The Effectiveness of Public Participation in Developing and Implementing Tourism Plans for Two Peruvian Protected Areas

In the last two decades protected area management approaches have experienced a shift from top-down management models to more diverse governance approaches that involve various forms and degrees of participation from local populations. These new participatory approaches seek to reaffirm cultural values, maintain cultural landscapes, recognize the relationship between people and nature, improve government-citizen relationships, create "partners" in conservation, and contribute to the alleviation of poverty by providing socio-economic benefits beyond protected area boundaries. The development of resource management plans through public participation has been identified as an important step to accomplishing these objectives.;The goal of this study was to develop and test a hybrid model of public participation focused on understanding the factors that make the processes and the implementation of their results effective from the participants' point of view. The study evaluated participatory processes that were used to develop tourism plans at two Peruvian national parks (Huascaran National Park and Yanachaga Chemillén National Park). A post-positivist research paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed methods strategy of inquiry with quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In analyzing the questionnaires, respondents were pooled into two different groups (citizens and agency), based on their status as either a citizen or community representative whose livelihoods would be affected by the plan (n=47), or as a park employee or NGO representative who was only indirectly affected by the plan (n=47).;The proposed model was tested for citizens and agency respondents by analyzing three sub-models and their respective hypotheses through regression analysis. Aspects of the proposed model were supported, although many proposed paths were not statistically significant. Moreover, results indicate significant differences between the citizens' and agency group's perceptions of the effectiveness of participatory procedures, their perceptions of the successful implementation of plans, and their actions that influenced the implementation of the plans. While citizens' perceptions of the effectiveness of the participatory procedures were predicted by their perceptions of the fairness and competence of the process, agency perceptions were predicted by their perception of the competence of the procedures. Citizens' perceptions of the successful implementation of specific objectives were predicted by the quality of the plan, networking of participants and support of the plan, while for agency respondents, the quality of the plan was the main predictor of the successful implementation of objectives. Then, citizens' perceptions of successful implementation of the plan were influenced by social networking, as well as the fairness and competence of the process (which were partially mediated by the quality of the plan and participants' support of the plan). Agency perceptions of implementation success were predicted by their perception of the quality of the plan, their networking, and the fairness of the process. Finally, participants' actions to help implement the plans were differently influenced in both groups; citizens' actions were positively predicted by the fairness of the process and by networking, while agency actions were positively influenced by their networking. These differences suggest that future participatory processes should create strategies that address the factors that assist each of these kinds of participants in feeling that the process was successful and effective.