Protected areas are the cornerstones of the ecological infrastructure that all countries should maintain to generate the ecosystem services their societies need to thrive. Many ideas exist about how centralized the management of these protected areas should be. Some prefer centralized management, where the national governments mostly manage protected areas. Others prefer decentralized models, where sub-national governments, communities, or NGOs manage protected areas.
A paper by Liza Khmara, Michael Touchton (Department of Political Science at the University of Miami), and Prof. Silva found that while decentralization is widely promoted, most national protected area systems remain centralized. The Americas show the highest decentralization (31%), while European countries have the lowest (4%).
Conservation funding and public participation drive the initial adoption of decentralization, while a country's size increases the extent of decentralization. Interestingly, older protected area systems face significant barriers to becoming more decentralized.
This global analysis offers valuable insights into the governance and policy of protected areas.
