These are challenging times for parks and protected areas in British Columbia as these areas
have increased in size and use, while resources for managing them have shrunk considerably.
Environmental nongovernment organisations (ENGOs) have recognized these threats and as a
result are becoming increasingly involved in the stewardship of parks and protected areas. As
the provincial government authority responsible for their management, BC Parks acknowledges
that the needs and aspirations of people living in and around these areas must somehow be
integrated in their management in order to ensure their long-term viability, and that ENGOs have
valuable knowledge and skills to offer in this regard. As a result, cooperative arrangements, or
partnerships, are being increasingly explored as a mutually beneficial means of forwarding BC
Parks' mandate of conservation and recreation, and the mandate of similarly-minded ENGOs.
The central purpose of this thesis is to identify essential criteria that must be met for cooperative
arrangements between ENGOs and BC Parks to be successful. The study focusses on four
current, successful partnerships. Research methods included a literature review and interviews
with representatives from each of the participating BC Parks districts and ENGOs.
The thesis presents a number of key findings that have significant import to the successful
planning, implementation and management of cooperative arrangements for parks and protected
areas. In addition to the criteria identified as central to their success, certain process-based
actions have relevance to fulfilling the criteria. The level of trust between partners also has an
impact on relations, which is enhanced when the criteria are met and over the course of time.
The expectations of parties with regard to the extent of power-sharing and how this is exhibited
in the cooperative arrangement also affects the perceived level of success of partners and
therefore their commitment to the partnership.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9797 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Tamm, Sabine Susan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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