Are protected areas effective?

Protected areas are one of the most common policy instruments used for in-situ conservation.  There is much discussion, however, about whether protected areas are effective conservation tools and whether other institutional arrangements might be just as, or more, effective under certain conditions.  Understanding the impact and effectiveness of protected areas is critical if we wish to promote environmental conservation while also recognizing resource rights and social justice concerns. My work on protected areas includes cross-national quantitative analyses and case study comparisons.

Cross-National Comparison: In a cross-national study of 163 forests, I found that protected areas are not necessarily the most effective way of promoting forest conservation and that property-rights arrangements that permit resource users to make forest rules may significantly enhance forest conservation.(Hayes 2006; Hayes & Ostrom 2005).

Ability to Control Agricultural Expansion: In a case study comparison of the ability of protected areas to control agricultural expansion in the Mosquitia Forest Corridor of Central America, I foun

d that a protected area that respected indigenous rulemaking and land management rights was better able to stop agricultural expansion than was the reserve that was owned and managed by the government (Hayes 2007, 2008).

Why Comply?

My current research is examining the effectiveness of regional and municipal protected areas in ecosystem protection in the Colombian Andes.  Key questions that my research aims to understand are the factors that influence when individuals decide to comply with protected area regulations?  How does participation in rulemaking, perceived salience and scarcity, community networks and social capital, sanctions and incentives influence the decision to comply?

1.       Institutional Change and Adaptation

Given a rapidly changing world that includes greater climate variability, more integrated markets, and new demographic pressures, one of the greatest environmental policy challenges is how to govern social and ecological systems in flux.  This is particularly true for scholars and practitioners concerned with governance of the commons,  as traditional common-property systems are presently threatened  with new demographic, economic and institutions pressures.

In order to enhance our ability to deal with these policy challe

nges, my research examines (1) how we can empirically identify and assess institutional change and adaptation in the field; and, (2) how broader public policies and programs impact resource user adaptation strategies and natural resource governance arrangements.  Through my work in the field, I have empirically assessed how native populations in the Mosquitia Forest Corridor have responded to new demographic and market pressures caused by colonization of the region.  Findings suggest that the indigenous common-property systems are vulnerable to market pressures, but that property-rights policies and programs that reduce the transaction costs involved in organization and collective rule making may serve to bolster the adaptive capacity of the indigenous residents and the robustness of their common-property institutions (Hayes 2008a, 2008b). 

My current research continues to assess how adaptation and institutional change is empirically measured in the field and how our understanding of individual and community adapation strategies can improve policies and programs to enhance local governance abilities.