Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

13
B I O L O G I C A L D I V E R S I T Y , P A R K S & P R O T E C T E D A R E A S
CONVENTIONAL PARK BOX
MANAGEMENT PLANNING
PROCESSES
■ Inventory the resources being protected.
■ Identify management issues and problems.
■ Set objectives and respond to issues.
■ Quantify outputs from the individual activities.
■ Set priorities.
■ Allocate resources.
■ Establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
Source Distilled from Mackinnon et al. 1986, Stankey et al. 1990, Lucas
1992, and others.
■ a set of proposed changes and a vision for the
future;
■ an implementation plan;
■ human and financial resource analysis; and
■ a system for reviewing and monitoring progress.
A detailed implementation or work plan will be a
critical component, providing important guidance in
day-to-day activities of the management staff.
Most parks and protected areas agencies, when
setting out on new programmes now emphasize public
involvement in all phases. Although it has not
always been so, it is now widely acknowledged that
the quality of the process ultimately affects the quantity
and public acceptability of the management plan.
Time spent ensuring that every group or community
with an interest in the protected area is involved in
the process pays considerable dividends.
The difficulty with all but the most recent generation
of management plans is that they focus on
ecosystem diversity, with some protection of species
biodiversity, but virtually ignoring genetic-diversity
within a species. With the large protected areas this
is less of a problem, but many systems—particularly
in small countries—do not create parks large
enough to protect species diversity. This has been
particularly true for large carnivores at the top of
the food chain, which require vast areas in order to
survive. It will be very important that at least some
of the new national parks are large enough to protect
all of the biodiversity of an ecosystem. A substantial
increase in protected areas from the present
6.14% of the NWFP will be required for this
p u r p o s e .
162 SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY
1 3 . 2
The park systems plan allows more flexibility in
management of protected areas, and does not
demand that all human activities cease in all the area
that needs some degree of protection. In fact, some
human presence is often desirable in protected areas,
because once agreement is reached concerning management
objectives, local residents are often the most
likely adherents to the overall cause.
Depending on the resource use conflicts and the
nature of management agencies involved, a complex
set of environmental, economic, and cultural circumstances
will almost inevitably lead to a more complex
process and a more complex plan. It will also result
in a more time-consuming process as well.
1 3 . 3 . 4
Innovation in Parks & Protected Area
Planning & Co-Management
The conventional technocratic methods for planning
parks and protected areas outlined in Box 13.2 do
not themselves necessarily lead to the protection of
biodiversity. These apply almost universally, irrespective
of the protected area objectives—be it biodiversity,
ecotourism, or protection of a unique monument.
A number of other steps should be taken, however, in
the spirit of the co-management approach and
IUCN’s guidelines for the co-management of the protected
areas, as described in Box 13.3.
First, the planning activities should be undertaken
in the context of a district-level sustainable development
(or conservation) strategy. In an ecosystem management
approach, the national park would be a
large component, but it would be integrated into a
broader land use or integrated resource management
scheme. This would broaden the mandate, take more
time, and cost more money, but the end result may be
more beneficial, to a greater range of beneficiaries.
Second, a Sustainable Development Round Table
should be formed in the project area, to function as a
Steering Committee for the whole programme. Such a
body should define its own priorities within a more general
mandate. After this has been accomplished, with
some secretariat assistance, the Round Table would
hire the technical team needed to meet these priorities
and to undertake the technical park planning functions,