A critical review of multi-criteria decision making in protected areas

Abstract

Multi-criteria analysis in collaborative decision making can provide a useful tool to improve the governance in protected areas with strong conflicts between stakeholders. This paper offers an in-depth review about MCDM methods in protected areas. The analysis considers the topics Land Use, Management, Species, and Zoning and it is based in two dimensions: Methods and Participation. Topics and MCDM methods and Topics and Participation were significantly related and contrasted using a Chi-squared test, respectively. We have identified two groups by topics: Zoning and Species use continuous non participative methods and Land Use and Management use discrete methods with increasing participation.

Keywords

• collaborative decision-making
• multi-criteria analysis
• protected areas.