No abstract

Even though legally protected, many areas worldwide are under a certain level of human pressure. Significant for humanity for many reasons, mountain regions are also threatened because of different anthropogenic activities, especially the ones with developed winter tourism. There are four main ski resorts in Serbia (Kopaonik, Zlatibor, Stara Planina and Brezovica) and the strongest environmental impact is registered on Kopaonik Mountain. In this paper, we tried to answer if winter tourism could be sustainable in protected areas, especially on Kopaonik Mountain, which is recognized as the largest ski resort in Serbia and a natural protected area of the highest state level-a National Park. The main threats to the environment in Kopaonik National Park are logging, building and construction of ski slopes, urbanization, artificial snow use, illegal and unplanned building. Negative consequences of winter tourism development are land degradation, deforestation, loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, ecosystem disturbances, erosion, soil loss and pollution, water and air pollution, noise and light pollution. Harmonizing tourism development with conservation activities within natural protected areas is one of the main priorities of sustainable use of natural values and resources. For the successful and sustainable development of an area, it is necessary to conduct multidisciplinary planning, based on the results from the relevant scientific disciplines.

This research presents a methodological framework for assessing the attractiveness of natural resources and landscapes and their importance for tourism development. The research is conducted in the area of Kopaonik Mountain in Serbia, which is partly, due to its natural values, declared a natural heritage of exceptional importance Protection Category I, i.e. the National Park. The goal of this paper is to identify and assess the tourist attractiveness of the natural resources (relief, hydrological and climatological characteristics, and vegetation) and landscapes in the National Park (NP) Kopaonik area. There are two independent methods used to assess the tourist attractiveness of natural resources and landscapes in this study. The first method is based on numerical and statistical analysis and quantitatively expresses the attractiveness of natural resources/elements (relief, climate, hydrology and vegetation) separately and all together, indicating the overall attractiveness of natural resources for tourism development. The second method envisages 8 criteria according to which natural landscapes are scored on a scale from 0 to 3. Based on a clearly defined model for assessing the attractiveness of natural resources and landscapes, we conclude that the area of Kopaonik National Park has a high level of tourist attractiveness.

The morphostructural relief of the highest parts of the central Kopaonik Mt was altered by exogenous agents, by denudation as a primary and periglacial processes as a secondary agent. Previous geomorphological studies were mostly focused on the traces of the Pleistocene glaciation, although no reliable evidence was found for this. Recent research, in the part of the mountain above 1,700 m of absolute height, points to geomorphological phenomena resulting from more recent processes within the periglacial environment. By means of geomorphological reconnaissance, analysis and mapping of the highest part of the Kopaonik mountain massif, forms of relief were studied, the ones that according to their morphology correspond to the periglacial forms and processes described in the conditions of high latitudes and high mountains. Determining the spatial coverage of the periglacial belt, especially its lower limit on Kopaonik Mt, is important for understanding the distribution of this climatic morphology both in Serbia and in South East Europe. The research contributes to one of the primary aims of exploring the concept of the periglacial zone, in terms of the regional distribution of its specific relief forms.

This paper presents the wine heritage of the municipality of Aleksandrovac, highlights the potential of wine tourism in this area and analyzes the factors that motivate and attract this selective form of tourism. The primary goal of the paper is to determine the possibility and perspectives of wine tourism development, but also the sustainable development of the municipality of Aleksandrovac, its surroundings and this part of Serbia through research, analysis and comparison. The task of the paper is to systematize the existing knowledge and define the segments of the wine tourism offer in the function of sustainable development.