NDA@SZTAKI

Evaluation of participatory planning: Lessons from Hungarian Natura 2000 management planning processes

KovĂĄcs, Eszter

Kelemen, Eszter

Kiss, Gabriella

Kalóczkai, Ágnes

FabĂłk, Veronika

MihĂłk, Barbara

Megyesi, BoldizsĂĄr

Pataki, GyĂśrgy

BodorkĂłs, Barbara

BalĂĄzs, BĂĄlint

Bela, GyĂśrgyi

MargĂłczi, Katalin

Roboz, Ágnes

MolnĂĄr, DĂĄniel

Elsevier

2017-12-15

HM Sociology / tĂĄrsadalomkutatĂĄs

HM4 Social processes / tĂĄrsadalmi folyamatok

Stakeholder participation in nature conservation policies and especially in the management of protected
areas has gained importance in the last decades. These changes are underlined by democratic principles
and the perceived contribution of stakeholder involvement to the effectiveness of conservation management.
Evaluating participatory processes is essential to learn about the past and thus increase the
quality of future processes. The evaluation can be useful for the organisations responsible for planning
and management, stakeholders and policy makers as well. The present paper shows the results of a
systematic evaluation of 25 participatory processes related to the development of management plans for
Natura 2000 sites in Hungary between 2007 and 2015. A conceptual framework was developed to
evaluate the process and outcome of participatory management planning processes. Criteria were based
on the scientific literature on public participation and tailored to conservation-related management
planning and stakeholder involvement. Evaluated processes were grouped in three cases based on their
time range and financial sources. Overall, the analysed processes scored at a medium level, showing
better performance in the process criteria than in the outcome criteria. The best case scored significantly
higher in four criteria compared to the other cases: representativeness, resource availability for facilitation,
new, creative ideas and impact on the plan. The main factors behind the success were (1)
embeddedness of the planning process in a larger project, where the plan was a tool for conservation, (2)
carrying out only one process at a time, (3) previous experience of facilitators and planners with
participatory planning and (4) the opportunity and capacity to propose a payment scheme as an
incentive. But even this case received low scores in some criteria: conflict resolution, early involvement
and well defined goals. Based on the results we suggest that more data is needed to evaluate the
implementation of the plans and, in many cases, the impact of the process on the plan. Performance can
be improved with the assistance of policy makers by further developing guidelines, harmonising payment
schemes with the conservation measures of the plans and providing training on conflict resolution.
The evaluation framework proved to be suitable for the assessment of a large set of conservation related
management planning processes, but it also had some limitations, e.g. concerning the incorporation of
stakeholders' views in the evaluation.
Š

angol

Article

PeerReviewed

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

text

http://real.mtak.hu/69983/2/Evaluation%20of%20participatory...

Kovåcs, Eszter and Kelemen, Eszter and Kiss, Gabriella and Kalóczkai, Ágnes and Fabók, Veronika and Mihók, Barbara and Megyesi, Boldizsår and Pataki, GyÜrgy and Bodorkós, Barbara and Balåzs, Bålint and Bela, GyÜrgyi and Margóczi, Katalin and Roboz, Ágnes and Molnår, Dåniel (2017) Evaluation of participatory planning: Lessons from Hungarian Natura 2000 management planning processes. Journal of Environmental Management, 204 (1). pp. 540-550. ISSN 0301-4797

http://real.mtak.hu/69983/

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.09.028