Guidelines for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of natural resource governance

Effective conservation is founded on effective governance systems that are able to establish and enforce compliance with policies, rules, and regulations that support sustainable use and conservation of natural resources. This guide, which has been tested in four landscapes, provides one approach to identifying the most important groups with rights to manage natural resources within a landscape or seascape, characterizing a small set of factors believed to be essential elements of good natural resource governance, and assessing the governance strengths and weaknesses of each group.