Alleviating multiple threats to protected areas with adaptive ecosystem management : the case of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
Prato T. 2003. Alleviating multiple threats to protected areas with adaptive ecosystem management : the case of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. The George Wright Forum. 20(4):41-52
This article describes an adaptive ecosystem management framework for alleviating the multiple threats facing protected areas with special reference to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Managing a protected area to achieve the purposes of its organic act is difficult and challenging. In the United States, the National Park Service Organic Act (16 U.S.C. § 431-433) requires national parks to be managed so as "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." The ability of national park managers to achieve the dual mandate of conserving resources and providing for public use and enjoyment in perpetuity is stymied by multiple external and internal threats. Cumulative effects of threats are additive over time and/or space, and occur when seemingly minor management actions are made or minor events occur in an ecosystem that eventually have major social, economic and ecological consequences (Meffe et al. 2002). Management actions for alleviating multiple threats are best devised using a long-term, regionally based, stakeholder-inclusive approach known as adaptive ecosystem management (AEM). This article describes an AEM framework for alleviating the multiple threats facing protected areas with special reference to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Prato, Tony
- Units
- GLAC
- Keywords
- Ecosystem health, Ecosystem Management, Habitats-Protection, Management, Natural Resources Management, Resource Management