A Methodology for Assessment of External Issues Facing National Parks, with an Application in Costa Rica

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Schelhas

Effective implementation of conservation and development strategies, such as buffer zones adjacent to national parks, requires tailoring these strategies to a park's individual external situation. A methodology is presented for conducting an assessment of adjacent land and local population issues for national parks. The methodology covers three principal subjects: (1) biological conservation issues, (2) the relationship between the park and local people, and (3) the socioeconomic situation of park neighbours.The methodology was applied to lands adjacent to Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica. The application provides a brief summary of the Park's external situation, for use in management and planning, and identifies the most effective types of conservation and development strategies for the region. In this case, the methodology identified the principal issue facing the Park as being the rapid conversion of lowland forest to pasture on lands adjacent to the Park. Solutions to this problem include stopping the cycles of migration and colonization that drive people to settle forested lands, and increasing the importance of forest in local land-use systems.

Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.


Author(s):  
Eunseong Jeong ◽  
Taesoo Lee ◽  
Alan Dixon Brown ◽  
Sara Choi ◽  
Minyoung Son

Governments have designated national parks to protect the natural environment against ecosystem destruction and improve individuals’ emotional and recreational life. National parks enhance environment-friendly awareness by conducting ecotourism activities and individuals with environment-friendly awareness are inclined to continue to visit national parks as ecotourism destinations. The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) is a widely used measure of environmental concern, suitable for measuring the environment-friendly attitude and revisit intention of visitors of national parks. Therefore, the study carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between the NEP, national park conservation consciousness and environment-friendly behavioral intention. Based on the results, an implication is presented to induce national parks to cultivate individual environment-friendly awareness and for visitors to pursue sustainable, environment-friendly tourism behavior. The findings indicate that national parks are to expand educational programs and facilities for eco-tourists visiting national parks to maintain a balanced relationship between themselves and nature and have a strong environmental awareness to preserve the natural environment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cormac Walsh

AbstractNational parks and other large protected areas play an increasingly important role in the context of global social and environmental challenges. Nevertheless, they continue to be rooted in local places and cannot be separated out from their socio-cultural and historical context. Protected areas furthermore are increasingly understood to constitute critical sites of struggle whereby the very meanings of nature, landscape, and nature-society relations are up for debate. This paper examines governance arrangements and discursive practices pertaining to the management of the Danish Wadden Sea National Park and reflects on the relationship between pluralist institutional structures and pluralist, relational understandings of nature and landscape.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Walter Musakwa ◽  
Trynos Gumbo ◽  
Gaynor Paradza ◽  
Ephraim Mpofu ◽  
Nesisa Analisa Nyathi ◽  
...  

National parks play an important role in maintaining natural ecosystems which are important sources of income and livelihood sustenance. Most national parks in Southern Africa are managed by their states. Before 2007, Gonarezhou National Park was managed by the Zimbabwe Parks Management and Wildlife Authority, which faced challenges in maintaining its biodiversity, community relations and infrastructure. However, in 2017 the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Zimbabwe Parks Management and Wildlife Authority formed an innovative partnership under the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust (GCT). This study examines the relationship between GCT management, Gonarezhou National Park stakeholders and communities as well as the impact of the relationship on biodiversity and ecosystems. The study also highlights challenges faced and lessons learned in managing Gonarezhou as a protected area. To obtain the information, key informant interviews, Landsat satellite imagery, secondary data from previous studies and government sources were utilized. The results indicate that the concerted efforts of the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust to manage the park are starting to bear fruit in improving biodiversity conservation, ecosystem management and engaging communities. However, challenges such as governance obstacles, problematic stakeholder management, maintaining trust in community relations, ensuring sustainability, managing the adverse impacts of climate change and human-wildlife conflicts must still be navigated to ensure the park’s sustainable management. Notwithstanding challenges, we argue that a partnership arrangement such as the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust is a desirable model that can be applied in national parks in Zimbabwe and Africa for better biodiversity management and tourism.


Oryx ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Wegge ◽  
Shailendra Kumar Yadav ◽  
Babu Ram Lamichhane

AbstractAs part of a landscape-scale programme for conserving tigers Panthera tigris the Khata corridor was established between Bardia National Park in Nepal and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in India in early 2000. We examined its functionality by comparing the status of tigers and prey in the corridor and in the adjacent National Park, using camera trapping, transect sampling and diet analysis of scats. Tiger movement was inferred from the photographs, and tiger–human conflict was assessed by means of questionnaires and interviews. The corridor harboured transient individuals as well as resident, breeding tigers. Tigers with core areas in the corridor were also recorded in the two protected areas, and vice versa. Wild prey was 3–4 times more abundant in the area of the National Park bordering the corridor than in the corridor itself, and domestic livestock constituted 12–15% of the tigers’ food in the corridor. Livestock losses and human fatalities or injuries were relatively low compared to within the buffer zones of the National Parks. Despite such problems and restrictions on grazing and extraction of natural resources, local residents were generally positive towards tigers and the corridor. The successful establishment of the corridor and the positive attitudes of local people were attributable to community development programmes initiated to compensate for the imposed restrictions, financed by the government and national and international organizations. By linking Bardia National Park and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary via the Khata corridor, a protected tiger landscape of c. 3,000 km2 was established in west-central Nepal and northern India.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
Olivia Schilling ◽  
Adrian Tejedor Gutierrez

Habitat management and restoration in buffer zones of national parks is critical for maintaining ecosystem services and biological connectivity in and around the parks’ core protected areas. Vegetation succession in abandoned plantations in buffer zones may take different paths that reach climax ecosystems in more or less time depending on the conditions of initial succession, thus enhancing or hindering biological connectivity and ecosystem services. This study documents the dominance of tree ferns in the initial stages of vegetation succession on abandoned pineapple plantations on the Andean foothills around Manu National Park, Peru, and discusses the role it may have on ecosystem restoration. Four years after abandonment, tree fern gametophytes grow under the shade of pineapple plants and melastomes. After 6-10 years of succession, the vegetation is dominated by a tree fern community composed of at least eight species, of which the most common are by far Cyathea delgadii and Cyathea microdonta. Cyathea microdonta functions as a short-lived pioneer, reaching its peak of live stem density in 6 to10 years and dying off in older plots. Cyathea delgadii, on the other hand, continues to grow and persists beyond 10 years of succession. Areas adjacent to abandoned pineapple fields have few tree ferns and higher tree species diversity, suggesting that pineapple agriculture and the resulting tree fern community may be a longer pathway to reach climax vegetation stages than other types of plantation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10090
Author(s):  
Shuiguang Chen ◽  
Xiaoxia Sun ◽  
Shipeng Su

A community can serve as a force that pushes national parks to realize sustainable development, while community participation is critical to the relationship between national park protection and community development. Therefore, the present study explored the community’s participation in the construction of Wuyishan National Park (hereinafter referred to as the Park) by means of case analysis and qualitative research. The research outcomes showed that the community’s participation was led by the authorities, which is a typical example of “passive participation”. In addition, the governing body of the Park and its communities did not form a sound organization that enabled them to manage and protect the Park in concerted efforts. In other words, they did not work well together, and had not yet established an effective community participation mechanism. Moreover, there were three major problems about the community’s participation in the Park’s governance: The community lacked the ability to take part in it, its participation took limited forms, and it displayed little initiative in the participation. To solve these problems, the present research proposes four mechanisms to improve community participation regarding technological, structural, social, and institutional resilience, i.e., intelligent guidance mechanism, nested organization mechanism, social mobilization mechanism, and institutional guarantee mechanism, respectively.


2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Bodziarczyk ◽  
Tomasz Zwijacz-Kozica ◽  
Anna Gazda ◽  
Janusz Szewczyk ◽  
Magdalena Frączek ◽  
...  

Abstract Effects of ungulate pressure on the development of young generation of trees is one of the most important issues in ecology and forestry. Ungulate pressure influence on the development of natural regeneration has been also reported from several national parks. Our study on the effects of ungulate browsing on the young generation of trees was conducted on more than 500 sample plots controlled during one growing season. The overall browsing pressure ranged from 7.6% in seedlings to 20.3% in low saplings. The pressure of ungulates on the regeneration of Picea abies, the dominant species in the Tatra National Park, was by and large below 1%. Broadleaved species were browsed more frequently. The relationship between the plot altitudes and browsing intensity was statistically significant for seedlings and low saplings; at the higher altitudes, the browsing pressure was greater. There was also observed a statistically significant relationship between the type of former management and the browsing degree in seedlings; in the areas subjected to “landscape protection”, the intensity of browsing was higher when compared to strictly protected areas. Pressure exerted by ungulates on tree regeneration was very unevenly distributed, i.e. some plots were heavily browsed and many others - not browsed at all. The most affected tree species were Salix caprea and Sorbus aucuparia, although the percentage of browsed individuals rarely exceeded 50%. Other species favored by ungulates was Acer pseudoplatanus; despite the high browsing pressure, this species was present among seedlings and tall saplings, suggesting that it would be able to recruit to the tree layer. Abies alba was browsed less frequently than the deciduous trees; however, among the tall saplings it was the third most browsed species.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Schilling ◽  
Adrian Tejedor Gutierrez

Habitat management and restoration in buffer zones of national parks is critical for maintaining ecosystem services and biological connectivity in and around the parks’ core protected areas. Vegetation succession in abandoned plantations in buffer zones may take different paths that reach climax ecosystems in more or less time depending on the conditions of initial succession, thus enhancing or hindering biological connectivity and ecosystem services. This study documents the dominance of tree ferns in the initial stages of vegetation succession on abandoned pineapple plantations on the Andean foothills around Manu National Park, Peru, and discusses the role it may have on ecosystem restoration. Four years after abandonment, tree fern gametophytes grow under the shade of pineapple plants and melastomes. After 6-10 years of succession, the vegetation is dominated by a tree fern community composed of at least eight species, of which the most common are by far Cyathea delgadii and Cyathea microdonta. Cyathea microdonta functions as a short-lived pioneer, reaching its peak of live stem density in 6 to10 years and dying off in older plots. Cyathea delgadii, on the other hand, continues to grow and persists beyond 10 years of succession. Areas adjacent to abandoned pineapple fields have few tree ferns and higher tree species diversity, suggesting that pineapple agriculture and the resulting tree fern community may be a longer pathway to reach climax vegetation stages than other types of plantation. 


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251383
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Maksanova ◽  
Taisiya Bardakhanova ◽  
Natalia Lubsanova ◽  
Darima Budaeva ◽  
Arnold Tulokhonov

The impact of protected areas on local communities is the subject of intense discussions as part of the implementation of the global ecosystem protection agenda. Conflicts between the interests of environmental protection and the needs of socio-economic development become particularly acute when large areas of land are taken out of economic circulation as a result of organizing protected areas. In this case, there is an urgent need for detailed and reliable information about the social impacts of such land withdrawal on the well-being of the local population. An analysis of the methodological approaches widely presented in the literature, used to assess the social impact of protected areas, testifies to the insufficiency of completed and practically applicable methodological guidelines for the areas with significant restrictions for people who form part of the protected landscape. In this study, we understand the cost estimate of the social impact of national parks on the local population as a quantitative calculation of the losses due to restrictions on their ownership rights to land and property assets. The methodological approach consists in considering the category of losses as a sum total of the actual damage and lost profits. The assessment algorithm includes three stages: systematization of social impacts on citizens, development of indicators and data collection, and calculation of actual damage to the population and lost profits. The assessment is performed using the example of the Tunkinsky National Park located in the Tunkinsky municipal district of the Republic of Buryatia, a region of the Russian Federation, where there are 14 rural settlements with a population of more than 20,000 people. The results of the calculations show that the losses of the rural population due to legal restrictions on the registration of land dealings amount to 170.4 million USD. Taking into account the potential amount of administrative fines and the value of property subject to demolition, the losses amount to 239.2 million USD. It is more than an order of magnitude greater than the amount of own revenues of the Tunkinsky municipal district in 2011–2019. The results obtained demonstrate the real picture of the impact of restrictions on the rights of local people to land within the boundaries of national parks and are useful for developing measures to account for their interests and include protected areas in the socio-economic development of regions. The methodological approach developed by the authors can be used in other national parks, where it is necessary to optimize the policy of improving land use for local residents.


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