Balancing Local Interests and National Conservation Obligations in Nature Protection. The Case of Local Management Boards in Norway
Journal article, Peer reviewed, Journal article
Accepted version
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/10642/4420Utgivelsesdato
2016-08-11Metadata
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Originalversjon
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 2016 http://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2016.1176556Sammendrag
In
2010
Norway
introduc
ed
local management of national parks and other large
protected areas
.
B
oards comprised of
local politicians
are delegated extended powers
in
the management of the
protected areas. This paper examines
how
this system of
local management deals with the conflicting
dimensions of local
interests
versus national
obligations and
conservation versus
use
.
The
study
is
based on data from surveys to protected area board members and other actors involved, and on case
studies
in
two protected area.
Th
e main finding is that the boards, accountable to central government
bu
t comprised by politicians accountable to the local voters, aim to balance local interests and
national obligations, and conservation and use. Popular involvement and anchorage is, however,
weak, due to lack of mobilization and transparency. Furthermore, f
ormal restrictions hindering the
boards to deal with local economic development could make the boards less attractive for the local
political leadership.