I would like to invite you to participate in this questionnaire which forms part of my Doctoral research. Before you decide whether you want to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what your participation will achieve for the project, please take time to read the following information carefully.  

Research question : How can an improved dialogue between those, who use mountain bike and hiking trails and those, who develop them, promote sustainable practice in their use and creation?   

The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between users and providers of hiking and mountain bike trails in the Lochaber area, identifying how a sustainable practice can benefit both conservation and recreation aims. You are the "users" in this relationship, the questions to follow are open to interpretation your results will be used with the data the "providers" have provided. Please follow the prompts to the best of your ability,  I have used a restrictive format to gather the most relevant data from the respondents'. Throughout the form I will ask for three ways to describe something. I appreciate there are more than three ways to answer the questions, the topic is diverse, but the aim of this survey is to firstly gather relevant data, secondly to identify what you deem important. 

The project uses a mixed method approach combining qualitative and quantitative data to be analysed with thematic analysis, a process that will allow the researcher to identify common themes across the data set that will be used to discuss the issues in this relationship.