Mutual Impacts of Geocaching and Natural Environment

Rising popularity of geocaching is linked to increased risk of negative impacts on natural environment. Based on that, this paper intends to present possible approach of how to evaluate these impacts in the Landscape protected area Moravian Karst (Czech Republic) and in the Vrátna dolina valley (National park Malá Fatra, Slovak Republic). Recreation along with nature conservation has been solved in these areas in the log-run and geocaching has been steadily extending offer of recreational activities. Therefore, it seems desirable to examine how geocaching affects environment and simultaneously how topography or land cover influences availability or difficulty of caches. 57 caches (i.e. one third of the total) has been analyzed in the Moravian Karst and 11 caches in the Vrátna dolina valley. To assess impacts, own classification of indicators has been suggested, such as cache attendance, environment attractiveness or visually detected impacts of geocaching on natural environment. Our study revealed the major risk lies primarily in geo-highways which - with respect to soil type, land cover and intensity of cache attendance - grow rather fast. Despite the local nature of detected impacts, an increased attention shall be devoted to environment care and specifically to regulation of attendance.