Abstract:
As a result of the past failures in centralized management, community-based management
approach was evolved as a better alternative in Mangrove management.
However, effectiveness of community-based Mangrove management is remained as
an important policy question with limited empirical evidence. This study aims to
empirically investigate the effectiveness of community participation on Mangrove
restoration using the village-level data collected from lagoon-based fishing villages
in northern Sri Lanka during 2009–2020. In addition to the field 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 significant and positive impact on Mangrove
restoration, suggesting the importance of strengthening community management
practices for future Mangrove management.
