La gouvernance des aires marines protégées : leçons ouest-africaines

Abstract

On looking at the stakes involved in the marine protected areas (MPA), such as they are expressed on the international scene which places governance at the center of the debate, the gaps revealed by a bibliographic review justifies a research effort on an analysis framework of the governance for MPAS. The establishment of this framework is supported on one hand by the conceptual achievements of risk governance, and on the other by the application of these conceptual achievements to environmental governance, and endly by the declension of this governance in terms of political economy and political science. The West African MPAs have appeared to be a privileged application of this analysis framework, in reference to a certain exemplarité. The analysis of their modes of governance has revealed contradictions which refer to the environment of public policy. The analysis of this has highlighted the disproportionate role of international pressure groups, the too sectoral and technical aspect of the fisheries management measures, the incompletion of decentralization, and the fragmentation of the State and civil society. Faced with these deadlocks, the reinforcement of the connection between the levels of power and decision is essential, as well as the re-qualifying of the role of the State as mediator and arbitrator. The lessons learned from the analysis of the governance of the West African marine protected areas enable the proposition of some directives for the modes of governance, including the better targeting of objectives, the legal organization of the rights of access and the delegation of power, the specific financing of governance measures, and the precise cost and profit assessment.

Keywords

• governance
• decentralization
• stakeholders
• political economy
• marine protected areas
• public policy