Local discourses and international initiatives: sociocultural sustainability of tourism in Oulanka National Park, Finland

Abstract National parks have become important tourist attractions and tools for regional development. New international initiatives, such as PAN (Protected Area Network) Parks in Europe, now promote sustainable tourism in protected areas. This paper examines the sociocultural sustainability of tourism perceived by local stakeholders of Oulanka National Park in northeastern Finland. The central question concerns the role of PAN Parks certification in community and tourism development. Four discourses were identified, based on 40 semi-structured interviews exploring different views on sociocultural development pertaining to tourism in the national park: (1) integrating nature-based tourism and conservation, (2) defending the rights of local people, (3) stressing the economic utilization of nature and (4) accepting tourism development and the national park. Although local stakeholders mostly have a positive perception of tourism in the park, it cannot be concluded whether the park facilitates development in a sustainable manner or not. Key problems identified are lack of participation opportunities and contradictions with traditional subsistence economies. The various positions of stakeholders in these discourses tend to influence their views on sustainability. Findings imply the necessity to monitor the distribution of benefits and burdens of park development holistically to multiple stakeholders. Keywords: sustainable tourismnature-based tourismnational parkscertificationPAN ParksFinland Acknowledgements We especially thank the interviewees who took part in this study. We gratefully acknowledge Mylène van der Donk, Emma Pakkanen, Hanne Vaarala and the staff of the Oulanka Research Station for the assistance with the interviews. The study was funded by the Academy of Finland (projects no 114490 and 118363). We also thank four anonymous referees for helpful comments. Notes 1. See www.panparks.org.