Management Policy for Podocarpus National Park, Ecuador: A Synthesis

Resumen

National Parks have been created around the world to safeguard biodiversity,ecosystem services, recreational opportunities, cultural heritage, and manyother worthy objectives. While we strive to achieve these resource-orientedgoals, long-term success will not be realized without finding common groundbetween the people who live, work, visit, or otherwise have an interest inthese regions. Securing the public good necessitates management policythat ensures effective social and decision-making processes. This requiresall participants, not just those involved in government, to actively developand integrate new ideas, innovations, and practices into their daily lives inan adaptive way.Improving the management policy of Podocarpus National Park (PNP),Ecuador, ultimately rests with the people involved in the region. This volumeoffers fresh perspectives to jumpstart the diffusion of innovative ideas intothe PNP arena. Our efforts to appraise the management policy of PNPshould be seen as the beginning of a new process to improve regionalmanagement, and not as a complete or definitive set of answers. Our broadrecommendations do not tell the people of PNP how they should be man-aging the park, but rather suggest a nu mber of ways to enhance the processof conservation in the common interest.