Participation and regional governance. A crucial research perspective on protected areas policies in Austria and Switzerland

Abstract

Current management of large protected areas is faced with the twofold challenge of fulfilling its core mission of nature conservation and landscape protection while also responding to more complex societal expectations. The latter refer to regional development in particular and shaping of the future in general. Accordingly, research into protected areas should shift its focus towards regional shaping of the future within the framework and by means of large protected areas, if expectations are to be met. This would reflect the paradigm shift in area protection we have witnessed, transferring its emphasis increasingly towards the societal significance of protected areas on one hand and the integration of protection and development on the other. This contribution follows up on the results of a workshop organized by an international panel of researchers, managers of protected areas and representatives of protected area networks, which was held in St Pierre de Chartreuse (France, October, 2011). The following paragraphs will discuss the role of structures and processes of participation and the emergence of configurations of regional governance in the context of protected area development in view of the results mentioned above. These issues have gained relevancy in the current phase of protected area policies of the early twenty-first century and open up an array of important questions to be explored.