Examining the Conflicting Relationship between U.S. National Parks and Host Communities: Understanding a Community’s Diverging Perspectives

Abstract

The growing importance of participatory and collaborative approaches in resource management has resulted in an increased emphasis on identifying the complex relationships between natural national parks and neighboring rural communities. Given the limited number of studies dealing with parks beyond rural areas, our exploratory case study examines how conflict stemming from diverse community stakeholders’ perspectives and values in regard to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park influences their involvement and attitudes toward park management. Thirty-two interviews were conducted and analyzed using a content-analysis methodology. Guided by the Progress Triangle conflict management framework, each stakeholder’s views, interests, and aspirations associated with the missions were organized according to the framework’s three dimensions: Substance, procedure, and relationship. The study findings discussed how stakeholders’ varying perspectives regarding cultural resources influenced their interactions with urban historical national parks and their attitudes toward park management. Furthermore, how stakeholders can reconcile their differences through a collaborative approach for better park management was discussed.

The Pathways of Participation in the Morro Do Osso Municipal Park, Southern Brazil

“…Nevertheless, interviewees mentioned problems in regard to security and the impact of the presence of indigenous people in the Park. A similar situation was reported by Lee et al, (2018) in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas USA, where the park management considered that the objective of the protected area was incompatible with historical presence of native Indians and their cultural rituals in the region. Another problem mentioned was the difficulty faced by the Park administration due to the lack of financial resources and the discontinuity of the Municipal Government's environmental policies (Figure 3).…”

“…The investigation was carried out in response to a request the administration of the Protected Area made to a public research and teaching institution in order to improve the operationalization of its administration. Data gathering began with a documental survey at the offices of the PNMO and the SMAMS, Later data gathering took place in the field in the form of administering semi--structured interviews (DIETSCH et al, 2016;LEE et al, 2018) using a questionnaire with 14 questions addressing topics that included visions and values, involvement with the Park and changes in the course of time (ATTACHMENT 1). The choice of persons to be interviewed was made according to the Snowball technique described by Baldin and Munhoz (2011) that consists basically of a non-probabilistic sample in which the first participants indicate the next ones and so on.…”

“Because We Don’t Want to Run in Smog”: Problems with the Sustainable Management of Sport Event Tourism in Protected Areas (A Case Study of National Parks in Poland and Slovakia)

“…The need for effective policies to ensure that socioeconomic benefits to local communities are maximized and national interests are sustained is visible in protected areas all over the world [38]. The growing importance of participatory and collaborative approaches in resource management has resulted in an increased emphasis on identifying the complex relationship between natural national parks and neighboring communities as well [39]. In our study, we tried to answer a rather tricky question: Is it "sporting events or nature protection" that public authorities should set as their priority, when dealing with tourism in popular natural localities?…”

Reef Grief: investigating the relationship between place meanings and place change on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

“…Sense of place is referred to here as the emotional connection that people develop with a certain place that can include unique personal experiences, specific or meaningful objects (including parents, homes, jobs and pets) within the place, and the formal and informal networks that exist (Vong et al 2015(Vong et al , 2016Zhu et al 2017). Place attachment describes the selfassessed strength of the connection, and place identity refers to the distinctive character of the place and the resulting identity that people create about themselves as a result of living within it (Marshall et al 2012;Gurney et al 2017;Lee et al 2018).…”