AN APPROACH TO INTERPRETIVE PLANNING FOR CAVE USE
INTRODUCTION
If conservation, simply put, is the wise use of resources, then conservation is more than just the responsibility of nature conservation authorities. However, given the charter to conserve nature, it must surely be a prime function of such authorities to advise people of their responsibilities and of methods they can use to play an active part in conserving resources.
While setting aside reserves shows one side or aspect of nature conservation, in Australia, other strategies to achieve the conservation of the nation's heritage have tended to be ignored. The growing emphasis on interpreting resources is a sign of a greater acceptance by authorities of their responsibility to make conservation a way of living and personal value to individuals. It is also an important step towards conserving the nation's heritage on all lands.
Interpretation then is more than just explaining the relationships between things :
- it is the process of positively attempting to create a conservation ethic in people,
- it is the process of communicating the aims and ideals of the conservation authority,
- it is a strategy for conserving nature, not only in reserves but on all lands, by changing, re-directing or reinforcing attitudes and beliefs.
COMMUNICATION THEORY
In search of a theoretical base upon which to model and develop interpretive contacts, it is worth considering communication theory and its implications.
Figure 19: A simple communication model
If this model is now applied to a nature conservation authority achieving its goals through promoting a conservation ethic, then the model could be presented as in Figure 20.
Figure 20: Application of communication model to a nature conservation authority.
In this example, the sender becomes the conservation authority; the message to be communicated is a conservation ethic to be received, understood and appreciated by the people of the particular country and the world; the medium for the message, on this broad level, could primarily be the resource itself, a reserve system or the things of national significance, feedback then could be considered to be public involvement in the decision making process.
It is on this model that the approach to interpretive planning outlined below is developed.
INTERPRETIVE PLANNING
Each area of land and each species has a unique story that can be told to illustrate a conservation principle. If resources are to be a method, a basis on which to communicate a conservation ethic, then the resource, as much as possible, should be allowed to tell its own unique story itself. For the interpreter, therefore, the first step in planning is to identify the story.
The story to be identified and later told is the story of a nation's natural and cultural heritage; it is the story of the country. The formal education system is filling a part of this role, as are many organisations and people. Conservation authorities however, have a special role to play and that is to tell the nation's story at a resource level - at the site. For practical reasons then, the country needs to be divided into manageable units. Figure 21 is one approach.
| National Story | State Responsibility | Physiographic Region | Land Unit | Interpretive Unit |
| The national heritage | The natural and cultural heritage contained within the State | The on the ground biological and geographic features of such significance and similarity as to be considered under the influence of unifying ecological factors | The discrete unit of land that has a distinctive biological and geological physical uniformit | The site where specific aspects of the resource story can be identified |
| Australia | Queensland | Northern Inland Tableland | Limestone Area | ? |
Figure 21: Suggested logical divisions for practical interpretation
Freeman Tilden defined interpretation as "an educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, by first hand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information".
It is this use of original objects and first hand experience that dictates that interpretation should occur at the site level. It is the role of the interpretive planner then to identify those sites or interpretive units that by their nature are best suited to tell a part, or parts, of the story of the land unit, physiographic region, state and nation.
IDENTIFYING THE STORY
Parks Canada has developed a process of dividing a land unit into its component stories with a sequential link. Figure 22 is an example of this approach based on a karst system.
Figure 22: Sequential links between the component stories of a karst system.
The division of the story is based broadly on a time sequence and then a process sequence. Such divisions highlight shortcomings in existing knowledge. It also readily indicates the aspects of the story that are of more significance to the area. The division can continue until knowledge is exhausted or a specific process or feature is identified. Figure 23 illustrates an expanded story dissection.
Figure 23: An expansion of the component stories in a karst system in relation to landscape sculpturing
For each of these micro-units or final dissection of story, there will be a site or sites which are best able to tell that part of the whole resource story. Local knowledge of the resources or systematic inventory should reveal these.
A review of these selected sites may reveal areas of overlap. It is around these areas that interpretive developments should take place, for it is in these areas that the greatest potential for the reserve to speak for itself exists. They are also the areas where overt interpretation techniques can have their greatest effect in creating awareness of natural processes.
A further review of sites, stories and areas may reveal a unifying or over-riding theme. Perhaps an area can be identified where jointing, phreatic features or rock falls occur together, coupled with rillenkarren on the surface. Here the interpretive theme would appear to be one of cave formation. such an area would make up an interpretive unit - an area in which a significant component of the resource story can be told.
INTERPRETIVE UNITS AND PLANNING
It is at this point that the interpretive planner is ready to contribute to the whole planning exercises. Interpretive units and themes have been identified within an overall approach and objective for the communication effect. The interpreter is able to relate those areas of significance for telling the story of the resource with far less subjectiveness or intuition. These units then become components for the planning decision, the same as the location of a stream or mountain affects decisions. In this way decisions are made for a positive long term conservation purpose and not soley to meet public recreation demands. Many of the 'best' sites are made available for a finite and identifiable reason.
The identification of interpretive units and themes is however but a part of planning interpretive programs and strategies. If the communication model is reconsidered at the interpretive unit level (Fig. 24) then the sender becomes the interpreter; the message is the conservation story contained within the interpretive unit, as devised; the receiver is the visitor; the method becomes the interpretive technique; the feedback is the response of the visitor to the programme.
Figure 24: Communication model related to interpretation
The message therefore may be well defined, yet other aspects of the model have not been considered. For example, what skills are required to convey the message? What methods are to be used? What are visitors seeking and how do their expectations of the resource affect the communication process.
Having defined the story, the interpreter must now mould visitor characteristics and expectations of the site with the story, through appropriate techniques. The interpreter must offer meaningful experiences in contrast to just programmes and devise ways of measuring the effectiveness of the techniques.
Just as the story can be divided into its components so too can the sorts of experience sought by park visitors, until these can be matched to specific sites. Once again the challenge to planners is to identify the recreational needs of park visitors, link them to recreation units and integrate these with the other planning constraints and objectives.
CAVE CLASSIFICATION AND PLANNING FOR INTERPRETATION
Cave classifications (and therefore management) invariably lock up the 'best' caves for an elite few. They have an inherent bias towards offering the general public the least rewarding and least meaningful experience. Continuing with this approach may eventually mean a loss in support for the acquisition of more cave reserves and a rejection of current management practices and even the concept of cave conservation in general.
By taking a people orientated approach based on the inherent ability of the resource to meet both the managing authority's and visitors' objectives, caves will be required to: (a) tell the resource story; (b) meet the recreation needs of the community; and (c) provide for scientific study.
The technique outlined above shows how caves and other karst features can be identified to best tell the story of the karst landscape. In a similar way, sites to provide for the recreational needs of the community can be identified.
In effect, this process implies a cave classification with the following categories.
Story Caves
Story caves are those considered by the managing authority to be vital to the telling of the cave story and, in the case of National Parks and Wildlife Service, the conservation story. In practice there need not be many of these caves yet the opposite may also be the case. Let me repeat again however that one should not mistake the medium for the message. Story caves need not be 'show' caves.
The interpretation may merely be the act of bringing the visitor in contact with the resource in such a way that the resource speaks for itself and visitors themselves become their own interpreters.
Important, yet particularly fragile, caves such as bat maternity caves, may be closed to physical access yet accessible through the medium of closed circuit television or other media.
Recreation Caves
The majority of caves would fall into the category of recreation or self development caves. These are caves where people can gain those intangible rewards often sought in recreational pursuits - the challenge, solitude, companionship, a sense of being the first.
The provision of such caves feed the spirit and in their own way may encourage cave conservation. These caves would be the areas normally frequented by cavers and speleologists. Yet this doesn't mean that they are only the difficult or elaborate cave systems. They may include simple caves where a novice can explore alone or in a group simply for the adventure and self development.
Special Purpose Caves
The final category is the special purpose or scientific cave, and includes those selected for monitoring or require special preservation.
Classification is primarily based on cave features with a secondary consideration of difficulty of access. Implementation of such a classification could be achieved to a large extent through accessibility of information - so try caves being most advertised and information on scientific caves being made available only to bonafide researchers.
Difficulties can arise when a cave is identified as having high interpretive potential and significant scientific worth. In this case, the cave could be closed to the public physically, yet still utilised to fulfil its interpretive potential through appropriate communication techniques and media.
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT
Having identified the story that can be told within a given area, having undertaken an inventory of the resource with respect to its potential to tell this story, having identified sites of greatest interpretive potential from this inventory, then interpreters have an important and positive contribution to make towards the planning process. Developments, now, can be made not only to make areas accessible and of recreation value but also of interpretive value.
Given the sites that best tell the story of the reserve, and developments that are structured to build upon experiences that create awareness of the reserve story, then active interpretation may very well need to be minor or, at least, any interpretation will be far more effective.
Nature conservation then will not only be achieved through management techniques but also through a process of creating environmental awareness and a conservation ethic through interpretive techniques.
Yet the model and techniques presented can be considered to imply much more than this.
They suggest:
- a basis upon which to develop other strategies to conserve nature,
- that the reserve system is but a method rather than an end in itself,
- that there is an active use to which reserves can be put for long term conservation of wildlife,
- that conservation can be achieved not through exclusion, but by positively directing public use of and attitudes towards wildlife and reserves, promoting conservation acting in the public at large,
- that public involvement in conservation can be an integral part of a conservation authority's activities.
This line of reasoning could even lead one to suggest that the reserve system itself could become an insignificant aspect of nature conservation. Not that it wouldn't have a role to play, but as a significant strategy for the preservation of species and life processes it could become absolute.
An approach to nature conservation that implies such a utopia verses the "islands of hope" approach, surely warrants further investigation and consideration.
REFERENCES
ANON, (1975). Interpretive Plan for Seven National Parks of the Canadian Cordillera. Unpublished report of Parks Canada.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Information and ideas for this paper were developed during my time overseas on a Churchill Fellowship. The critical assessment by Peter Ogilvie (QNPWS) of the arguments presented is gratefully acknowledged.