page_title: Vikos–Aoös National Park
section_title: Park management
hierarchical_section_title: Vikos–Aoös National Park / Park management
caption_attribution_description: English: Some of the natural pools of Papingo, Vikos-Aoos National Park, Epirus, Greece.
context_page_description: The Vikos–Aoös National Park is a national park in the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece. The park, founded in 1973, is one of ten national parks in mainland Greece and is located 30 kilometres north of the city of Ioannina in the northern part of the Pindus mountain range. It is named after the two major gorges of the area and encompasses 12,600 hectares of mountainous terrain, with numerous rivers, lakes, caves, deep canyons, dense coniferous and deciduous forest. The park is part of the Natura 2000 ecological network and one of UNESCO Geoparks and spans an elevation range from 550 to 2,497 meters. Over 100,000 people visit the park each year and take part in activities including rafting, canoe-kayaking, hiking and mountain biking.
  The core of the park, an area of 3,400 hectares, comprises the spectacular Vikos Gorge, carved by the Voidomatis river. The gorge's main part is 12 km long and attains a depth of 1,000 meters. The Aoös gorge, Mt Tymphe, and a number of traditionally preserved settlements form the park's peripheral zone.
context_section_description: The Vikos–Aoös area was designated as a National Park in 1973, in an effort by the Greek Government to conserve the richness of the local fauna and flora and the geological formations of the area.
  The administration and management of the Vikos–Aoös National Park belongs to two district forest offices, supervised by a forest directorate at the prefecture level. Moreover, the office of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the village of Papingo plays an essential role in management issues. Apart from government efforts, incentives have been given to local management organizations and the local population to participate in the protection of the park. Forestry activities, grazing, hunting, and fishing are prohibited by law in the park's core. There are no such restrictions in the peripheral zone but the Forest Service can take any necessary measure for the realization of the aims of the park. Apart from the above-mentioned activities, dangers to the park include land erosion, landslides, and wildfires which threaten the local flora and fauna. Another issue is the impact of tourism in recent decades. On the other hand, extreme geophysical conditions make the construction and maintenance of the necessary infrastructure network, mainly access routes and telecommunications, difficult.
  The vast area of the National Park and the present lack of road infrastructure make remote sensing the only means for monitoring the human activities in the area and their impact on the ecosystem. An analysis has begun by taking a detailed picture of the territory covering at least the following items: orography and slopes, road networks, land cover and use, human settlements, and tourist sites. The use of remote sensing and geographic information system techniques is of essential value for the park's management and constitutes the basis for further evaluations and impact analysis.
  The objective of the present state and regional policy is to carefully combine tourism development in the area with the preservation of its natural and cultural heritage. Ecotourism poses an ideal solution, since it has the potential of bringing about the desired balance between socio-economic development and environmental protection. Specific objectives of ecotourism development include reviving traditional activities such as small-scale farming and stock-raising, as well as establishing a network of communities of chamois biotopes.
caption: Natural pools near Papingo
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D70", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "f-spot version 0.4.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:11 22:51:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "220", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2356", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8806", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:04:30 11:54:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:04:30 13:54:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "20", "EXIF SubSecTime": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "70", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3008", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2220", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "30", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}