A governance analysis of non-governmental organisations in China’s marine protected areas: institutional bricolage in the shadow of hierarchy

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are central to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s ‘30 by 30’ target, and implementation requires arrangements able to manage high monitoring costs, blurred marine boundaries and fragmented responsibilities. This paper examines how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) participate in China’s MPA governance under the shadow of hierarchy. Integrating coevolutionary governance, the MPA Governance framework and institutional bricolage, it analyses how NGOs assemble workable connections among incentives when legal and economic levers remain concentrated in public authorities. Based on four national MPAs in China, the study draws on a one-year field investigation combining document analysis, ethnographic observation and 96 in-depth interviews. Findings show that NGOs act as linking agents within state-led governance. They translate communication, knowledge and participation incentives into administratively legible outputs, including monitoring records, survey reports, policy proposals, education materials and volunteer documentation. These outputs connect ecological observations and local knowledge with legal and economic incentives controlled by state actors, reducing information asymmetries, lowering coordination costs, supporting negotiated implementation and enabling adaptive learning. However, this institutional bricolage remains fragile. NGO legitimacy depends on repeated technical delivery, political caution and alignment with official conservation priorities, narrowing issue selection and deepening dependence on administrative gatekeepers. Project-based funding shortens organisational time horizons, makes incentive integration episodic and prioritises visible deliverables over longer-term institutional learning and adaptive rule adjustment. The study clarifies how incentive diversity becomes operational under hierarchical steering and highlights the need for clearer participation procedures, predictable support for monitoring and engagement, and accountable pathways for evidence-based adjustment.