Management Policy for Podocarpus National Park, Ecuador: A Synthesis

National Parks have been created around the world to safeguard biodiversity, ecosystem services, recreational opportunities, cultural heritage, and many other worthy objectives. While we strive to achieve these resource-oriented goals, long-term success will not be realized without finding common ground between the people who live, work, visit, or otherwise have an interest in these regions. Securing the public good necessitates management policy that ensures effective social and decision-making processes. This requires all participants, not just those involved in government, to actively develop and integrate new ideas, innovations, and practices into their daily lives in an adaptive way. Improving the management policy of Podocarpus National Park (PNP), Ecuador, ultimately rests with the people involved in the region. This volume offers fresh perspectives to jumpstart the diffusion of innovative ideas into the PNP arena. Our efforts to appraise the management policy of PNP should be seen as the beginning of a new process to improve regional management, and not as a complete or definitive set of answers. Our broad recommendations do not tell the people of PNP how they should be managing the park, but rather suggest a number of ways to enhance the process of conservation in the common interest.