A global summary of local residents’ perceptions of benefits and problems of protected areas

While there is a great deal of evidence in case studies demonstrating the diverse and ambivalent perceptions that people have toward protected areas, we do not know how widespread people’s perceptions of different attributes across protected areas are. In this paper, people’s perceptions of protected area benefits and problems areas are summarized across 54 studies and 76 protected areas, taking into consideration the methods (open versus closed survey instrument and individual versus household sampling) used in the studies. Across the cases, the most commonly perceived benefits were conservation and ecosystem regulating services, such as protection of species and clean air and water. People also perceived benefits from protected area management, community development programs, and tourism. Less commonly perceived benefits were direct extraction, recreation and aesthetic benefits, and cultural benefits. The most widespread negative attributes were the lack of legal natural resource extraction, conflicts with wildlife, and negative interactions with management and unmet expectations of projects and economic opportunities. Less commonly perceived problems were loss of land and inability to expand agriculture. There were significant differences between protected areas in Africa and Asia, the only continents with sufficient cases to make comparisons. This review highlights that park-people relationships are complex and multi-faceted, with the potential to be strengthened through multiple different pathways to maximize the diversity of benefits for local communities while mitigating the costs.