Benefits beyond Boundaries of Protected Areas：Political Ecology and Stakeholder Analysis of the Creation of National Parks in Taiwan

The Fifth World Parks Congress was held in 2003 in Durban, South Africa. It emphasized the concept of “reciprocal participation” and “multilevel governance.” The theme was “benefits beyond boundaries,” and the hope was for the marine protected area in every country to reach 12% of the territorial sea area within a decade. To a certain extent, this set the tone for developing the direction of global preservation areas at the beginning of 21st century. The present study utilizes a political ecology approach to discuss the changing process and environmental impact of, and reasons for the creation of Taiwan’s national parks at different scales. Analytic matrices of stakeholders were found to be helpful to understand the competing interests, conflicts, compromises and interactions between stakeholders in the three cases studied. In addition, this study also tries to set up an assessment structure and indicators to evaluate the “benefits beyond boundaries,” and explore what types of development can contribute to national parks becoming the providers of “benefits beyond boundaries.”
The object of study is Taiwan''s national park system faced with new international preservation values and paradigms, and the research areas are those national parks initiated after 2003, like the Dongsha Reef Atoll, Green Island and Taijiang. The period of participatory observation is from 2004 (Dongsha Reef Atoll National Park initiative) to 2010 (one year after the establishment of Taijiang National Park). The study found that the development process of national parks in Taiwan, can be divided into five phases: initiation, growth, conflict, stagnation (new initiation), and transformation, and is closely related to the democratic process and ecological politics on the islands of Taiwan. At the same time, we also find obvious changes in the roles of impetus organizations for national parks during the five phases. One significant example is the case of Taijiang National Park, it seems that coordinating and empowering the locals and interest groups has become a mainstay, and that is significant point of difference from the previous national parks formed.
This study used analytic matrices of stakeholders including importance/influence matrix, conflict/complementarity matrix and actor linkage matrix. Those matrices are helpful to deepen the understanding of the main stakeholders. There is no duplication or conflict in their applications. Depending on the complexity and focus of the issues discussed, they can be operated or interpreted separately. Finally, this paper aimed to develop its own analytical framework with twenty two indicators to assess the concept of “benefits beyond boundaries.” This is an approach that very few researchers have discussed in the past. Although the assessment framework of this study lacks a comprehensive theoretical basis, and has some limitations of statistical data and time, its process of research and deliberation is valuable in developing a framework for objective assessment of whether national parks have performed adequately in pursuing “benefits beyond boundaries.” In the case of Taijiang National Park, we find the key to “benefits beyond boundaries” is to integrate with the local community to develop ecotourism that preserves local values and shares its benefits with the local community. These findings will help to examine whether this paradigm from international preservation areas led by continental countries like the United States, is applicable to small island countries such as Taiwan, which are characterized by high density development and severe struggles among ramified political, social, cultural, and ethnic interests.
Based on these results, this study has some recommendations on the existing national park system including contradictions between the National Park Act and development trends in preservation areas, a participative mechanism for national parks, future development of marine national parks in Taiwan, empowerment of the local communities, and introduction of non-governmental forces. Finally, we hope to help the national narks to seek broader support and cross-domain cooperation through the realization of “benefits beyond boundaries.”