Issues and Opportunities in Environmental Evaluation in

Parks and Protected Areas

R.J. PayneLakehead University

Environmental Evaluators Network (Canada) ForumOttawa, Ontario

September 30 – October 1, 2010

Environmental Evaluation in Parks and Protected Areas

Introduction Natural Resource Management

and Evaluation

– People's impacts on natural environments

– Natural environments' impacts on people

– Management's impacts on both

Parks and Protected Areas Three Case Studies Sharing Practical Learning

Environmental Evaluation in Parks and Protected Areas

Case 1: Implementing the EI Panel's Recommendations

EI Panel Report (2000) on ecological integrity in national parks

Itself a detailed program evaluation

Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (2005)

To what extent did Parks Canada implement the EI Panel's recommendations?

What do we Learn?

Ministerial Involvement

Independent review(s)

Accountability (of Parks Canada)

Science

Reporting

Scale

Environmental Evaluation in Parks and Protected Areas

Case 2: Impact and Benefit Agreements

From the mining sector

Part of the Nunavut settlement agreement

Parks Canada; e.g., Lancaster Sound NMCA

Post-agreement independent evaluation of IBAs for Auyuittuq, Quttinirpaaq and Sirmilik National Parks

What do we learn?

Impacts and benefits

Institutional arrangements

Accountability (of Parks Canada to Inuit people)

Co-operation

Methods

Environmental Evaluation in Parks and Protected Areas

Case 3: Measuring Visitor Experience Outcomes

Parks Canada's three goals: ecological integrity, education and visitor experience

Experience: social science staff; identification of experiences available

Are visitors satisfied with the experiences? How measured?

Visitor Information Program (e.g., Pukaskwa National Park)

A marketing “top box” approach

What do we Learn?

Conceptualization: “satisfaction” “experience”

Measurement

Segmentation

Scale

Environmental Evaluation in Parks and Protected Areas

Implications of the Case Studies

Accountability to ...

Independent assessment(s)

Conceptualization

Methodologies

Triangulation

Reporting

Scale

Environmental Evaluation in Parks and Protected Areas