Abstract
National parks are often places where people have previously lived and worked-they have been formed by a combination of natural and human processes that embody an identifiable history of cultural and political values. Conservation of protected areas is primarily about how we perceive such landscapes, how we place differential values on different landscape components, and who gets to decide on these values. Thus, conservation has been and still is very much about issues of power and environmental justice. This paper analyses the social, political and environmental histories of three national park regimes (South Africa, Sweden and Scotland) through the lens of public access rights. We examine the evolving status of access rights-in a broad sense that includes access to land, resources and institutions of governance-as a critical indicator of the extent to which conservation policies and legislation realise the aims of environmental justice in practice. Our case studies illustrate how access rights are contingent on the historical settings and ideological contexts in which the institutions controlling national park management have evolved. Dominant cultural, political and scientific ideologies have given rise to historical precedents and institutional structures that affect the promotion of environmental justice in and around national parks today. In countries where national parks were initially created to preserve perceived 'wilderness', with decisions taken by powerful elites and central authorities, this historical legacy has prevented profound change in line with new policy directives. The comparative analysis of national park regimes, where historical trajectories both converge and diverge, was useful in improving our understanding of contemporary issues involving conservation, people and politics
Highlights
The scientific, economic, and political paradigms that underpin the conceptual basis of environmental policy have acted as powerful ideological determinants of conservation practice.The aim of this paper is to analyse the way in which dominant ideologies have given rise to historical precedents and institutional structures that affect the promotion of environmental justice in and around national parks today
We examine the evolving status of access rights—in a broad sense that includes access to land, resources and institutions of governance—as a critical indicator of the extent to which policies and legislation that promote environmental justice have been observed in practice
Our analysis is based on a comparison of the social, political and environmental histories of three national park regimes through the lens of public, and local, access rights
Summary
The scientific, economic, and political paradigms that underpin the conceptual basis of environmental policy have acted as powerful ideological determinants of conservation practice.The aim of this paper is to analyse the way in which dominant ideologies have given rise to historical precedents and institutional structures that affect the promotion of environmental justice in and around national parks today. We examine the evolving status of access rights—in a broad sense that includes access to land, resources and institutions of governance—as a critical indicator of the extent to which policies and legislation that promote environmental justice have been observed in practice. Researchers and activists adopted a social justice approach to the analysis of environmental policy and practice in reference to race, ethnicity and class “most understandings of environmental justice refer to the issue of equity, or the distribution of environmental ills and benefits”. He considers this definition inadequate and emphasises the need to include the “recognition of the diversity of the participants and experiences in affected communities, and participation in the political processes which create and manage environmental policy” (Schlosberg 2004: 517). The central argument put forward by Schlosberg (2004), and further explored by Walker (2009), is that these issues and processes are interlinked and must be addressed simultaneously
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