A Meta-Study of the Values of Visitors to Four Protected Areas in the Western United States

Abstract

The values that visitors assign to protected areas influence the way they relate to those areas. Because of the diversity of objectives and missions associated with protected areas, values might be equally diverse. The purpose of this study is to identify through confirmatory factor analysis the structure of values assigned to one protected area compared to other protected areas. By employing visitor survey data from four protected areas in the western United States, the results demonstrate that some assigned values were common to all of the areas, while others were specific to the type of protected area. Understanding how and why assigned values vary by protected area is likely to be useful as managers confront complex and conflict-laden issues.

Keywords:

• confirmatory factor analysis
• protected areas
• survey research
• values

The authors would like to thank the graduate students who collected much of the data discussed in this article and the anonymous reviewers for their timely and helpful comments.