The previous chapter focused on a critical analysis of neo-institutional theories on natural resource governance and outlined the co-evolutionary hierarchical governance concept. It is co-evolutionary in that it recognises that top-down, bottom-up and market approaches to governance are interlinked and likely to affect each other’s development, e.g. through the influence of local people on higher level institutions. It is also co-evolutionary in that it recognises that increased institutional diversity, increased MPA effectiveness, increased species diversity and increased social-ecological resilience are interlinked, i.e. effective governance approaches have the potential to provide for the co-evolution of both social and ecological systems by promoting resilience through increases in the diversity of institutions and thereby of species. The main focus of this chapter will be to describe the empirical framework that was developed and applied to explore the appropriateness and applicability of the co-evolutionary hierarchical governance concept, through the 20 case studies. This will also enable an exploration of the proposed link between increased institutional diversity, increased resilience of the MPA governance framework, increased MPA effectiveness, increased species diversity and increased resilience of the protected marine ecosystem.