ABSTRACT
The idea of collaborative management (CM) of protected areas, under a variety of different names, including joint management and comanagement, is established as a major element of protected area (PA) management policies and rhetoric in much of the world. This chapter presents an international perspective on experiences, challenges, and prospects for CM of PAs. It focuses on the CM element of adaptive CM (ACM), rather than on experiences in the application of the ACM methodology itself. Action research and ACM methodologies are at least broadly similar in their concern with incremental change, exploration, and participation of stakeholders. Involvement of local people in decision making about PA management has been strongly advocated by some activists. In Nepal, encouragement of community participation in planning and management of buffer zones is policy, but community involvement in core zone management is essentially restricted to “consultation.”
