Protected Areas in an Age of Complexity

Most of us recognize and appreciate that protected areas exist within a context of change, complexity, uncertainty and contentiousness. Our appreciation of this context demands that we approach both the challenges and opportunities presented by the various processes and forces acting on protected areas with a different problem-solving paradigm in mind. Recognizing that protected areas exist within a complex and dynamic milieu, is not enough for successful management in the 21st century; that complexity must be engaged, assertively and competently.

To do this, we must dispel our conventional event-oriented approach to management and planning; we must recognize and engage the messy problems and wicked situations with new, innovative and resourceful approaches. These approaches must not simply reform the conventional rational-comprehensive approach to planning that has dominated protected areas in the 20th and early 21st centuries; they must be complete reinventions of how we make decisions. That reinvention must develop planning processes that are (1) inclusive; (2) representative; (3) learning focused; (4) ownership building (in the sense of creating a sense of empowerment and responsibility); (5) that recognize that trust underlies the interpersonal relationships inherent in planning processes and (6) respect different forms of knowledge.

This is a tall order. Systems thinking will help. See Senge, The Fifth Discipline, for a good explanation of how organizations can apply systems thinking to overcome their “learning disabilities”. But systems thinking, while a necessary condition for stewardship, is not sufficient. Productive approaches to protected area stewardship will require not only an appreciation of complexity, but also a willingness, both politically and technically to engage it. We need competent, open-minded planners and managers possessing skills equal to the challenges of the 21st century.

Well, this all well and good, but can we be more specific? Protected areas are embedded within a complex social-ecological system. Exogenous variables, to paraphrase systems theorist John Sterman, don’t really exist. The organization with stewardship responsibilities is part of this system not separate from it. Solutions lie within the organization. While this system is both complex—nonlinear dynamics occurring here—it is also complicated—a large range of variables operating at different spatial, temporal and social-organizational scales and at different paces. Systems thinking helps us understand what kind of feedback loops operate, where the delays between cause-effects happen and what leverage points might be available. By diving deeper, we begin to understand the underlying structures and patterns that lead to, and even cause, the events we find so troubling.

In future blog entries, I will provide some examples to demonstrate the value of systems thinking in providing insights to the issues and challenges facing protected areas today.