Protected Areas in an era of global–local change

Abstract

This review article advances debate and research on the global-local nexus that shapes, and increasingly determines, the existence of Protected Areas (PAs) and their function as areas of high conservation value as well as tourism destinations. The demands on PAs have grown from an initial focus on facilitating recreation experiences and species and habitat protection, to more inclusive and participatory approaches that seek to safeguard ecological services whilst also supporting regional and national livelihoods. We propose that the simultaneous analysis of global and local drivers of change will generate a deeper understanding of impact processes and response implications. To this end, a draft framework for better understanding the global-local nexus of PAs is developed and tested through a Delphi sketching approach to 20 experts in least developed, newly industrialised and developed countries. Key challenges, implications and opportunities for PA management and governance, and for tourism development at local and global levels (and their interactions), are discussed in follow-up papers to this review, including research priority areas, the measurement of tourism numbers, economic impact modelling, private PAs, the changing roles of zoning, the need for flexible, inclusive and accountable governance structures, and for better understanding of tourist behavioural change mechanisms.

Effects of Recreation on Animals Revealed as Widespread through a Global Systematic Review

“…Accordingly, recreation is permitted in over 94% of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected areas globally (categories Ib-VI; [10,11]). In the United States and other developed nations, providing opportunities for outdoor recreation has historically been an important reason for the designation of protected areas [12], whereas in the developing world, ecotourism has been embraced as a potential win-win solution for poverty alleviation and conservation [8]. Furthermore, there are numerous benefits of outdoor recreation for human health and communities.…”

To Travel or Not to Travel? Both Have Implications for Sustainable Tourism

“…This is surprising since there is a strong link between travel and the protection of natural areas (Becken & Job, 2014;Eagles, 2014). Eagles, McCool, and Haynes (2002, p. XV) write that "the link between protected areas and tourism is as old as the history of protected areas", and that "protected areas need tourism, and tourism needs protected areas."…”

Adaptive co-management as an approach to tourism destination governance – a case of protected areas in Bangladesh

“…Corruption can impede a number of governance principles such as transparency, rule of law, and it can also serve to limit the participation of less powerful stakeholder groups, particularly local residents (Kolstad & Søreide, 2009). As such, it is recognised that governance systems need to be inclusive, flexible and adaptive and focused on increasing the involvement of local stakeholders (Becken & Job, 2014;de Bruyn & Alonso, 2012;Whitelaw et al, 2014).…”

“…Although more recent paradigms for protected area management have advocated integrative approaches to conservation and development (Becken & Job, 2014;Dearden et al, 2005;Plummer & Fennell, 2009), governance models that can best support both protected area governance and sustainable tourism development are limited (Eagles, 2009;Whitelaw et al, 2014). In fact, it is argued that tourism governance more broadly requires further investigation in practice (Eagles et al, 2013;Lai et al, 2016;Plummer et al, 2012;Plummer & Fennell, 2009;Ruhanen et al, 2010).…”

“…As protected areas have become more popular as tourism destinations (Balmford et al, 2015;Becken & Job, 2014), tourism has concomitantly come to play an integral role in the overall governance of these areas. Tourism can generate a number of benefits for protected areas including, among others; providing new sources for funding conservation initiatives (Mayer, Müller, Woltering, Arnegger, & Job, 2010;Whitelaw, King, & Tolkach, 2014), and, improving planning and management approaches which has been credited with slowing biodiversity loss (Brenner & Job, 2012).…”