A qualitative evaluation of a community‐based approach to protected area law enforcement

People living in and around terrestrial and marine protected areas can contribute to protected area law enforcement in different ways. While the involvement of local residents is considered important for bringing benefits to both conservation and people, evaluations of community‐based approaches to protected area law enforcement are limited.

We conducted a qualitative evaluation of an intervention that represents a common model for community engagement in protected area law enforcement. Drawing on a case study of a community warden scheme in Cambodia, we developed a retrospective and participatory Theory of Change, and examined the validity of the Theory of Change from the perspective of different stakeholder groups involved in the scheme.

In a rapidly changing social and ecological system, we found that key assumptions underpinning the scheme are failing to hold true in practice.

Synthesis and applications . The lack of comparative evidence for the effectiveness of efforts to involve local residents in protected area law enforcement may be attributed to the complex social mechanisms by which local involvement is supposed to work. To help address this evidence gap, we offer a framework to assess the validity of assumptions that underpin community involvement in protected area law enforcement. We demonstrate the usefulness of this framework with a case study.