Building resilience thinking into protected area management evaluation

Abstract

The concept of resilience has emerged as a major focus of attention for the management of social-ecological systems, particularly given the inherent complexity of such systems and widespread trends of environmental change. Protected areas constitute a key element of conservation strategies within social-ecological systems, but there is growing recognition of the need to evaluate the extent to which such conservation areas are successfully meeting their goals, based on substantial evidence that there are often significant management shortcomings. This research explores the extent to which key resilience concepts are incorporated within Protected Area Management Evaluation (PAME) methodologies, through a review of selected assessment approaches.