Samenvatting

In 2010 the decision was made to approve for the establishment of 16 marine protected areas in Vietnams national system. One of the established marine protected areas is the Con Dao National Park where this field study took place between 21 March and 11 May, 2018. Marine protected areas in Vietnam have been established under different national, provincial, and local jurisdictions with different objectives, rules and management approaches. The original purpose of this study was to conduct a first assessment of the coral reefs on Con Dao. However, due tochallenges faced during the field study on Con Dao, the purpose of this study became to find out how the complex multi-level governance of marine protected area designation and management in Vietnam works and how this related back to the encountered challenges. This thesis study looked into the roles and relationships of the organizational governance structure of marine protected area designation and management in Vietnam and that of the Con Dao National Park. The study also looked into the observation made about the current ecological status of coralreefs surrounding the Con Dao islands.