Environmental education and landscape leisure. Geotourist map and geomorphosites in the Picos de Europa National Park

Abstract

Picos de Europa National Park is the oldest and most extensive National Park in Spain, a symbol of conservationism and management of Iberian nature. The present day use is defined by abandoned ancient traditional structures, summer livestock and mainly tourism in and around the National Park, and over the last forty years the visitors of the National Park has grown until 2 million per year. The context of the map it framed in the next questions, which places are most frequented by visitors?, what places are the most interesting to visitors?, what are visitors looking for?, and who visits the National park? The main type of visitors are mountaineers (1,5%), hikers (5), active tourists (10%), recreational tourists (66%) and students (16%). Hikers and active tourist represent the 18% of visitors to the National Park, over 120,000 visitors per year. They are, joint the monitors and teachers guiding students groups, the main objective of documents and geotouristic maps. The map has five levels of reading (planimetry, altimetry, geomorphology, human uses and tourist routes), the elements are represented by areas, patterns and symbols in colours, and the selected significant elements represent the topography, geomorphological features (glacial, karst, nivation, landslide) and human remains (mining, grazing) and routes between geomorphosites and more representative scenic view points. The interpretative geotouristic maps are useful tools to develop an approach to tourist activity and for interpret nature and landscapes from direct knowledge of the field but also they are a powerful tool for environmental educationin National Parks and Natural Protected Areas.