A Place-Based, Values-Centered Approach to Managing Recreation on Canadian Crown Lands

Abstract

Many studies of forest values worldwide have focused on “held” values (Brown 1984). We argue that “assigned” values are more suitable for the site-based focus associated with recreation planning. Consideration of public use and recreation values raises many of the issues surrounding place attachment and place identification. We argue that “meaning-based” interpretive approaches to social values elicitation are better suited to collaborative planning than are expert-driven, rational decision-making models. Social science data are rarely specifically located and are difficult to integrate into geographic information system (GIS)-based planning models. In a case study of a Canadian Crown Forest in northwestern Ontario, Canada, we integrate a variety of approaches, including focus groups, valued-place mapping, and surveys, to elicit and spatially represent social values. We introduce the concept of “spatial valuation zones” as a mean of incorporating user-defined social values into forest planning and examine the implications of this approach for managing multiple-use forests more generally.