A theoretical framework for investigating ecological problems associated with biodiversity conservation in national parks: A case of the Rwenzori Mountains National Park, Uganda

A highly polarized debate has emerged in the conservation literature about whether national parks in lesser developed countries should follow a strict protectionist model or find ways to accommodate the development and livelihood needs of local people. A number of social science critiques of national park practice and policy in lesser developed countries have argued that one of the chief problems facing national parks in particular, and biodiversity conservation in general, has been the USA national park model, often termed the ‘Yellowstone model’. This model, in which local and indigenous people and uses have been excluded from parks, has been blamed for harming local people, providing benefits to developed country interests at the expense of local people, high costs of park protection, and ineffective biodiversity conservation (Machlis & Tichnell 1985; West & Brechin 1991; Pimbert & Pretty 1995). Alternatives (henceforth referred to as ‘parks and people’ approaches) seek accommodations between parks and local people, and include community-based conservation, which promotes local involvement and/or control in park decision-making, and integrated conservation and development projects, which attempt to ensure conservation by meeting social and economic needs of local people through agroforestry, forestry, tourism, water projects, extractive reserves, and wildlife utilization.

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Community awareness and participation in biodiversity conservation at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam

Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity ◽

10.13057/biodiv/d230163 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

Author(s):

DINH DUC TRUONG

Keyword(s):

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

National Parks ◽

Sustainable Management ◽

National Park ◽

Conservation Management ◽

Contingent Valuation Method ◽

World Heritage Site ◽

Local People ◽

Park Management ◽

Community Awareness

Abstract. Truong DD. 2021. Community awareness and participation in biodiversity conservation at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam. Biodiversitas 23: 583-594. Local community's perception and attitude towards biodiversity conservation are essential to the sustainable management of national parks in Vietnam. The conservation of biodiversity in national parks is facing pressures from economic development activities, which has led to the degradation of the ecological values ??of the national parks. People's awareness and their participation in conservation management are crucial to the sustainable management of national parks. This study examined the awareness and participation of local people in biodiversity conservation at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park (PN-KBNP), Vietnam. PN-KB is one of the national parks with the highest biodiversity values ??in Vietnam and is recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site. To assess participation in conservation management, the study implemented a Contingent Valuation Method for estimating the willingness to pay of households in the buffer zone for biodiversity conservation in PN-KBNP. A survey was implemented to 358 households randomly selected in five communes adjacent to the park. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with selected key informants were also practiced for the management of insight information. The result showed that local villagers generally hold a fairly high perception of biodiversity values and positive attitudes towards biodiversity conservation at PN-KBNP. This positive perception comes from the close interaction between household livelihoods and the national park on a daily basis. However, awareness of national park management rules are not high. In addition, local people are willing to sacrifice part of their income to conserve biodiversity for current and future generations. On an average, each household was willing to pay 297,000 VND/year for biodiversity conservation. Payment levels, age, length of residency and education were observed to significantly impact on villagers' participation in biodiversity conservation initiatives. The balance between development and conservation was found to be the key in Park management, where communities need to be given more power to plan, monitor and implement conservation activities while establishing clear forest land user right for households and communities.

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Biodiversity Conservation of National Parks and Nature-Protected Areas in West Africa: The Case of Kainji National Park, Nigeria

10.20944/preprints202112.0485.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adesina Adekunle John ◽

Tang Xiaolan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

West Africa ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

Habitat Diversity ◽

Low Carbon ◽

The Rich ◽

Pollution Removal

Due to rising global warming and climate change, biodiversity protection has become a critical ecological concern. The rich biodiversity zones are under threat and are deteriorating, necessitating national, regional, and provincial efforts to safeguard these natural areas. The effective conservation of National Parks and Nature-protected Areas helps to improve biodiversity conservations, forest, and urban air quality. The continuous encroachment and abuse of these protected areas have degraded the ecosystem over time. While exploring the geophysical ecology and biodiversity conservation of these areas in West Africa, Kainji National Park was selected for this study because of its notable location, naturalness, rich habitat diversity, topographic uniqueness, and landmass. The conservation of national parks and nature-protected areas is a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation globally. This study is aimed at the target of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, 2030- Climate Action, targeted at taking urgent action towards combating climate change and its impacts. The study captures both flora and fauna that are dominant in the study area. The 15 identified trees were randomly sampled within a stratum of 10x10km shared into 24 plots for proper analyses using i-Tree Eco v6.0.23 software. The following data were captured and analyzed; Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Rain/Precipitation, Temperature, Transpiration, Evaporation, Water Intercepted by trees, Avoided Runoff by trees, Potential Evaporation by trees, Isoprene and Monoterpene by trees. This study also further discusses the tree benefits of green, low carbon, and sustainable environment within the context of biodiversity conservation considering carbon storage, carbon sequestration, hydrology effects, pollution removal, oxygen production, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There is a quick need for remotely-sensed information of the protected areas at regular intervals and government policies must be strict against illegal poaching and logging activities.

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From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

Environment and History ◽

10.3197/096734019x15631846928783 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Terence Young ◽

Alan MacEachern ◽

Lary Dilsaver

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

The United States ◽

The Us ◽

Park Service ◽

Settler Societies ◽

History Of ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Flow Of Information ◽

The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

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Into Russian Nature

10.1093/oso/9780190914554.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alan D. Roe

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

National Parks ◽

International Organizations ◽

National Park ◽

World War ◽

Nature Protection ◽

Soviet Government ◽

History Of ◽

Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

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Values of Travel Time for Recreational Trips under Different Behavioural Rules

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126831 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6831

Author(s):

Rosa Marina González ◽

Concepción Román ◽

Ángel Simón Marrero

Keyword(s):

Travel Time ◽

National Parks ◽

Traffic Congestion ◽

National Park ◽

Revealed Preference ◽

Discrete Choice Models ◽

Model Specification ◽

Regret Minimization ◽

Random Regret Minimization

In this study, discrete choice models that combine different behavioural rules are estimated to study the visitors’ preferences in relation to their travel mode choices to access a national park. Using a revealed preference survey conducted on visitors of Teide National Park (Tenerife, Spain), we present a hybrid model specification—with random parameters—in which we assume that some attributes are evaluated by the individuals under conventional random utility maximization (RUM) rules, whereas others are evaluated under random regret minimization (RRM) rules. We then compare the results obtained using exclusively a conventional RUM approach to those obtained using both RUM and RRM approaches, derive monetary valuations of the different components of travel time and calculate direct elasticity measures. Our results provide useful instruments to evaluate policies that promote the use of more sustainable modes of transport in natural sites. Such policies should be considered as priorities in many national parks, where negative transport externalities such as traffic congestion, pollution, noise and accidents are causing problems that jeopardize not only the sustainability of the sites, but also the quality of the visit.

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The Wadden Sea as a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site: Students’ Word Associations with These Two Conservation Designations

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13148006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 8006

Author(s):

Till Schmäing ◽

Norbert Grotjohann

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

Wadden Sea ◽

World Heritage ◽

World Heritage Site ◽

Unesco World Heritage ◽

Word Associations ◽

Heritage Site ◽

Unesco World Heritage Site ◽

Significant Difference

The Wadden Sea ecosystem is unique in many respects from a biological perspective. This is one reason why it is protected by national parks in Germany and by its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In biology didactics, there are only a few studies that focus on the Wadden Sea. This work investigates students’ word associations with the two stimulus words “national park” and “UNESCO World Heritage Site”. The survey was conducted among students living directly at the Wadden Sea and among students from the inland. The analysis of the identified associations (n = 8345) was carried out within the framework of a quantitative content analysis to be able to present and discuss the results on a group level. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups. Overall, results showed that the students made subject-related associations as well as a large number of associations to both stimulus words that could be judged as non-subject-related. In some cases, a connection with the region of residence could be found, but this was not generally the case. Even students’ immediate residential proximity to the Wadden Sea is no guarantee that they have knowledge of the two considered protection terms.

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Does a National Park Enhance the Environment-Friendliness of Tourists as an Ecotourism Destination?

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18168321 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (16) ◽

pp. 8321

Author(s):

Eunseong Jeong ◽

Taesoo Lee ◽

Alan Dixon Brown ◽

Sara Choi ◽

Minyoung Son

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

Natural Environment ◽

Behavioral Intention ◽

National Park ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Environmental Concern ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Environment Friendly ◽

Sustainable Environment ◽

The Relationship

Governments have designated national parks to protect the natural environment against ecosystem destruction and improve individuals’ emotional and recreational life. National parks enhance environment-friendly awareness by conducting ecotourism activities and individuals with environment-friendly awareness are inclined to continue to visit national parks as ecotourism destinations. The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) is a widely used measure of environmental concern, suitable for measuring the environment-friendly attitude and revisit intention of visitors of national parks. Therefore, the study carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between the NEP, national park conservation consciousness and environment-friendly behavioral intention. Based on the results, an implication is presented to induce national parks to cultivate individual environment-friendly awareness and for visitors to pursue sustainable, environment-friendly tourism behavior. The findings indicate that national parks are to expand educational programs and facilities for eco-tourists visiting national parks to maintain a balanced relationship between themselves and nature and have a strong environmental awareness to preserve the natural environment.

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Willingness to pay for Biodiversity Conservation in Dachigam National Park, India

Journal for Nature Conservation ◽

10.1016/j.jnc.2021.126022 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 126022

Author(s):

Mohammad Younus Bhat ◽

Arfat Ahmad Sofi

Keyword(s):

Willingness To Pay ◽

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

National Park ◽

Dachigam National Park

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Water Quality Estimation and Population’s Attitudes: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective of Environmental Implications in Tara National Park (Serbia)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010241 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 241

Author(s):

Jovana Brankov ◽

Ana Milanović Pešić ◽

Dragana Milijašević Joksimović ◽

Milan M. Radovanović ◽

Marko D. Petrović

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

Local Community ◽

Pollution Index ◽

Field Research ◽

Polluted Water ◽

Pollution Level ◽

Environmental Implications ◽

Water Pollution Index

The paper analyzes the water quality of hydrological resources in the wider area of Tara National Park (NP Tara) in Serbia and the opinions of the local community and the national park visitors about the grade of the possible damage. The pollution level of the Drina River at the Bajina Bašta hydrological station was analyzed using the Water Pollution Index. The results showed that water quality corresponded to classes II (clean water) or III (moderately polluted water) and revealed the presence of organic pollution. In addition, using a survey combined with field research, the perceptions of local inhabitants and national park visitors related to environmental pollution were analyzed. The community believed that tourism does not cause significant damage to the environment. However, the older and more educated groups of residents and visitors had a more critical perception of the environmental impact of tourism. The results also indicated that the perceptions of visitors were mostly in agreement with measured water quality in the Drina River. The findings of this study have important implications for the management of protected areas and future policies related to national parks.

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