Due to degrading marine environments and loss of biological diversity, marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly utilized to protect living marine resources. Unfortunately, effective management of these areas is often held back by conflicts between conservation and user interests, together with the limited knowledge on the functioning of marine ecosystems. As a way of reducing tensions and closing knowledge-gaps, collaborative arrangements between stakeholders and decision-makers are increasingly sought and comprised into policy guiding the establishment of MPAs. Despite the rising scholarly interest in these matters, little has been written about whether the commitments to collaboration expressed in policy are fulfilled in practice. Pursuing this question, the purpose of this thesis is to examine the resemblance between policy and practice in the context of collaboration between decision-makers and stakeholders during the establishment of MPAs. A case study of the Swedish Skånska Kattegatt, a marine protected area on the west coast of Sweden, reveals a discrepancy between policy and practice during the early stages of the process, regarding the construction of the knowledge base of the decision. The study identifies a possible cause to be lacking resources at the County administrative board responsible for the establishment, a crucial aspect to which more attention needs to be directed in similar, future settings.

In the face of growing economic inequality and population growth, several large cities in the US have started to proactively protect vital industrial lands from conversion to non-industrial uses. These new policies signal a potentially dramatic shift in both land-use and economic development practices. In the first essay of this dissertation I present a typology of existing industrial land protective policies after reviewing the comprehensive plans and zoning codes of the United States' fifty largest cities. I identify 11 cities with protective policies and highlight the variance of these policies by offering a simple two part typology based upon a city's use of increased usage restrictions or greater process requirements for conversion of protected parcels. The second essay presents results of a survey I administered to planners exploring the varied ways that planners understand the pressures facing industrial land in their cities and the political contexts they operate within regarding industrial land policy in their respective cities. I find that planners are generally supportive of industrial land protective policies but are ambivalent about the long term viability of industrial labor in cities and face political pressure to convert industrial land to non-industrial uses. The final essay presents an evaluation of protective land policies. I estimate a propensity score model measuring the change in manufacturing and broader "industrial" employment a the census tract level between 2009 and 2015 using LEHD LODES workplace association data. I estimate the propensity score model using a gradient boosted model and ultimately find a null effect of protective policies on manufacturing and "industrial" job growth.

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Nature-based tourism (NBT) can be explained as a form of tourism that takes place in some kind of natural area outside one's home. NBT has been one of the fastest-growing forms of tourism worldwide and is believed to continue to grow in the future as well. With the rising interest in visiting natural areas, many national parks and other protected areas have seen an increase in visitors, making them popular NBT destinations. Protected areas are covered by various conservation policies, and in a time of biodiversity loss, they are increasingly being recognised as a foundation of sustainable biodiversity resources and as a cornerstone for sustainable development. However, protected areas are often impacted by touristic presence, so with both the growing importance of nature conservation and increasing visitation numbers, questions about how to manage tourism impacts in protected areas are ever more central. To investigate this, the national parks in Sweden were chosen as the empirical field of this thesis. By adapting a mixed-method approach using a survey and interviews as data-collecting methods, this thesis set out to explore how the managers of the national parks in Sweden work with NBT and nature conservation in times with changing circumstances. Amongst other things, the thesis shows that a majority of the national parks in Sweden had experienced an increase in visitors in the last five years, and that the national parks can be seen as arenas for where NBT can take place. The interest in visiting a national park in Sweden was believed to continue being strong, and lack of funding was identified as the biggest challenge that the national parks are facing right now. Building on this, the thesis discussed that the national parks need more funding to better handle both nature conservation and touristic activities, which was also a main conclusion of the thesis. Another conclusion drawn from this study is that the parks would benefit from better visitor statistics and surveys, and protected areas in Sweden would benefit from a system where the economic effects of nature tourism in protected nature are shown. The thesis contributes with theoretical knowledge of how managers of protected areas work and prioritise in times of changing circumstances.

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Legal Amazon, the Brazilian region where much of the global tropical forest is located, has suffered from rapid deforestation for decades, undermining the provision of ecosystem services and the conservation of biodiversity on local and global scales. In order to prevent deforestation, the Brazilian government has established priority and protected areas to ensure the preservation of high biodiversity areas and ecosystem services. This study analyses whether the establishment of priority and protected areas have an impact in preventing deforestation, thus promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Furthermore, this study also analyses the extent to which deforestation affects priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Deforestation datasets from 2001 to 2014 of the Legal Amazon was processed and analyzed. The total area and density of deforestation were compared across three categories of land: (1) protected priority areas, (2) unprotected priority areas, and (3) non-priority areas. Spatial methods of geoprocessing and the statistical method one-way ANOVA were used to analyse the deforestation trends. As a result, the deforestation density was found to be lowest inside protected areas than in unprotected areas and non-priority areas. This implied that land-use restrictions in protected areas had more impact compared to unprotected areas and non-priority areas. Furthermore, deforestation has been more intensive in regions of lower biodiversity importance. Despite this positive evaluation, substantial tracts of forest had been converted within regions of high biodiversity importance. Therefore, the regulation of priority and protected areas must be evaluated and improved in the future. / Den brasilianska regionen Legal Amazon, där mycket av den globala andelen av tropisk skog ligger, har drabbats av snabb avskogning i årtionden, vilket underminerar tillhandahållandet av ekosystemtjänster och bevarandet av den biologiska mångfalden både på lokal och global skala. För att förhindra avskogning har den brasilianska regeringen etablerat prioriterade och skyddade områden för att säkerställa bevarandet av områden med hög biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster. Denna studie analyserar huruvida etableringen av prioriterade och skyddade områden påverkar förebyggandet av denna avskogning. Dessutom analyserar denna undersökning också hur omfattningen av avskogningen påverkar prioriterade områden för bevarande av biologisk mångfald. Avskogningsdata från 2001 till 2014 i Legal Amazon bearbetades och analyserades. Total areal och densitet av avskogningen jämfördes mellan tre kategorier av mark: (1) skyddade prioriterade områden, (2) oskyddade prioriterade områden och (3) icke prioriterade områden. Rumsliga metoder för bearbetning och den statistiska metoden envägs-ANOVA användes för att analysera avskogningstrenderna. Resultaten visar att avskogningstätheten var lägst inom skyddade områden jämfört med oskyddade områden och icke-prioriterade områden. Det innebär att markanvändningsbegränsningar i skyddade områden har haft större inverkan jämfört med oskyddade områden och icke prioriterade områden. Vidare har avskogningen varit mer intensiv i områden med lägre värden för biologisk mångfald. Trots denna positiva utvärdering hade ett betydande skogsområde omvandlats inom områden med höga värden för biologisk mångfald. Därför måste regleringen av prioriterade och skyddade områden utvärderas och förbättras i framtiden.

1. Reconciling conservation and socioeconomic development goals is key to sus- tainability but remains a source of fierce debate. Protected areas (PAs) are be- lieved to play an essential role in achieving these seemingly conflicting goals. Yet, there is limited evidence as to whether PAs are actually achieving the two goals simultaneously. 2. Here, we investigate when and to what extent synergies or trade- offs between biodiversity conservation and local socioeconomic development occur. To ex- plore these relationships, we collected data across a wide range of socioeco- nomic settings through face-to-face survey with PA managers from 114 African and European PAs using structured questionnaire. 3. We found synergies between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development for 62% of the PAs, albeit with significant differences between African (55%) and European PAs (75%). Moreover, the sustainability of PAs in conserving biodiversity was strongly correlated with the empowerment of the PA management and the involvement of local communities in PA planning and decision-making processes. 4. Our results demonstrate that for PAs to promote synergies between biodiver- sity conservation and local socioeconomic development, and to enhance their long-term sustainability, they should invest in the empowerment of their respec- tive management and involvement of local communities in their planning and management activities

The aim of this dissertation is to assess the political ecology of conservation governance and management of Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park (SNP), SNP Buffer Zone (BZ) and the Buffer Zone Community Forest User Groups (BZCFUG) in Pharak in northeastern Nepal. It evaluates their performance in two adjacent regions (Khumbu and Pharak) from multiple perspectives, including the views of the residents (indigenous Sherpa people and minority immigrant community members), and the standards of current international conservation and human rights policies. This research is important because it relates to global, regional, national and local level conservation policies and practices, which have direct impacts on biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities, and rights. The discussion of buffer zone community forest in the Pharak region follows my M.Sc. thesis completed at the University of Wales, UK in 2000. This dissertation draws on my 2011 fieldwork and my long-time experience growing up in this region and working there for conservation and development organizations. I conducted qualitative research adopting field observation, semi-structured and focus group interviews and participating in BZ and BZCFUGs' meetings. I observe that implementation of CFUG, BZCFUG and buffer zone management programs (BZMP) in Pharak and BZMP in Khumbu have made significant progress towards achieving conservation of forests, habitats, wildlife species and sustainable production of forest products while reinstituting forest and natural resource use and improving management and governance rights. This suggests that community participation in forest commons and natural resource management and governance through devolution and decentralization of decision-making rights can achieve biodiversity conservation goals. By integrating indigenous peoples' and local communities' cultural and religious perspectives with scientific knowledge, a synergy can be achieved that benefits conservation. For this the free, prior and informed consent of the concerned indigenous peoples and local communities is prerequisite. Conservation goals need to consider the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and meet their aspirations and international conservation standards of self-determination and autonomy.