How stable are visions for protected area management? Stakeholder perspectives before and during a pandemic

[摘要] 1. Envisioning processes enable protected area managers to chart a course for future management to reach desired goals, but unexpected changes that couldaffect future visions are not usually considered. The global COVID-19 pandemicprovided an opportunity to explore changes in stakeholder visions, the valuesthat underpin the visions, and their perceptions of landscape changes and theunderlying drivers (e.g. climate change, mass tourism and demographic trends).2. Through a mixed-methods approach in this post-evaluation study, we gathered comparative data on these issues from stakeholders in the Sierra de Guadarrama NationalPark, Spain, between July 2019 (pre-pandemic) and October 2020 (mid-pandemic).3. Our qualitative analysis demonstrates that pre-pandemic, differences in visionsfor protected area management were largely spurred by different perceptionsof drivers of change, rather than differences in values or perceived landscapechanges, which were similar across different vision themes.4. One year later, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of stakeholders reported that their values, visions and perceptions of drivers did not changedespite this large-scale disturbance. Of the 20%–30% of stakeholders that didreport changes, visions generally shifted towards greater prioritization of biodiversity and nature conservation as a result of heightened perceptions of the impactsof drivers of change associated with an increase in the numbers of park visitors.These drivers included mass tourism, mountain recreation, lack of environmentalawareness, and change in values and traditions.

[学科分类] 护理学

[关键词] biodiversity;futures;pandemic;protected areas;scenario planning;social–ecological systems;stakeholder perceptions;visions