Sustainable Heritage Tourism: Native American Preservation Recommendations at Arches, Canyonlands, and Hovenweep National Parks

Release Our River, Let the Salmon Swim: Skokomish Efforts to Restore Their River

The Skokomish Indian people have successfully argued for the restoration of the North Fork of the Skokomish River on the Olympic Peninsula, USA. These people have adapted to and culturally incorporated this river since time immemorial, which is for well over 14,000 years. The tribe argued in a U.S. Federal court helped by three cultural anthropologists, for the release of river water from the two Cushman dams managed by Tacoma Water and Power (TWP). The tribe insisted that the cultural landscape produced by the traditional flow of the river still exist despite damage from the dams. They argued that returning river water could restore the salmon natural habitat and the people could have access to their spiritual locations. In 2009 a settlement between TWP and the Skokomish Indian Nation resulted in a 2010 amendment to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensing agreement for the dams. This resulted in reassertion of tribal sovereignty, including restoration of channel maintaining flows and salmon populations. The case contributes to the discussion of the Protected Landscape Approach, Category V of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Commission on Protected Areas.

A Study of the Mechanism of Community Participation in Resilient Governance of National Parks: With Wuyishan National Park as a Case

A community can serve as a force that pushes national parks to realize sustainable development, while community participation is critical to the relationship between national park protection and community development. Therefore, the present study explored the community’s participation in the construction of Wuyishan National Park (hereinafter referred to as the Park) by means of case analysis and qualitative research. The research outcomes showed that the community’s participation was led by the authorities, which is a typical example of “passive participation”. In addition, the governing body of the Park and its communities did not form a sound organization that enabled them to manage and protect the Park in concerted efforts. In other words, they did not work well together, and had not yet established an effective community participation mechanism. Moreover, there were three major problems about the community’s participation in the Park’s governance: The community lacked the ability to take part in it, its participation took limited forms, and it displayed little initiative in the participation. To solve these problems, the present research proposes four mechanisms to improve community participation regarding technological, structural, social, and institutional resilience, i.e., intelligent guidance mechanism, nested organization mechanism, social mobilization mechanism, and institutional guarantee mechanism, respectively.