Evolving national park models: The emergence of an economic imperative and its effect on the contested nature of the ‘national’ park concept in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Evolving national park models: The emergence of an economic imperative and its effect on the contested nature of the 'national' park concept in Northern Ireland. AbstractNational park models have evolved in tandem with the emergence of a multifunctional countryside. Sustainable development has been added to the traditional twin aims of conservation and recreation. This is typified by recent national park designations, such as the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. A proposed Mournes national park in Northern Ireland has evolved a stage further with a model of national park to deliver national economic goals envisaged by government. This seeks to commodify the natural landscape. This paper compares Cairngorm and Mourne stakeholders' views on the principal features of both models: park aims, management structures and planning functions. While Cairngorm stakeholders were largely positive from the outset, the model of national park introduced is not without criticism. Conversely, Mourne stakeholders have adopted an anti-national park stance. Nevertheless, the model of national park proposed possessing a strong economic imperative, an absence of the Sandford Principle as a means to manage likely conflicts, and lacking any planning powers in its own right, may still be insufficient to bring about widespread support for a Mourne national park. Such a model is also likely to accelerate the degradation of the Mourne landscape. Competing national identities (British and Irish) provide an additional dimension to the national park debate in Northern Ireland. Deep ideological cleavages are capable of derailing the introduction of a national park irrespective of the model proposed. In Northern Ireland the national park debate is not only about reconciling environmental and economic interests but also political and ethno-national differences.

Examining participatory governance in a devolving UK: Insights from national parks policy development in Northern Ireland

“…Ireland's internationally significant landscapes continue to suffer from a lack of strategic planning, management and protection, this vital resource upon which the future prosperity and well-being of society (both local and regional) depends, could be undermined by the pursuit of short-term economic development goals (Bell and Stockdale, 2015b …”

“…In the first few months of the newly devolved Scottish Parliament a National Park Bill was consulted upon and debated before being passed as the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 (Rettie, 2001). Site specific consultation was later employed to inform the designation of two national parks in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs (2003) Building on previous academic critiques of the Mournes policy process (Bell and Stockdale, 2015a;2015b;2015c) the emphasis here is on an additional aspect; namely, the influence of wider structuring forces on participatory governance, in particular the role of power in framing how consultation processes were initiated, designed and undertaken. These structural factors provide the vehicle for examining power in this paper and are explored under three overarching themes: initiating national parks policy, governance structures and setting of the agenda and the consultation process and government's response.…”

Perception of Sustainability of Spanish National Parks: Public Use, Tourism and Rural Development

“…The beginning of the international protectionist trend dates back to 1872 when Yellowstone National Park was declared in the United States [23,24]. The objective of this first declaration was based on the preservation of natural space for the enjoyment of people, due to the devastating effect of human actions on natural resources [25][26][27]. Focusing on the European landscape, Russia, Switzerland and Spain were the first to regulate the protection of National Parks [28,29].…”

“…Source: Authors [30]. Table 1 shows that the mere conservationist approach has been evolving towards a model in which the relationship of the human being with nature is promoted through the harmonization of the objectives of preservation and socioeconomic development, turning the National Parks into authentic drivers of sustainable development [26,31].…”

“…In the last decade, nature tourism has achieved great importance in international tourism [43]. Nowadays, there has been an increase in the number of tourists who are looking for tranquillity, a link with nature, the practice of sports activities or recreational value in the open air [26,30,[44][45][46].…”