An evaluation of the effectiveness of the co-management approach in selected protected areas of Bangladesh

This study takes a qualitative method approach to evaluating the perceptions and attitudes of stakeholders to the effectiveness of planning and management in three protected areas in Bangladesh. A complex socio-economic context was revealed within which there were diverse views leading, in some cases, to ongoing conflict and difficulty in law enforcement. While the co-management approach in theory takes the interests of local people into account and so has a better prospect for long term, sustainable, forest protection, this research revealed that community participation is not currently effective and recommendations are made to remedy this and so increase the potential to achieve the management objectives for these protected areas