Management alternatives in national park areas: the case of Ilgaz Mountain National Park

National parks are the biggest and most important nature conservation systems in Turkey, but no effective protection approach has been applied in Turkey since the national park was established in 1976. Ilgaz Mountain National Park (IMNP) is a very important mountain ecosystem with its abundance of biological, natural and cultural diversity. It also has aesthetic and recreational potential and winter tourism facilities to attract a great number of visitors. But tourism policy in the area is not sustainable and there are management issues. For these reasons, all the factors and their alternatives were determined and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used to find the best management alternative. The model of protection-supported usage (0.3903) emerged as the most suitable management alternative.