During the past two decades a shift has been taking place in the dominant paradigm for recreation and leisure management, predominately in the English-speaking countries. From a long-standing reliance on activity-based approaches to recreation and leisure, a shift was made to experience-based approaches which now are evolving toward a benefits-based approach to recreation and leisure policy and management. The benefits-based approach builds on the other two, but particularly is a radical departure from activity-based approaches. It originates from a consumer orientation to policy and management.
This paper describes how the recreation and parks movement in the English-speaking countries in the mid- to late 1800s was based on the argument that recreation opportunities contributed great value to society. Reasons are given for why this argument waned, but now has reemerged to precipitate a significant paradigm shift in thinking about recreation and leisure in the United States and Canada. Some professionals in other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand also have begun exploring this emerging paradigm.
Three concepts of recreation opportunity (activity, experience, and benefit) are described, as are three approaches to recreation policy analysis and management (activity-based, experience-based, and benefits-based) that have been spawned by these concepts. The paper focuses on the advantages of the benefits-based approach to recreation and leisure, describes its basic tenets, and discusses how it can be implemented in both policy analysis and management. Illustration of its implementation in eight pilot-test projects involving wildland, park and urban cases is given. Its acceptance and likely future are discussed.
Key words: forest recreation, leisure, benefits-based management.
Correspondence: B. L. Driver, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, 240 West Prospect St., Ft. Collins, CO 80526 USA
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