Article Abstract from

Converting Unseen and Unexpected Barriers to Park Plan Implementation Into Manageable and Expected Challenges

Unexpected barriers often emerge to frustrate implementation of strategic park plans. Park managers, donors, and planning consultants unwittingly create many of these barriers during the planning process. Barriers grow out of the assumptions that these players hold about the park planning process, the nature of park plans, the format of plans, and the role of consultants and learning in the process. If park planning proponents examine their own mental models for planning, then they can make visible and manageable many of these barriers. Unexpected barriers then become expected challenges during the planning process. A new mental model about park planning assumes that plan implementation depends on the park’s capacity to use and regard plans as sophisticated management tools. In order to build such technical management capacity, managers, donors, and facilitators must integrate systemic learning as a necessary process for the development of capacity. This article illustrates with causal loop diagrams both the traditional and new mental models and identifies barriers to plan implementation, their underlying assumptions, and response strategies to them. Ultimately for a new mental model to emerge, park planners must overthrow assumptions not only fundamental to planning but fundamental to Western Civilization.

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PARKS published by IUCN in April 2006, guested edited by Dr.Douglas Williamson, FAO