The history and status of South American national parks and an evaluation of selected management options / Gary Bernard Wetterberg.

Tese (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 1974.

By early 1973 a dramatic rise in the establishment pf new South American national parks and similar reserves taken place. This rise started to generate unprecedented interest in parks and subsequent demands on governments for the management and development of these areas. Over 60 percent of the continent's 144 parks and reserves had been created in the previous twelve years alone. The rest of the areas had been gradually established over a period of nearly 40 years. Traditional patterns of park management which have been followed by countries with long histories of national parks may not be compatible with existing realities in each South American nation. This study was carried out to provide South American park administrators with the information necessary to utilize park experiences of a variety of nations by visualizing how those experiences might apply to a local situation. The two primary sources of information for this dissertation were field observations of parks throughout the world carried out over a period or four years; and, interviews with park leaders representing twenty nations at the Second World Conference on National Parks in Grand Teton National Park in 1972. The study was centered around five specific objectives: 1) To analyze the contemporary usage of the term "national park". 2) To explore some of the motivations which have led to establishment of national parks, and which implicity or explicity may constitute the objectives under which park systems are managed within a nation. 3) To describe (a) the historical development of national parks and related nature protection activities in South America and (b) the cultural environment in which that development has taken place. 4) To summarize the status, as of January 1973, of the national park systems in each South American country. 5) To identify and evaluate alternative solutions to some of the key management problems in South American national park systems. The dissertation's major emphasis is on the evaluation of selected management options. A total of forty-two possible solutions to eight management problems are evaluated, primarily in terms of cultural constraints and specific national park objectives. Advantages and disadvantages of solutions to park problems are described but no general recommendations have been made since each South American nation has its own particular circumstances. The management options which were evaluated included examples from throughout the worlf and, in many cases, are broadly applicable to countries outside of South America. Some of the conclusions from the study are: 1) The term "national park" is used for such a wide variety of areas that it implies no universally accepted patterns of management. 2) While national parks may reflect certain elitist biases, parks are not elitist. 3) Institutionalized planning for the management and development of national parks in South America is a very recent phenomenon. 4) The lack of specific objectives is the fundamental problem in national park management. 5) A variety of options, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, exists for most park management problems. Included in the appendices of the dissertation is a list of South American national parks and reserves as well as a comparison of several national park zoning schemes.