ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the basic nature of public protected area systems and examines key challenges for making systems effective and key imperatives for overcoming those challenges. It presents an operational framework for effective protected area systems. This framework entails: providing an enabling institutional setup; addressing critical operational issues; and sustaining institutional performance. The overriding purpose of the institutional environment is to provide the legal and institutional space for stakeholders to fulfill their roles as adaptive, collaborative constituencies for protected area management. According to the analytical framework, sustaining institutional performance requires ensuring that the key stakeholders have the knowledge, incentive, and resources to collaborate and adapt, as well as cultivating leadership for protected area management. The chapter concludes with some final thoughts on the task of making protected area systems effective and the feasibility of applying the public protected area approach.
