Speakers:
Marika Kose
Kadri Erit
28 April 15:00 EEST
Link will be provided to IPS members via Snippets
Peatlands, especially raised bogs in Northern hemisphere are beautiful and unique landscapes, often used as recreation and tourism destinations nowadays. Native population has always made use of peatlands as sources for berries and peat moss, a useful substance for medicine and building. Even specific devices – bogshoes, were designed to cross the wet soft areas in summer and in winter by our ancestors. Today we have boardwalks, helping visitors to enjoy the landscape, and we have skis and bogshoes, made of metal and plastic, available to make the hikes more exiting and memorable.
While these novel activities are not present in all countries and usually have not became massive, it has not been considered an issue in conservation yet. However, in Estonia, a country exclusively covered with peatlands, we have had about 25 years of bogshoeing tourism and there are over 50 boardwlaks in Estonian bogs. The most visited bog trails receive little less than 100 000 visits a year and bogshoers may exceed the 15 000 visits to various bogs.
One might start wondering, does this have an impact? And we have studied this for a while.
In the seminar we will provide insights to the impacts of trampling by foot and bogshoes on different vegetation elements, also discuss the topic of “wild swimming” in bog pools. We also present the Code of conduct for bogshoeing, elaborated in Estonia for tourism entrepreneurs. All participants are welcome to share their ideas and experiences as bogs and bog tourism are very new topics in recreation ecology.
