Keywords:
island barrier dune
recreation
zoning
visitor typology

Contact:  Mr. F. Zwart. National Forest Service Terschelling. Longway 28, 8881 CM Terschelling-West. The Netherlands.

Location:  The Netherlands, Province of Friesland

The Wadden Island Terschelling
Terschelling is a barrier island in the Dutch Wadden Sea and is about 30 km long and 3 – 4 km wide. Dune forming processes of this island began some 2000 years ago. The first inhabitants came to settle around 900 A.D and nowadays approximately 4800 people live on the island. Because of the human impact the vegetation had largely disappeared at the end of the eighteenth century and with large effort the drifting sand had to be fixed. The situation was under control around 1900 and since then, the shape of the dunes have remained unchanged. Since 1910 the island has been managed through the National Forest Service, which aimed in the first half of the 20th century to fix the drifting sand as well as support the afforestation and cultivation. Large areas even in the central part of today’s nature areas were drained. Nowadays the management is changed to a more nature orientated manner.

Recreation-management on Terschelling
Since 1974, the National Forest Service developed and implemented a policy with the aim to strike a balance between natural processes and human impact. An important criterion is that the number of beds in the tourist sector should be stabilised at 20.000. The economy of Terschelling depends to a great scale on tourism and recreation while nature provides the basis for this. Approximately 80% of the inhabitants are involved in tourism. About 370.000 tourists per year visit the island for an average stay of six days, over 90% of them want to enjoy nature. These tourists together with the islanders make more than 3 million outings to the nature areas. The manager must organise the influx of visitors in a way that (1) the quality of nature and landscape is maintained or even boosted and (2) visitors can maximally enjoy landscape and nature. Management has therefore resulted in a zoning scheme based on recreational functions and recreational infrastructure. The principle is a maximum access for the public but even on paths, some areas are only temporary closed. The zones are linked to the visitor-type: (1) pleasure seeker (<10% of all visitors). Areas for this group provide facilities for the reception and circulation of large numbers of visitors in a short period of time. Facilities are aimed at pleasure, safety and preventing damage or nuisance. (2) nature lover (75–80%). The zone for this group provide facilities like marked trails for cyclist, hikers and horseback riders, which are supported by informative and educational facilities, e.g. an extensive excursion programme. The supporting facilities are concentrated. The zone is located for giving the visitor a good impression of nature while the facilities are strongly aimed at inconspicuously guiding the large numbers of visitors. (3) naturalists (about 15%). Areas for these visitors are left as natural as possible, paths and tracks are not paved. To support a low visitor density facilities are scattered or even non-existent.

Results
By providing facilities that are adapted to visitors’ activities the quality of nature areas can be maintained to keep the basis for tourism intact, which is nature itself. This requires effective co-operation between the National Forest Service and other involved organisations such as the municipal authorities and the tourist office. Future work will focus on the improvement of this co-operation. Currently, a new vision on the structure of the island entitled ‘Terschelling after 2000’ is being developed, which puts emphasis on the importance of a sustainable use and development of the area. The island should maintain its unique features, should be able to distinguish itself from other areas, so that it will maintain its attractiveness as a tourist product also in the long term.

References

• Staatsbosbeheer (1995): Terschelling, naturally!. National Forest Service. Driebergen. (33.9.1).
• Staatsbosbeheer (1996): The Boschplaat. National Forest Service. Driebergen. (33.9.1).
• Zwart, F. (1997): Dune management in the Dutch Waddensea Islands with regard to outdoor recreation – how to find the right balance ?. In: Drees, M. (ed.). Coastal Dunes – Recreation and Planning. 118-120. EUCC. Leiden. (BCD97).
• Zwart, F. (1999): Nature, recreation and local economy towards a sustainable development on the island of Terschelling, The Netherlands. In: Rabski, K. (ed.). Connecting science and management in the coastal zone. EUCC. Poland.