This page last modified 30 April 1999
United Kingdom
- 1995, February 20: Protest along royal footpath
- 1994, October 19: Prince faces army of angry walkers
- 1993, September 14: Land's End
- 1993, July 1: Young and old net big rises in cost of fishing...
Sweden
- 1998, May: What Is the Future of Swedish National Parks?
I July 1993. Billericay & Wickford
Special (UK)
ANGLERS young and old at Billericay's
Lake Meadows can expect massive increases in the price of fishing
the lake following the privatisation of its management.
Basildon Council has licensed Angling Enterprises to run three
fishing lakes in the district, including Lake Meadows.
But to cover the cost of restocking the waters and improvements,
the company has increased prices. That means 11 to 15 year olds
with two rods can expect charge increases of nearly 400 per cent
for a day's fishing and OAPs with two rods will see rises of nearly
300 per cent. Adult charges will also increase.
The Tory authority decided to hand over management to a private
firm because the council was making approximately a £l5,000
loss on maintenance of the lakes. Now they will receive a £4,000
fee from Angling Enterprises for the right to manage the three
lakes for a year.
RESTOCKING
Angling Enterprises boss, Mr Mick Toomer, told the Gazette he
did not think the charge increases were unreasonable but that
they simply brought prices at the lakes in line with other lakes
in the area.
He said: "There is an awful lot of work that needs to be
done on rebuilding the banks and I'm also restocking the waters.
"On top of this I'm paying Basildon Council and two bailiffs
to patrol the lakes. All this costs a lot of money."
He added that of the three lakes taken over, Lake Meadows is in
the best condition and far more work would he needed on the other
two. But he denied that anglers at Billericay would he subsidising
those at other lakes.
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
Deputy leader of Basildon Council, Mr Malcolm Buckley, also thought
the charges reflected going rates and added: "The improvements
that are planned for the lakes will be of great benefit to all
who fish in them. This firm will be able to provide the expertise
and facilities that the council could not."
But leader of Basildon's Labour Group, Cllr John Potter, said:
"This decision was not made in the interest of the anglers
or the people of the district, it was made in the interest of
private enterprise and profit.
"The contract wasn't even put out to tender so we have no
way of knowing if it is competitive."
An adult day ticket for two rods will now cost £5 instead
of £4.80, 11 to 15 year-olds will pay £3.50 instead
of 90p and OAPs will pay £3.50 as opposed to £1.30.
Day charges for those fishing with one rod will be £1 for
five to 11-year olds, £2 for 11 to 15-year-olds (both of
which groups would have previously paid 65p) and £3 for
those over 16 as opposed to the old charge of £2.40.
Season tickets are also to be introduced and a range of discounts
for the disabled fishers.
[Reprinted in 'Public Access', No. 3. October 1993]
14 September 1993. The Press (Christchurch, NZ)
Sir,--
Three years ago my wife and I enjoyed a holiday in the UK, travelling
thousands of miles by car from Scotland's John O'Groats to Land's
End in Cornwall. To our surprise, the Land's End road was fenced
off some miles from our southernmost destination ("Land's
End Private Theme Park") and a gatekeeper had his hand out
for £3.50 a head (about $10). More because of a principle
than the costs we chose to return to a small village called Sennen
Cove and from there walked the cliff track around to the point,
and the inevitable gift shop overlooking the ocean. Thankfully,
the coastal strip was accessible and the point itself, but free
access by road has been denied to the public. Do not let it happen
in this country. Privately owned coastal areas are not acceptable
to most New Zealanders.
Alan Wills
[Reprinted in 'Public Access', No. 4. May 1994]
19 October 1994. The Press (Christchurch, NZ,
ex The Observer)
Britain's walkers are on the war-path against landowners, including Prince Charles, who do not allow them right of way. Polly Ghazi reports--
Prince Charles, along with several peers of the realm (members of the nobility) and hundreds of farmers, will be targeted for walker-hostile behaviour during a "year of action" to revive Britain's ancient rights-of-way network.
The country-loving prince has incurred the wrath of the Ramblers' Association, which represents Britain's 12 million walkers and hikers. The association launched its campaign last Wednesday, its 60th anniversary, with the aim of forcing the clearance of 600 public footpaths blocked or ploughed over by landowners.
Most of the paths are in remote countryside and run across some of the wildest and most beautiful landscapes in England, Scotland, and Wales. One notable exception is the Thames footpath, whose recalcitrant landowner is the heir to the throne.
For decades walkers have been of officially denied access to Duchy of Cornwall land (owned by the Prince) alongside the Albert Embankment in London, which the ramblers assert is a public right of way.
Access to Lacks Dock, opposite the Tate Gallery, is blocked by a high wall. Last year, at the Duchy's insistence-- and taxpayers' expense-- a second fence was erected 200 metres to the west, between the prince's land and the new headquarters of MI6.
Since then, a new section of the path has been built outside the MI6 building and the Duchy has finally entered negotiations with Lambeth Council to allow the two walls to be knocked down -- as long as Lambeth pays to renovate the path. A Duchy spokeswoman said an agreement would probably be signed "soon".
However, David Beskine, assistant director of the Ramblers' Association, is sceptical. "They've been close to signing agreements back in the 60s-- we'll believe it when it happens. It seems our spies are less scared of letting the public on their land than Prince Charles is." The attitude of the Duchy, which refers to people straying on to Lacks Dock as "trespassers" is typical of landowners across the country, says Mr. Beskine.
In the county of Suffolk, where few rights of way have been legally recognised because of the strength of landowners' influence, the association will lobby county councils to create six new public pathways.
"In the early 50s, when county councils were mapping rights of way, Suffolk villages still had a distinctly feudal flavour," says John Andrews, chairman of the Suffolk Ramblers. "People wouldn't think of doing anything to displease his lordship. He was often a major employer as well as landowner, and there was very little political will to get ancient rights of way legally recognised."
Only one new public right of way has been created during the Ramblers' Association's existence. This was in 1988, when a footpath was created along one edge of Wychwood, a piece of woodland near Oxford, after years of wrangling with the landowner, Lord Rotherwick. Negotiations are still continuing over His Lordship's claim for $3.75 million in compensation.
The Ramblers' Association hopes to achieve 12 new footpaths during its campaign. This will involve mobilising thousands of members to lobby local authorities to use their statutory powers to issue compulsory footpath creation orders. But the main effort will be on clearing the hundreds of kilometres of legal rights of way obstructed by landowners.
"A survey by the Countryside Commission showed that, during a typical (3 km) walk along a right of way, you would have a 70 per cent chance of encountering an obstruction put there by landowners," says Mr. Beskine.
[Reprinted in 'Public Access', No. 5, November 1994]
20 February 1995 . The Daily Post
LONDON--Demonstrators demanding
Britain's Queen Elizabeth reopen a footpath through her Windsor
Castle estate to the public scored a tactical victory today when
police allowed them to walk along it to make their protest.
About 500 people fighting a new anti-trespass law gathered near
the castle to call for the 2.4km path to form part of a route
for walkers along the length of the River Thames.
After negotiations with the police, the demonstrators became the
first members of the public to walk along the path since Queen
Victoria decreed it closed in 1860. As they did so, some chanted
anti-royalist slogans such as "We're going to the castle,
burn Windsor".
Explaining the decision to admit the protesters, a police spokesman
said: "It is in the best interests of everybody to deal with
this matter sensitively."
The Queen's estate managers are resisting a permanent reopening
of the path to the public on security grounds.
But protest spokeswoman Dixie Dean said: "We feel we have
a right to walk in the countryside whenever we choose without
having to suffer arrest and harassment." -- (Reuter)
{Reprinted in 'Public Access', No. 6. August 1995]
Published by the Swedish Institute (Home Page)
'Current Sweden' No 419
May 1998
TIM TILTON
The sheer natural beauty of national parks has always engendered a sense of wonder. Today they also stand out for their exceptional status as social institutions. In an era marked by privatization, market dominance, and pressures for the exploitation of natural resources, national parks constitute an anomaly. The designation of national parks sets aside certain resources as public property protected from the unimpeded course of economic development and considerably insulated from the corrosive pressures of markets. Can parks preserve this distinctive status, resisting not only economic development, but also potential threats from excessive numbers of visitors and environmental hazards?
The Development of the Swedish
National Park System
In 1909 the Swedish Parliament, or Riksdag, authorized the formation
of ten national parks, the first not only in Sweden but also in
Europe. Nine of these were established the following year-Abisko,
Stora Sjöfallet, Sarek, Pieljekaise, Sånfjället,
Hamra, Garphyttan, Ängsö, and a portion of Gotska Sandön.
This innovative legislation was part of a larger nature protection
package; a companion bill extended protection to smaller natural
sites. These measures could trace their lineage to the American
national parks, the German conservation movement, and the explorer
A. E. Nordenskiöld's advocacy of national parks in Scandinavia.
In 1904 the Riksdag had endorsed Karl Starbäck's proposal
for the protection of Sweden's natural treasures, but implementation
languished until 1907 when the Ministry of Agriculture appointed
a group of experts to formulate the principles underlying the
new legislation. Although the committee benefited from suggestions
by scientists and forestry officials across the country, it did
not conduct a systematic inventory of lands or establish general
criteria for the establishment of parks. Limiting themselves to
publicly-owned land, they picked a heterogeneous group of areas
based largely on the suggestions of local foresters. The final
selections gave the system a shape it still largely retains, a
variety of areas but with the major acreage concentrated in the
mountainous north.
A national park service has never been created in Sweden. Instead,
for the first decades of their existence, the administration of
the parks was delegated to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Since the government provided virtually no funding, the Academy
was compelled to manage the parks essentially as a volunteer organization.
Understandably, the Academy focused on scientific issues rather
than on economics or tourism. Adhering to the scientific teachings
of the day, the Academy supported a passive management strategy
of simply "leaving the new parks to nature." Within
a couple of decades the hazards of this approach became apparent.
Ängsö and Garphyttan, formerly cultivated landscapes
famed for their brilliant wildflower displays, were soon taken
over by weeds and brush that stifled the flora that the park was
established to protect! It took decades more and a shifting of
administrative responsibility before a more active and effective
strategy could be pursued. A change of vocabulary confirmed this
change of approach; in the 1960s, the breakthrough decade for
environmental concerns in Swedish politics, politicians began
to speak of naturvård rather than naturskydd, of nature
conservation rather than nature protection.
The Swedish park system had its ups and downs in its early years. Five new parks were added to the system-Dalby Söderskog (1918), Vadvetjåkka (1919), Norra Kvill and Blå Jungfrun (1926), and Töfsingdalen (1930). With the possible exception of Blå Jungfrun, an austere island in the Baltic purchased with funds donated by industrialist Torsten Kreuger, none of these parks or the original nine possessed significant economic resources-with one exception. This exception was Stora Sjöfallet in the mountains of Lapland. Its major attraction, a majestic waterfall, beckoned to the state hydroelectric power company and its supporters. In 1910 the government approved the building of a power station in Porjus to support the development of mines and a railroad in northern Sweden; it seems likely that the engineers' plans anticipated an expansion of the plant that would seriously compromise the national park. In 1917, in the midst of wartime privation, the Academy of Sciences capitulated to the economic arguments for expansion, citing the potential for enormous economic gains and the rigors of Sweden's situation. With minimal consideration the Riksdag approved expansion and, faced with the imminent flooding of park areas, redrew the boundaries of the park so as to exclude the damaged areas! Further incursions continued until the so-called "peace of Sarek" in 1961, when in exchange for some final concessions, the champions of hydroelectric power accepted the establishment of Padjelanta national park and limits upon further development of free-flowing rivers. What these episodes demonstrated was that without the support of a powerful political consensus, even the public property in national parks could be violated. As late as 1962 a government study commission could write that what had been preserved as parks and nature reserves were "left-overs that remained unexploited because of their inaccessibility, minimal economic value, or other considerations that had nothing to do with environmental protection."
Environmental and conservation issues languished during the depression of the 1930s and the wartime decade of the 1940s. In the 1950s the Swedish government rejected the idea of a separate agency to deal with environmental issues, but Sweden's rapid industrialization and its intense exploitation of nature led to the formation of the State Environmental Protection Board in1963 and its successor, the National Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket), in 1967. Valfrid Paulsson, the agency's director from1967 to 1991, recalls that the pressures of establishing the agency and dealing with such immediate problems as recycling, air and water pollution, and the preservation of rural property took precedence over national park issues in the early years. The agency focused instead on the acquisition of nature reserves, a less restrictive method of conserving natural assets. (In 1997 Sweden had 6,423 square kilometers preserved as national parks and 27,493 square kilometers in nature reserves, about eight per cent of the country's surface.)
The National Park Plan and
Its Implementation
The National Environmental Protection Agency assumed formal responsibility
for the administration of national parks in 1976, a step which
signified both the importance environmental concerns were to have
in park management and the beginning of the modern era of national
park administration. By this time the system had grown to sixteen
parks, although between 1930 (Töfsingdalen) and 1982 (Store
Mosse) only two new parks had been added, Muddus in 1942 and Padjelanta
in 1963. Things were soon to change. New parks, based on extensive
national and regional inventories of land use and potential park
lands in the 1960s and 1970s, began coming on line in the1980s.
In 1989 the agency published its Nationalparksplan för Sverige
(National Park Plan for Sweden), an action plan outlining the
new strategy for parks.
The plan rested on criteria approved in 1986. These criteria, derived from international standards, stated that national parks should, among other things, cover a large area (normally at least 2,500 acres, or 1,000 hectares), be relatively untouched, be of scenic value, and "consist of areas with representative or unique types of Swedish landscape in a system covering the whole country." Two novel (and mutually supportive) features stand out here- the emphasis on a more even distribution of parks throughout the country and the emphasis on representative landscapes which would preserve typical rather than unique features (and which could serve as reference areas for similar landscapes elsewhere). The plan called for twenty new parks, revisions of seven others, and the transformation of three parks and part of a fourth into nature reserves. If the plan were fully implemented, the total number of parks would increase from the twenty then in existence to a total of thirty-three. The total park area would increase almost fourfold to encompass about five per cent of the country's land surface.
Since 1990 five new parks have been instituted (Björnlandet, 1991; Djurö, 1991; Tyresta, 1993; Haparanda Skärgård, 1995; and Tresticklan, 1996) and a sixth, Norra Kvill, modestly expanded. Three more, Fulufjället, Skäralid and Jämtlandsfjällen are nearing completion. On September 10th, King Carl XVI Gustaf will dedicate Färnebofjärden, Sweden's twenty-sixth national park, a wild, wet and biologically diverse tract in the lower Dala River basin. Acquisition for other parks have been proceeding with more or less success, depending on the willingness of private landowners to sell. Given the money and the effort required to purchase large areas of privately-held property, the agency's unwillingness to use its power of eminent domain, and its reluctance to establish parks without total public ownership, these achievements are impressive. By way of contrast, the goal of reducing small parks to nature reserves has encountered predictable political obstacles and has been quietly shelved as not worth the effort.
The most controversial and least successful effort concerns the visionary plan for a vast alpine park, Kirunafjällen, in the far north. Kirunafjällen would merge the existing parks Abisko and Vadvetjåkka with vast new acreage to the south to produce a new park more than twice the size of any existing one.
The Kirunafjällen project anticipated combining increased tourism with environmental preservation; recognizing existing hunting, fishing, and reindeer husbandry rights; allowing some continued use of snowmobiles in appropriate zones; introducing the use of park "rangers" on the American model; and administering the park through a foundation with strong local and regional representation. The key to combining all these diverse goals was the great size of the proposed park and a system of zoning for different uses within it. These proposals, already circulating in the late 1980s, did not please the local population. The Sami (Lapps) feared restrictions on their tending of reindeer. Hunters, fishermen, and snowmobilers rose up in protest. The unionized miners in the Kiruna area rejected the pledges of the distant government in Stockholm. Fifteen thousand disgruntled citizens signed a letter of protest. In the face of this resistance, the agency yielded and the project is currently in limbo.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the wake of the movement for decentralization, the day- to-day management of the parks passed to the regional level of government. Here parks must compete with totally unrelated activities for funds and they do not always have success; the large northern parks, for example, suffer from insufficient staffing. At least five different administrative arrangements have proliferated on the regional level, of which the most innovative and promising is the foundation which governs Tyresta, a heavily-visited park near Stockholm. The foundation is funded with a major contribution from the National Environmental Protection Agency and minor contributions from the local municipalities. Income from the endowment covers annual operating costs; the fund's growth offers protection against inflation. The foundation's governing board consists of two representatives from the National Environmental Protection Agency, two from the Stockholm regional administration, two from the Stockholm city administration, and three from municipalities bordering the park. The board selects a managing director to oversee the day-to-day operations of the park. This administrative arrangement has two great advantages: it provides representation for national, regional, and local interests and it provides a source of maintenance funds virtually impervious to budget cuts and political manipulation.
The National Environmental Protection Agency has recently published Nationalparkerna i Sverige (National Parks in Sweden). The book's predecessor, published more than a decade ago, became a surprise best-seller in Sweden and was translated into English and German. The current volume is a worthy successor. It contains spectacular photographs of Sweden's twenty-five national parks and their flora and fauna. The description of each park covers its landscape features, plant life, animal life, and human history and contains a map of each park with directions on how to reach it. In addition, eleven Swedish authors have written short accounts of their personal experiences in some of the most remarkable of these natural areas; their brief sketches capture "a sense of place" as well as the distinctive attractions of Sweden's natural heritage.
The Future: Will Swedish
National Parks Be Loved to Death?
The emerging Swedish national park system has bright prospects
of realizing its objectives of environmental preservation. The
sheer size of the new park system ensures that visits are widely
dispersed. The designation of the Laponian area as a World Heritage
Site in 1996 should assist in preserving what is the largest contiguous
area of relatively undisturbed nature in Europe; it incorporates
four national parks-Padjelanta, Sarek, Stora Sjöfallet, and
Muddus-as well as two nature reserves-Sjaunja and Stubba-into
an area roughly 120 miles by 50 miles (200 kilometers by 80).
Both individual parks and the system as a whole are zoned to channel
visitors to limited areas and to preserve others relatively inviolate.
The Environmental Protection Agency recognizes that parks like
Tyresta and Stenshuvud, which lie near large urban areas, will
be heavily visited, but other more remote parks like Sarek are
designed to provide more of a wilderness experience. Wherever
possible, authorities buffer parks with nature reserves to offer
additional protection. The very remoteness of some areas keeps
the number of visits low. To reach a popular hiking destination
in Padjelanta from Stockholm one must take an overnight train,
bus, helicopter, and boat, a trip of some nineteen hours. It is
not surprising, then, that visits to some parks numbers in the
hundreds or low thousands per year (in contrast to Tyresta which
has nearly a million). The fact that responsibility for promoting
tourism in the parks falls to local organizations, some of them
with quite modest organization and funding, helps moderate visitor
pressure.
Swedish national parks also benefit from the fact that they exist within a distinctive system of private property. In Sweden private property rights yield to "the right of public access" (allemansrätt). "In Sweden the Right of Public Access allows you to roam about freely or to go camping in the countryside," as one pamphlet for visitors puts it. Or in the more lyrical Swedish version: "Wonderful Swedish nature stands open for us all-we can enjoy the smells, the songs of the birds, the blooming meadows and the forest's silent peace." Visitors may walk, jog, cycle, ride, and ski on private land, though they may not drive a motor vehicle. They are at liberty to pick mushrooms, wild berries, and wildflowers (unless they are legally protected), but not twigs, branches, bark, leaves, acorns, nuts, or resins from growing trees. They can swim, boat, and light a fire if conditions permit. (National park regulations often limit the right of public access in the interest of preservation.) Far from being some radical social democratic initiative, these extensive citizens' rights are a medieval legacy; they derive from the accepted rights of the medieval traveler. All these rights, it should be noted, exist within a system of restraints that forbid the visitor to intrude upon the landowner's privacy or to damage his property. A person cannot camp on someone's lawn or destroy his crops. A consequence of the right of common access is that it reduces the number of visits to national parks. When citizens may roam largely at will, the pressure to treat national parks as the major venues for nature tourism declines.
Nonetheless, threats to Swedish national parks remain. Mechanized access to parks-the use of snowmobiles or of motorbikes and helicopters in reindeer herding-obviously threatens natural quiet and the security of wildlife. The danger of underfunding parks and park administration has increased as Sweden's public sector is squeezed by financial pressures and as regional administrations weigh such spending against other priorities. Swedish national parks and trails rely on visitors' willingness to maintain park amenities. As more European visitors, unfamiliar with Swedish traditions and park regulations, discover Swedish parks, standards of maintenance may deteriorate. Anecdotes about the un-Swedish behavior of foreign hikers and campers abound. Finally, observers point to the threat of industrial pollution, often generated beyond Swedish borders, upon Sweden's natural heritage.
In Sweden, as elsewhere, national parks are no longer the same institution they were at the time of their founding. More than a little of the nature patriotism and the uneasiness about industrial civilization that originally inspired them remains, but supplemented with a strong dose of modern ecological consciousness. The negligent management of the early years has given way to a unique combination of national oversight, modest but conscientious regional administration, and user maintenance. In the short term, the environmental commitments of the Swedish people and of their political representatives would seem to preclude gross violations of the parks' integrity; the more immediate threats look to be inadequate financing, industrial pollution, and excessive number of visitors. In the longer term, the threats of overpopulation and resource shortages in Europe may pose graver dangers to national parks.
Tim Tilton is Professor of Political Science and West European Studies at Indiana University. He is the author of The Political Theory of Swedish Social Democracy and numerous articles about Swedish politics.
The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.
[This article is part of the Swedish Institute's information service. It can be used as background information on condition that the source is acknowledged].
ISRN SI-CS--98/419-ENG--SE