TY - JOUR

T1 - ENVISIONING PROTECTED AREAS THROUGH PARTICIPATORY SCENARIO PLANNING: NAVIGATING COVERAGE AND EFFECTIVENESS CHALLENGES AHEAD

AU - Martín-López, Berta

N1 - Funding Information: The authors wish to thank all the people who collaborated on this project, especially those who were surveyed, interviewed or participated in the scenario workshops, and Carlota Martínez Alandi, Europarc Spain GIS officer, for her contribution to various figures and protected area coverage data. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments that helped to improve this manuscript. IP is supported by a Juan de la Cierva Fellowship by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

PY - 2017/4/3

Y1 - 2017/4/3

N2 - Protected area coverage targets are still far from being achieved and protected area effectiveness shows major deficiencies. Climate and land use changes and pressures from increasing human populations challenge the future of protected areas. In this research we analyse the trends and effects of these drivers of change on protected areas in Spain. This Mediterranean country, a biodiversity hotspot with many different systems of protected areas, is changing from focusing on increasing protected area coverage towards also improving conservation effectiveness. A Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) approach was developed to create four scenarios in which the evolution of the protected area system was assessed and proposals to achieve a desirable future were agreed among participants. Results show that PSP facilitates exploration of complexity and uncertainty associated with the future of protected areas understood as social-ecological systems. We conclude that greater social and institutional support and active and adaptive management are needed for protected areas in Spain to meet the coverage and effectiveness challenges ahead.

AB - Protected area coverage targets are still far from being achieved and protected area effectiveness shows major deficiencies. Climate and land use changes and pressures from increasing human populations challenge the future of protected areas. In this research we analyse the trends and effects of these drivers of change on protected areas in Spain. This Mediterranean country, a biodiversity hotspot with many different systems of protected areas, is changing from focusing on increasing protected area coverage towards also improving conservation effectiveness. A Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) approach was developed to create four scenarios in which the evolution of the protected area system was assessed and proposals to achieve a desirable future were agreed among participants. Results show that PSP facilitates exploration of complexity and uncertainty associated with the future of protected areas understood as social-ecological systems. We conclude that greater social and institutional support and active and adaptive management are needed for protected areas in Spain to meet the coverage and effectiveness challenges ahead.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - climate change

KW - effectiveness

KW - landscape management

KW - governance

KW - particpatory scenario planning

KW - protected areas

KW - Spain

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030560990&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.2305/IUCN.CH.2017.PARKS-23-1IP.en

DO - 10.2305/IUCN.CH.2017.PARKS-23-1IP.en

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 23

SP - 29

EP - 44

JO - PARKS, the international journal of protected areas and conservation

JF - PARKS, the international journal of protected areas and conservation

SN - 0960-233X

IS - 1

ER -