A Systems-Based Interpretive Planning Model that Links Culturally Constructed Place Meanings and Conservation

Abstract

A principal function of heritage interpretation should be to link people and places in order to conserve those places. The motive to conserve does not arise only from within the interpretation field. Due to increasing urgency of biological and cultural heritage loss, the wider resource management field requires participation of all conservation-related tools, interpretation included. Any conceptual model concerned with integrating interpretation into conservation programs, then, must explain how interpretation's central elements of place meanings and audiences directly contribute to conservation. This paper, then, presents a conceptual interpretive planning model that involves audiences in place conservation by leveraging culturally constructed place meanings (in an interpretive framework) to promote desirable actions that meet conservation objectives found in a place's policy framework. It further describes how interpretive planning can facilitate people's natural process of constructing meaning, that when combined with appropriate place-based cultural narratives, interpretive media, and conservation knowledge, can result in audiences’ increased likelihood to participate in conservation.