Stakeholder Participation in Management Planning

Abstract

Stakeholders are those persons, groups, or organizations with an interest in a particular area, whether they are directly involved with it or because they may have some influence on management outcomes. The area concerned may have been designated and delimited under a legal act and subject to a defined form of management usually for the protection of certain features (e.g., water supply, flood control, biodiversity) or a place where activities are carried on according to traditional practices (e.g., the hema system in Arabia). However, the concept of stakeholders as a category impinging on site management is relatively recent: in the EU, for example, neither the Birds Directive of 1979 nor the Habitats Directive of 1992 which underpin the Natura 2000 network include any specific provisions for wider stakeholder involvement in site designation or management.