Is network governance possible? The case of Polish Drawienski National Park, Poland

For poor areas dealing with economic decline, finding development engines is a crucial issue, and natural resources are often the only asset communities have. In the paper it is argued that concept of the network governance can be applied to understand the situation, where local sustainable development is desirable. In a qualitative case study of the Polish Drawienski National Park area, four barriers for the establishment of network governance were found: weakness of legal institutional framework including ambiguities about property rights; lack of bridging social capital; persistence of informal norms undermining public and formal operations; difficulties with undertaking multilateral collective action. As an alternative to network governance, the emerging structure takes a market or hierarchical form.