Interactions, challenges and management issues at the fringe of National Parks: The case of the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve, Manitoba, Canada
Christoph Stadel, University of Salzburg (AT)
Protected Areas are embedded into a wider regional context and cannot be considered in isolation. In the past, National Parks and other protected areas have been primarily concerned with ecological issues and conservation goals, often ignoring or even antagonizing the development priorities of adjacent regions and the livelihood bases of local populations. Today, there is an increased awareness that protected areas and their fringes ought to strive for a regional symbiosis of mutual goals and for cooperative initiatives.
This paper is focused on the complex ecological, demographic, cultural, socio-economic, and political-administrative relationships between Riding Mountain National Park, Canada, and the adjacent municipalities, since 1986 constituting the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve. Many challenges characterize the linkages between Riding Mountain National Park and ist fringe realm. Baskets of mutual opportunities, benefits and cooperative ventures contrast with divergent interests and potential sources of friction and conflict. In recent time, improved relationships between the federally governed National Park and the surrounding provincially and locally administered municipalities have contributed in promoting the dual goal of the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve: environmental protection and sustainable regional development.