Over the last few decades forest and outdoor recreation have been emerging as important leisure activities for the peoples of southeast Asia. This is occurring in cultures without explicit terminology for recreation and in places where there has not been a tradition of forest and outdoor recreation.
As recreation has emerged as a phenomenon in southeast countries, researchers have begun to study it and to provide information for understanding it, exploring its relationship to other cultural phenomena, and incorporating it into planning decisions. Studies describing national and international recreation and tourism, studies of the use of national parks and forest areas, and studies of private tourism enterprises have been common. Also, some research has been done on the behavior of recreationists and the implications of that behavior for natural resources, economies, and land planning. The relationship of recreation to traditional culture and to cultural sites has been an important focus of recreation research in some areas. Finally, landscape aesthetics has received some attention over the past several decades.
Given the relatively dense populations in the countries of southeast Asia, future research will necessarily begin to deal with raising demand and the impacts of use on forest and other nature areas. This in turn will lead to further study of recreation behavior and the development of planning and management technologies. At the same time, one should expect the continuation of interest in studies dealing with culture and cultural sites, tourism, economics, and the role of recreation in the life of urban people.
This paper explores the development of recreation research and where it might be heading in three very populous southeast Asian countries.
Key words: forest recreation research, southeast Asia, research perspectives.
Correspondence: Seong-Il Kim, Seoul National Univ., Dept. of Forest Res., 103 Seodoon Dong, 441-744 Suweon, Rep. of Korea
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