Conflicts in mangrove protected areas through the actor-centred power framework - Insights from China

Weiye Wang, Daye Zhai, Xinyang Li, Haowen Fang and Yuanyuan Yang

Forest Policy and Economics, 2024, vol. 158, issue C

Abstract: Mangroves as a critical ecosystem in tropical and subtropical intertidal zones are undergoing accelerated degradation. Efforts to establish protected areas have been credited as a plausible way to protect mangroves. However, the rapid expansion of protected areas has severely eroded communities' livelihoods and power balance with local authorities, creating tensions between mangrove conservation and local aquaculture development. Based on the actor-centered power framework, we analyzed local residents' reactions and resistance to the highly politicized policies in the K Mangrove National Nature Reserve in China. By revealing power dynamics hidden in multi-actor conflicts under an authoritarian regime, our research sheds new light on how conflicts arise and escalate through the strategic use of power resources and imbalanced power configuration during structural change and policy implementation. Power relations between groups of actors are reshaped from tacit complicity to opposition between the policy coalition and the interest expression coalition. The deprivation by local authorities of community-owned soft power resources significantly exacerbates the power asymmetry between coalitions and triggers the adoption of stronger power strategies by the community and the escalation of resistance intensity. Our research has important implications for better conflict management and coastal resource management under authoritarianism.

Keywords: Mangroves; Aquaculture; Conflict escalation; Actor-centered power; Power dynamics; Power asymmetry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934123002174
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:158:y:2024:i:c:s1389934123002174

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103122

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().