摘要：Joint management of protected areas is promoted in many countries around the world. It isconsidered a means to provide local communities, including indigenous people, with recognition of theircultural practices in the use and management of the natural resources within a protected area, while workingtogether with governments to achieve conservation goals. However, implementation of effective jointmanagement has often been difficult because capacities and expectations among partners differ. Here weexplore the potential of using a participatory monitoring and evaluation approach as a means of not onlyagreeing among partners on the objectives of joint management but also of measuring progress towardthose objectives. In particular, we first describe the process used to develop criteria and indicators formeasuring joint management effectiveness of a protected area in the Northern Territory, Australia, involvingthe park's Aboriginal Traditional Owners, their legal representatives, government, and researchers. Wethen analyze the process of applying a participatory approach to developing indicators and its contributionto improving equity among the partners. We consider the effectiveness of a participatory process withinthe context of the relationships, capacities, skills, communication, and cross-cultural information sharing.We found that at the early stages of joint management, the partners mostly identify process indicatorsrelated to human and social capital assets. Cross-cultural engagement in the early stages of the monitoringand evaluation cycle is challenged by issues relating to communication, institutional and communitycapacities, representation, and flexibility in ways of working together while learning by doing. We conclude,however, that a participatory monitoring and evaluation approach in which partners agree equally on theidentification of criteria and indicators to measure agreed management outcomes has the potential ofimproving equitable participation, decision making and working relationships, which in turn will lead toimproved park management effectiveness and community outcomes
