Collaborative governance in marine and coastal management: A systematic review

Strengthened collaboration across different levels of governance can lead to improved marine and coastal management outcomes. For example, collaborative governance can improve coordination between institutions and communities, enhance trust to facilitate the participation of diverse actors, and build capacity for shared decision-making among both state and non-state sectors. While interest in collaborative governance for marine and coastal systems is growing, critical gaps in the scholarship remain, particularly regarding its implementation and success. Systematically identifying these knowledge gaps is essential to guide future research efforts and funding investments. To address this, we systematically reviewed empirical case studies, examining the roles of actors, the barriers and opportunities to collaboration, and the outcomes reported. We applied qualitative thematic analysis to identify key themes across the studies. A total of 4196 articles were retrieved from literature databases, and after a multi-stage screening process, 60 articles qualified for inclusion in the systematic review. We find that while collaborative governance involves a diversity of actors in marine and coastal settings, power remains unevenly distributed, often concentrated within the state. Our findings further highlight that essential conditions for supporting and sustaining collaborative governance include power sharing, legitimacy, engagement with bridging actors, and access to financial resources. Finally, we emphasise the need for standardised approaches to evaluating both social and ecological outcomes. This review contributes a roadmap for advancing collaborative governance research in marine and coastal contexts and offers recommendations to better align theory with practice.