ОФ «САМР Алатоо» разрабатывает инструменты для устойчивого туризма в ООПТ

СAMР Alatoo РF develops tools for sustainable tourism in protected areas

Today, as pressure on nature increases and tourism interest grows, it is especially important to preserve areas with unique natural, historical, and cultural value. To address this, the СAMР Alatoo PF, in cooperation with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic, is developing a methodology for assessing the tourism and recreation capacity of protected areas (PAs).

This tool will help determine how many people can safely and comfortably visit these territories without harming the environment, identify suitable types of tourism, understand which ecosystems are most sensitive to human presence, and plan tourism development in harmony with the preservation of flora, fauna, and landscapes.

The methodology is being developed within the framework of the project “Integrated Management of Particularly Valuable Mountain Ecosystems in Southern Kyrgyzstan”, implemented with the support of UNDP and funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

In early November, the project team and experts tested a draft version of the methodology in the field. They visited Kyrgyz-Ata and Kara-Shoro State Nature Parks in the Osh region. During meetings with park staff, data were collected on the length and infrastructure of popular routes, the number of visitors, and the most common types of tourism — horseback, hiking, and cultural-educational, among others.

These data will be processed and incorporated into the methodology’s calculation formulas to determine the sustainable tourism load — how many people can visit the area without damaging its ecosystems. According to statistics, in the past year, nearly 208,000 tourists visited Kyrgyzstan’s protected areas, including about 185,000 domestic visitors. Experts expect the number of people interested in eco-tourism to continue growing, making it essential to balance tourism flows to preserve mountain ecosystems and ensure harmonious coexistence between people and nature.

Additionally, the project will develop a methodology for assessing the ecological and tourism value of potential protected areas, allowing for the economic evaluation of their creation. In the future, these tools will become standardized instruments for government conservation agencies to support informed decision-making in the establishment, planning, and management of protected areas.