Developing and Applying a Plan Quality Evaluation Protocol to Protected Area Management Plans in British Columbia by Bryan K. Wong B.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2013 A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE (PLANNING) in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES School of Community and Regional Planning We accept this project as conforming to the required standard ...................................................... ..................................................... .................................................... THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April 2016!© Bryan K. Wong, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to especially thank and acknowledge my graduate supervisor Dr. Mark Stevens for his time, guidance, and dedication to my research. This protected area management plan quality evaluation my not have existed if it weren’t for his generous invitation to be involved with his Planning Evaluation Lab. His Lab provided the resources that allowed me to complete this project. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my co-supervisor Dr. Jordi Honey-Roses for his insight and feedback as this project progressed, as well as allowing me to be a part of his Ecological Research Group. His group provided me with opportunities to share my work, learn from others, and engage with a wonderful group of people. I would like to express my gratitude to the other members of the Planning Evaluation Lab: Dr. Maged Senbel, Victor Ngo, Steven De Sousa, and Lecia Desjarlais. The camaraderie of this group made it not seem like work at all. I would especially like to thank Lecia Desjarlais for being the second coder for my plan quality evaluation and not vacating when I told you the number of management plans I wanted to code. Finally I would like to thank the family for their amazing support throughout my career as a graduate student. Above all, my wife: Dr. Nadine Meyer, thank you for confirming in me I could finish and for aspiring us each and every moment; you are my rock. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... 1 1.0 OVERVIEW .............................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Research Summary ................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Protected Area Management in British Columbia .................................................. 5 1.3 Research Objectives ................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Relevance of Research .............................................................................................. 6 1.5 Paper Overview ........................................................................................................ 7 2.0 BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................ 8 2.1 Plan Evaluation Process ........................................................................................... 8 2.2 Protected Areas ........................................................................................................ 9 2.2.1 Parks ................................................................................................................. 9 2.2.2 Marine Protected Areas .................................................................................. 10 2.2.3 Ecological Reserves ......................................................................................... 10 2.2.4 Conservancy Areas .......................................................................................... 10 2.2.5 Recreation Areas ............................................................................................. 11 2.2.6 Designations under the Environment and Land Use Act ............................... 11 2.3 Park Management Framework .............................................................................. 12 2.4 Park Management Plans ........................................................................................ 14 2.4.1 BC Parks’ Management Plans ........................................................................ 15 2.5 BC Parks Plan Types ............................................................................................. 16 2.5.1 Master Plans ................................................................................................... 16 2.5.2 Operational Plans ............................................................................................ 16 2.5.3 Regional and Sub Regional Plans ................................................................... 16 2.6 IUNC Protected Area Management ...................................................................... 17 2.7 Components of a Park Management Plan ............................................................. 17 2 2.8 Management Plan Evaluation Frameworks ........................................................... 19 3.0 Research Design and Methodology ........................................................................... 21 3.1 Plan Selection ........................................................................................................ 21 3.1.1 Park Classification .......................................................................................... 21 3.1.2 BC Park Districts Attribute ............................................................................ 21 3.1.3 Year of Plan Publication Attribute .................................................................. 22 3.2 Plan Quality Evaluation and Content Analysis ..................................................... 22 3.3 Content Analysis .................................................................................................... 22 3.4 Data Analysis ......................................................................................................... 23 3.5 Analytical Techniques ............................................................................................ 23 4.0 FINDINGS ............................................................................................................... 25 4.1 Plan Quality Evaluation Protocol .......................................................................... 26 4.2 Protected Area and Plan Attributes ....................................................................... 27 4.2.1 Protected Area Size Attribute ......................................................................... 27 4.2.2 Dominant Zoning Type Attribute .................................................................. 27 4.2.3 Plan Authorship Attribute .............................................................................. 27 4.3 Influence of Attributes on Plan Score ................................................................ 28 4.3.2 Dominant Zoning Influence ........................................................................... 29 4.3.3 Plan Authorship Influence .............................................................................. 30 4.3.4 BC Park District Influence ............................................................................. 30 4.3.5 Classification Influence ................................................................................... 31 4.3.6 Year of Publication Influence .......................................................................... 31 5.0 DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................... 32 5.1 Assessing BC Parks Purposes of a Management Plan ........................................... 32 5.2 Recommendations ................................................................................................. 34 5.3 Limitations ............................................................................................................ 34 5.4 Future Research ..................................................................................................... 35 3 Table 1 BC Parks' Protected Area Overview - As of June 15, 2015 (BC Parks, 2016). .... 9 Table 2 Legislation Governing the Establishment and Management of BC Provincial Parks and Protected Areas. ...................................................................................... 11 Table 3 BC Parks Purposes of Management Plans (British Columbia. BC Parks, 2013b). ................................................................................................................................. 15 Table 4 Thomas and Middleton (2003) components to be present in a protected area management plan. .................................................................................................... 18 Table 5 Berke et al. (2006) normative criteria for plan quality evaluation protocol. ........ 19 Table 6 Plan Quality Evaluation Protocol Categories ..................................................... 26 Table 7 BC Parks Protected Areas in hectares and the Protected Area attribute in the study. ........................................................................................................................ 27 Table 8 Plan Attribute Data Collected During Coding. ................................................. 28 Table 9 Descriptive Statistics for BC Park Protected Area Size Attribute on Comprehensive Plan Scores ..................................................................................... 28 Table 10 Descriptive Statistics for BC Park Dominant Zoning Type Attribute on Comprehensive