A holistic assessment of the impacts of park management: findings from the evalu- ation of Regional Nature Parks in Switzerland Thomas Hammer, Roger Bär, Albrecht Ehrensperger, Andreas Friedli, Karina Liechti, Astrid Wallner & Thea Xenia Wiesli Keywords: management effectiveness, evaluation of parks and large-scale protected areas, Regional Nature Parks, Switzer- land Abstract In Switzerland, Regional Nature Parks are required to undergo an impact assessment after ten years of operation, in order for the federal government to award the Park of National Importance label for a further ten years and for the government, relevant canton and communes to continue to provide financial support for the park’s opera- tion. To this end, is there a convenient way of identifying and holistically assessing the impacts of park management activities on the goals of the parks and the over- arching targets of parks policy in Switzerland? Based on experience gained from the evaluation of three Regional Nature Parks, we have developed a framework model for the holistic evaluation of such parks and present it here for discussion. Research eco.mont – Volume 14, Number 1, January 2022 ISSN 2073-106X print version – ISSN 2073-1558 online version: http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/eco.mont https://dx.doi.org/10.1553/eco.mont-14-1s14 14 Profile Protected area Regional Nature Parks Chasseral, Diemtigtal and Gantrisch Mountain range Alps, Switzerland Introduction A broad discussion of how to measure the effec- tiveness of park management can be found with refer- ence to the keywords Protected Area Management Effec- tiveness (PAME) (Coad et al. 2015; Ferreira et al. 2018; Hockings et al. 2006, 2015; Leverington et al. 2010a, 2010b, 2010c; Nolte et al. 2010; Oldekop et al. 2014). The discussion began with the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and initial- ly focused on the question of how to determine the effects of measures aimed at protecting biodiversity and achieving the goals of the Convention (Coad et al. 2015). The spotlight also fell initially on issues related to improving management processes (for example, in- volving local actors). The international conversation widened to include the question of how to measure management impacts for UNESCO Biosphere Re- serves (Ferreira et al. 2018), prompted by the fact that Biosphere Reserves, unlike strict protected areas, play a role in socio-economic development as well as conservation. With the ongoing debate on sustainable development and the emerging view that many pro- tected areas offer multiple socio-economic and cultur- al benefts for the region in addition to their ecological contribution, it is now widely recognized that manage- ment impacts also need to be considered and assessed with the bigger picture in mind (Hockings et al. 2015). The discussion has turned to how the impacts of pro- tected areas can be measured holistically, for example from a sustainable development perspective (Ferraro & Hanauer 2015; Ferraro & Pressey 2015). The discussions refect the fact that parks are usu- ally confronted with multiple – often very diverse – economic and social expectations on the part of local stakeholders, even if the parks belong to the same IUCN category (Hammer et al. 2016). In Swit- zerland, Regional Nature Parks (RNPs) must undergo an impact assessment at the end of a ten-year operat- ing phase in order to apply for renewal of the Park of National Importance label and a subsequent ten-year operating phase (Swiss Parks Network 2021). A key question in this respect is how to assess the impacts of park management activities holistically, i. e. in relation to the overall objectives and those of the parks policy, in a manner commensurate with the means available (Plachter et al. 2012; Ferraro & Hanauer 2015; Ferraro & Pressey 2015). The aim of this paper is to construct and justify a framework model for the holistic evaluation of a spe- cifc type of Swiss park, namely RNPs, based on expe- rience evaluating the impacts of management activi- ties at three parks. The framework model is intended to be used to design impact assessments for this and similar types of park, to derive relevant questions and to frame the results. The model is based on our experience evaluating the three RNPs in the canton of Bern: Chasseral, Diemtigtal and Gantrisch (see Figure 1). These three parks were selected because the Canton of Bern de- cided to evaluate them together instead of individually and to develop an appropriate method for this pur- pose. In this paper we present, in turn, the Swiss con- cept of RNPs, the evaluation design, the results of the evaluation and lessons for the holistic evaluation of RNPs in Switzerland. We then explain the framework model and formulate conclusions.