Governing marine protected areas: Social–ecological resilience through institutional diversity

Marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide are facing increasing driving forces, which represent a major and increasing challenge for MPA governance. The Marine Protected Area Governance (MPAG) project examined a range of different incentives – economic, interpretative, knowledge, legal and participative – employed to address the driving forces and promote effectiveness in 20 case studies across the globe. This paper argues that, regardless of the MPA governance approach adopted (i.e., government-led, decentralised, private or community-led), resilience in MPA governance systems derives from employing a diversity of inter-connected incentives. The significance of institutional diversity to governance systems parallels that of species diversity to ecosystems, conferring resilience to the overall socio–ecological system. The paper concludes that, in the face of strong driving forces, rather than relying on particular types of incentives and institutions, it is important to recognise that the key to resilience is diversity, both of species in ecosystems and of institutions in governance systems.

► Five different categories of MPA governance approach are identified.
► Different types of incentives are combined in governing MPAs in different contexts.
► Interactions between the incentives lead to a hypothesised 'web of incentives'.
► Legal incentives represent strong links in such a 'web of incentives'.
► Diversity of inter-connected incentives is key to resilience in MPA governance systems.