protected area

The biosphere reserve as living space: Linking conservation, development and research: An interview with Engelbert Ruoss of the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve, Switzerland

MRD asked Susanne Wymann von Dach, geographer and MRD Assistant Editor, to interview Engelbert Ruoss, a biologist and museologist who is project manager of the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve (Projekt Biosphärenreservat Entlebuch, Chlosterbüel, 6170 Schüpfheim, Switzerland) and lectures at the Institute for Environmental Research (NLU), University of Basle. The interview was...

Protected areas and biodiversity: An overview of key issues

The area set aside for conservation by concerned governments and communities covers almost 12 per cent of the Earth's land surface. Protected areas are such a significant factor in the planet's natural resource allocation that they are important indicators in global environment monitoring. Recognition of the importance of participatory approaches and the values of community-conserved areas...

Livelihood strategies and local perceptions of a new nature conservation project in Nepa: The Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project
The recently established Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project (KCAP)—jointly managed by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF)—is based on the principles of the new participatory concept of nature conservation. The main objectives are to protect the unique environment of the Kanchenjunga region and to help local communities...
Management conflicts in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India
Biosphere reserve models around the world are becoming increasingly people-oriented and conservation-conscious in achieving their objectives. However, reserves established in developing countries, such as the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in India, are facing management versus people conflicts due to the insensitivity of management to both genuine and irrational demands coming from people who are...
Medicinal Plant Cultivation and sustainable development: A case study in the buffer zone of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Western Himalaya, India
The Nanda Devi Bio sphere Reserve (NDBR) in the western Himalaya has a high level of biological and cultural diversity. The Bhotiya community, whose livelihood is highly dependent on local natural resources, inhabits the buffer zone of NDBR. Bhotiya practice seasonal and altitudinal migration and stay inside the buffer zone of NDBR for only six months (May-October). A survey was conducted in 1996...
Culture and nature in the protection of Andean landscapes

Andean landscapes are rich with examples of traditional land uses that have proven sustainable over centuries, contribute to biodiversity and other natural values, and are living examples of cultural heritage. These landscapes and the diverse array of values they represent are, however, exceedingly vulnerable. As countries in the region strengthen existing national systems of...

Conservation through cultural survival: Indigenous peoples and protected areas
Stan Stevens has put together a fine book that “explores new directions in conservation thinking and in the protected area movement”. Those new directions start from the premise that indigenous people in many parts of the world have long contributed to maintaining biodiversity and ecosystems within their traditional lands. They have done this, first, by living in ways that left their...
Contemporary landscape change in the Huascarán National Park and Buffer Zone, Cordillera Blanca, Peru
As part of The Mountain Institute's monitoring and evaluation programme, historic landscape photographs from 10 photopoints of the 1936 and 1939 German/Austrian climbing and cartographic expeditions to the Cordillera Blanca (Huascarán National Park) were replicated in 1997 and 1998. Comparisons revealed contemporary changes in native forest cover, nonnative forest cover, glacial recession...
Trail preferences and visitor characteristics in Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park, Spain
Planning for recreational activities in protected areas involves an understanding of multiple and complex factors. Segmentation of the recreational supply and demand in natural areas, together with identification of the main conditioning factors of recreational use, are useful for park management. In this study, the recreational supply (trails) and demand (visitor characteristics), as well...
Between conservation and development: Concretizing the first world natural heritage site in the Alps through participatory processes
This article presents an empirical interdisciplinary study of an extensive participatory process that was carried out in 2004 in the recently established World Natural Heritage Site Jungfrau–Aletsch–Bietschhorn in the Swiss Alps. The study used qualitative and quantitative empirical methods of social science to address the question of success factors in establishing and concretizing a...

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