National parks and protected areas offer a wealth of ecological and social contributions or services to humans and life on earth. This book describes the strengths of national parks and protected areas in different parts of Europe and North America and the challenges to the full realization of their goals. It shows that they are useful not only in conserving rare species and biodiversity, but also in protecting water supply and other resources necessary to tourism and to economic and social development generally. Ideas and information on useful planning, management and decision-making arrangements are presented, and research needs are identified.

promotes the understanding of the essential roles that national parks and protected areas play in society one of the first books comparing North American and European national parks and protected areas links the interests of scientists, with practitioners, and with citizens

Inhalt
Keys to Life.- I Broadening the Scope.- Science and Protected Area Management: An Ecosystem-Based Perspective.- Landscape Ecology as a Basis for Protecting Threatened Landscapes.- Landscape Approaches to National Parks and Protected Areas.- Land Use and Decision-Making for National Parks and Protected Areas.- A Clash of Values: Planning to Protect the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario, Canada.- The Economic Pitfalls and Barriers of the Sustainable Tourism Concept in the Case of National Parks.- Environmental Education in Protected Areas as a Contribution to Heritage Conservation, Tourism and Sustainable Development.- Extending the Reach of National Parks and Protected Areas: Local Stewardship Initiatives.- The Role of Banff National Park as a Protected Area in the Yellowstone to Yukon Mountain Corridor of Western North America.- The Danube Challenge: Protecting and Restoring a Living River.- Exploratory Planning for a Proposed National Marine Conservation Area in Northeast Newfoundland.- Experience in Cross-Border Cooperation for National Park and Protected Areas in Central Europe.- Parks for Life: An Action Plan for the Protected Areas of Europe.- 2: Information and Communication.- Usable Knowledge for National Park and Protected Area Management: A Social Science Perspective.- Integration of Information on the Kraków-Czêstochowa Jura for Conservation Purposes: Application of CORINE Methodology.- The Potential Role Of Biosphere Reserves In Piloting Effective Co-operative Management Systems For Heritage, Landscape and Nature Conservation.- The Berezinski Biosphere Reserve in Belarus: Is Ecotourism a Tool to Support Conservation in the Reserve?.- Canada-Hungary National Parks Project: 19921995.- A Sustainability Appraisal of the Work of the Yorkshire Dales National ParkAuthority.- Forest Management and Planning and Local Populations: Assessing the Case of Niepolomice Forest, nr. Krakow, Poland.- 3: Learning from the Experience of Others.- Conflict Between Skiers and Conservationists and an Example of its Solution: The Pilsko Mountain Case Study (Polish Carpathians).- Research, Conservation, Restoration and Eco-tourism in National Parks: Experience from Hungary.- Questions Related to the Rehabilitation of the Egyek-Pusztakocs Marshes.- Bulgarian Experience in Nature Protection: Contributing to Sustainable Development.- The Emerging System of Protected Areas in Lithuania: A Review.- Landscape Protection in Estonia: The Case of Otepää.- Protected Areas and Plant Cover Diversity in the Ukrainian Carpathians: An Assessment of Representativeness.- Sultan Marshes, Turkey: A New Approach to Sustainable Wetland Management.- Conservation of The Mediterranean Environment: The Vital Need to Protect and Restore the Quality of National and Cultural Resources in Libya and the Role of Parks and Protected Areas.- Workshop Participants: contact addresses and affiliations.