Lemieux et al. use the term barriers to describe the challenges of placing research into management and decision-making.  “It seems clear from the survey results that Canadian protected areas managers face a suite of complex barriers in the use of evidence-based information” (Lemieux et al., 2018, p. 19).

They group these challenges into two categories, personal barriers and barriers related to organizations, agencies, or groups.  Barriers are encountered by people wishing to access evidence, data, or research for the purpose or decision-making, and those who wish to share their research findings. 

Lemieux et al. go on to be more specific about the challenges facing Parks Canada in their comment 

A report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada in (2013) … concluded Parks Canada has struggled in its efforts to maintain or restore ecological integrity in national parks due to a lack of information for decision-making (e.g., monitoring data), decreased spending, and significant declines in staffing (including a decline in scientific staff by one-third). ((Lemieux, et al., 2017, p. 3)

Additional challenges could be the difficulty in coordinating and networking with the multiple agencies that are stakeholders in our natural spaces, resourcing the research/data synthesis, timing research to coincide with goals, objectives, and decisions, and a lengthy approval process to integrate research into practice.

Last modified: Friday, 7 May 2021, 9:31 AM