A systemic perspective on sustainable governance of protected areas

Abstract

This paper discusses systemic aspects of protected area research with a particular focus on systemic governance. Protected areas are embedded within a dynamic system of socioeconomic-ecological interactions on various geographical, value-ethical, cultural and political scales. For example, recent energy politics exacerbates existing pressures on land use for renewable energy generation and challenges the goals and objectives of protection categories. The category or classification of a protected area according to the IUCN framework is influenced by the regional political and cultural differentiations, which concern all aspects of protected areas in their social, ecological and economic interactions. The category has an influence on how the local population is affected or benefits from the protection of an area, and what kind of visitors are coming to or engaging with the protected area. The category is also influenced by the acceptance of the local population and visitors or tourists. Protected areas increasingly operate as multifunctionally managed areas where visitors and inhabitants are integrated into the management concept. Category groups have a decisive and inverse influence on visitor management and protected area governance, which itself is steered by political and cultural characteristics. Changing value ethics of visitors affect the governance of protected areas and new partnerships need to be built for their sustainable management. This paper synthesizes such systemic aspects in a mountain context and concludes with an outline for future research.

Assessment of the Ecological Protection Effectiveness of Protected Areas Using Propensity Score Matching: A Case Study in Sichuan, China

“…In the future, we should first sure that all national protected areas can truly achieve continuous and effective protection. Taking advantage of the short distances between these protected areas, we merged and reorganized them with scattered county-level and other levels of protected areas to form a networked and systematic system of protected areas [43]. A good example of this practice is the current national park system implemented in China [44].…”

Criteria for the Protected Area Management Category Framework in Peninsular Malaysia for Sustainable Conservation Planning

“…This aspect is fundamental in underlying the role of conservation and should be present in every category of protected area management. Now protected areas are no longer considered an isolated areas but as an area often associated with economic generation through recreational activities and eco-tourism [24] [25] [26] [27]. However, the use of these economic criteria and sub-criteria is only focused on areas that allow access to the public and have appropriate recreational elements only.…”

Großschutzgebiete als Schlüsselakteure regionaler Transformation Richtung Nachhaltigkeit?

“…Im Strang Governance und Management sind Fragen beispielsweise nach erfolgversprechenden Strukturen (u. a. Arbeitsgruppen, Projektorganisation, Netzwerke) und der Einbindung der Akteure in diese Strukturen von Bedeutung (Pütz et al 2017;Pütz & Job 2016;Voll & Luthe 2014). Ebenso sind Fragen zum Schutzgebietsmanagement zentral (z.…”