A National Park regional integration strategy with special reference to Riding Mountain National Park

Abstract

This thesis intends to examine the interrelationships between a National Park and its region and to develop a strategy to enable Parks Canada to pursue regional integration of Canadian National Parks. The basic thesis is that planned regional integration of a National Park, while a complex matter requiring co-operation from a number of levels of government, is no longer a problem that can be ignored. Regional integration constitutes an important Parks Canada program activity which can be handled successfully if the committment exists and if a well through out approach is adopted and put into practice. This thesis consists of two major parts. The first (sections 1 to 4 inclusive) defines the need for regional integration and provides the theoretical framework necessary for the development of a strategy suitable for Parks Canada use. Part I includes an elaboration of the need for regional integration and an examination of the Canadian experience including an evaluation of existing Parks Canada efforts (section 2); an analysis of the factors that have hindered the application of the regional integration concept (section 3); and the formulation of a model that Parks Canada could adopt as the basis for formulating a regional integration program (section 4). The second part of the thesis is intended to test the application of the model to Riding Mountain National Park and its periphery region...