Protected Area Risk Communication: Baseline Practices for Outdoor Recreation

This project provided baseline risk communication practices to the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) for its consideration in developing new policies and management direction for outdoor recreation. This essay provides a summary of the project with a discussion of the practice recommendations. The CWS manages 54 National Wildlife Areas and 92 Migratory Bird Sanctuaries in Canada. To make protected areas more relevant to Canadians, the Government of Canada launched a federal initiative in 2013 to connect Canadians to nature. This initiative is opening 10 near-urban National Wildlife Areas to Canadians through the provision of infrastructure for the creation of new outdoor recreation opportunities. We provide evidence-informed recommendations for risk communication gathered from protected area document analysis and a focused review of the literature on risk management, risk communication, and outdoor recreation. Further, we discuss implications for protected area managers.