Development of a hybrid public–private natural area governance model in the Adirondack Park of New York State

We applied Elinor Ostrom’s design principles (DPs) for governing public goods and her associated concept of polycentricity to describe how a hybrid public-private governance network emerged in Adirondack Park. We gathered evidence of key park decisions since 1880, including who was involved and at what scale each event occurred, to characterize how Park governance became more participatory over time. While state government dominated the decision space, the number of organizations involved in key policy events increased by six-fold and included more non-governmental and private land groups by 2020, along with mechanisms for joint decision-making and the emergence of self-organization at the local scale. While shared administration of protected areas can create inefficiencies, it can also enable resilience in the face of novel events and change. We found that determining which DPs were operational in a time period helped us evaluate both the developmental trajectory and governance of the large, multi-jurisdictional Adirondack Park. Given the complexity of current global environmental and socio-economic challenges, we suggest this as a valuable method for similar complex, public/private natural areas.