Quality of governance and effectiveness of protected areas: crucial concepts for conservation planning

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are a key tool for biodiversity conservation and play a central role in the Convention on Biological Diversity. Recently, the effectiveness of PAs has been questioned, and assessing how effective they are in enabling the future persistence of biodiversity is not trivial. Here, we focus on terrestrial PAs and clarify the terminology related to PA effectiveness, distinguishing between management and ecological aspects. We suggest that the quality of governance affects both aspects of effectiveness but recognize a lack of synthetic understanding of the topic. We present a conceptual framework linking the underlying mechanisms by which the quality of governance affects conservation outcomes in PAs and how this relates to conservation planning. We show that it is crucial to separate pressure and response and how these together will lead to the observed conservation outcomes. We urge for more focused attention on governance factors and in particular more empirical research on how to address causality and how to account for the quality of governance when prioritizing actions. Our framework is linked to the classic concepts of systematic conservation planning and clarifies the strategies available to achieve a comprehensive and effective network of PAs.

Managers' perceptions of protected area outcomes in Madagascar highlight the need for species monitoring and knowledge transfer

“…Management effectiveness research aims to improve the way PAs are managed by investigating the relationship between management actions and ecosystem condition (Timko & Innes, 2009). Most of these standardized tools often lack an assessment of the state of biodiversity or ecosystems (Coad et al, 2015), limiting analysis of how management relates to PA outcomes (Carranza, Manica, Kapos, & Balmford, 2014;Eklund & Cabeza, 2017;Nolte & Agrawal, 2013). Most of these standardized tools often lack an assessment of the state of biodiversity or ecosystems (Coad et al, 2015), limiting analysis of how management relates to PA outcomes (Carranza, Manica, Kapos, & Balmford, 2014;Eklund & Cabeza, 2017;Nolte & Agrawal, 2013).…”

Contemporary pastoral commons in East Africa as OECMs: a case study from the Daasanach community

“…Based on the findings presented in this paper, we question whether areas such as those studied here, which have retained biological values for so long but are currently facing challenges, could be considered as 'potential OECMs' only if their conservation values are properly assessed. Similar concepts of conditionality and governance are being discussed at large in the context of protected areas (Eklund & Cabeza, 2016). While substantial progress has been made in operationalising clear indicators of protected area effectiveness (e.g.…”

What constitutes a useful measure of protected area effectiveness? A case study of management inputs and protected area impacts in Madagascar

“…This means that even if a PA currently has little impact, due to location (see previous section), but sound management is in place, it might start having an impact once the pressures increase. This links to the wider debate of proactive versus reactive approaches to conservation (Brooks et al, 2006;Eklund & Cabeza, 2017), and how different data on PA effectiveness could be used to prioritize actions, which we discuss next. An inspection of the changes in the land cover data showed that this was the result of relocated pressures, spreading to previously remote regions once the more accessible land had already lost its forest cover.…”

“…Finally, the PAME data ignores aspects related to the wider quality of governance, such as for example law enforcement and corruption (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017). Previous studies have shown that PA managers often report such issues as being main obstacles for carrying out effective management (Pyhälä et al, 2019;Schleicher et al, 2019), as the mandate of a local manager is quite limited in the face of such powerful drivers.…”

“…Studies employing such techniques, have shown that PAs have avoided habitat conversion (Andam et al, 2008;Bowker, De Vos, Ament, & Cumming, 2017;Eklund et al, 2016). However, these studies have also found a large variation in the performance of individual PAs, suggesting that contextual factors such as governance quality and management might be key (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017).…”