Past lines, present divides: mapping the biography of boundaries in protected area governance

Protected areas (PAs) represent conservation boundaries with differentiated governance regimes. Understanding their historical emergence is crucial for evaluating their current conservation role and future impact. In this article I examine how the history of boundaries shapes current conservation practices and processes surrounding PAs and the relationships among different stakeholder groups that are part of governance arrangements in these areas, including conflicts and animosity toward groups from across these boundaries. To this end, adjacent sustainable use PAs were selected as case studies. Through 30 semi-structured interviews with co-management stakeholders, I explore perceptions about PAs, their boundaries, and related disputes. While nearby users are excluded from decision making in deliberative councils, this exclusion has not fully materialized in territorial and resource use practices. The historical development of PA boundaries illuminates “othering” processes and tensions arising from transboundary resource use that local governance must address. Temporality plays a role in both the emergence and avoidance of resource disputes, highlighting the need to understand temporal boundaries. The idea of a “biography of boundaries” is used to describe the history of cross-boundary movements, offering important insights for transboundary governance. This biographical approach to understanding boundaries is essential for preventing conflicts and ensuring PAs effectively achieve their dual goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable human livelihoods. Such an understanding includes an insight into how different actor groups create new identities of themselves and others and offers a glimpse at how boundaries might impact conservation in the future. By recognizing how boundaries have evolved and how they shape stakeholder identities and relationships, conservation governance can better address the complex social dynamics that influence PA effectiveness.