Think piece: The value of National Parks in this world cannot be underestimated
April 27, 2022
Tim Slaney, Director of Planning, reflects on a fascinating visit to Oman in which he shared ideas and best practice on planning in protected landscapes.
Richard Ferguson and I travelled to Oman in February in what was one of the most fascinating, wonderful, hardworking and enlightening trips I have had in ages.
The SDNPA won a sponsorship ‘competition’ helping emerging nations implement the concepts of planning and National Parks in particular. Huge thanks go to those involved as, despite restrictions, we flew out there at no expense to the SDNPA and embarked on days of touring potential sites, workshops and meetings with local leaders and those interested including leading botanists and archaeologist.
As a nation, we have always had good relationships with Oman, which stands at a strategic location between Iran and Yemen on the Gulf of Oman within the Arabian Sea. In 1970 there was just two miles of tarmac, no airport, a population of around ½ million and Muscat was a little port town. They now have over 5m inhabitants and huge infrastructure projects as well as being part of the middle east oil and gas production stream. What a change in two generations from almost the middle ages to the 21st century. Recognising climate change and the need for less reliance on fossil fuels there is a drive to both manage their own affairs and utilise all their attributes.
As we discovered primary amongst these were the stunning and varied landscapes and friendliness of the people. Exploring the opportunities for tourism and diversification in some of the most incredible places I have ever seen was an honour. They did, as a Government – Government relationship (avoiding consultancies trying to get commissions) work Richard and myself hard. We had a series of workshops (some involving translation into Arabic!), training sessions and even a pre-application planning hearing in a Bedouin tent in the desert, whilst travelling some six hours a day. In the desert Richard and I presented and listened to a debate on tourism growth vs conservation of the landscape at 7pm, just when we thought we were off the hook after another large Omani meal. The irony is that, despite the language barrier and formality, with the odd word translated we understood the entire proceedings and tensions expressed by the various parties who were, in effect, the developer, the Parish and the District as well as local residents. It seem the issues arising from living working beautiful landscapes, treasured by people for different attributes, are worldwide.
We met the Minister of Housing and Urban Planning twice, which was encouraging, as well as the British Ambassador. It struck us that whilst they have the evidence and some local expertise to draw on there is less organisational structure, culture and political will to succeed than we did as regards a National Park for all. We did advise that trying to ‘adopt’ 10 Special Planning Zones (SPZ – their word for National Parks as they do not want the word to be associated with wilderness of the American model interestingly) was a tall order. Given they have emerging governance structures that are at more risk than ours and that it took us 60 years to get our ten National Parks designated they do need to consider timeframes, whilst getting one in place quickly.
Some of the team we met are coming over in June. This is allow us to show what can be done as well as what we have learnt after 11 years. We are also hoping they bring forward their plans for a first SPZ in Oman, which we can assist with. We have an exciting set of workshops and visits arranged whilst they are here. This includes them visiting the Peak District and North York Moors National Parks so they get a wider perspective. This international perspective to our work is so important given the much wider issues of stability and climate change in the world. The value National Parks can play as brands encouraging local business and agricultural production to flourish, as well as provide healing and respite from the busy and sometimes frightening world we live in cannot be underestimated.
If you just happen to see us out and about please do come up say hello and feel free to speak. They really appreciate talking to those doing and implementing as opposed to ‘advisors and consultants’. We also have things to learn from them and they are in a position to avoid our mistakes. I hope our plea to plan waste infrastructure on a large scale to avoid piecemeal sewerage systems, plan sensitively for growth in the mountains even though they are so much cooler at 9000ft and to please use solar power now, given its their most abundant energy source in the long term, features in their emerging Plan and policies!