Effective governance is key to the successful management of national parks and is particularly critical for commons in protected areas. This research explores how governance can be strengthened on commons in national parks to improve the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. Empirical data is presented from two case studies; Danau Sentarum, Indonesia and The Lake District, England. Appreciative Inquiry is used to discover commoners’ stories, design future options and consider them in the context of the plural legal and other normative orders in force. These highlight the strong motivation of commoners to govern for the purpose of delivering provisioning services that provide them with financial benefits and for which they have a cultural connection. The cases studies both reveal the difficult task of delivering conservation outcomes when no beneficial interest accrues to the provider, when property rights are uncertain or when there is no positive correlation between the provisioning service and biodiversity. The analysis uses three frameworks; Tamanaha’s typology of Legal Pluralism, Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis of Common Property Resources and Armitage et al’s Criteria for Adaptive Co-management. This tri-faceted process assesses these complex socio-ecological systems demonstrating that in neither case study will current governance structures deliver the full breadth of public and private ecosystem services society seeks. Three opportunities for strengthening governance are identified; 1) enhance linkages between the plural normative orders for the effective enforcement of rules, 2) manage access to common property resources to provide legal certainty regarding rights and responsibilities and 3) ensure the Ecosystem Approach incorporates property rights to harness the motivation of commoners as primary managers.

Owing to decades of accumulated economic achievement, the development of recreation resources has been a matter of urgency in Taiwan. Natural recreation resources mean different things for different people. A sound recreation management policy must take care of all requirements needed to operate the natural recreation resource protection, as well as effect their continued and profitable use. It is necessary to develop a theoretical and empirical, quantitative and humanistic framework for establishing a comprehensive recreation planning structure to maintain a balanced relationship between human needs and natural recreation resources. The main purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate resource management strategy for the recreation area in Taiwan. Part One of this study is devoted to the theoretical aspects of formulation methodology. To this end existing planning methods and optimisation techniques were examined. It concluded that a recommended method which includes a decision model by combining the planning technique of Landscape Ecology Planning Method with Multiple Objective Programming technique, in conjunction with recreation carrying capacity and cost-benefit analysis as planning concepts should be introduced for planning and managing the recreation area. In order to illustrate the use of the method, the planning and management of a recreation area in Taiwan was considered as a case study in Part Two of this study. A preliminary planning structure of the recreation area is formulated on the basis of Landscape Ecology Planning Method. Several land use alternatives were evaluated through the decision model to achieve satisfactory results within the given planning and managing environment of conflicting socio-economic and ecological objectives. It can help planner and manager to judge which management strategy could be approved for further study.

This thesis examines rural governance practice and the global evolution of national park models by analysing the attempted designation of the Mournes national park in Northern Ireland and the actual designation of the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Qualitative data is analysed thematically to provide comparative insights into the ability of participatory governance to manage diverse countryside interests in order to establish national parks in contested rural locations. The thesis employs a distinct analytical framework, comprising the theoretical concepts of governance, power, participation and the resource paradox. Comparing attempts to designate national parks in Northern Ireland and Scotland since devolution (1999) demonstrates the influence of contextual factors, including wider governing circumstances, socio-political and land ownership context and landscape management legacies, on participatory practice. Ethno-national connotations surrounding the 'national' park concept are shown to add to the complexity of national park designation in Northern Ireland. Furthermore structural factors, relating to how policy processes are initiated and designed (including the participatory and governance mechanisms employed) directly influenced public participation. Participatory practice was undermined by power which manifest at different stages of the policy process, while deeply entrenched power relations, linked to the pattern and legacy of land ownership, are revealed as a barrier to inclusive participatory practice. A ladder illustrating the global evolution of national park models is presented. The Cairngorms National Park model is shown to be distinct in a global context with the model proposed in the Northern Ireland National Parks White Paper (2011) representing a further evolutionary stage. The appropriateness of this model in the Mournes locality is questioned . This thesis provides new insights into the practice of participatory governance, power relations in rural society and evolving national park models in their broader social and economic context

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The role that national parks play in violent conflict has rarely been discussed. Conflict literature focuses on the interaction of specific natural resources on the initiation and perpetuation of war and debate has emphasised the degree to which resource scarcity and abundance are pertinent. The role of space, particularly environmentally-significant areas, in shaping these trajectories has been subject to limited interrogation. Drawing from political economy literature, the dissertation explores the relationship between occupation of these spaces by armed groups and the desire to acquire financial and material resources. Furthermore, by situating the study sites within their historical and political context, the dissertation also investigates linkages to political ecology models which seek to explain how environmental changes shape wider political and economic processes and how they in turn shape environmental change. This work undertakes a case study approach, focussing on two national parks in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that have been subject since the 1990s to the world’s deadliest conflict in the post-World War II era. By mapping conflict related health data in proximity to the case study sites, comparisons between the two sites were possible due to similar geographic attributes (namely protected area status) and political context. Positive linkages between levels of violence as a result of the armed conflict were established across both sites. Higher levels of violence in proximity to the national park that lacked valuable conflict-related resources point to the relative importance of location versus the economic benefit of occupying these spaces. This is substantiated by qualitative analysis across the two sites and a household survey around one. Therefore, it is concluded that national parks influence violence by virtue of their status as state-owned entities; by their possession of valuable resources; and by the strategic value of their location. Hence, it may be argued that the role of environmentally-significant spaces in armed conflict is worthy of further empirical analysis in studies of political ecology.

In the UK, urban parks face a precarious future and, with projected cuts of over 65% to local authority discretionary funding (Local Government Association, 2012:2), it is ever more important to understand their value. This study interrogates the value of these resources from the perspective of the individual and, through a mixed method comparative case study of two community parks in Leeds, West Yorkshire, identifies four key challenges to existing framings of their significance. Drawing on primary observational, social survey and interview data, boundaries constructed between forms of value are, firstly, problematized with fluidity recognised between use and non-use aspects. Secondly, a range of previously-omitted past-related values are identified. Negative elements of significance are, then, thirdly, highlighted as heavily interwoven with positive accounts of importance and emphasised as key omissions in prior representations of value. Before, finally, value is stressed as spatially relative, with comparison with other leisure resources noted as an inherent facet of accounts. Taken together, these challenges demarcate an individual perspective of value as notably distinct from those levelled at other scales, such as the firm or community, as it emphasised that, from this perspective, the value of a resource must be rethought as a relational property created in the interaction between people and their environment, rather than an absolute property assigned to a space. Organisations, such as Nesta (Neal, 2013:21) have emphasised a need to ‘rethink' the funding and management of urban parks, moving towards “mixed funding models”, incorporating some level of community voluntarism. This assumed involvement is, however, premised on community engagement which is far from certain. As such, there is a pressing need to understand the value attached to urban parks to understand the scope for expectations of voluntarism to be truly fulfilled.

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In 1926 the Kruger National Park in South Africa became the first national park in Africa to accept visitors. Since that date there has been a propaganda campaign to convince people outside of the administration of the importance of the national park project and the value of the wildlife inside the parks. As a large tract of land in a land-hungry region of the country, the Kruger Park required both political and public support to ensure its survival. This attempt to communicate with the public is the subject of my thesis. The idea of the national park, and the natural world that it contained, altered dramatically since 1926. At times the message was tightly managed, and at others that control was loosened. As various interests intervened and encroached, new discourses developed and struggled for influence. Contained within the messages around the park and its wildlife were ulterior strands and ideologies that impacted in various ways on the idea of the national park. Nationalism, race, gender, class and status all became constituent parts of a heterogeneous construction. My thesis interrogates those strands within the discourse on the Kruger National Park. In 1967 the Manyeleti game reserve, on the western borders of the Kruger Park, became the first segregated game reserve for the exclusive use of black South Africans. Through this parallel project African visitors, who had been generally ignored in the Kruger Park setting, became the focus of propaganda efforts intended for a black audience. Race, gender, and class merged with the environmental messages in this unique setting to create new directions in conservationist rhetoric. My thesis sets these diverse messages communicated at Manyeleti alongside those transmitted through and about the Kruger Park.

Espaces emblématiques des dynamiques complexes entre l’homme et l’écosystème dans des aires protégées abritant des ressources naturelles commune, les îles Galápagos et le Yasuní en Équateur partagent une histoire de dégradation environnementale, conflits socio-environnementaux et chaos territorial. La présence de biens communs, source d’une rente économique liée à la biodiversité et aux hydrocarbures (Yasuní) attire depuis un demi-siècle les intérêts des industriels du pétrole et du tourisme qui ont systématiquement exercé un poids déterminant sur les décisions en matière d’aménagement et de gestion de ces espaces, influant également sur leur gouvernance. Cette réalité joue à l’encontre de politiques d’aménagement territorial pour les deux espaces, Réserves de la Biosphère de l’UNESCO, depuis des décennies. Les Galápagos et le Yasuní témoignent en même temps de la manière dont les gouvernements équatoriens ont eu recours à une « instrumentation » des politiques pour décider le sort des deux aires protégées. Cette thèse montre comment un problème structurel – l’absence d’une politique d’aménagement territorial – a facilité la mobilisation d’instruments de politique pour administrer les deux réserves naturelles. L’histoire du Yasuní est un exemple éloquent de cette pratique d’instrumentation de politiques. La création du parc en 1979, puis les modifications de ses limites et le découpage de la Réserve de la Biosphère Yasuní, dont le parc est le noyau, ont été tous réalisés par des instruments de politiques. De même, aux Galápagos la puissance publique a opéré ses choix en matière d’accès aux espaces protégés et d’utilisation de leurs ressources, en privilégiant les instruments de politique. La loi spéciale des Galápagos (LOREG) a de facto gouverné l’archipel depuis son entrée en vigueur en 1998. Dans les deux cas, l’absence d’une politique d’aménagement territorial a permis l’adoption de décisions top-down sur l’administration des deux espaces.La «révolution citoyenne» du président Correa, en dépit d’une profonde refonte institutionnelle et d’un nouveau paradigme de développement – le Buen Vivir, ou Sumak Kawsay – ne saura changer la manière d’aménager les espaces des deux aires protégées. La planification est élevée à politique d’État qui prime sur toute autre politique, mais dans cette vision l’aménagement du territoire devient un instrument au service de la planification étatique.Ce travail, conduit dans une perspective interdisciplinaire en utilisant une grille de lecture encore peu explorée (les instruments de politique publique) veut aussi contribuer à de nouvelles pistes de réflexion sur l’action publique en matière d’aménagement du territoire ainsi que sur la gouvernance d’aires protégées riches en ressources naturelles communes. / Archetypes of the complex interactions between humans and ecosystems in protected areas rich in Common Pool Resources (CPR), the Galapagos Islands and the Yasuní in Ecuador share a history of environment degradation, socio-environmental conflicts and chaotic land development. The abundance of CPR, source of a lucrative rent from biodiversity and crude (in the Yasuní case) have attracted the interests of oil and tourism businesses over the last fifty years. These industries have consistently steered public decisions over the creation, spatial organisation and administration of these natural reserves, additionally affecting their governance, a reality which has hindered the implementation of land-use planning policies for these areas which are two UNESCO MAB Reserves. The Galapagos and Yasuní protected areas are also a powerful example of the peculiar way whereby Ecuador governments over the last five decades have “instrumented” policy making, preferring the use of policy tools to public policies to decide on the two areas’ fate. This thesis shows how a structural problem such as the absence of a land use planning policy, has thrust the practice of policy tools adoption, instead of policy making, to manage the two protected areas. The “revolución ciudadana” led by president Correa succeeded in re-founding State institutions and launching a new development paradigm (Sumak Kawsay or Buen Vivir) however, it did not advance on land-use management related issues particularly regarding the two areas. Correa has placed national planning at the heart of public policy making it the state policy – backed by a powerful bureaucratic structure – but in this process, land use planning is considered as an instrument in support of national planning. This research, carried out under an interdisciplinary perspective, using policy tools as analytical key, wishes to contribute new insights and methods of analysis on public land use planning and management, as well as governance of common pool resources in protected areas.