Place meanings among resource and recreation managers of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia

[Extract] "Place meanings" and related concepts that reference human attachment to parks, protected areas, and cultural sites have received considerable attention (Farnum et al. 2005). This line of research offers a promising approach to better understand the meanings that visitors ascribe to places and, therefore, what is or is not important (Kyle et al. 2004). This information offers a guide for managers to oversee resource and recreation conditions in ways consistent with those meanings. A variety of techniques have been employed to capture in-depth understandings of place meanings (Davenport and Anderson 2005), generalize to larger populations using survey scale items (Williams and Vaske 2003), and map areas of significance using geographic information system (GIS) applications (Brown 2005). These approaches have helped managers address on-going challenges to incorporate subjective interpretations of place into decision-making (Cheng, Kruger, and Daniels 2003), identify effective strategies for engaging and collaborating with stakeholders (Brandenburg and Carroll 1995), clarify conflicts in the meaning of resources (Yung, Freimund, and Belsky 2003), and address human responses to changing environmental conditions (Kyle et al. 2004)