A qualitative systematic review of governance principles for mangrove conservation.

Management of mangrove ecosystems is complex, given that mangroves are both terrestrial and marine, often cross regional or national boundaries, and are valued by local stakeholders in different ways than they are valued on national and international scales. Thus, mangrove governance involves coordination among multiple agencies and organizations, and has had varying levels of success. While there is substantial research on case studies of mangrove management, comparisons of mangrove governance across global scales are lacking. This research aims to fill this gap by evaluating relationships among qualities of governance across top-down, bottom-up, and co-managed structures in mangrove social-ecological systems. Through a systematic literature search and screening process, we identified 65 articles that discussed mangrove governance and conservation. Case studies in these articles, drawn from 39 countries, were categorized as top-down, bottom-up or co-managed and thematically coded to assess the influence of Lockwood et al.'s, (2010) eight principles of good governance in mangrove conservation success. We found varying dynamics in governance across systems, but general trends that the principles of legitimacy, fairness, and integration were most important. We highlight relationships between these principles and the concept of procedural justice and provide recommendations on how they should be implemented in mangrove governance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.