8 ABSTRACT The participants of environmental management are able to contribute to the sustainable development of protected areas through organized cooperation that requires a complex approach. Therefore, identification and classification of attitudes or relationships between stakeholders are highly desirable as well as determining the factors influencing their thinking towards the existence of protected areas. The explanatory variables like age, education, local and ecological knowledge and employment are usually discussed to explain of residents' opinions on protected areas. This work focuses on the residents of National parks Krkonose, Podyji and Ceske Svycarsko and a team of researchers under the leadership of a supervizor was systematically monitored residents' opinions since 1999 in these national parks. Four-block questionnaire field surveys were conducted in 19 villages influenced by national park management and 469 samples were collected. Chi-square test and logistic regression were utilized to analyse the dataset. There are signifiant relationships (p < 0.05) between selected demographic, environmental, social, economic and institutional-political indicators. Positive or negative respondents' opinions on the existence of the national park were significantly influenced by their age (pχ2 = 0.026),...

This project investigated the business, environmental and social sustainability of dairy farms that include dairy support land. Seventeen farmers were interviewed using Yin’s case study method (Yin, 2003). The interviewees were selected from a list provided during a series of focus groups done with rural professionals prior to continuing with the main body of the research. Those interviewed saw that the primary role of dairy support land is to protect the dairy farm from external factors. Dairy farms are vulnerable to externalities due to high fixed costs and the relationship between cow condition and milk production. The ability of dairy support land to manage externalities relates to quantity of feed grown, therefore feed grown is perceived as the most appropriate measure of performance. For dairy support land to be sustainable, it must be well resourced. On a fully resourced DSL unit, there will be time to plan and carry out essential tasks and environmentally important developments such as riparian fences and stockwater systems are likely to be in place. If the dairy support land unit is not fully resourced it will become a liability to the overall system as the supply of feed becomes unreliable, cows calve in poor condition and dairy farm staff and management are overextended. Poorly resourced dairy support land is also unlikely to have environmentally friendly developments in place. The case studies also demonstrated that the fundamentals of sustainability and practice remain constant across a variety of soil and climatic conditions in Canterbury and Southland.