Fundacion Parke Nacional, Aruba’s national park, FPNA, is proud of its mission to conserve the island’s natural and cultural heritage for future generations, while inspiring and engaging the local community and visitors to do the same. The Foundation’s existing policy of allowing, yet discouraging, unregulated motorized mass/adventure recreation inside our protected areas, impedes FPNA in its ability to effectively conserve those areas under its care.
Consistent with FPNA’s role as an independent authority in terms of nature conservation and sustainability and a voice for Aruba’s collective nature consciousness; possessing the legal right to introduce policies to safeguard our nature conservation objectives and congruent with our duty to protect and conserve nature. we will set out the underlying policies to regulate the motorized mass/adventure recreation while enabling a more sustainable approach to recreation.
Execution of FPNA’s policy on managing the conflict between nature conservation and adventure tourism is based on a three-phased approach. The first phase, which will be in effect as of June 1st, 2020, will entail a complete halt on entrance for All Terrain Vehicles (ATV), Utility Terrain Vehicles (UTV), Motorcycles, Buggies and Trikes. ATV’s, motorcycles, buggies, trikes and other types of motorized high-impact vehicles are expressly banned from all nature protection areas under FPNA’s management.
During a transitory phase, which is scheduled to end on the 31st of October 2020, FPNA will allow entrance to UTVs, under the strict condition that they are part of a guided visit, tour operator, registered with FPNA. Additionally, there will be limitations in regards to caravan size and frequency of daily entrance.
The first phase will also entail a halt of new registrations of motorized tour operators to operate in the protected areas managed by FPNA which will render greater opportunity to manage current registrations.
The phases of the policy are designed to regulate undesired traffic inside protected areas managed by FPNA, but also encourage sustainable recreation in the form of low impact tours. The policy document is available on the Aruba National Park website.
FPNA foresees that with these sets of policies it will not only curb the unregulated mass/adventure tourism but it will foster sustainable recreation inside the protected areas under management of FPNA. Lastly, FPNA will periodically evaluate this policy and adapt accordingly to the benefit of nature conservation and the safety of all visitors alike.
