An international research consortium, involving an Australian researcher, aims to improve national park governance and landscape protection systems in Poland and Norway, thanks to a prestigious $1.2 million European grant.
The consortium, comprising of University of Queensland’s Associate Professor Greg Brown and researchers from Norway and Poland, will conduct the three-year study after winning a competitive grant from Poland’s National Centre for Research and Development, last month (March 2013).
“We (consortium of researchers) will provide practical input for managing two or three national parks or other protected areas in each of the two countries,” Associate Professor Brown said.
Associate Professor Brown’s pioneering methods in public participation in the use of geographical information science systems will be employed to identify ecosystem services and other landscape values.
“The European Landscape Convention promotes the protection, management and planning of European landscapes, but implementation is country-specific,” he said.
“Poland and Norway offer contrasting systems of landscape protection.
“Norway has devolved regulatory control of national parks to local governments while Poland maintains national regulatory control over national parks.
“Regulatory control determines what types of activities are allowed in the parks.
“Some believe local governments are more permissive, while national governments are more restrictive."
Associate Professor Brown said trust in governments also was an influencing factor on how well the public cooperated with national park governance and landscape protection systems.
“Norwegians exhibit greater trust in their government to provide for the welfare of its citizens while the Polish people have less trust in their government to provide for their welfare," he said.
“Trust in government determines how easy/difficult it will be to get people to accept proposed changes in land use and park management.”
Associate Professor Brown’s research partners are Dr Vera Hausner from Norway’s University of Tromsø and Dr Malgorzata Grodzinska-Jurczak from Poland’s Jagiellonian University.
Associate Professor Brown of UQ School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management is an international researcher in participatory geographical information science for land use and environment planning, and has completed more than 20 projects in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Canada.
He founded the Landscape Values and Public Participation Geographic Information Systems Institute, a consortium of researchers and planning practitioners that seeks to advance knowledge in participatory mapping methods for sustainable land use planning.
“In 2012, I was awarded an EU visiting professorship hosted by Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where I worked with Dr Grodzinska-Jurczak,” Associate Professor Brown said.
“Once learning about the grant (for Polish and Norway national parks study), I thought this was an exciting opportunity to work with outstanding researchers across countries and cultures.”
Polish-Norwegian Research Programme of Poland’s National Centre for Research Development provided the grant.
Media: Associate Professor Greg Brown, UQ School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, 07 3365 6654 greg.brown@uq.edu.au
