Designing Protected Areas for Social–Ecological Sustainability: Effectiveness of Management Guidelines for Preserving Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

Rural cultural landscapes are social–ecological systems that have been shaped by traditional human land uses in a co-evolution process between nature and culture. Protected areas should be an effective way to protect cultural landscapes and support the way of life and the economy of the local population. However, nature conservation policymaking processes and management guidelines frequently do not take culturalness into account. Through a new quantitative approach, this paper analyzes the regulatory framework of two protected areas under different management categories, located in an ancient cultural landscape of the Madrid Region (Central Spain), to identify the similarities in their conservation commitments and the effectiveness of their zoning schemes. The results show some arbitrariness in the design and management of these parks, highlighting the importance of prohibited measures in their zoning schemes that encourage uses and activities more related to naturalness than to culturalness. The recognition of protected areas as cultural landscapes and their management considering both naturalness and culturalness issues are important methods of better achieving sustainable management objectives from a social–ecological approach. This methodological approach has proven useful to unravel various legislative content, and its application on a larger scale could reveal important information for the sound management of protected areas (PAs) in cultural landscapes.

Recreational and Nature-Based Tourism as a Cultural Ecosystem Service. Assessment and Mapping in a Rural-Urban Gradient of Central Spain

“…This is mainly because PA guidelines frequently inhibit some human activities, promoting land abandonment and loss of rurality, with a negative impact on the well-being of local populations, who are vulnerable to the establishment of PAs [1,2,59,81,82]. In recent decades, it is increasingly recognized that PAs must not only focus their conservation efforts on protecting wildlife and landscape naturalness, but also maintaining and supporting the livelihoods of local people by means of more effective policies addressed to protect traditional culture, because most of the PAs of the world show some degree of human use or 'culturalness' [29,83,84].…”

“…Recreation in protected areas is a way of engaging people with landscape conservation measures and supporting conservation goals, beyond the appreciation of biodiversity and naturalness. However, achieving a broader social commitment with conservation of PAs requires inclusive and proactive political measures that consider a wider variety of beneficiaries and the implication of different social groups through participatory planning procedures [85,86], especially local communities and their recognized traditional ecological knowledge and cultural values [29,87]. It is noteworthy that the spatial location and the boundaries of these areas do not always coincide with the perceived landscape by local people or visitors [88].…”

“…Disregarding these cultural benefits in land planning, jeopardizes the effectiveness of management policies, which can be completely disconnected from the interests of society [17,29]. However, proposals to use CES in land planning and management processes face different problems and difficulties, among which the subjectivity inherent in the measurement of intangible and irreplaceable values of special importance for human well-being stands out [18,30].…”

Cultural Landscape Preservation and Social–Ecological Sustainability

“…Cultural landscapes are the result of social-ecological processes that have co-evolved throughout history, shaping high-value sustainable systems. They are an interface between nature and culture, characterized by the conservation and protection of ecological processes, natural resources, landscapes, and cultural biodiversity [1]. The adaptation to the environment and the social-ecological resilience of cultural landscapes depends, to a great extent, on the transmission of culture associated with the so-called traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of recognized importance in the sustainable use of natural resources and the conservation of ecological processes and biodiversity [2].…”

“…These nature conservation efforts based on wilderness and naturalness have resulted in the decline of functional species composition and plant diversity of pasture systems [10], loss of natural and biocultural diversity and, ultimately, in the abandonment of the rural landscape and the reduction or disappearance of traditional knowledge [9]. Additionally, management plans of PAs are too often dependent on administrative boundaries and political legislation, and not on social-ecological relationships, biophysical processes, and ecosystem services fluxes, which reduces their effectiveness in protecting landscapes based on social-ecological interactions [1,11].…”