Letting the managers manage: analyzing capacity to conserve biodiversity in a cross-border protected area network

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Biodiversity loss is one of the most significant drivers of ecosystem change and is projected to continue at a rapid rate. While protected areas, such as national parks, are seen as important refuges for biodiversity, their effectiveness in stemming biodiversity decline has been questioned. Public agencies have a critical role in the governance of many such areas, but there are tensions between the need for these agencies to be more "adaptive" and their current operating environment. Our aim is to analyze how institutions enable or constrain capacity to conserve biodiversity in a globally significant cross-border network of protected areas, the Australian Alps. Using a novel conceptual framework for diagnosing biodiversity institutions, our research examined institutional adaptive capacity and more general capacity for conserving biodiversity. Several intertwined issues limit public agencies' capacity to fulfill their conservation responsibilities. Narrowly defined accountability measures constrain adaptive capacity and divert attention away from addressing key biodiversity outcomes. Implications for learning were also evident, with protected area agencies demonstrating successful learning for on-ground issues but less success in applying this learning to deeper policy change. Poor capacity to buffer political and community influences in managing significant cross-border drivers of biodiversity decline signals poor fit with the institutional context and has implications for functional fit. While cooperative federalism provides potential benefits for buffering through diversity, it also means protected area agencies have restricted authority to address cross-border threats. Restrictions on staff authority and discretion, as public servants, have further implications for deploying capacity. This analysis, particularly the possibility of fostering "ambidexterity" -creatively responding to political pressures in a way that also achieves a desirable outcome for biodiversity conservation-is one promising way of building capacity to buffer both political influences and ecological pressures. The findings and the supporting analysis provide insight into how institutional capacity to conserve biodiversity can be enhanced in protected areas in Australia and elsewhere, especially those governed by public agencies and/or multiple organizations and across jurisdictions.

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

“…The challenges identified by managers (Table 2, especially the role of the state) are indicative of the importance of the quality of governance for PAs (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017;Worboys, Lockwood, Kothari, Feary, & Pulsford, 2015), and reflect more general findings about the role that management and capacity appear to play in ensuring PA effectiveness (Clement, Moore, & Lockwood, 2016;IUCN, 2005). The challenges identified by managers (Table 2, especially the role of the state) are indicative of the importance of the quality of governance for PAs (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017;Worboys, Lockwood, Kothari, Feary, & Pulsford, 2015), and reflect more general findings about the role that management and capacity appear to play in ensuring PA effectiveness (Clement, Moore, & Lockwood, 2016;IUCN, 2005).…”

“…Our study illustrates how the PA managers' perspectives can provide valuable insight into how pressures and threats are playing out at the local level, improved understanding of which is vital, but often missing from the contemporary PA management literature. The challenges identified by managers (Table 2, especially the role of the state) are indicative of the importance of the quality of governance for PAs (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017;Worboys, Lockwood, Kothari, Feary, & Pulsford, 2015), and reflect more general findings about the role that management and capacity appear to play in ensuring PA effectiveness (Clement, Moore, & Lockwood, 2016;IUCN, 2005). Governance related challenges for effective PA management in Madagascar might have been heightened by the recent political instability, along with the political turmoil in 2009 and a lack of effective presidency in subsequent years.…”

Governance assessment of a protected area: the case of the Alde Feanen National Park

“…The withdrawal of the national level, as a consequence of decentralization of nature policy, brings more challenges to the lower level authorities in terms of their allocation of sufficient resources and for the new arrangements to work effectively for decentralisation. Another concept to compare with the extent quality is a fit-for-purpose concept with institutional diagnosis method (Clement, Moore, and Lockwood 2016). This assesses whether institutions do fit the functional aspect (Boyd and Folke 2011) and whether they have the capacity to deal with issues at hand and the complex situations (Clement, Moore, and Lockwood 2016).…”

“…A number of assessment frameworks appear in the governance literature to analyse governance systems (Ostrom 2005;Lockwood 2009;Borrini-Feyerabend and Hill 2015;Potts et al 2016;Clement, Moore, and Lockwood 2016;Wyborn 2015). Some are used more often (Ostrom 2005).…”

“…Others are based on the principles of good governance to ensure sustainable management (Lockwood 2009) or they are tailored to the requirements of environmental problems or specific needs (Young 2008;Clement, Moore, and Lockwood 2016). For instance, the institutional fit concept, which is closely related to the approach of institutional diagnosis (Young 2008;Cox 2012;Clement, Moore, and Lockwood 2016;Potts et al 2016), determines that actors and institutions should share the same values or norms when dealing with problems. However, the concept of fit is considered limiting as it is rather vague and raises many questions (Cox 2012).…”