Out of the wilderness? Achieving sustainable development within Scottish national parks

Balancing local interests and national conservation obligations in nature protection. The case of local management boards in Norway

“…Contrary to other countries, where the responsibility for economic development is integrated with the responsibility for protection management (Getzner et al 2014;Barker and Stockdale 2008), these concerns are discussed and decided on other arenas in Norway. The most important concerns for the mayors -local development -is excluded from the protected area boards.…”

“…In such models representatives from different levels of governments share the power with representatives of private stakeholder, as in the case of Lapponia in Sweden (Hongslo et al 2015;Zachrisson 2009a), Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria (Getzner et al 2014) or in National Parks in Scotland (Barker and Stockdale 2008). In addition to include private stakeholders in the management, Austria and Scotland have also integrated the responsibilities for economic development within the framework of National Park management.…”

“…Models based on co-management between central government and local stakeholders are more common among European countries (see i.e. Zachrisson 2009a; Getzner et al 2014;Barker and Stockdale 2008). In spite of this uniqueness, the Norwegian solution is nevertheless theoretically interesting.…”

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

“…It possessed a strong conservation and public enjoyment remit and placed the management of natural resources in the national interest by setting aside or nationalising extensive areas of pristine wilderness, typically devoid of human habitation for the benefit of the nation. The earliest and original interpretation of national parks was, therefore, as wilderness areas: a nature 'apart' from or 'in spite' of society (Barker and Stockdale 2008).…”

“…The legacy of this wilderness approach has, according to the IUCN (2002), been the development of conservation islands and a distorted appreciation of the relationship between society and nature. These have made this model of national park unsuitable for most of Europe (Barker and Stockdale 2008) and as a consequence evolving models of national park have facilitated the global application of the national park concept. In doing so, national parks have evolved as mechanisms for the delivery of sustainable development (Dower 1999) and have sought to reconcile the relationship between society and nature by incorporating conservation and socio-economic development aims (Holdgate 1992).…”