Broadly engaging with tranquillity: an alternative approach to protected area management.

‘Tranquillity' is a key motivator in attracting visitors to the UK’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). This popularity means that managing organisations must ensure that development is sensitive to ecological, social and economic interests whilst also fulfilling their duty for providing quiet enjoyment of the countryside. Key to addressing not only these objectives, but also enhancing the specific cultural and natural landscapes that define these IUCN Category V protected areas, is the definition of 'tranquillity'.\ud However defining and then interpreting tranquillity into practice is complex. It is a subjective concept and given statutes assert breadth of rightholder and stakeholder engagement in the formulation of development policy, in planning decisions and with best practice the community’s engagement is considered critical, the sheer number of views on what is/not considered to be tranquil is infinite. As such, the challenge concerns just how do you capture and importantly use the breadth of views on the subject.\ud The Broadly Engaging with Tranquillity (BET) project attempts to do just this by progressing a series of participatory dialogues based on principles of consensus, that ultimately results in producing a high resolution GIS planning tool. The entire work is founded on principles of best practice in protected area governance and therefore engagement with rather than consultation on the fullest breadth of views is fundamental, inclusive of those classed as the ‘hard to reach’ and of visitors to the area.\ud The case study area concerns the landscape of the Dorset AONB, southern England and integrates with the seascape of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. The project results from a collaborative partnership comprised of practitioners, inclusive of staff at Dorset County Council and of the Dorset AONB and of academics, with funding provided by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC).\ud Experiences on and solutions to researching this subject and in utilising the findings are presented through process enhancements in especially civic governance within regional and local government; while the product is a high resolution (5-20m resolution) GIS tranquillity model(s) for use as a planning tool that can be practically implemented in protected area management and that is transferable in the EU and overseas.\ud Denises experience includes leading on policy development and strategic projects targeted at increasing community engagement in protected areas. Her research interests include profiling disengagement and her current activity is ESRC funded, on investigating and modelling public perceptions on tranquillity. Denise is an active member of the IUCN and WCPA