Understanding protected area resilience: a multi‐scale, social‐ecological approach

Abstract

Abstract. Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change and growing cross-scale anthropogenic influences mean that PAs can no longer be thought of as ecological islands that function independently of the broader social-ecological system in which they are located. For PAs to be resilient (and to contribute to broader social-ecological resilience), they must be able to adapt to changing social and ecological conditions over time in a way that supports the long-term persistence of populations, communities, and ecosystems of conservation concern. We extend Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework to consider the long-term persistence of PAs, as a form of land use embedded in social-ecological systems, with important crossscale feedbacks. Most notably, we highlight the cross-scale influences and feedbacks on PAs that exist from the local to the global scale, contextualizing PAs within multi-scale socialecological functional landscapes. Such functional landscapes are integral to understand and manage individual PAs for long-term sustainability. We illustrate our conceptual contribution with three case studies that highlight cross-scale feedbacks and social-ecological interactions in the functioning of PAs and in relation to regional resilience. Our analysis suggests that while ecological, economic, and social processes are often directly relevant to PAs at finer scales, at broader scales, the dominant processes that shape and alter PA resilience are primarily social and economic.

Adaptive strategies for inland touristic destinations (Sil Canyon, Galicia, Nw Spain)

“…Following Walker et al (2006) and Cumming et al (2015), the cycles to be identified correspond to interactive processes ( Fig. 2) with growth phases regarding capital and resources (r), and followed by exploitation or maintenance of the system (K) generating reorganization processes (Ω) in which there is a possibility of saturation or collapse.…”

“…This definition emphasizes that evolution of natural systems and social systems is interdependent. Studies focused on dynamics of SES (Berkes et al, 2003;Cumming and Collier, 2005;Janssen et al, 2007;Nyaupane and Poudel, 2011) differentiate adaptive cycles with phases of growth, maintenance, reorganization, innovation or collapse of the system -all of them emerging as responses to critical situations. This approach is based on a wide concept regarding changing phenomena related to function, structure and identity of complex systems.…”

“…Thus, when dealing with the analysis of tourism as a SES, it is common to encounter the concept of resilience (Tyrrell and Johnston, 2008;Strickland-Munro et al, 2010;Baral, 2013;Espiner and Becken, 2013;Luthe and Wyss, 2014). Among the multiple theoretical and methodological definitions of resilience (Carpenter et al, 2001;Walker et al, 2006;Resilience Alliance, 2007;Hudson, 2010;Folke et al, 2010;Wilding, 2011;Amat, 2013;Cumming et al, 2015), this research considers the one referring to territorial scope. That is, the definition related to dynamics of territory (a relational, dynamic system) when facing change within the context of tourism (a social-ecological system), and focusing evolution of an inland destination (Figure 1).…”

“…Scale/Information Source Source: Own elaboration based on Holling et al (2002) and Cumming et al (2015).…”

Realizing the transformative potential of conservation through the social sciences, arts and humanities

“…The conservation community is moving towards more integrative and collaborative and approaches to conservation (Cumming et al, 2015;Guerrero et al, 2015;Tengö et al, 2017;Therville et al, 2017). As diverse teams are constituted to deliver real world solutions to pressing conservation problems, we hope that social scientists, artists and humanities scholars are amongst those represented.…”