Governance Networks for Effective Custodians' Participation in The Sustainability of Langkawi as a Geopark

Abstract

The Global Geopark Networks (GGN) created the concept of "geopark" as a geographically designated area that contains geological, ecological, historical cultural resources for community sustainable development primarily through tourism activities. The Langkawi archipelago has always been rich in such resources and heritage, and was conferred the geopark status by GGN in 2007. Since then, the government and some private, non-governmental organisations have been involved in many geopark projects and activities. Some of them are members of the top down governance system while other parties work independently of one another. For Langkawi to sustain in the long run as a successful and economically developed geopark without the depletion of its geological, ecological, cultural and historical resources, its governance system can be further improved. Effective custodian participation is best achieved through proper governance network system whereby the networks are established between at least two or more organisational and non-organisational custodians irrespective of their social status, ethnicity, gender, wealth and income levels. Specifically, the custodians should work closely together and establish networks in a transparent, accountable, responsible, fair, trustworthy and consistent manner. Effective participation should be in terms of shared norms of behaviour such as cooperation, assistance and influence. Furthermore, such effective participation is based on shared views, shared values, shared norms and other shared aspects guided to some extend by basic network principles such as reciprocity and mutuality. This implies that similarity or commonality is a key feature in social networks formation of the custodians.

Effects of relational capital on relationship between place attachment and resident participation

“…In the event that the internal trust or social network in the community is affected, safeguard measures will be taken to establish the norm of reciprocity and ensure value consensus and traditions (Puntscher, Hauser, Pichler, & Tappeiner, 2014). A significant relationship exists between trust and reciprocity (Burnette & Sanders, 2014; Chan, 2017; Ridings & Gefen, 2004), and thus trust exerts a positive impact on the norm of reciprocity.…”

“…Community practices require resident participation. However, incomplete participation mechanisms and lack of trust and identification limit the effectiveness of resident participation (Chan, 2017; Spennemann, 2006). Consequently, the participation cognition of residents must be strengthened, and a value consensus must be reached for participation to have substantial effects (Flagestad & Hope, 2001).…”

“…In recent decades, however, residents have often been reluctant to participate in the development of community policies due to a lack of interpersonal interactions with other community members (Chan, 2017; Kim, Kim, Sychareun, & Kang, 2016; Wanjing, 2014). This trend has been particularly pronounced in Chinese communities as, in Chinese society, relational capital is primarily built through interpersonal interactions (Jiang & Barnett, 2013).…”

Áreas verdes e a potencialidade do parque natural municipal de Nova Iguaçu (pnmni) para a hipótese da cesta de bens e serviços territoriais

“…Vale destacar que cada território tem suas especificidades, e por isso Dallabrida (2020c) reforça que, sem a elaboração de distintos cenários de atuação para operacionalizar as cestas, não é possível estruturar uma lógica de diferenciação que atenda as necessidades vigentes e, ao mesmo tempo, se encontre dentro das dimensões econômica, social e ambiental para um desenvolvimento sustentável da região analisada (Chan, 2017;Avendaño-Leadem et al, 2020). Nesta proposição, é notório que uma análise dos impactos das crises atuais sob ângulos territoriais distintos deve ser creditada em se tratando de sustentabilidade espacial (Cilona, 2017).…”

“…Outros autores, como Orbaşlı e Cesaro (2020), destacam que o planejamento de gestão territorial deve ser percebido como um processo participativo, na busca por propostas efetivas de produtos e/ou serviços espaciais específicos para angariar recursos legítimos em prol de uma realidade local. Para Chan (2017), tais interações, fundamentadas sob os pilares da influência, assistência, cooperação e valores compartilhados, estimulam mobilizações conjuntas alinhadas ao desenvolvimento sob a abordagem da CBST.…”