This dissertation is an attempt to analyse and address some of the many and complex issues revolving around protected area - community relationships. The success of these relationships are essential if the mission of protected areas are to be achieved. Due to large scale agriculture, high density populations and environmental degradation protected areas are often looked upon as a means to conserve biodiversity. It is for this reason that they play an important role in the natural environmental of South Africa. However, there is a growing realisation that protected areas will not survive unless they become relevant to the communities that surround them. These cOI11nlunities are often characterised by high density populations and low levels of infrastructural and economic development. These developmental requirements need to be considered by protected area management, and a dedicated effort is required by protected areas to assist in meeting these needs. However, the relationship between protected areas and C0111nlunities should not simply focus on meeting the developmental needs of the community, relationships need to allow for communities to participate in decisions and activities that directly impact of their lives. Benefits need to accrue to communities from protected areas for them to support the concepts of conservation. Benefits need to be tangible, intangible and empowering for them to have real meaningful impacts on the communities. Communities need to be actively involve in all aspects of the protected area management and links need to be forged between conservation and development, so that the socio-economic condition of those living closest to protected areas improves. This study uses the relationship between Mthethomusha Game Reserve and the surrounding Mpakeni conmunity, and the Pilanesberg National Park and the neighbouring Bakgatla community to investigate many issues, including the manner in which communities participate and benefit from conservation. The findings of this study reflect that the relationships between communities and protected areas are dependent on a number of factors including~ ownership~ socio-economic condition of the surrounding community~ institutional structures and capacity of the community formal agreements; history of the fonl1ati~n of the protect~d a~ea~ reliance on the protected area for survival and the meaningfulness and appropriateness of the benefits received from the protected area. The experiences of the two case studies has been analysed and compared to develop a theoretical model for community - protected area relationships. This model indicates the primary prerequisites which will contribute to effective and equitable relationships between protected areas and surrounding communities. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

The integration of dispatchable renewable energies like biomass, geothermal and reservoir hydro technologies into an electrical network present no greater challenge than the integration of conventional power technologies for which are well understood by Eskom engineers. However, renewable energies that are based on resources that fluctuate throughout the day and from season to season, like wind and solar, introduce a number of challenges that Eskom engineers have not dealt with before. It is current practice for Eskom‟s generation to follow the load in order to balance the demand and supply. Through Eskom‟s load dispatching desk at National Control, generator outputs are adjusted on an hourly basis with balancing reserves making up only a small fraction of the total generation. Through the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity of 2010, the Department of Energy has set some targets towards integrating renewable energy, including wind and solar generation, into the South African electricity market consequently introducing variability on the supply side. With demand that varies continually, maintaining a steady balance between supply and demand is already a challenging task. When the supply also becomes variable and less certain with the introduction of non-dispatchable renewable energy, the task becomes even more challenging. The aim of this research study is to determine whether the resources that previously helped to balance the variability in demand will still be adequate to balance variability in both demand and supply. The study will only concentrate on variable or non-dispatchable renewable energies as will be added to the South African electrical network according to the first two rounds of the Department of Energy‟s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. This research study only looks into the balancing challenge and does not go into an analysis of voltage stability or network adequacy, both of which warrant in depth analysis. / Thesis (MIng (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The integration of dispatchable renewable energies like biomass, geothermal and reservoir hydro technologies into an electrical network present no greater challenge than the integration of conventional power technologies for which are well understood by Eskom engineers. However, renewable energies that are based on resources that fluctuate throughout the day and from season to season, like wind and solar, introduce a number of challenges that Eskom engineers have not dealt with before. It is current practice for Eskom‟s generation to follow the load in order to balance the demand and supply. Through Eskom‟s load dispatching desk at National Control, generator outputs are adjusted on an hourly basis with balancing reserves making up only a small fraction of the total generation. Through the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity of 2010, the Department of Energy has set some targets towards integrating renewable energy, including wind and solar generation, into the South African electricity market consequently introducing variability on the supply side. With demand that varies continually, maintaining a steady balance between supply and demand is already a challenging task. When the supply also becomes variable and less certain with the introduction of non-dispatchable renewable energy, the task becomes even more challenging. The aim of this research study is to determine whether the resources that previously helped to balance the variability in demand will still be adequate to balance variability in both demand and supply. The study will only concentrate on variable or non-dispatchable renewable energies as will be added to the South African electrical network according to the first two rounds of the Department of Energy‟s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. This research study only looks into the balancing challenge and does not go into an analysis of voltage stability or network adequacy, both of which warrant in depth analysis. / Thesis (MIng (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Durant anys, el principal mètode de gestió de les poblacions de truita comuna (Salmo trutta L.) ha estat la repoblació amb exemplars exògens. El seguiment genètic de les poblacions de truita comuna dels Pirineus orientals, realitzat en aquest tesi, indica que els al.lels procedents d'aquestes repoblacions estan conduint a una homogeneització de les poblacions naturals i a la pèrdua de la seva història evolutiva. D'aquí la importància de la detecció de la introgressió en el desenvolupament de noves estratègies de gestió i conservació de les poblacions d'aquesta espècie. En aquest treball, s'ha avaluat l'eficàcia de diferents marcadors i mètodes que ens ofereix la genètica de poblacions en la detecció de la introgressió present a les poblacions naturals. Alhora que s'ha analizat la influència que han tingut les reserves genètiques, aplicades amb posterioritat a les repoblacions, i que intenten equilibrar l'explotació i la conservació dels recursos genètics de les poblacions natives. / For many years, the primary strategy to maintain or increase brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) population size has been stocking with exogenous individuals. Results on genetic monitoring of brown trout populations in the eastern Pyrenees, carried out in this thesis, indicates that hatchery alleles are diluting native gene pools, leading to a genetic homogenization of native populations and the loss of evolutionary history of this specie. In this context, it is very important the continuous monitoting of the levels of introgression in wild populations to properly develop management and conservation strategies for populations of this specie. In this work, the efficiency of different genetic markers and methods for detecting introgression in natural populations has been evaluated. Moreover, we evaluated the influence of the new management approaches, genetic refuges, aimed to avoid introgression and preserve native genetic diversity remaining in wild populations.

Contested land-management plans make spatial data about values that people attach to the landscape necessary for federal land management. The study area for this project is the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, an area that is divided by a complex mosaic of land jurisdictions, including public lands administered by the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and Washington State, as well as interspersed tribal and private landholdings surrounding the perimeter. During the summer of 2012, I collected map and survey data from visitors at fourteen popular destinations around the Olympic Peninsula, including visitor centers, campgrounds, trail access points, and a ferry. Three research objectives were evaluated in my thesis: 1) determine a general typology of visitors, 2) understand what values and activities visitors associate with places in the peninsula, and 3) compare visitor data with resident data from the Human Ecology Mapping Project (HEM), a collaboration between the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, the Institute of Culture and Ecology, and Portland State University. Analysis using ArcGIS included density and density hot spot calculations for a composite of the data as well as subsets based on types of visitors and individual values and activities. A majority of the participants were older males with higher education. Results indicate that visitors with different levels of familiarity spend time in different parts of the Peninsula. Aesthetic, recreation, and wilderness are the values most often included in the survey; hiking, non-cardio recreation, and sociocultural are the activity groups most often included in the survey. Visitors primarily mark places in Olympic National Park. Visitors, including those who live locally, responded in strikingly different ways than residents who participated in HEM. This research produced expected results that not only substantiate knowledge about specific places in the Olympic Peninsula, but also support theories about environmental cognition.

The Shenandoah Valley Civil War Sites Study Act of 1990 permitted the National Park Service (NPS) to investigate which unprotected battlefields (I5) might be preserved. After collaboration with the NPS, I was allowed to research the battlefield site of Opequon Creek (Third Battle of Winchester) in Frederick County, Virginia. In return, the NPS would receive a copy of this thesis for their use. A questionnaire, submitted to local residents, determined if a park was wanted, what type of park it might be, and what programming activities would be selected. A combination park of recreation, historical, and natural definitions was developed on the residents desires. The Opequon Creek Park process was developed first to alleviate any pre-NPS planning process influences. After Opequon Creek Park was designed, a process comparative analysis was made with the existing NPS model of Antietam Battlefield Park located in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The analysis determined if the NPS's planning process needed refinement. The NPS uses the "Planning Process Guidelines, NPS-2, 1985", to create each park's General Management plan (GMP). Two participatory stages, open houses and public hearings, were found mid-way through the development of Antietam's GMP. The Opequon process allows for participatory input at the start of park development but, did not allow for post design comments. Antietam's park definition was determined before public input was solicited and used based on early project funding requirements. The Opequon process, if implemented immediately upon a new parks legal creation, would save the NPS time and money in the research and development of new parks. Future parks will be carved from urbana as America's population doubles by 2038. The NPS needs a refined participatory planning method to do business with the public of today, the shrinking budgets of tomorrow, and the preservation of needed green space in the future. / Master of Landscape Architecture

National Parks bear greater implications than simply preserving or conserving pockets of landscape. They evoke values of conservation versus development, livelihood economics, environmental stewardship and personal enrichment; they fulfil positions in relation to the national and the international stage. Social characteristics are revealed though this comparative study of Banff National Park and the Cairngorms National Park. Perceptions of space, place and boundaries crucially imply different meanings to the people living inside the national park boundaries and those living outside the boundaries. 'Insiders' are long-term permanent residents for whom being in the park is a practical activity; 'outsiders' include scientists, conservationists, bureaucrats, and tourists, who take various ideological positions regarding the park's purpose. Both sides take a serious interest in the park and how it is managed and regard it as a place where they are 'at home'. Groups within these spaces considers their values and rights superior to others and conflict often arises. Non-violent means of gaining power as theorized by Foucault and Bourdieu, employing knowledge and discourse, are highly suggestive in the study of national parks. Discourse of nature is strategically significant as it influences purpose and policy that drive government's decisions on how the park will be managed - in this way discourse shapes the culture of how we use nature. Knowledge, as symbolic capital and as the basis for truth, sparks divisiveness - in particular scientific knowledge versus experiential knowledge. Changes to the exclusive North American model, such as those instituted in the Caimgorms, mark the increased social utility and inclusive nature of national parks. The challenge remains for park managers to reconcile values connected with nationalism and environmental ethics with values connected with local livelihoods.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management