of Europe

• Based on GIS data sets (road density, population density, etc...)

• Management practice is not considered!

PAN Parks Wilderness Network

Fulufjället NP © Vitantonio Dell’Orto/exuviaphoto.com

Peneda-Geres NP © Marcos Veiga

Archipelago NP © Janne Görling

Archipelago NP © Janne Görling

Borjomi-Kharagauli NP © Konstantin Gabrichidze

Oulanka NP © Kimmo Salminen

Soomaa NP © Arne Ader

Borjomi-Kharagauli NP © Kote Gabrichidze

The Economics of Wilderness

Why dealing with the economics of wilderness?

• the EP report on wilderness Calls on the Commission and Member States to co-operate with local non-governmental organisations to promote the value of wilderness (point 6);

Insert the figure about PA Categories and relative naturalness

Insert Braat and Ten Brink figure about the inkage between land use and level of ecosystem services

Wilderness is not a priceless heritage for future generations!• Europeans are not valuing wilderness as much as they should!

Oulanka NP ©Michael Hennemann

The Economics of Wilderness

The Economics of Wilderness

Two examples• Oulanka National Park creating jobs• The valuation of Tatra, PL, and Slovensky raj SK National Parks

Oulanka NP ©Hannu Hautala

The Economics of Wilderness

Economic impact of Finnish National Parks through visitation• 85 M EUR / year• 1,100 man-year• visitor related income in Oulanka NP 14,7 M EUR

http://www.metla.fi/julkaisut/workingpapers/2010/mwp149.pdf

The Economics of Wilderness

Tatra and Slovensky raj National Park• One possible conclusion: Smaller park but better mgmt practice and more value

Rila NP © Nicolas Cegalerba

The Economics of Wilderness

Making wilderness areas financially viable means seizing opportunities of emerging markets for ecosystem services• Payments for Ecosystem Services

Archipelago NP © Heidi Arponen

To protect wilderness we need to difersify incomes

• payments for carbon offset• payments for water-related and nature disaster mitigation• payments for recreational services

The Economics of Wilderness

The Economics of Wilderness

Majella NP © Bruno D’Amicis

Several steps are suggested for PA managers• define the wilderness attributes and their services• define stakeholders benefitting from ES• quantifying revenue and externalities including cost of inaction

The Million Project

Majella NP ©MNP

Building partnerships with protected areas

• Making a commitment to resolve a major challenge

• Improving wilderness management in partner protected areas

Archipelago NP © Seppo Keränen

The Million Project

To ensure guaranteed protection of 1 million hectares of wilderness

in Europe by 2015

A conservation partnerships

Majella NP © Bruno D’Amicis

• Wilderness partners: areas with wilderness committed to wilderness protection (no size criteria)

• Certified PAN Parks: branded parks with min. 10,000 ha of wilderness(best of Europe’s wilderness)

©iStock/Graeme Purdy

327,000 ha of wilderness

Wilderness momentum

• European Parliament’s special report on wilderness

• European Commission- ‘Agenda for Wilderness’

• Wilderness in Biodiversity Strategy

What we have achieved so far

Annual land take in Europe between2000-2006 was over 111,000 ha/year

The size equal to Crete was covered by

concrete in 7 years (2000-

2006)

The size equal to Crete was covered by

concrete in 7 years (2000-

2006)

Our goal: 5% of Europe must be

wilderness

Our goal: 5% of Europe must be

wilderness

1% (CR + BiH) is often quoted as

existing wilderness in

Europe

1% (CR + BiH) is often quoted as

existing wilderness in

Europe

4% of Europe is covered by

artificial surface in 2006 (annual

increase of 3,4%)

4% of Europe is covered by

artificial surface in 2006 (annual

increase of 3,4%)

If continues with the current

trend, we will have 5%

artificial surface by

2017

The Million Project aims to protect the size of

Cyprus!

The Million Project aims to protect the size of

Cyprus!

Paanajärvi NP ©Viktor Gritsuk

We can protect the last pieces of Europe’s wilderness together for future generations!

Join us in The Million Project!

PAN Parks works to protect

Europe’s wilderness, the

continent’s most undisturbed

areas of nature

www.panparks.org