In this investigation, a review is undertaken of the newly promulgated and existent legislation pertaining to the conservation of biodiversity, and the establishment of protected areas as the primary means to protect representative samples thereof. This review develops understanding of the various types of protected areas which may be used, in a broad sense, to conserve the country's biodiversity, with special reference being made to the recently promulgated Protected Areas Act. In undertaking this, a detailed discussion of biodiversity, trusteeship and the concept of systematic planning and irreplaceability is generated. Cursory comment and discussion in a socio-political context, in particular regarding land reform, as well as the various international obligations and commitments the country has undertaken, is made. Despite South Africa being the third most biologically diverse country globally, it is concluded that the conservation of its biodiversity has had a troubled and undirected history. The establishment of protected areas, as a result, has been ad hoc and potentially ineffective at a national scale. The source of this observation is linked directly to the absence of a structured and co-ordinated framework that supports the fulfilment of the country's international commitments to conserve biodiversity. The promulgation of the Biodiversity Act and subsequently the Protected Areas Act, has brought into playa significant step forward in developing this co-ordinated framework. The Act clarifies and brings effect to the State's trusteeship as well as providing a platform for the participation of a wider range of role players, especially previously disadvantaged and land dispossessed communities, in conservation and protection of biodiversity. This participation includes conserving biodiversity for economic, social, and cultural reasons. The absence of meaningful incentives for private and communal landowners to voluntarily conserve biodiversity, and the significance ofthis, is also discussed. Finally a consideration is given of the secondary aim of this legislation, to simplify the statutes concerning the conservation of biodiversity and particularly those pertaining to protected area establishment. This simplification is only partially achieved as a number of protected areas are still not at all or partially regulated by the Protected Areas Act. This may be a source of confusion and uncertainty. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Conservation agreements have been used successfully around the globe for the conservation of biodiversity on private land. In South Africa however, their use to this end has largely been overlooked. Conservation mechanisms in the country have focussed primarily on traditional methods; establishing and managing protected areas identified as having some form of conservation significance. At present only 5.8% of land in South Africa is conserved in statutory protected areas, however government has committed itself to increasing this percentage to 8%. Furthermore, many of the country's biodiversity-rich areas are situated on private land and are currently afforded little or no protection. The cost of purchasing the land is not only financially prohibitive but also socially unacceptable and consequently alternative conservations mechanisms need to be explored. This study provides a comparative analysis of the legislation governing conservation agreements in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and highlights several common key provisions which have contributed to the success of these agreements. It also provides recommendations on possible changes to the South African legislation to allow for a more effective contribution by private landowners to biodiversity objectives and targets within the country. Although the study establishes that conservation agreements can be accommodated within South Africa's legal system it acknowledges that the success of these agreements is largely dependent on complex interactions between effective policy, supporting institutional arrangements, and attractive incentives. It cautions that if these agreements are to work in South Africa, then careful consideration needs to be given not only to tailor-making the legislation to the South African environment but also to establishing incentives which facilitate "buy-in" from landowners. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

Protected Areas (PAs) are one of the most effective mechanisms for biodiversity conservation. They are found in almost every country and have been adopted by the international community through various conventions and agreements. However setting aside areas as protected areas does not automatically qualify them to be effectively managed. Research around the world has shown that some PAs are not well managed due to different reasons in different parts of the world. Therefore it is important to determine management effectiveness of PAs to ascertain whether they are managed according to the objectives for which they were created. The Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) is one of the tools developed to evaluate management effectiveness of PAs around the world. The tool has been implemented in a number of countries including Namibia where it has been modified into the Namibia Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (NAMETT) through the United Nations Development Programme and Global Environment Facility’s Strengthening the Protected Areas Network (SPAN) project. However the effectiveness of this tool in providing necessary information about PA management effectiveness was not ascertained before implementation. The Namibian PA management authorities on the other hand need a tool for determining management effectiveness of PAs for management decision-making and as part of their obligations through international conventions which they signed. The aim of this research study was to analyse and assess the NAMETT as a management effectiveness tool for PAs in Namibia, by looking at the strength and weakness of the tool. This will inform whether its worthwhile adopting the tool as a standard management effectiveness evaluation tool for Namibia’s PAs. To accomplish this NAMETT assessment data obtained from the two NAMETT assessments undertaken by SPAN project was analysed. Furthermore different qualitative techniques were used including a semi-structured questionnaire as part of a case study approach. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken in the process and links to students undertaking similar research projects and professionals in the PA management industry were established and complemented the research data. Data obtained from NAMETT assessment undertaken by SPAN project appear to provide a picture of the different levels of management effectiveness in Namibia’s PAs suggesting the tool could be adopted for management effectiveness of Namibia’s PAs. Research data and information gathered shows that at the moment there is no management effectiveness tracking tool in Namibia. PA management authorities lack the necessary management effectiveness information for decision making. Currently only reports, the Incident Book Monitoring System (IBMS) and park inspections are the only sources of information for PA management authorities in Namibia. These tools are inadequate as they do not provide information at a strategic level which can help show trends and weakness and strength in PA management. Therefore a METT tool based on the World Commission on Protected Area’s Framework of which Namibia is a signatory is warranted. The NAMETT provides good information but lacks a link or section that should highlight the health of the ecosystem or provide information on biodiversity. Furthermore the tool has shortfalls in terms of implementation training and guidelines to assist implementers. Despite this, stakeholders who participated in the research project indicated that the tool should be adopted as the standard management effectiveness tool for PAs in Namibia. This however should come with alignment of the tool to local conditions and development of implementation guidelines as well as linkage to other form of PA management tools such as game counts and the IBMS. There is lack of robust management system for PAs in Namibia which will consolidate implementation of NAMETT. Such a system should involve planning, implementation, reporting and adaptive management. Therefore if NAMETT is to be adopted there is a need for such a system to be in place to enable data and information from the different tools to be able to complement each other for informed decision making about PA management. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

The dissertation's point of departure and contention is that the Admiralty Reserve is one of the Coastal Resources facing degradation due to the fact that it is a common property owned by the State President on behalf of all citizens of South Africa. The environmental management function has become the unfunded mandate of local authorities therefore the administration, control and management of the Admiralty Reserve is the responsibility of local government in terms of various lease agreements. There are currently no specific tools available to local government to manage the Admiralty Reserve. The encroachment of the Admiralty Reserve has been and still is a problem for all coastal municipalities including Umdoni municipality. The rationale for the topic was to study the geography of the Admiralty Reserve, the causes of encroachments and the way in which the local authorities dealt (past and present) with the Admiralty Reserve encroachments; to assess the strategies employed by the municipalities in dealing with encroachments, and with the traditional and evolving functions of the Admiralty Reserve. This was done using standard research methods and techniques. The study is located in one of the small coastal municipalities of South Africa called Umdoni, in the Province of Kwazulu-Natal. The results of the study show that the past and present strategies of dealing with encroachments were adversarial in stance and not collaborative. The failure to administer and manage efficiently can be attributed to the following reasons: lack of capacity to deal with environmental matters and legislation, lack of political willpower, negligence on the part of both national and local government spheres, lack of stewardship, lack of proper education, training and knowledge of environmental issues and negative attitudes towards environmental matters. It was also revealed that generally people encroach into the Reserve because of greed and selfishness. One of the conclusions drawn from the findings was that the Admiralty Reserve has become a victim of fragmented control and management by various spheres of government. The Admiralty Reserve requires an integrated management approach that incorporates civic organizations, the relevant government departments, the local authority and the interested and affected individuals. Local authorities are not given proper tools to manage the Admiralty Reserve. There are many laws but none of them are relevant to the Admiralty Reserve. In the absence of usable legislative tools relevant to the Admiralty Reserve encroachments, it is highly recommended and imperative that coastal local authorities (particularly Umdoni Municipality) should formulate and strengthen their bylaws. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Participation has been promoted and studied in diverse disciplines including tourism, development, planning, health, politics, and others. In natural resource conservation, the shift from centralized to decentralized decision making which emphasizes community involvement in planning, implementation and monitoring of programs has been broadly encouraged, especially in developing countries. Although considered a more effective alternative to top down decision making, participatory conservation initiatives have been criticized for many reasons, mainly the exclusion of marginalized groups in programs which lead to unequal distribution of socioeconomic benefits. This inequality is conditioned by social, physical and political structures which act as barriers to sustainable development of resources and communities. Using a political ecology approach, this research explored the participation of marginal groups (poor, women, and lower caste) in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area. The main objectives of this study are: 1) To examine the perceived benefits of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) and how marginal groups fare in the distribution of benefits; 2) To analyze the level of participation of marginal groups in local management institutions; and 3) To identify the barriers to participation as perceived by marginal groups. Field work for this dissertation was conducted during August ? October 2010 using both quantitative and qualitative data, and employing participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Results indicate that benefits of the project were distributed unequally, and targeted towards elite members of the community. Findings also indicated that although marginal groups were involved in local management institutions, their representation was marginal and had not led to empowerment. Lastly, barriers to participation of communities were complex and deeply rooted in traditions and social norms. Overall, the findings indicate that the definition of marginal groups go beyond gender and caste, and are more significantly defined by wealth, poverty, education, and access to information. The study concludes that ACAP needs to re-orient its conservation and development projects by adopting a more inclusive form of participation and that these projects should aim to overcome the barriers identified by the marginalized households.

<p>A vast range of theoretical and empirical studies now suggests that MPAs can conserve marine biodiversity and, under some circumstances, increase fishery yields. However, despite the importance of pelagic apex predators to ecosystem function, the effectiveness of spatial management for the conservation of pelagic apex predator species is still unknown. I used fishery-dependent logbook and observer datasets to assess fishing effort and both the catch and size of pelagic apex predator species around five different MPAs. The US Hawaii-based deep-set or Atlantic pelagic longline fisheries fish the waters around these MPAs; both of these fisheries have experienced multiple management measures over time to protect species and maximize fishery yield. The MPAs selected for this study range in size, age, level of protection, and reason for establishment. I found that only two MPAs of the five appeared to be benefitting the pelagic apex predator species that I selected: the DeSoto Canyon and East Florida Coast MPAs, both in the Atlantic Ocean. The size of yellowfin tuna around the DeSoto Canyon MPA borders has increased over time, as has fishing effort. In contrast, the size of swordfish has decreased near the boundary of the East Florida Coast MPA, although the catch of swordfish has increased. The increase in catch of smaller swordfish was not a surprise because the East Florida Coast MPA was established around an area that is a nursery habitat for swordfish. These results are promising for the use of static MPAs for the conservation of pelagic apex predators, but three of the MPAs in my study did not show any indication of increased fishing effort, increased catch, or changes in pelagic apex predator size near their boundaries over time. Therefore, the characteristics of the DeSoto Canyon and East Florida Coast MPAs may provide a template for how to best design new MPAs for pelagic apex predators. Both of these MPAs were established with the specific intent of reducing pelagic apex predator bycatch, in areas where there were historically high catch rates. Both areas are relatively large (> 85,000 km2) and are also closed year-round. In combination, these characteristics may provide protection for pelagic apex predators.</p> / Dissertation

Utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods, this in-depth ethnographic study of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (BSFNRRA) examines social conflict and resistance stemming from competing values, definitions, and concerns over the management of cultural and natural resources within the region. The timing of this project is fortuitous for the National Park Service (NPS) has completed the creation of a ten year General Management Plan. Thus, we are provided with an opportunity to study and analyze the policy and methodology that park officials are required to follow in creating a management plan and eliciting public participation. The first goal of this study is to ascertain how the establishment of the BSFNRRA has altered local communities: (1) means of access to the area and (2) uses of resources within the area. Several questions will be asked and probed for answers. What happens to the meanings of the land and places on the land (such as a family cemetery) when the land is transformed from private to public ownership and is managed by a government agency for the benefit of preservation or recreation? How have residents been affected by and adapted to this transformation? The second goal is to probe the complex relationships and identify sources of conflict, resistance, and cooperation between community residents, NPS employees, and special interest groups. Essential questions arise and must be addressed. How are conflict, resistance, and cooperation demonstrated? The third goal is to delineate what measures can be taken to lessen conflict or resistance and promote cooperation? Since resistance often manifests itself in not participating in public meetings pertaining to the BSFNRRA, what measures can be taken to promote public participation? In conclusion, this study will draw clear and concise recommendations towards diminishing conflict between local residents and the NPS, along with recommendations on increasing public participation in the creation of policy pertaining to the management of public land. In addition to the applied aspect of this project, this study contributes to the body of theory by building on the mentalist paradigm of symbolic interactionism and the materialist paradigms of conflict and resistance theory.

This dissertation comprises four chapters. The unifying theme is the evaluation of environmental programs. Specifically, each chapter examines some facet of the impacts of protected areas. The first chapter examines the heterogeneous environmental and economic impacts of protected areas in Costa Rica. Previous studies suggest that Costa Rica's protected area system induced both reduced deforestation and alleviated poverty. We demonstrate that these environmental and social impacts were spatially heterogeneous. Importantly, the characteristics associated with the most avoided deforestation are the characteristics associated with the least poverty alleviation. In other words, the same characteristics that have limited the conservation effectiveness of protected areas may have improved the social welfare impacts of these areas. These results suggest that `win-win' efforts to protect ecosystems and alleviate poverty may be possible when policymakers are satisfied with low levels of each outcome, but tradeoffs exist when more of either outcome is desired. The second chapter explores in more detail the heterogeneous impacts of protected areas in Costa Rica and Thailand. In particular we investigate the potential for protected areas to act as a mechanism for poverty traps and use semiparametric models to identify the spatial congruence of environmental and economic outcomes. We find no evidence that protected areas trap historically poorer areas in poverty. In fact, we find that poorer areas at baseline appear to have the greatest levels of poverty reduction as a result of protection. However, we do find that the spatial characteristics associated with the most poverty alleviation are not necessarily the characteristics associated with the most avoided deforestation. We demonstrate how an understanding of these spatially heterogeneous responses to protection can be used to generate suitability maps that identify locations in which both environmental and poverty alleviation goals are most likely to be achieved. In the third chapter we address the mechanisms through which protected areas affect economic outcomes. Using recently developed quasi-experimental methods and rich biophysical and demographic data, we quantify the causal post-treatment mechanism impacts of tourism, infrastructure development and ecosystem services on poverty, due to the establishment of protected areas in Costa Rica prior to 1980. We find that nearly 50% of the poverty reduction estimated in a previous study can be attributed to tourism. In addition, although the mechanism estimates for the infrastructure and ecosystem services proxies are negligible, we argue that the results provide evidence that enhanced ecosystem services from the establishment of protected areas has likely helped to reduce poverty. The results provide additional information to policy makers that wish to enhance the future establishment of protected areas with complementary policy. The final chapter studies the economic impacts of protected areas in Bolivia. We find that municipalities with at least 10% of their area occupied by a protected area between 1992 and 2000 exhibited differentially greater levels of poverty reduction between 1992 and 2001 compared to similar municipalities unaffected by protected areas. We find that the results are robust to a number of econometric specifications, spillover analyses and a placebo study. Although the overarching results that Bolivia's protected areas were associated with poverty reduction are similar to previous studies , the underlying results are subtly, but significantly, different. In previous studies it was found that controlling for key observable covariates lead to fundamentally antithetical results compared to naive estimates. Conversely, these results indicate that naive estimates lead to an over-estimation of the poverty reducing impacts of protected areas. The results expose the heterogeneity of protected area impacts across countries and, therefore, underscore the importance of country-level impact evaluations in order to build the global knowledge base regarding the socioeconomic impacts of protected areas.

Die vorliegende Untersuchung umfasst eine konzeptionelle Analyse von klimawandelbedingten Stressen sowie eine systematische Überprüfung der Managementpläne von Schutzgebieten auf dem amerikanischen Kontinent, mit besonderem Augenmerk auf dem Department Santa Cruz in Bolivien. Die Wirkungen von sich klimawandelbedingt ändernden Mustern der Temperatur und des Wetters, z.B. häufigeren und intensiveren Extremwetterereignissen, sind neuartige Herausforderungen für die natürlichen Ökosysteme der Erde. Es ist deshalb von entscheidender Bedeutung, den Klimawandel bei Planung und Management im Naturschutz zu berücksichtigen und so seine Vulnerabilität gegenüber dem Klimawandel zu thematisieren und mithin zu reduzieren. Die Anerkennung des Klimawandels als Bedrohung für Schutzgebiete stellt in Lateinamerika einen beträchtlichen Paradigmenwechsel für die strategische Planungs- und Managementpraxis dar. Um einen solchen Fortschritt zu befördern, versuchen wir im ersten Schritt das aktuelle Schutzgebietsmanagement zu erfassen und seine Fähigkeit einzuschätzen, auf das Klimawandel-Problem einzugehen. Diese Einschätzung erfolgte auf Grundlage von Analysen einer schriftliche Umfrage bei Schutzgebietsmanagern zu Beobachtungen über Reaktionen von Biodiversität auf den Klimawandel. Um mit relativ schnellem und mit Unsicherheit behaftetem Umweltwandel umgehen zu können, bedarf es der Verbesserung der Anpassungsfähigkeit sowohl der Biodiversität als auch der Naturschutz-Systeme. Unter der Hypothese, dass die meisten ‚konventionellen’ Instrumente des Naturschutzes ein dynamisches Schutzgebietsmanagement, das schnellen Umweltwandel ausreichend berücksichtigt, nicht ausreichend befördern, werteten wir fast 900 gebietsspezifische Conservation Action Plans (CAPs) des Naturschutzverbandes The Nature Conservancy (TNC) aus. Dann wählten wir 103 CAPs aus, die vor einer intensiven Überprüfung existierender Pläne und einem Klimawandel-Training der Planungsteams („climate change clinic“), die TNC 2009 vornahm, erstellt worden waren. Wir verglichen die Ergebnisse mit 22 Plänen aus der Zeit nach der climate change clinic. Vor 2009 gebrauchten 20% der CAPs den Begriff „Klimawandel“ in der Beschreibung der Viabilität des Gebiets, und 45% identifizierten ökologische Schlüsselattribute, die mit Klimawandel in Beziehung stehen. Acht Prozent der Schutzstrategien bezogen sich direkt oder indirekt auf die Anpassung an den Klimawandel. Nach 2009 zog ein signifikant höherer Prozentsatz der Pläne den Klimawandel in Betracht. Unsere Daten zeigen auf, dass viele Planungsteams Schwierigkeiten haben, den Klimawandel in Management und Planung zu berücksichtigen. Eine allgemeine fachliche Anleitung und konkretes Training können jedoch Lernprozesse von Managementteams befördern. Daher entwickelten und erprobten wir eine erweiterte Version der Conservation Action Planning-Methode als zusätzliche Planungsmethode. Dieses erweiterte CAP legt einen Schwerpunkt auf die Berücksichtigung des Klimawandels in allen Planungsschritten. Wir erprobten das erweiterte CAP in einer Fallstudie im Schutzgebiet mit integrierter Nutzung („Area de Manejo Integrado“) Río Grande Valles Cruceños im Department Santa Cruz. Im Zuge dieser Pilotanwendung wählten die Teilnehmer als Schutzobjekte insgesamt acht Arten und Biozönosen aus, die zusammen die Biodiversität des Gebiets repräsentieren. Das Schutzobjekt ‚Wasser’, aufgrund von Qualitätsmerkmalen von ökologischen Prozessen und mit ihnen verbundenen Funktionen ausgewählt, erwies sich als Herausforderung bei der Anwendung. Dem Klimawandel wurde in jedem einzelnen Planungsschritt besondere Beachtung geschenkt. Im Ergebnis wurden die aktuelle Viabilität des Schutzgebiets als „Gut“ und die zukünftige Viabilität unter dem Einfluss des Klimawandels als „Mäßig“ eingeschätzt. Anhand der Antworten von Schutzgebietsmanagern auf einem Fragebogen zu Klimawandel und Schutzgebietsmanagement in Santa Cruz, Bolivien, bewerteten wir die Berücksichtigung des Klimawandels im Schutzgebietsmanagement und der Vulnerabilität der betreffenden Gebiete im Hinblick auf ihre Fähigkeit, sich an den Klimawandel anzupassen. Achtundachtzig Prozent der Gebiete füllten den Fragebogen aus, das sind insgesamt 32 (nationale, departmentale und munizipale) Schutzgebiete im ganzen Department. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass alle Gebiete einige Wirkungen des Klimawandels wahrgenommen haben und, bei unterschiedlichem Stand des Wissens und der Umsetzung, auf der Suche sind nach Mitteln und Wegen, wie sie ihr Management entsprechend anpassen können. Sie legten dar, dass sie sei einigen Jahren in hohem Maße Extremwettereignissen und häufigeren und intensiveren Überschwemmungen, Dürren und Waldbränden ausgesetzt sind, insbesondere in der Amazonasregion. Weniger als die Hälfte der Gebiete verfügten über einen Managementplan; keines besaß Kenntnis vom Ansatz der ökosystembasierten Anpassung. Stattdessen benutzten sie andere Arten adaptiven Managements; 11% der Gebiete praktizierten Risikomanagement; 46 % arbeiteten mit benachbarten privaten Grundeigentümern zusammen, und 86% sind der Auffassung, dass die Naturschutz-Arbeit heute schwieriger ist als noch vor 20 Jahren. Nationale Schutzgebiete waren, einem Index der Klimawandel-Vulnerabilität zufolge, am wenigsten vulnerabel, gefolgt von departmentalen Schutzgebieten. Munizipale Schutzgebiete wiesen gemäß verschiedenen Analysen die höchsten Vulnerabilitätswerte auf. Mit dieser Studie haben wir gezeigt, dass Naturschutzplanung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Klimawandels zwar nicht einfach, aber durchaus möglich ist. Indem wir diese Herausforderung herausarbeiten, hoffen wir, zu einem proaktiveren Blick auf die Erhaltung der Biodiversität, der systematischer, umfassender dokumentiert und auf den Klimawandel ausgerichtet ist, anzuregen. Dieser neue Ansatz fordert zu pragmatischen wie auch strategischen Handlungen heraus, die dazu angelegt sind, mit dem Klimawandel zurechtzukommen und sich an ihn anzupassen. Neue Instrumente für adaptives Naturschutzmanagement, die explizit Möglichkeiten zum Umgang mit Zukunftsszenarien, Vulnerabilitätsanalysen und Risikomanagement integrieren, können das Schutzgebietsmanagement angesichts des Klimawandels proaktiver und robuster machen.

Remote ecosystems in Canadian Rocky Mountain parks and protected areas are being pressured by indirect impacts of human activities across the landscape. Ecological impacts can result from a variety of stressors such as climate change, fire suppression and prescription, visitor use, invasive species, and surrounding land-uses. With intensified challenges relating to logistics and moral issues inherent in remote ecosystem management (Higgs and Hobbs, 2010; Higgs and Roush, 2011), managers of these landscapes continue to struggle with questions of "what do we do here?" For ecological restoration and conservation management, historical landscape changes (predominantly following years of fire suppression and rapid climate change) are complicating decisions and our understanding of ecological processes. While intervention may become increasingly necessary for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services under conditions of rapid change (Hobbs et al., 2011), direct action may not be the most appropriate tactic, especially when lacking adequate information and foresight (Harris et al., 2006; Higgs and Roush, 2011). This study investigates observable historical remote landscape change in two protected areas in the Canadian Rockies, and examines the resulting implications for management and restoration. Present conditions in Willmore Wilderness Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park were evaluated in a comparative case-study approach. The influence of factors such as jurisdiction, climate, socioeconomics and settlement history were seen to strongly shape how environmental changes impacted management efforts and decisions. Long-term landscape changes were observed through repeat photography with the Mountain Legacy Project. Through focus groups using photo-elicitation with park managers, repeat photo pairs guided discussion. I pursued this research question: "how do long-term landscape changes influence conservation and restoration objectives in remote mountain ecosystems?" This also incorporated subsidiary questions: "what are the inherent challenges in managing (and restoring) remote ecosystems?” and “how could managers of remote ecosystems best approach these issues in the face of rapid ecological change?” Significant landscape changes are observed in both parks and include glacier retreat, forest stand aging, valley infill (encroachment) and upward movement of the treeline ecotone. While ecological changes are seen as significant and as threatening to various park values and public safety, efforts to better understand these changes or address them are limited. The majority of remote ecosystem management efforts in both parks are indirect (passive), with the exception of fire management. This is largely due to capacity and resource constraints, and agency recreation mandates and visitor needs monopolizing manager focus. Suggested restoration efforts would assist climate adaptation and reduce indirect impacts without placing notable pressure on remote ecosystems. The use of repeat photography for monitoring of ecological change is a strong possibility for parks management, particularly if public engagement through citizen science was implemented to minimize dependence on management resources. / Graduate / 0368 / 0768 / jlfalk@uvic.ca