A Blog for Park Managers and Protected Area Academics

Hello,

The world is changing, and changing fast. We all know this. But what changes are affecting parks and protected areas? And what implications do these changes have for how we provide stewardship to these special places. As a scientist, researcher and even manager for the 40 years of my career, I have seen these changes challenge managers. At times appearing overwhelming--with good reason--these changes are the source of many problems.

I created this blog to share my thoughts with managers and academics in the hope it will provide them something to consider as they seek resolutions to the challenging opportunities and issues confronting us. I don't have a lot of answers--but I do have a lot of observations. These might be helpful.

One thing we all share is a deep appreciation for the natural world and how humans can experience and benefit from that. Most of us have an enormous passion for protection of these places, for providing access to them and for the benefits they may provide to both visitors and nearby residents. These passions are the source of our strengths, but also can become a limiting factor in securing effective, efficient and equitable responses to the challenges of the 21st century. How can we capitalize on our psssion for excellence in management while remaining adaptable? This an important question for all of us.

In many cases we frame this question as a matter of "balance": how do we balance two different interests? I prefer to use the term "integrate". Balance implies opposing forces, zero-sum conflicts,more of one means less of another. While many conflicts around protected areas are zero-sum, most, optimistically put, involved values that are partly shared and partly competing. What we need to do ist to integrate these values and issues rather than choose one or the other which is implied by the notion of balance.

In the coming weeks and months I plan to raise these questions and provide a perspective on them. You are welcome to respond and comment on them. It is through such dialogue that we learn and make progress.