Title: Managing for ecological integrity in protected wildlands: Key management challenges and research priorities in British Columbia
Abstract: Protected areas have long served two masters: providing recreation, tourism and economic opportunities while conserving resources. As wild lands have become more scarce, there has been increasing realization that recreational use of protected areas is not benign. Consequently, there has been growing discussion and debate about how to reconcile human use with conservation. British Columbia is still within an active park creation phase with an increase from approximately 5.6 percent of the land-base protected in parks as of 1992 to approximately 13 percent today with new areas being added daily. This paper presents the results of a series of interviews and surveys that identify key management challenges and research priorities for managing for ecological integrity in British Columbia. Although significant barriers and challenges remain, Parks Canada has moved beyond the issue of organizational culture towards more resource specific management challenges. The agency has changed capacity and organizational structure to develop and implement a strong research agenda. In contrast, while BC Parks staff identified some key research challenges, they are by and large, not a research-oriented organization and are lacking capacity to conceive, organize, manage and implement research to aid management. Most agency resources are focused currently on maintaining current operations in the face of significant organizational barriers.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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