Case study (International)

The Yarumos Eco-Park: Evaluation of its Current Situation with Emphasis on Territorial Accessibility
The Yarumos Eco-park is located on the
north-west region of the city (Figure 2) in
Minitas neighborhood; with 100,29 hectare,
being the largest urban eco-park (Alcaldía
de Manizales, 2017); incorporating a great
variety of flora and fauna within its misty
forest as possums, foxes, wild cats,
bromeliads, orquids, anthuriums, and of
course the tree from which the park
received its name, “The Yarumo” (Instituto
de Cultura y Turismo, 2017). The extensive
diversity and multiple activities within the
eco-park, generate a big appealing for the
city, nevertheless, due to low exposure and
bad administration throughout time, its infrastructure has been deteriorated, limiting its operability and
increasing possible accidents risks; thus, it is necessary to evaluate the current conditions of the park,
from its interior, as well as from its accessibility in relation to its location. Keeping this in mind, it is
recommendable to interiorize the “accessibility” concept with the objective of comprehending in an
accurate manner the evaluation results. The term itself, comprehends the ease by which anything or
anyone can accesses without difficulty, nonetheless, in our context, there are some definitions of great
weigh like the one given by Hansen in 1959 “The
potential of opportunities for interaction” (Hansen,
1959), considerate as the fundamental concept
despite the existence of the registry of the term
since the second decade of the twentieth century
(Batty, 2009). Other definitions imply the relation
between human activity forms, including, mobility,
communication (Montoya, Escobar, & Moncada,
2017; Vega, 2011; Geurs & Van Wee, 2004), from
different approaches such as: infrastructure, land
usage, location, and the combination of all the
previously mentioned. Some examples of the
application of the accessibility in different science
fields can be appreciated in: sustainability (Izquierdo, 1994; Escobar, Cadena, & Salas, 2015), social
exclusion (Bocarejo & Oviedo, 2012; Schürmann, Spiekermann, & Wegener, 1997), opportunities and
services access (wach & Kumagai, 1973; Calcuttawala, 2006), commerce (Montoya et al, 2017; Zuluaga &
Escobar, 2016), transport planning (Escobar, Tapasco, & Giraldo, 2015; Monzón de Caceres, 1988; Geurs
& Van Wee, 2004).

Recreational use of urban forest parks: a case study in Fuzhou National Forest Park, China
Fuzhou City is situated at 26° N and 119° E. Fuzhou National Forest Park (FNFP; Figure 1) has an area size
of 8.6 km2 and is located in the northern part of Fuzhou city, the capital of Fujian Province, China. Fuzhou
has a population of approximately 7.49 million people (Fuzhou Statistics Bureau 2016). FNFP is popular to
urban residents as a recreational site
due to its proximity to the city center
(7 km away). Approximately 77.5% of
the park area is covered by a mixture
of more than 1700 native and
introduced plant species (Lin 2004). It
also includes a bamboo garden with a
collection of Chinese species and
varieties and a cycad garden. In
addition, it is endowed with rich
cultural landscapes and historical
relics such as ancient post roads and
old temples. Recreational use pattern
Most respondents visited the urban
forest park with family members on
weekends and stayed for less than 6
h. The respondents assessed the
natural/cultural resources and
landscape (air, water, and vegetation) as the most satisfying, whereas the facilities (parking lot and
transportation to the park) and services (interpretation and crowdedness) as the least satisfying. The
results showed that a relatively high number of visitors accessed the park by a private car and thus
parking services might become a significant
influencing factor of visitors’ satisfaction.
More than half of the respondents had a
child in their family, suggesting that
interpretation services need to be provided
in order to improve visitors’ satisfaction and
children’s environmental awareness. The
recreational use of FNFP is quite intensive,
since 26.9% of the respondents stated that
they visited the park more than once a
week and over 50% on weekends. The visit
frequency is quite high, but lower than that
reported in other megacities of China, Hong
Kong, and Helsinki (Jim and Chen 2006a;
Tyrväinen et al. 2007; Lo and Jim 2010),
probably due to the population size of
Fuzhou City and the location of forest park.
Recreational activities are mostly gentle and passive (breathing fresh
air, mountain climbing, hiking, and landscape appreciation), whereas active sports and learning activities
are still limited. Our results were consistent with those presented in previous studies on urban forests in
China and worldwide and showed that passive activities, such as walking and dog walking, are the most
common in urban green spaces (Hunter 2001; Dunnett 2002; Bell 2005; Zhang et al. 2013). The
assessment results of the vast majority of the respondents that stayed for more than 3 h in FNFP showed
that the resting facilities, such as benches and tables, should be increased, and the food service should be
improved. Additionally, park facilities, especially walking trails, are very important for physical activities
(Kaczynski et al. 2008). Previous studies suggested that comfortable seating was closely related to visit
frequency (Woolley 2006; Zhang et al. 2013). However, we are cautious to the above discussions as
limitations exist in this study as of a slight difference of sociodemographic profile of the respondents and
Fuzhou citizens, in addition, potential bias due to the survey season concentrating in winter. Potential
increase of car usage The factors “income level” and “family structure” significantly influenced
respondents’ decision to access FNFP by car, suggesting that the car usage may increase in the future due
to the improvement of living standards and the possibility of having a second child. About 23.0% of the
respondents used their private car to access FNFP, and 45.5% of them stated that they were willing to
access FNFP by bus or on foot in the future. The heavy traffic and the limited parking facilities might
negatively influence the recreational use of suburban forest parks and visitors’ satisfaction. It is
contradictory that urban residents use the forest parks to escape the heavy polluted urban areas, but
only a few are willing to sacrifice their comfort and use public transportation instead of a private car.

Ecotourism and Sustainable Development of Mountain Communities: A Study of Dhanolti Eco park in
Uttarakhand State of India
Natural areas with rich biodiversity
and scenic beauty, such as the
Himalayas, have been the major
destination centers for nature lovers
from historical time. With the
passage of time, the heavy influx of
unregulated tourism and its
activities, however, have mounted
unprecedented pressures on such
areas of tourist’s attractions in
terms of loss of native biodiversity
and degradation of ecosystems and
environment [1,2]. The continuous
degradation of such ecosystems and
the loss of services supplied by
them have evoked the need of sustainable development of tourism centric places all over the world.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), sustainability principles refer to
the environmental, socioeconomic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development along with creating
suitable balance between these three dimensions. The concept of sustainable tourism has given birth to a
quite popular and acceptable term ‘ecotourism’, which indicates the responsible travel to natural areas
that conserves the environment and improves well-being of local inhabitants. The practice of ecotourism
or sustainable tourism is known to have the potential of helping the conservation of natural areas in such
a way so that the local communities may be benefited by improving their living standards without slowing
down their age-old traditions and cultures [3,4,5,6,7]. Ecotourism is being defined in different ways by
different groups of people [8]. On one hand the scenic beauty of natural areas attracts large number of
tourists, while on other hand many conservationists wish to regulate the flow of tourists and advocate
implementation of existing conservation practices, especially in the environmentally sensitive areas
[8,9,10]. Recently in 2013, the UNWTO has given the node to adopt the resolution which recognized
ecotourism as a key to fight against poverty, the protection of the environment and the promotion of
sustainable development under the title ‘Promotion of ecotourism for poverty eradication and
environment protection’. The recognition of ecotourism in creating opportunities for the conservation,
protection and sustainable use of biodiversity and of natural areas by encouraging local and indigenous
communities is a known fact, at present, which is supported widely. This fact encourages Member States
to promote investment in ecotourism, in accordance with their national legislation, including creating
small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperatives such as microcredit initiatives for the poor, local
and indigenous communities, in areas of ecotourism potential and rural areas [11]. In view of the
importance of ecotourism, the Government of India prepared a detailed set of guidelines on the
selection, planning, development, implementation and monitoring of ecotourism in India. These
directives and guidelines are applicable to all Protected Areas, including national parks, wildlife
sanctuaries, sacred groves, or pilgrimage spots within protected areas and Applied Ecology and
Environmental Sciences 99 forested areas. The guidelines intend to adopt low-impact tourism that
protects ecological values of the destination and its surrounding areas, including building up
environmental and cultural awareness, facilitating sustainability of ecotourism enterprises and activities,
providing livelihood opportunities to local communities, and to use indigenous, locally produced and
ecologically sustainable materials for tourism activities [12]. Realizing the diverse natural areas in the
country, the responsibility to develop state-specific ecotourism plans are dispensed to the respective
State Governments. Uttarakhand is one of the Indian states, lies in the Himalayas, and is well known for
its rich biodiversity, scenic beauty and tourist destination [13,14,15,16,17]. The Government of
Uttarakhand promotes eco-tourism through its eco-tourism wing which is created to promote eco-
tourism activities, especially in the forest areas of the state. The eco-tourism wing seeks to draft policies
and provide funds for various eco-tourism projects and provide a framework for the promotion and
development of eco-tourism in the state. The state has developed ecotourism areas in the national parks,
sanctuaries and in forest areas. An eco-park has been developed in the hills of Uttarakhand under the
banner of Dhanolti Ecology and Ecotourism Development Committee, which is commonly known as
Dhanolti Eco-park. This eco-park has been selected as an example for studying various issues of
ecotourism, its pros and cons and the avenues of developing appropriate strategies for promotion of
ecotourism in the state. The study further discusses that which model of ecotourism, whether the
national park and sanctuary or the Eco park, is more appropriate for meeting the requirement of
ecotourism as chalked out by the UNWTO and the state government.

A Pattern of Eco-park Design: Case of Beshghardash Region in Bojnourd, Iran

The historical -natural area
of Beshqardash which
named Beshqardash park
today, has been located in
Km 5, south- west of
Bojnord ( center of province
of Northern Khorasan) in
north-east of Iran (see
Figure I). The word
"Beshqardash" in local
language means five
brothers. According a
historical truth, these
brothers had taken refuge
in this area from tyranny of
MongoI governors and had fought against them. Such natural and historical area includes a mining spring,
very old trees (more than 1OO years old), many brooks and streams, and old tomb with a beautiful blue
color dome which has view among the old trees branches. This place is surrounded by rock mountains
and hills, including a 30m high hill on the east with five spring emerging on its foot. The medical experts
believe that the water from the spring is beneficial tor some medical and healing properties. It
 unbelievably benefits from a pennant
spring per 10 Kilometers and in fact, no
other place has known with such a unique
situation in tens of widespread springs in
mountain environment. Therefore, the
city comprehensive design insisted on
Beshqardash project because of its natural
potentials: abundant drinking water,
suitable morphology, natural and artificial
coverage, its availability and near access
to Bojnord city either on foot or by car.

5 Environmental Design patterns for an

Eco-Park In this part of essay 3 case
studies have been examined and analyzed
in details so that their thought patterns
can be applied in organizing Beshqardash
project.

By studding on Eco-parks 3 principles of

environment's protection, it's
development and the principle of human
welfare in present time and future will be
resulted which will be leaded to Jife's
quality improvement and is responsible
for one of the sustainable development
objectives. Indeed, in Eco-park's
objectives, the other aspects of
sustainability have not been considered
seriously or its signs are not very evident
(see Figure 2), whereas "mostly
sustainability has been known with social,
economic, cultural and ecological
aspects." ( WiIliamson, Rod for dand
Bennetts,2003) In other words, there has
been paid less attention to mental and
spiritual aspect of humans which forms the society's cultural aspects and attention just has been given to
increase public awareness about environment. Thus, a similar pattern has been used for designing Eco-
parks in different areas. Nasr believes that, "the elements "Soul & Spirit" which have been nearly ignored
through formal science should be reconsidered. Although scientists has devoted less time to discuss over
it however society wonderfully follows whatever source which can offer more information about mental
and spiritual aspect of human. Indeed, increasing in varieties of journals related to "spirit belief' is the
typical example." (Nasr, 1997) Therefore,
in this paper another principle called
"compatibility with conditions" will be
added to the mentioned principles. This
principle respects the area's local
attraction; cultural views and historical
values of the residents. Likewise the
traditional values, belief and opinions are
of high importance to this principle (see
Figure 3). Accordingly the Figure 3 states
the complementary pattern of eco-park
objectives.

References:
Escobar D. , Montoya J. & Moncada C. 2018. The Yarumos Eco-Park: Evaluation of its Current Situation
with Emphasis on Territorial Accessibility. Canadian Center of Science and Education. August 28, 2018.
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/mas/article/download/76010/42137
Chen B., Qi X. & Qiu Z. 2018. Recreational use of urban forest parks: a case study in Fuzhou National
Forest Park, China. Journal of Forest Research. August 28, 2018.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bixia_Chen2/publication/322644997_Recreational_use_of_urban_
forest_parks-
A_case_study_in_Fuzhou_National_Forest_Park_China/links/5a822e9345851504fb3556b9/Recreational-
use-of-urban-forest-parks-A-case-study-in-Fuzhou-National-Forest-Park-
China.pdf?origin=publication_detail
Kala C. P. 2013. Ecotourism and Sustainable Development of Mountain Communities: A Study of Dhanolti
Ecopark in Uttarakhand State of India. Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences. August 28, 2018.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e1bc/ab97bc7653b570d39f568cd1b3cde981d222.pdf
Shakeri M. ,Taghvaei S.H. & Ghorbanzadeh M. 2011. A Pattern of Eco-park Design: Case of Beshghardash
Region in Bojnourd, Iran. Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development. August 28, 2018.
http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB_DC22692.pdf