Evaluating protected areas selection processes: a case study of land use planning in British Columbia.

Abstract

Protected area designation is a key component of sustainable land use planning. This paper reports the perspectives of stakeholders concerning those factors used to select protected areas in an extensive land and resource management planning process in British Columbia. This innovative collaborative planning process doubled the amount of land dedicated as protected areas in the province. The stakeholders surveyed were a sample of those directly involved in planning and selecting the protected areas. The paper assesses: what criteria are deemed important in the selection of protected areas; and to what extent were these same criteria actually employed in the designation of such areas in the case study regions of British Columbia. The findings suggest that environmental criteria dominated the selection of protected areas, while social and economic factors received less attention. This situation existed despite the focus of planning on increasing economic and social benefits for surrounding communities. Suggestions for developing a more diverse mix of criteria are provided in order to inform future protected area designation and management processes.

Resume

La designation des aires protegees est un element cle de la planification durable de l'utilisation des terres. Dans cet article, on presente un compte rendu des points de vue des intervenants concernant les facteurs qui sont utilises pour choisir les aires protegees dans le cadre d'un processus a grande echelle de planification de la gestion des terres et des ressources en Colombie Britannique. Ce processus novateur de planification collaborative a permis de doubler la quantite de terres designees comme zones protegees dans la province. Les intervenants interroges constituaient un echantillon de ceux qui participent directement a la planification et au choix des aires protegees. Dans cet article, on evalue quels sont les criteres juges importants pour le choix des aires protegees et dans quelle mesure ces memes criteres sont reellement utilises pour designer de telles aires dans les regions de la Colombie Britannique ayant fait l'objet de l'etude de cas. Les resultats donnent a penser que le critere environnemental est celui qui a prime pour le choix des aires protegees, alors que les facteurs sociaux et economiques ont fait l'objet de moins d'attention. On a observe que cette situation existait malgre le fait que l'on tende, en matiere de planification, a viser une augmentation des avantages sociaux et economiques pour les collectivites environnantes. Afin d'eclairer les futurs processus de designation et de gestion des aires protegees, les auteurs proposent des recommandations pour elaborer un jeu de criteres plus diversifies.

Key Words

British Columbia, land and resource management planning, protected areas, planning evaluation

Introduction

An important recommendation emanating from the seminal sustainability policy publication Our Common Future (WCED 1987) was the need to increase the proportion of the global land base designated to protected area functions. However, while there are a wealth of strategies and actions available for managing protected areas (IUCN 1994, Cole 2000), the processes for identifying and designating such places are relatively haphazard in their approach and application (Newsome et al. 2001). A particularly challenging aspect of protected area (PA) development involves identifying sites that should receive priority for protection.

This paper helps address this challenge by reporting the perspectives of a multi-stakeholder group of respondents on the importance and utility of PA selection criteria. All of the respondents were engaged in the selection of sites associated with the unprecedented expansion of an existing protected area system in British Columbia. The paper begins with a summary of the literature on protected area designation criteria. Based on this literature, a comprehensive set of environmental, social, and economic criteria is developed. The degree to which these criteria were important and subsequently utilized in the selection of protected areas in British Columbia is then assessed via a survey of stakeholders involved in the site selection process. British Columbia was chosen for the evaluation of criteria because it had recently completed a dramatic expansion of its protected areas using an innovative multi-stakeholder process. Conclusions for protected area designation and evaluation are made based on the survey results.

Protected Area Designation Rationales

The practice of designating PAs has existed in North America for almost a century and a half. Over that period, the rationale for the designation of PAs has evolved with society's ever-shifting priorities. These priorities have ranged from designating unique lands for hunting, recreation and tourism pursuits to reserving special areas for wildlife conservation, cultural resource protection, and biodiversity preservation purposes (Nelson 1993, Wright and Mattson 1996). The typical values and functions associated with PAs are listed in Table 1.

Whether created for the purposes of maintaining environmental values, or enhancing cultural priorities, the overriding intents have been to enclose, reserve and protect key natural and cultural resources for specific uses (MacEwen and MacEwan 1982). The World Conservation Union's (IUCN) definition of a PA reflects this perspective:

[A protected area is] an area of land and/or sea especially

dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity,

and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed

through legal or other effective means (IUCN 1994 in IUCN 1998: 1).

Protected Area Designation Criteria

For the purposes of this paper, PA selection criteria are attributes or standards that provide a systematic basis for assessing an area's worth (adapted from Worboys et al. 2001). Numerous PA selection criteria are recommended in the literature. For instance, Bos and Lockwood (1995) identified approximately 50 individual selection criteria used in protected area selection (Lockwood et al. 1997). Assessments of such criteria suggest that some are easily measured and precise (e.g., size, diversity), many are ecologically based (e.g., rarity, diversity), a few are socially based (e.g., intrinsic appeal, recorded history), and several are vague (e.g. naturalness, and representativeness) (Goldsmith 1991). Despite the availability of these selection criteria, their application in specific PA designation processes has been ad hoc (Nelson and Sportza 2000).

Traditionally, natural science criteria have been used most frequently to guide designation and planning of PAs (Achana and O'Leary 2000, La Pierre 1997, Lockwood et al. 1997, Gotmark and Nilsson 1992, Smith and Theberge 1986). For instance, Smith and Theberge (1986) found that eight of the most regularly used criteria were constructed from biological principles. Similarly, Margules and Usher (1981) discovered that four of the most widely used selection criteria had a biological basis. In contrast, social criteria, including human-influenced threats, landscape quality and aesthetics, recreation opportunities, educational value, research value and historical, cultural, and archaeological values received comparatively little attention in selection processes (Eagles et al. 2002, IISD 2006).

More recently, some PA initiatives have been criticized for their narrow focus on biological values and a disregard for interactions between human populations and the natural environment (Tacconi 2000, Owens and Cowell 2002). Some of this criticism focuses specifically on how existing designation criteria fail to adequately address the role that PAs can play as a catalyst to creating economic value for neighboring regions and communities (Rothman 2000, Ghimire and Pimbert 1997, Dearden 1995, Wells and Brandon 1992, Parks Canada Agency 2000). A growing literature is emerging that calls for the integration of more social and economic criteria into designation processes so as to take into account the needs of those who share a disproportionate cost of PA development such as communities and other stakeholders beyond park boundaries (IUCN 1994). As increasing awareness of the relationships between PAs and surrounding landscapes and communities emerges (Zube 1989, Berliner 2004), so does the need to embed these PA values in broader strategic and regional land-use planning processes (Owens and Cowell 2002, Berliner 2003). Unfortunately little empirical research exists to establish the extent to which such PA values are being embedded within these types of planning initiatives (Eagles et al. 2002). The paper's case study of the process of PA designation within BC's Land and Resource Management Planning (LRMP) processes provides empirical insights into the realities of such integration.

Case Study Context

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s land use planning in BC was characterized by resource sector conflicts and growing concerns about economic diversification, environmental protection, and sustainable development (Pierce Lefebvre Consulting 2001, Gunton, et al. 2003a, 2003b). To address these issues, an ambitious province-wide LRMP process was launched in 1992. It was specifically designed to integrate many aspects of natural resource allocation, including PA designations, into a systematic land use planning system. Its focus was on the development of enduring land use plans that would foster greater well-being for B.C.'s economy, environment and communities (Brown 1996).