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Protected areas, such as national parks, can provide nearby communities with a wide range of environmental, social, and economic benefits, such as ecosystem services and tourism development. However, protected areas can also subject communities to a number of costs, such as displacement and an increase in negative human-wildlife interactions. This study investigates how the communities of Tofino and Ucluelet, British Columbia, Canada perceive they have been impacted by Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (PRNPR). Specific areas of focus include respondents’ attitude and level of support for PRNPR and their perceptions of concerns and benefits related to the park. Data for this study was collected using a focus group and questionnaire administered using the “drop-off” method. The results of this study suggest that residents of Tofino and Ucluelet generally have a positive attitude towards the park and perceive PRNPR subjects their communities to a number of concerns and benefits. It was found that attitudes were linked to perceived concerns and benefits, perceived changes in the community, and level of involvement with PRNPR. With regards to concerns and benefits, it was found that respondents were most concerned with financial costs related to PRNPR and most valued benefits related to conservation. / Graduate

Thesis (M.E.S.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-112). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: LINK NOT YET AVAILABLE.

To date, there has been little research on the morphodynamics of Canada’s Pacific mesotidal beach-dune systems and their potential response to climate variability and change. Accordingly, this study examines and characterizes the morphodynamics of a mesotidal beach-dune system on western Vancouver Island (Wickaninnish Beach) and investigates its potential response to extreme seasonal storms, climate variability events, and climate change trends. This research also informs protected areas management approaches, whose effectiveness is important to the conservation of early successional and proportionately rare specialized dune species. Research methods include repeat cross-sectional surveys, repeat vantage photographs, and analysis of the wind, wave, and water level regime. Both the regional wind regime and aeolian sediment transport regime are bimodal, with a WNW (summer) component and a SE (winter) component. The nearshore littoral sediment transport regime is characterized by both longshore and rip cell circulation cells. To date, survey results are informative only of seasonal changes. Longer-term monitoring will better reveal contemporary trends of the beach-dune system. A high dune rebuilding potential (aeolian sand transport potential = 9980 m3 m‐1 a‐1, resultant aeolian sand transport = 3270 m3 m‐1 a‐1 at 356 degrees) was found based on the incident wind regime and sand grain diameter. A threshold elevation for dune erosion was defined at 5.5 m aCD. Erosive water levels were analyzed using three approaches yielding the following results. Erosive water levels are reached on average, ~3.5 times per year; with a probability of 65% in any given year; and, annual return levels are 5.59 m aCD, suggesting erosive water levels are reached annually. Statistical relations show that the positive phase of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (El Niño) shares the most variance with the incident oceanographic regime (e.g., significant wave height, peak period), and although a causal relationship cannot be drawn, El Niño may contribute to the occurrence of erosive events on Wickaninnish Beach. Beyond El Niño, overall findings suggest climate variability signals are manifest in regional erosional water level regimes.

This research project explores ways in which place-based Indigenous perspectives can inform national park ‘visitor experience’ planning, management, and information delivery. Engaged in collaborative processes with Tseshaht First Nation, this project explores knowledge of Tseshaht-identified places of cultural significance in Tseshaht traditional territory, discussed in the context of creating a web-based digital map. In attempting to explore Nuu-chah-nulth-informed ways in which to more widely share cultural history and knowledge in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, I learned of the many dynamics that are revealed when the depth of Nuu-chah-nulth connections to place are made visible. This research project examines knowledge, power, and place in the context of Indigenous self-representation. Informed by Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous principles of knowledge-sharing, this thesis is an ethnography of knowledge-sharing in modern contexts fraught with issues of state power, commodification, and colonialism. / Graduate

In what can be characterized as a period of rapid ecological change, the global community has now reached an agreement on the importance of protecting what remains of the world’s biological diversity. In 2011, world governments pledged to extend protected areas (PAs) to 17% of the earth’s surface. Although, accumulated research documents the role PAs areas play in coping with environmental change, much of conservation practice remains at odds with the actual purpose of conservation: to enable natural and human systems to adapt and sustain life. Challenges in PA planning and management, and their connections (or lack thereof) to wider socio-economic and institutional frameworks have made environmental governance a leading concern in the study of PAs. This research examined the nature and dimensions of environmental governance affecting adaptive capacity and the sustainability of protected landscapes, particularly for PAs deemed to have been established and/or operating through ‘participatory’ governance. These issues are explored through comparative research based on case studies of two coastal PAs: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve in Canada, and Saadani National Park in Tanzania. Methods utilized included gathering qualitative and spatial data through interactions with decision-making bodies and representatives of agencies at the village/First Nations and park levels, interviews with state authorities at district and higher levels and document research. The research findings on the two PAs and adjacent communities unravel the nature and dynamics of steering institutions, institutional interplay and spatial interconnectedness as they relate to cooperation, agency and adaptability within and around protected landscapes. An examination of spatial and institutional arrangements within national frameworks, and an examination of governance and management practice at the level of individual parks reveal significant mismatches between policy discourses on multi-level cooperation and actual practice in state-based conservation. This research also reveals ways in which sustainability can be conceived and addressed through institutions and institutional interplay among park and community actors. The research analyzed ways in which encompassing frameworks shaped institutions, relationships and activities on the ground, and spatial interconnectedness and interdependence shaped the actions and agency of grassroots actors. The findings also demonstrate that there are critical differences between participation and the exercising of agency. While it is important to achieve a fair distribution of burdens and benefits across levels, it is shared jurisdiction and fair institutional interplay, rather than economic benefits, which can better enable all levels of social organizations to contribute to sustainability. In this regard, enhancing agency is essential to enabling adaptability and goes beyond addressing disruptive power relations; it also entails redefining perceptions of human nature and of spatial interconnectedness among communities and natural landscapes in the design of environmental institutions. It is through institutionally-driven processes, such as giving full political and financial support to states fixed on gaining spatial control of culturally diverse landscapes through restrictive conservation approaches, that conservation has become an instrument of oppression, and it is only through institutionally-driven means that acknowledge the importance and role of indigenous approaches to preserve ecological diversity that PAs can be made to serve their purpose: to preserve nature and cultural heritage for present and future generations. / Graduate / 0534 / 0366 / aleja@uvic.ca