The ontological dimensions of coastal mangrove reserve conflicts——insights from China

In the context of escalating anthropogenic pressures on coastal ecosystems, this article employs a case study of one of China’s southeastern coastal mangrove reserves to interrogate the interplay between local communities and state authorities in natural resource governance from an ontological perspective. Through qualitative research involving 30 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2019 and 2023, we reveal how state, market, and community actors operate from fundamentally different – and often incompatible – understandings of mangroves. We trace a historical shift from a community ontology, where mangroves were perceived as socio-ecological commons buffering against flooding, to a market ontology through which mangroves were seen as barriers to marketized aquaculture development. While state intervention later curtailed market overexploitation, its regulatory, ecological ontology clashed with both the eroded community framework and the persistent market logic. Consequently, state governance, though justified by ecologically necessity, proved ontologically irreconcilable with the community’s original, relational approach. This study demonstrates that environmental governance conflicts are not merely about resource distribution but are rooted in conflicting ontologies and clashes between divergent world-making practices. It thus contributes a novel analytical lens for understanding governance conflicts in socio-ecological systems under competing state and market pressures, revealing that effective and just governance requires recognizing and navigating deep ontological divides, not just negotiating resource claims.