Co-researching the Cairngorms: Supporting the Aims of, not just Researching in, the Cairngorms NationalPark

Abstract

Scotland's two national parks (Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs) represent a new institutional approach to the governance of protected areas, with a wider focus on sustainable development and working in partnership as well as protecting natural and cultural heritage. The stated purpose of the Cairngorms national park, as presented in its plan (CNPP), is to achieve its four aims in a collective and coordinated way. Our ongoing evaluation of the plan development and implementation found that stakeholder deliberations tended to focus on three broad objectives: to protect its special qualities, to deliver sustainable development and to integrate potentially competing interests. The paper reflects on the role the Scottish research community could play in supporting the delivery of the CNPP and therefore the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 using these three objectives to structure the analysis. The paper ends with five recommendations for how researchers can work ‘with’, not just ‘in’ or ‘on’ Scottish national parks. These suggestions have application beyond the specific context of the Cairngorms, as the paper speaks to researchers' social contract with society and the requirement to demonstrate the relevance and impact of research.

Key Words:

• research
• Cairngorms
• national parks
• sustainable development
• participation
• social learning

Acknowledgements

The work was funded by the Scottish Government under the Environment, Land Use and Rural Stewardship Programme. We would like to thank all participants in our research. They are too numerous to name, but span individuals within national agencies through to individual residents attending public events. Staff members at the Cairngorms National Park Authority have been particularly generous with their time, and in their responses to our constructive criticism.

Notes

¹ Space constraints preclude more than a brief summary of these ideas. A further paper develops an analysis of the contested representations of the Cairngorms National Park (Dinnie et al., forthcoming); and another explores the implementation of new modes of governance within the Cairngorms National Park (Blackstock et al., forthcoming).

² This area is set to increase with the changes to the Cairngorms Southern Boundary (Warren, 2009, p.221).

³ Reed et al., (2010) define social learning as requiring a change in understanding that comes about through social interactions and becomes situated in a social unit; whilst others e.g. Collins and Ison add a further condition that social learning has to lead to altered behaviour.

⁴ The National Park (Scotland Act) was published in 2000, but the CNP was not established until 2003, so it seems unreasonable to expect papers prior to 2000 to engage with the conceptual ideas behind the Act. Our review is not meant to be exhaustive, but illustrative of the types of research being produced. The papers are included in the reference list.

⁵ Special Qualities have recently been articulated in more detail through this project (CNPA, 2010a).

⁶ A fuller analysis of how different stakeholders view responsibility for delivering the CNPP can be found in Dinnie et al. (2010).