[tomxor]

I think this is a potential basically everywhere, unfortunately most people do not respect the environment and given access will treat nature like a city. Where it becomes an issue is more a matter of forces acting to encourage "normal" people with no previous interest in nature to go and e.g have their piece of the pie for their worthless facebook pic.

Anecdotally, I've seen this multiple times on smaller scales in nature reserves in the UK, social networking and selfies definitely play a big role. It's usually the places with easy access, almost no commitment or effort required, easy selfie opportunities... in these locations in recent years i've observed massive amounts of litter and disrespect, to add insult to injury these intruders tend to be ignorant of safety in general, hurling rocks, boulders and bottles into the path of walkers and climbers bellow from cliff tops.

The reaction from local authorities is to add more fences and gates, locking previously available easy access routes... basically keep the barrier for entry into nature reserves high enough for careless people to stay away.

[akuji1993]

Went on a roadtrip through England in 2017 with a friend.

Your second paragraph was the reason we didn't like it at Stonehenge. Busses and busses of people, littering everywhere. They had to prohibit going near the rocks, as people would break off parts of it to take home (who in their right mind would fucking do this), draw on them, damage them otherwise... Huge bummer for me and my friend.

On the other hand, wandering through Dartmoor, meeting 5 people the whole day was absolutely one of the best memories of the trip. Easy access, no effort required is exactly the tourist category that we didn't enjoy in the end.

[magduf]

I visited Japan a couple months ago during "Golden Week", which is their big national vacation week. Several of the sites I visited were absolutely packed with (Japanese) tourists. No one was vandalizing anything, littering, or even acting rude and obnoxious, or in any way I could see breaking any of the rules. As an American, it was rather weird because American tourists wouldn't be like this at all. It's pretty amazing to see a culture where people know how to act properly even when there's a high degree of crowding.

[tomxor]

There are pros and cons of that culture though, Japan takes it to the other extreme from what i've read.

[magduf]

What extreme is that? As far as visiting when it's packed with Japanese tourists, I didn't see any downside aside from (obviously) some long lines and lots of people in the gardens.

Sure, Japan has some issues such as too much overwork in their culture, but America has that too. How many Silicon Valley engineers only work 40 hours? And how many poorer people have multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet and they still can't afford health insurance?

[kd5bjo]

Go on just about any cave tour in the US, and there’ll be at least one chamber filled with graffiti from sometime before the cave was protected/commercialized(1) as it will have been a popular youth spot. It’s never cleaned up because it’s now historical and gives the guides a good opportunity to lecture against vandalism.

(1) choose your preferred description

[tomxor]

> sometime before the cave was protected/commercialized

It doesn't matter what official designation it has or when it attained it, I'm using "nature reserve" to distinguish it from non-descript fields and planes. The point is that some parts of these amazing places got very easy access for uninterested people as roads and suburbs sprawl... and then the damage happens, but it becomes even worse due to selfies.