LAND: Policy for harmonising national park management and local business development

The role and legitimacy of large protected areas (LPA) is questioned in most countries in the world, and there is a quest for new management models and policy regimes capable of integrating regional development and conservation goals. The project will rev iew how conflicts in connection to PA have been handled in the past and study recently commenced processes in Norway on designating new LPA that can serve as new models for the integration of regional development and LPA. We will apply a horizontal perspe ctive which involves changes in management models for LPA, and a vertical latter changes in policy regimes that directly or indirectly influence the management of LPA. We will compare the situation in Norway with Austria, as Austria is a step ahead in har monising goals on regional socio-economic development with goals on nature protection in relation to LPA. In order to address all of these aspects, the overall theoretical framework of the project, environmental governance, will be complemented with theor y derived from political ecology and development economics (civic entrepreneurship). We will use case studies as the main methodological approach. The work will be divided into four work packages: In WP1 we will study the debate initiated by the scientifi c evaluation of four test areas for local-regional management of protected areas in Norway. In WP2 we will carry out a comparative case study in Jostedalsbreen NP in Norway and Hohe Taurn NP in Austria. In WP3 we will carry out two sub-cases: i) the desig nation of Breheimen national park, and ii) the establishment of a management model for the UNESCO site of Nærøyfjorden. In WP4 we will sum up the experiences from WP1, 2 and 3 in order to fulfil the superior objective of our project; obtaining insight int o how management models could stimulate harmonisation of local economic development, nature and cultural protection within, and in the surroundings of national parks and other large protected areas.