Ecological Principles for the Establishment and Management of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves

Abstract

The central role of ecology in park planning and management is now so well recognized that the establishment of park programmes without ecological advice seems unthinkable. Yet attempts to link ecological principles and planning principles are still fraught with difficulty. Communications between interdisciplinary teams are complex.The Authors of this paper illustrate how the principles of ecology and the practices of park management are interconnected and interdependent. The need for resource inventories as a foundation of park management is explored and emphasized as essential, as is the need for constant monitoring to ensure that conservation goals are attained. Underlying the article are basic convictions that dynamic ecosystems require dynamic management, and that management in the future will be required increasingly to attain specific conservation objectives.