Data Sheet 2_MPA networks as learning systems: governance interactions and shared challenges in Southeast Brazil.pdf

Yet in the formal network’s absence, an informal learning network has self-organized: managers connect through shared management demands, territorial proximity, and the practical necessity of addressing problems individual units cannot solve alone. SNA identifies two regional clusters — South/Central and North — connected primarily through the Marine Environmental Protection Areas, which function as structural hubs of this emergent governance system, performing coordination functions the formal MIAMP has not.

Seventeen management themes led by Tourism, Public Use, Climate Change, and Environmental Licensing are shared network-wide, constituting the empirical foundation for integration. The informal network’s operational geography extends significantly beyond the 2008 decree, incorporating MPAs established after its baseline, leading us to propose an evidence-based redesign expanding the network from 15 to 29 units. This redesign formalizes what already exists informally rather than imposing new top-down structures.

These findings contribute to the international MPA governance literature by demonstrating that informal integration can constitute a functional governance mode, not merely a transitional phase, and that effective network design should be grounded in demonstrated relationships rather than administrative boundaries. As the global community pursues the 30x30 target, MIAMP offers an empirically grounded argument that designation without institutional support produces paper networks, while informal connectivity, properly recognized and resourced, can bridge conservation ambition and governance reality.</p>