Collaborative Governance of Protected Areas: Success Factors and Prospects for Hin Nam No National Protected Area, Central Laos

Mirjam De Koning,Sinnasone Sengchanthavong,Michael Lockwood,Souvanhpheng Phommasane,Tin Nguyen

doi:10.4103/0972-4923.201396

Mirjam De Koning, Sinnasone Sengchanthavong + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.201396

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Abstract

Collaborative governance of protected areas has emerged as a response to failures of, and ethical concerns about, centralised environmental governance. This paper assesses the governance of the Hin Nam No National Protected Area in central Laos to identify the conditions that support successful collaborative governance. Our analysis is based on the argument that collaborative governance is more likely to be successful under conditions that provide incentives for community engagement, formal mechanisms for power sharing, local ownership of resources, downward accountability, mechanisms for building trust, and an adaptive approach to performance assessment and improvement. We show that collaborative governance in Hin Nam No demonstrates the potential for a more decentralised and democratic system of governance based on customary rights, but requires ongoing political will to consolidate and sustain these arrangements. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature on collaborative governance of protected areas in Asia and elsewhere.

Highlights

Governance for protected areas seeks to negotiate outcomes that conserve biodiversity while providing for sustainable resource use
We investigate 1) whether Hin Nam No National Protected Areas (NPAs) arrangements constitute a form of collaborative governance according to our definition; 2) identify the extent to which Hin Nam No NPA governance meets a set of conditions for success; 3) assess the prospects, potential pitfalls and areas for improvement for these arrangements to deliver joint biodiversity conservation and sustainable development
The extent to which the emergent collaborative governance in Hin Nam No NPA, described in Section 3, meets our definition according to the six criteria given in Section 1, and whether conditions for success are in place, were assessed using document review, a questionnaire, interviews with villagers and district officials, and a concluding workshop in which participants undertook a summative review of progress and developed elements of a new strategic plan

Summary

Introduction

Governance for protected areas seeks to negotiate outcomes that conserve biodiversity while providing for sustainable resource use. National legal and policy frameworks governing protected areas are embedded in international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as the Access this article online. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) policy guidelines that establish an internationally agreed framework for identifying and classifying protected areas. Over the past two decades protected area governance has diversified, with significant growth in private and community-based management, as well as a variety of partnership-based models (Borrini-Feyerabend et al 2013). This diversification has been driven by both ethical and pragmatic needs to take into account local community

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