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Abstract:
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"Previously much CPR research was focused on self-governance by self-organised local actors. The focus is now shifting to the need for linkages to address the interactions amongst actors with market, state, etc structures that influence them, and on the scale challenges that these interactions present. This paper considers the implications of these developments for empirical studies, with a particular focus on those concerning the governance or co-management of protected areas (PAs). Two key scale challenges raised by PAs are considered: (1) the divergence of objectives between sustainable resource exploitation and biodiversity conservation; and (2) the requirement to fulfil biodiversity conservation obligations. These are explored through a UK marine PA case study which found that though even though the state had adopted a controlling role that had created tensions by undermining the authority and livelihoods of some stakeholders, the partnership had been sufficiently strengthened to withstand these tensions through the instrumental development of key links between state and civil actors: bracing social capital. Four conclusions for CPR research with a particular reference to PA governance are drawn: (1) the emphasis should be on the complex dynamics of the network structure and processes in question rather than on attempting to categorise regimes or devise rules; (2) such analyses must explicitly integrate the effects of top- down institutions and interventions, recognising their positive contribution to governance; (3) the linkages at the interface between local communities and higher level state and civil institutions are particularly critical, therefore CPR analyses should be focused at this level, including analysing the potential to transfer what appears to be effective in one context to another; (4) it is important that presumptions based on Habermasian ideals do not constrain CPR analyses, in that they should constructively incorporate the strategic and instrumental roles of state and their consequences."
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