Khuu, Duong T;
Jones, Peter JS;
Ekins, Paul;
(2023)
Development of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Vietnam from a coevolutionary governance perspective: Challenges of unholy alliances between the state, businesses and NGOs.
Environmental Science & Policy
, 149
, Article 103560. 10.1016/j.envsci.2023.103560.
Preview |
Text
Khuu et al (2023) Development of MPAs in Vietnam from a coevolutionary governance perspective.pdf - Published Version Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are widely recognised as a management framework for achieving biodiversity conservation and sustainable ocean uses. Although the attention to improving the governance of MPAs as a priority for achieving effective MPAs has been escalated, debates concerning MPA governance are inspired mainly by the bottom-up governance approach and its focus on horizontal and vertical linkages as a means of resolving conflicts, with the assumption that the state should only take a passive role. As the debates on the best MPA governance model continue, the progress of spatially expanding the global MPA network remains slow and has created many paper parks. Through a coevolutionary governance lens, this paper aims to empirically examine the development of MPAs in Vietnam and reflect on the national realities of achieving global biodiversity targets. Our findings emphasise that governance frameworks adopted for Vietnamese MPAs are typically characterised by a significant decentralisation of responsibilities to province-/district-level governments but with a lack of conditions and accountability attached to such responsibilities and of related oversight from the central government. Consequences include rent-seeking and clientelism opportunities for local authorities, elite capture of MPA benefits, and diminishing trust and stewardship among local communities. Our study suggests that, in the face of increasing overfishing and corporate interests nurtured by the unholy alliances between the state, businesses and NGOs, effective and equitable MPAs critically rely on synergies among different governance approaches, which are case-specific, along with sufficient political will and oversight from the state.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Development of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Vietnam from a coevolutionary governance perspective: Challenges of unholy alliances between the state, businesses and NGOs |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.envsci.2023.103560 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.103560 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Biodiversity conservation, Governance, Vietnam, Decentralisation, Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10175475 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
