Abstract
This study explores how existing connections to natural places may affect PA visitors’ experiences and perceptions within the PA. Specifically, outside-the-PA soundscape perceptions are examined to better understand how their experiences outside the PA may affect perceptions of PA soundscapes and visitors’ ability to effectively contribute to conservation monitoring. Survey research (n=389) of recent urban visitors to the Chilean Coyhaique National Reserve (CNR) in Patagonia unpacked perceptions of the acoustic environments within the places where participants felt most connected to nature, including landscape features, favorite and prevalent sounds, and acceptability of particular anthrophonic sounds. Favorite and prevalent sounds were open-coded, and anthrophonic sounds were rated for prevalence and acceptability. The mountain landscape features and sounds (‘wind’, ‘running water’,‘ birds’) participants described as prominent within the places where they felt most connected to nature aligned well with CNR characteristics. Participants who ‘sometimes’‘/often’ heard certain anthropogenic sounds (vehicles, aircraft, machines, city sounds), within the places where they felt most connected to nature, rated those sounds as more acceptable than participants who reported ‘never’ hearing them, raising concerns about complacency toward anthrophony in natural settings. Continued research efforts are warranted to better understand visitors’ frames of reference, their influence on the reliability of social norm data for PA soundscape monitoring, and their influence on PA managers’ ability to protect conservation values.
Highlights
Research has suggested that an increasing number of protected area (PA) visitors live within urban areas, where access to nature may be limited, and natural spaces may be quite different in character as compared to the PAs they visit in more remote locations, as tourists (Girault 2016; Marques et al 2010)
PA managers need to carefully consider their settings and conservation objectives, being aware that the natural settings with which their visitors feel connected may differ in character
Most of the current study participants were from urban areas and described landscape features in the places they felt most connected to that are similar to the Coyhaique National Reserve (CNR); yet indicated a wide range of anthrophony as being present
Summary
Research has suggested that an increasing number of protected area (PA) visitors live within urban areas, where access to nature may be limited, and natural spaces may be quite different in character as compared to the PAs they visit in more remote locations, as tourists (Girault 2016; Marques et al 2010). Research typically collects basic visitor demographic and travel characteristics to classify and understand visitor experience preferences; information about visitors’ home-based experiences and environments is seldom considered (e.g., Marques et al 2010). PA managers must recognize that visitor perceptions within PAs are influenced by the frames of reference through which they relate (Kogan et al 2017; Axelsson et al 2019; Gale et al 2021), including their experiences within their home environments and the places where they connect to nature. A more holistic understanding of how visitors connect to nature in their familiar places can complement PA-based studies and support PA ecosystem protection mandates since connection to nature has been linked to support for conservation (Mackay and Schmitt 2019).
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