Protected Areas for Nature and People. Examining Equitable Protected Area Governance in Armenia

Armenia’s chairmanship of the 17^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17) and commitments to advance the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) create a timely opportunity to examine how well the country’s protected area governance framework reflects the growing international emphasis on community participation and rights. Examining legal documents across governance levels, this study asks how well Armenia’s legal and policy framework supports equitable protected area governance. Lake Arpi National Park served as a case study to explore how national provisions translate into management and institutional arrangements.

The four dimensions of good governance are unevenly developed across the framework. Administrative responsibilities, monitoring requirements, financial control and access to information are comparatively well established, while meaningful influence on decision-making, public accountability, procedural and distributive safeguards, and adaptive governance remain less consistently institutionalized. Recent legal reforms and the updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan introduce stronger commitments to participation, inclusion and community rights. However, these advances are not yet uniformly embedded across legislation and site-level governance arrangements.