comanages

Comanages refers to governance arrangements in which management authority for a resource is shared among multiple stakeholders, typically between government agencies and local communities or Indigenous groups. It is closely related to co-management or shared governance. In practice, comanagement relies on formal or informal partnerships with joint decision-making bodies, negotiated responsibilities, and mechanisms to balance scientific management with local knowledge and values.

Key features include clearly defined roles and responsibilities; binding or formally recognized agreements; joint or representative decision-making committees; integration of traditional ecological knowledge with scientific information; adaptive management; accountability, transparency, and mechanisms for dispute resolution; and equitable distribution of costs and benefits.

Common settings for comanagement are fisheries, forests, water resources, wildlife, protected areas, and urban commons. It seeks to align conservation objectives with community livelihoods and cultural importance, recognizing that sustainable outcomes often require local buy-in and ongoing collaboration.

Benefits of comanagement can include enhanced legitimacy and compliance, more resilient governance in the face of change, better uptake of management measures, and improved social and economic outcomes for local communities. However, challenges persist, such as power imbalances, resource constraints, bureaucratic complexity, unclear authority, conflicts among stakeholders, and difficulties in measuring success. The effectiveness of comanagement is highly context dependent and often hinges on legal recognition, sustained funding, capacity building, and ongoing negotiation.

Historically, comanagement emerged as a response to failures of centralized management and as part of rights-based and participatory governance movements. It remains a topic of study across environmental policy, development, and natural resource management.