Shortcourse outline to help build professional competency in management of tourism and visitation in protected areas. Adapted for Namibia, but applicable everywhere. (c) Steve McCool.
2. Shortcourse Goals
Understand consequences of growing tourist demand
for Namibian resources
Provide a framework for thinking about management
Build awareness of the science and practice of visitor
management
A focus more on the why rather than the what or how
3. Shortcourse
Organization/Procedures
Facilitated discussion
Participants provide examples, opportunities and
challenges from real world
Facilitator provides a sense of principles from the
literature and experience
Organization
Protected Areas and Tourism in a Changing World
Identification of Issues
Presentation and Discussion of Principles
4. Stewardship Responsibilities
Developing a vision
Protect values and resources
Enhance quality of life
Provide opportunities for employment and income
Designing a pathway to achieve it
What actions are effective, efficient, and equitable?
Monitoring the journey along the pathway
Is what we thought would happen, really happening?
5. How do we meet these responsibilities
with respect to tourism and visitation?
Use best knowledge available, including science and
our experience, we manage:
Competing
Demands
Relationships
with Joint Learning
Constituencies
6. But, we know there are obstacles to
addressing any of the above tasks
Funding
Politics
Organizational learning, technical proficiency
Lack of trust
Institutional design
Procedural orientation
7. And we know that protected area
stewardship exists within
A dynamic, often contentious political context,
Groups vie and compete for “veto” power over
protected area actions,
Disagreements over goals of protected areas exist,
There is often scientific uncertainty about cause-effect
relationships,
The power to plan and the power to implement plans
are often distinct and separated, and
Inequities in access to information exist
8. Thus, protected area stewardship
Is a wicked problem
Framing the question of management itself is
problematic
And a messy situation
There are no solutions (e.g., answers)
Just resolutions (e.g., agreements)
Problems are interconnected
Problems return because the context changes
Cannot proceed as normal
Finally, the future is not like the past
9. What is the world like?
The PLUS world of the past
Predictable
Linear
Understandable
Stable
The DICE World of the future
Dynamic
Impossible to understand completely
Complex
Ever-changing
10. Small Group Assignment
What do you see as the key issue in the provision of
visitor and tourism opportunities on MET
administered lands over the next decade?
Short phrases
Take 30 minutes
Each group reports on three most significant
11. So, What Principles will Help Address
These Issues in a DICE World …
So We Can be Better Stewards?
12. Some Principles for Managing Visitors
in Protected Areas – A Preface
Making tradeoffs between protection and
visitation/tourism
What objective ultimately constrains tourism
development?
Determine how much change is acceptable
Making tradeoffs, but involves more than just the biophysical,
also includes the experiential, how much change is acceptable
Principles derived from science
13. In a Messy World …
Need a framework to work through issues, challenges
and opportunities
Principles help us do the working through
Principles are not answers, but they serve as a
framework to structure our thinking
14. Principle 1:
Appropriate Management Depends
Upon Objectives
Objectives tell us what to achieve
Help organize action
Reflect social agreement on purpose of protected
area
16. Typical objectives
“protect the resource”
“provide a diversity of recreation opportunities”
Do not provide specific enough direction for decisions
Do not provide for benchmarks to measure progress
Not specific enough, lead to an illusion of agreement
when in fact there is significant disagreement
17. What are the characteristics of
good objectives?
Specific – not vague (e.g., protect the resource)
Output-oriented – what is the desired result?
Type of experience, biophysical condition
Quantitative – how to measure the objective so we know if
it is achieved
So many people have achieved adventure, challenge, etc.
No more than 80% of the campsites have more than 50 sq. meters
of barren soil
Realistic – the objective is attainable with some effort
Time-bound – the time frame for achieving the objective is
specified
18. Principle 2:
Diversity in Biophysical and Social
Conditions Is Inevitable and May be
Desirable
Human induced changes vary by location
Such changes also vary in acceptability
Is such variation desirable?
If so, allocating areas to different opportunities is a
useful technique--allocation termed zoning
19. Example:
Expected outcomes for visitors in
Glacier National Park
Nature appreciation
Solitude
Introspection
Security
Challenge/Adventure
Group cohesiveness
Personal Control
20. Motivations Occur in Packages
Escapists
High on personal control and solitude
Naturalists
Scenery, introspection and wildlife
Parkists
Introspection, security and personal control
Frustrated Solitude Seekers
Solitude, security and scenery
21. Visitor Data Glacier National Park
Frustrated Solit ude 21. 9
Parkist s 19. 5
Naturalists 14. 7
Escapist s 36. 7
0.0 5.0 10. 0 15. 0 20. 0 25. 0 30. 0 35. 0 40. 0
Percent of Respondents
22. Variability in Acceptability
Percent selecting picture with nine or more people, Swiftcurrent
F rus trated Solit ude
Park ist s
Naturalis ts
Prefer red
Acceptable
Esc apist s
0.0 10. 0 20. 0 30. 0 40. 0 50. 0 60. 0 70. 0 80. 0
Percent of Respondents
Outdoor Recreation Planning
Capstone 6 -- Fall 2002
23. Thus,
No such thing as an average visitor!!
Acceptability of conditions varies by visitor type
Who is the park managed for?
Finally, management is driven by variability more than
averages
24. Zoning as a means of protection for
both biophysical and social conditions
Allocates land to different opportunities and
conditions
Controls the spread of the types and amounts of
impacts
Protects unique and highly valued opportunities
25. Principle 3:
Management is Directed at
Influencing Human-Induced Change
Ecosystems are dynamic, change always occurring
Human use occurs within context of change
Underlying assumption that human uses threaten park
values
Protected area planning is directed toward the location,
type and intensity of human-induced change
26. Some Visitor Management
Processes for Dealing with Change
Carrying (Visitor) Capacity based Frameworks –
1960s +
Social, Biophysical, Facility
Recreation Opportunity Spectrum based
Frameworks
Recreation Opportunity Spectrum – 1970s
Tourism Opportunity Spectrum – 1990s
Water Recreation Opportunity Spectrum – 2000s
27. Some Visitor Management
Processes for Dealing with Change
Limits of Acceptable Change based Frameworks
Limits of Acceptable Change – 1980s
Visitor Impact Management – 1980s
Visitor Experience and Resource Protection – 1990s
Tourism Optimization and Management Model– 1990s
The Benefits Based Management Framework –
1990s
Placed-based Frameworks – 2000s
28. Principle 4:
Impacts on Resources and Social
Conditions are Inevitable Consequences
of Human Use
Any level of use leads to some kind of impact
Can managers prevent visitor impacts from occurring?
29. What is the relationship between
use level and impact?
Impact
Use Level
30. Given this relationship …
How much change is acceptable?
How would you decide?
Is this a technical question or a value judgment?
31. But, Setting Standards Means Making
Choices Among Visitor Experiences
What standard should we use?
Impact
How do we decide?
Setting standards is a function of
human values.
Use Level
32. Principle 5:
Impacts may be Spatially or
Temporally Discontinuous
Impacts often occur offsite
Impacts may take a long time to appear
Secondary and tertiary effects difficult to ascertain and
attribute
Need to think regionally, the Whack a Mole
Phenomenon
33. An example
Campsite impacts too high,
Thus, closing campsites to reduce impacts seems to be a
reasonable action.
But, didn’t work
Visitors create new campsites
Thus, the total impact is actually larger
This represents a focus on the event (campsite
impacts, not understanding the system)
34. A “Fixes that Fail” System
Close Campsites
Delay
Delay
Unintended
Gap
Consequence
People create
Desired
Current Campsite new campsites
Condition
Condition
35. Principle 6:
Many Variables Influence the
Use/Impact Relationship
Use level may be important in influencing amount of
impact, but
Other variables often more significant
behavior
season
type and size of group
biophysical characteristics
36. Principle 7:
Many Management Problems are
Not Use Density Dependent
Visitors seek many different things during a visit to a
protected area
Motivations such as solitude, adventure, learning,
appreciating and learning about nature, family
cohesiveness
not all of the above are adversely affected by number of
visitors
Other problems--littering, etc.
37. Principle 8:
Limiting Use is Only One of Many
Management Options
Limiting use may be one management tool, but …
It may not be effective in dealing with problems
It controls use levels, but does it control impacts
The problem of problem displacement
38. Managers have a box of “tools” available,
but … to what extent do we want regulation
and intrusive measures?
39. How Systems Thinking Can Help Avoid
Traps when Limiting Use
Limit Use
Side Effects:
Implement More Rules
Unacceptable Impacts Shift Use Elsewhere
Impact Visitor Experience
Visitor Behavior and
Development Patterns
40. Principle 9:
Monitoring is Essential to
Professional Management
Periodic remeasurement of key information variables
or indicators
Followed by evaluation and reflection
Key attributes
feasible
objective
timely
41. Monitoring Plan is an Essential Part
of Management
Description of procedures
How data will be analyzed, displayed and evaluated
How does monitoring data influence planning and
management?
Personnel assignments
42. Monitoring Principles
Where conditions are at or in violation of standards
Where conditions are changing rapidly
Where values are threatened by visitation
Where effects of management are unknown
Source: Cole 1989
43. Principle 10:
The Decision-Making Process
Should Separate Technical
Description from Value Judgments
What is is not necessarily what should be
Separate inventory from decisions about what should
be done in time
44. Principle 11:
Consensus among Affected Groups
is Needed for Implementation
Shared problem definition
Problem can be resolved through public involvement
Inclusive
Live with results
Knowledge distributed equally
Permission to act
45. Successful
Management
Technical Public
Process Engagement
46. Implementation of plan
Understanding social acceptability
Representativeness
Learning
Ownership
Relationships
47. Many visitor management issues confronting
MET
Principles serve as a framework for thinking
through
Not answers, but ways to reflect
In the long run, reflection leads to more
efficient management
48. Thank You
Steve.McCool@gmail.com
Perspectives on Protected Area Planning
http://pasqueflowerparadigms.blogspot.com