Abstract:
As a result of the past failures in centralized management, community-based man-
agement approach was evolved as a better alternative in Mangrove management.
However, efectiveness of community-based Mangrove management is remained as
an important policy question with limited empirical evidence. This study aims to
empirically investigate the efectiveness of community participation on Mangrove
restoration using the village-level data collected from lagoon-based fshing villages
in northern Sri Lanka during 2009–2020. In addition to the feld data, this study
adopts satellite imagery data of Landsat-7 and Landsat-8 to estimate the extent of
Mangrove cover as an indicator of Mangrove restoration performance. The results
show that community participation has a signifcant and positive impact on Man-
grove restoration, suggesting the importance of strengthening community manage-
ment practices for future Mangrove management.
