Introduction: Participation and the collaborative management of protected areas in Bangladesh

While the debate over community-based conservation and sustainable use of resources has continued for well over a decade, it has also become clear that foretress-style conservation has failed in many countries and that local cooperation is essential. This chapter provides a brief review of major concepts in the literature on comanagement and protected areas, with regard to three general themes addressed in the research articles: particpation and governance, applications of local knowledge, and local livelihoods.