US National Park Buffer Zones: Historical, Scientific, Social, and Legal Aspects

/ This review will trace the evolution of beyond boundary/buffer zone thinking and policy responses in the US National Park Service (NPS); address buffer zone science, benefits, and limitations; examine pertinent legal and social concerns; highlight some agency attempts to create buffer zone-like areas; and propose highlights of a protected area strategy, with buffer zones and corridors as one component. Some findings follow. The need to expand national parks to accommodate large ungulate movement began in the late 1800s, but the recognition that such land was also needed to thwart human impacts such as poaching surfaced in the 1930s. External park buffer zone recommendations by 1930s park scientists were not implemented, and other related adopted policy forgotten, supporting the belief that great insight can be discovered in forgotten institutional history. Buffer zones can remedy some impacts but not others, but their benefits are multiple and underappreciated. The science of buffer zones is very immature and deserves more attention. A present primary obstacle to creating park buffer zones and connecting corridors is a social climate opposing federal initiatives that may intrude on the rights of private landowners. Some proactive NPS bufferlike activity examples are reviewed, but there were none where permanent, complete, effective nonlegislated park buffer zones, derived from nonfederal property, circumscribed large natural area parks. The need for buffer zones and corridors may be a symptom of inadequate regional planning. Options to create buffer zones from private and federal land are outlined. A comprehensive, overall protected area strategy must include more than just buffer zones, with highlights provided. Because optimal regional planning for US national parks is now thwarted by land-use politics, American society must soon decide what is most crucial to future well-being. KEY WORDS: Buffer zone; Reserve; Boundary; Policy; Planning     

Creating conservation strategies with value-focused thinking

Biodiversity and human well-being strategies are only as good as the set of ideas people think about. We evaluated value-focused thinking (VFT), a framework that emphasizes creating objectives and strategies that are responsive to the objectives. We performed a proof-of-concept study of VFT with 6 conservation planning teams at a global conservation organization. We developed a package of materials related to VFT, including meeting–session agendas, a virtual facilitation template, facilitator's guide, and evaluation questionnaires. We used these materials to test whether VFT applied in a group setting resulted in high-quality conservation strategies and participant satisfaction and whether our materials were scalable, meaning that someone newly trained in VFT could facilitate planning meetings that resulted in high-quality strategies and participant satisfaction, as compared with an experienced VFT facilitator. Net response indicated positive compelling, feasible, creative, and representative ratings for the conservation strategies per team. Participants indicated satisfaction overall, although satisfaction was greater for objectives than for strategies. Among the participants with previous conservation planning experience, all were at least as satisfied with their VFT strategies compared with previously developed strategies, and none were less satisfied (p = 0.001). Changes in participant satisfaction were not related to facilitator type (experienced or inexperienced with VFT) (p > 0.10). Some participants had a preconceived sense of shared understanding of important values and interests before participating in the study, which VFT strengthened. Our results highlight the advantages of structuring the development and evaluation of conservation planning frameworks around VFT.     

Environmental News in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the Philippines

From an environmental perspective, the media have raised the level of environmental awareness and, rightly or wrongly, focused the attention of citizens on specific environmental issues. Public reaction to environmental news can filter back into the media and highlight specific policy issues. The importance of the media in this respect has gained strength, particularly in developing countries, where environmental problems have become legitimate concerns, and where access to 'official' information has been historically difficult. In general, newspapers have been found to be one of the most predominant sources of environmental information available to the public, particularly in developing countries. In this paper, we summarise, briefly analyse and compare the newspaper coverage of environmental issues in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the Philippines. Among numerous other results, it appears that the coverage of environmental issues fell considerably over the period 1990-94 despite an increase in world-wide environmental awareness. Most news reports actions by the environmental agencies (warnings and rewards, etc.). In the Philippines, however, most environmental news reports investments in pollution abatement activities by the private sector. While citizens' complaints represent a small percentage of the coverage of environmental issues, closer examination reveals that such complaints, in the vast majority of cases, trigger governmental actions (warnings) and ultimately an improvement of firms' environmental performance (investment).     

Toward understanding the human dimensions of the rapidly changing arctic system: insights and approaches from five HARC projects

Human dimensions research focuses on the interrelationships between humans and the environment. To date, human dimensions research in arctic regions has concentrated primarily on local events and contexts. As such, it complements analysis elsewhere of adaptation and sustainable development within broad institutional, social, and environmental contexts. This paper reviews five projects from the Human Dimensions of the Arctic System (HARC) initiative, established by the US National Science Foundation in 1997. Common themes and findings are highlighted: climatic variations or change affect societies through interactions with human activities; population dynamics provide key quantitative indicators of social impacts and well being; and specific impacts and responses are the result of complex, context-sensitive interactions. Congruent approaches to the challenges of interdisciplinary research are also identified: multivariate time plots aid the integration of data, retrospective and prospective studies are part of a continuum and reinforce one another, comparative studies are essential for understanding general principles of human dimensions, and arctic residents can play a vital role in research and action.