Students outside library

A Special Public Presentation from Our Very Own Peter Parker

What? One size does not fit all: Managing protected areas from the Himalayas to the Caribbean

Where? Tuesday March 19, from 12-1pm, ICR Lounge (Bldg 305/4th Floor)

For who? Anyone reading popular and academic literature about conservation faces numerous, divergent recommendations for the “best” way to manage protected areas. These practices range from building fences to keep people out and animals in while protecting them with guns, to paying local people to manage the environment by themselves. These various practices of management each have their own advantages and disadvantages in different locations.

In this presentation, Pete will talk about his experiences studying how different management practices affect local people living in and around protected areas in Nepal, China, and the Turks & Caicos Islands. He uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate how management both affects, and is perceived to affect, local people and the environment. Finally, he will combine his own experiences with different protected areas management practices with results of other researchers around the world to propose a framework for evaluating the “best” practices to manage protected areas in a variety of situations.