The objective of this paper is to analyze the quality of community participation in a resource governance process, the perceptions of participating and non-participating community members, and the actual influence of community participants on the protected area management plan under review (in 2012/2013). There is a gap in the literature related to evaluating participation in natural resource management (Clarke, 2008), and evaluating participation in a negotiation process is also an area that needs exploration. In the experience that will be described in this paper, the policy regarding participation has not necessarily been fully operationalized. Although there were indeed some efforts to allow for community member participation, numerous issues remain with the process. In the absence of an enabling process, people will have to ask themselves if participation is really worth their time (Trimble et al., 2014).