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Outdoor recreation is an ongoing global trend that has been boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend has contributed to an increase in visitor numbers in protected areas in Sweden. This qualitative interview study aims at exploring how the increasing outdoor recreation trend can proceed alongside nature conservation. Semi structured interviews were conducted with eight visitor centre supervisors and six park managers in eight protected areas in Sweden. The results suggest that most protected areas have seen an increase in visitor numbers. The negative effects of an increase in visitor numbers experienced by the informants include trampling, effects on wildlife and littering. Preventive visitor management strategies are used by visitor centre supervisors and park managers to mitigate negative effects in protected areas. These include providing information about rules and regulation, physical presence, collaboration, physical measures and dispersal of visitors. Apart from these strategies, the result show that future action to mitigate the negative effects of high visitor numbers can include creating visitor engagement, performing studies on trampling effects and wildlife disturbance as well as bans and limitations. However, further research is needed to determine the effects and accuracy of these strategies.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Nature reserves generate substantial local income through tourism, provide opportunities for recreation and employment and aid in the protection of wildlife, biodiversity, and natural resources. In South Africa, the protection and management of nature reserves are generally done through a protectionist approach whose rigid enforcement of laws excludes access and involvement of local communities, who are a crucial stakeholder for successful wildlife management and conservation. How then do the local communities perceive nature reserves, and how does this affect nature conservation? To answer this question, this study examines the effects of communities’ knowledge and perception of nature conservation in Turfloop Nature Reserve (TNR), in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Mixed method of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used in the study to collect the data from 196 respondents in 9 local communities living within a radius of 4km from TNR. Key informant’s in-depth interviews were conducted with TNR management and community leaders. Several demographic, socio-economic and spatial variables of the local people that included education level, distance, and period of residence in the area (amongst others) were found to significantly influence knowledge and perceptions of the local people towards the TNR conservation activities. Study findings suggest that although local people appreciate the nature reserve and its role in conserving nature and wildlife, there is evidence of dislike and unfavorable perceptions towards some management activities of TNR. The unfavorable perceptions that some community members had were attributed to the absence of participation of the local people in the management of the nature reserve, access to and use of resources from the nature reserve and lack of tangible benefits from the reserve. Positive perceptions were attributed to the benefits received from TNR, such as support for educational programmes, sustainable harvest, and recreation opportunities. Therefore, this study recommends that local people should be involved in the management activities and decision making within TNR and benefits should be increased so that local people may support conservation. / National Research Fund (NRF)

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When movement ecology of target species is coupled with spatial management approaches, such as marine protected areas (MPAs), the results can establish effective conservation outcomes. Nevertheless, a knowledge gap persists regarding how many marine organisms use specific environments over long, continuous periods of time. Acoustic telemetry arrays and fine-scale positioning systems are quickly pervading the marine environment as they can monitor animal movements on a near continuous basis, filling in many previous unknowns on spatial use patterns. Further, coupling fine-scale movement patterns and benthic habitat data provides a spatial framework foundation essential to understanding the intricacies of how habitats can drive movement ecology, and how organisms might link adjacent habitats and resources through movement. The first chapter of this thesis quantified both the broad- and fine-scale movement patterns of yellowtail snapper Ocyurus chrysurus (n = 8) around Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM), St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, an MPA managed by the National Park Service. High site fidelity and a clear affinity to the western shelf break characterized common broad-scale movements observed for this species. Two distinct contingents were detected by the positioning system suggesting individuals were using habitats in two unique, highly structured ways, however, this result requires further validation through an increased sample size. For the second chapter, I characterized the broad-scale movement ecology of horse-eye jack Caranx latus (n = 7), an understudied, but common predatory reef fish. Horse-eye jack are wide ranging, with most individuals visiting almost all receivers (n = 78) in the BIRNM array network. Comparatively, horse-eye jack made more frequent BIRNM boundary crossings into adjacent MPAs harboring various levels of protection. Taken together, these two case studies highlight how sympatric reef species differentially use space within BIRNM and highlight the necessity of evaluating MPA efficacy across species and over longer time scales. Constructing single species movement assessments is essential information, yet there is now a demonstrated need for community movement studies. The final chapter of this thesis highlights promising next steps for this project, including the proposal of a new hourly or sub hourly movement trajectory analysis, potentially capable of elucidating species interactions in near real-time. Together, this thesis not only fills data gaps on species deficient in ecological studies (horse-eye jack) but illuminates individuality in habitat and space use (yellowtail snapper), and how these analyses can be tied back in to developing stronger holistic community population assessments. With continued exploitation of marine environments and increasing anthropogenic demand of marine resources, the need for understanding processes driving species movements is essential in developing successful spatial management plans.

Legal Amazon, the Brazilian region where much of the global tropical forest is located, has suffered from rapid deforestation for decades, undermining the provision of ecosystem services and the conservation of biodiversity on local and global scales. In order to prevent deforestation, the Brazilian government has established priority and protected areas to ensure the preservation of high biodiversity areas and ecosystem services. This study analyses whether the establishment of priority and protected areas have an impact in preventing deforestation, thus promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Furthermore, this study also analyses the extent to which deforestation affects priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Deforestation datasets from 2001 to 2014 of the Legal Amazon was processed and analyzed. The total area and density of deforestation were compared across three categories of land: (1) protected priority areas, (2) unprotected priority areas, and (3) non-priority areas. Spatial methods of geoprocessing and the statistical method one-way ANOVA were used to analyse the deforestation trends. As a result, the deforestation density was found to be lowest inside protected areas than in unprotected areas and non-priority areas. This implied that land-use restrictions in protected areas had more impact compared to unprotected areas and non-priority areas. Furthermore, deforestation has been more intensive in regions of lower biodiversity importance. Despite this positive evaluation, substantial tracts of forest had been converted within regions of high biodiversity importance. Therefore, the regulation of priority and protected areas must be evaluated and improved in the future. / Den brasilianska regionen Legal Amazon, där mycket av den globala andelen av tropisk skog ligger, har drabbats av snabb avskogning i årtionden, vilket underminerar tillhandahållandet av ekosystemtjänster och bevarandet av den biologiska mångfalden både på lokal och global skala. För att förhindra avskogning har den brasilianska regeringen etablerat prioriterade och skyddade områden för att säkerställa bevarandet av områden med hög biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster. Denna studie analyserar huruvida etableringen av prioriterade och skyddade områden påverkar förebyggandet av denna avskogning. Dessutom analyserar denna undersökning också hur omfattningen av avskogningen påverkar prioriterade områden för bevarande av biologisk mångfald. Avskogningsdata från 2001 till 2014 i Legal Amazon bearbetades och analyserades. Total areal och densitet av avskogningen jämfördes mellan tre kategorier av mark: (1) skyddade prioriterade områden, (2) oskyddade prioriterade områden och (3) icke prioriterade områden. Rumsliga metoder för bearbetning och den statistiska metoden envägs-ANOVA användes för att analysera avskogningstrenderna. Resultaten visar att avskogningstätheten var lägst inom skyddade områden jämfört med oskyddade områden och icke-prioriterade områden. Det innebär att markanvändningsbegränsningar i skyddade områden har haft större inverkan jämfört med oskyddade områden och icke prioriterade områden. Vidare har avskogningen varit mer intensiv i områden med lägre värden för biologisk mångfald. Trots denna positiva utvärdering hade ett betydande skogsområde omvandlats inom områden med höga värden för biologisk mångfald. Därför måste regleringen av prioriterade och skyddade områden utvärderas och förbättras i framtiden.

A conservation planning protocol based on components from successful conservation projects in Mexico and other countries was developed to evaluate conservation planning practices and to serve as a template to guide future conservation planning efforts in Mexico. My research specifically explored stakeholder analysis and performance measurement as currently applied to conservation planning. Twenty-seven natural protected area (NPA) management plans and 6 plans from modified rural landscape projects (MDRL), all within Mexico, were evaluated. Additionally, 38 planning team members from 8 selected case studies were interviewed. I used the Laguna de Babicora Watershed planning process and management plan as the focus of my examination of stakeholder analysis. Seventy-four individuals who represented 5 major stakeholder categories were identified and interviewed. Examples of process-, outcome-, output-, and input-related performance measures (PMs) were developed for the Babicora project using information collected from my interviews, the existing management plan, and my conservation planning protocol. The approaches used and products generated from NPA and MDRL plans differed substantially. NPA plans often used pre-established planning guidelines dictated by the overseeing or authorizing agency. Institutional rigidity was a limiting factor to development of NPA management plans. NPA plan content suggested that planners focused more attention on inventory and strategic planning than on other planning components, yet recommended operational strategies in NPA management plans still were comprehensive. MDRL planning processes were more sensitive to local conditions, but less comprehensive than NPA plans. With MDRL plans, on-the-ground pilot projects often were initiated concurrent with inventory and strategic planning efforts. As a result, MDRL planning teams often did not complete management plans due to demands imposed by these concurrent projects. Performance measurement systems for both plan implementation and monitoring of planning processes largely were absent in all NPA and most MDRL projects. Only one MDRL case study addressed process-related performance measures. NPA and MDRL plans both suffered from poor issue identification and problem definition, offering only generic strategic statements that lacked indicators of spatial scale, geographic location, and causative agents. Management plans overall, but NPA in particular, also lacked clear links among identified problems, other key stages of the planning process, and desired or stated outcomes. Unfamiliarity with or failure to use effective diagnostic tools, coupled with a need to comply with existing planning protocols, produced management recommendations that frequently were not justified or related to identified management problems, particularly among NPA plans. MDRL case studies, which typically targeted smaller geographic areas, were not as comprehensive as NPA plans. However, MDRL case studies more often incorporated stronger participatory components. Demands from participatory processes often delayed final development of MDRL management plans. Although NPAs and MDRLs currently follow different planning processes, ultimate success in conservation management may best be served by blending complementary components from each approach. Stakeholders who participate in conservation planning fundamentally are issue specific. Current environmental literature on stakeholder methodologies endorses use of general categories. Although cross-category stakeholder analysis is useful during inventory and strategic planning, within-stakeholder analysis is necessary for successful plan implementation. My findings suggest that within-stakeholder analysis helps (1) identify problems or needs important to particular stakeholders, (2) identify stakeholders with contrasting behavior within categories, and (3) establish areas for potential collaboration. Stakeholder involvement, tailored to local conditions, should occur in all planning stages. Successful conservation planning in Mexico currently should be addressed more as a question of human organization. Suggested performance measures to help monitor and evaluate both the planning process and plan implementation were developed. Process-related PMs focused on the 4 major planning stages. Process-related PMs allow planners to analyze and reassess the direction of the planning process; they are not prescriptive, rather statements that recognize planning as a social exercise likely to face areas where trade-offs are likely to occur (e.g., problem identification, sharing decision-making, public involvement). Performance measures for plan implementation should be hierarchical, nested, and include input-, output-, and outcome-related assessment attributes. / Ph. D.

To explore the institutional resilience of community-based conservation, I undertook empirical research in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA), Nepal, a protected area managed by the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) and local communities organized into 56 Conservation Area Management Committees (CAMCs). I conducted scripted interviews with 212 members of 30 representative CAMCs, 13 ACAP staff members who closely monitor those CAMCs, and 868 local villagers who are the beneficiaries of the conservation programs. The field research was undertaken during the summer of 2007 and fall of 2008. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. I estimated capital stocks and assessed the organizational resilience of each CAMC during and following the Maoist insurgency. I used confirmatory factor analysis to develop scales for measuring the two theoretical constructs of legitimacy and institutional resilience, the latter of which refers to the overall system of community-based conservation in the area. I used the adaptive cycle framework of growth, maturation, collapse and reorganization to assess changes in structures and processes and to explore the past, present and possible future trends in ACA. Villagers largely considered the CAMCs as legitimate institutions, and their executive members as trustworthy. CAMC members understood the organizational mission and were confident about assuming greater management responsibility of the area in the near future. Human and social capital stocks were positively related to the resilience of the CAMCs. Particularly, themes of intra-committee trust, help networks, and the duration of members' tenure on the committees were important. Furthermore, natural capital stocks showed a parabolic relationship with organizational resilience; the most resilient CAMCs had moderate amounts of natural capital under their jurisdictions. The scales used to measure legitimacy and institutional resilience were reliable, and showed a significant positive correlation with each other. Five variables significantly predicted the villagers' perceptions of legitimacy: performance assessments of CAMCs, social norms as measured by perceptions of peers' attitudes towards CAMCs, empowerment as measured by villagers' perceptions of their influence in the CAMCs' decision making processes, perceived benefits and costs associated with having the CAMC in a village, and reported levels of personal participation in CAMCs' activities. The conservation institution appeared to have been resilient to the insurgency, as the system maintained its identity throughout, avoided alternative undesirable states, and entered into the reorganization phase following collapse. All forms of capital and institutional performance decreased to some extent during collapse but institutional memory, available capital and some structural changes facilitated reorganization. The institutional system is reorganizing along the original regime, but it has also developed an alternative pathway of a new governance model for the area that will transform the present regime in the near term. / Ph. D.

The ocean is, with its extraordinary ability to regulate the climate and absorb carbon dioxide, a vital ecosystem for all life on the planet. Moreover, the ocean is highly important for coastal communities as a source of income and nutrition, and as a consequence of increasing dependence it is becoming more significant to mitigate the effects of these anthropogenic activities on the ocean and its resources. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are one of the policies implemented in order to diminish these impacts through the protection of high biodiversity areas by safeguarding nursing grounds for fish species, help remove excessive pollutants and nutrients and through the provision of more sustainable tourism and recreation opportunities. This thesis explores how MPAs influence coastal zones by assessing the environmental and economic impacts. Addo Elephant National Park Marine Protected Area (ANEP MPA) has, due to the complexity of this social-ecological system, been used as a case study. The thesis will help relevant stakeholders to gain an understanding of the current progress being made and how the effectiveness of the MPA can be further improved. Furthermore, this thesis could be used as an example on how to balance environmental and economic development agendas in coastal communities. During this research, a case study design was used, where data was collected through ten in-depth interviews. During the interviews, the participants’ perceptions where gathered on how the establishment of the MPA has impacted the marine life, the local activities (marine tourism, fishing and ship-to-ship bunkering (STSB)) and the local environmental awareness. Afterwards, the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings have shown that the establishment of the MPA has mixed results on the marine life and the local activities, which has led to a deficiency in the effectiveness of Addo Elephant National Park MPA. The local environmental awareness appeared to be too small, but whether or not the MPA contributed to growing awareness could not be said from the data alone. The data concluded that this lack of awareness led to a misuse of ocean resources, which aggravated due to a lack of enforcement. Furthermore, the overall enforcement within the MPA should be improved to enlarge the effectiveness of Addo Elephant National Park MPA.