Institutions, as rules, norms, and strategies, play a crucial role in governing the accessibility to and utilization of any natural resource. Such institutions have evolved and are sustained primarily because of the ever emerging and changing human-nature interactions. With the unfolding forces of economic globalization there has been a dramatic and significant shift in the nature and dynamics of these interactions. This has lead to large scale and unsustained practices of exploitation of life supporting ecological goods and services, very often overshooting the biophysical thresholds, leading to resource degradation and unequal distribution: Mangrove ecosystems, one of nature most productive ecosystems, have been bearing the brunt, of economic globalization in terms of rampant degradation for industrial aquaculture and urbanization and that of the global environmental changes (GECs) such as sea level rise and coastal erosion. Efforts, and strategies to conserve and manage such a ‘critical’ natural resource have gained unprecedented support in the aftermath of 2004 Asian Tsunami. A diverse set of institutions and mechanisms at various levels have been innovated and applied toward this end. As these institutions and the associated practices become operational, they wrestle to bring forth changes and influence the human-nature interactions. The success and influence of these interactions is squarely dependent on the level and strength of institutional collaborations and learning, which is the bedrock for an adaptive management. Dissonance and conflict among these institutions not only fail to deliver but also brings in more uncertainty and contributes to the vulnerability of the resource as well as those dependent on the resources for their survival and livelihood. Adopting and building on the strategies of an Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Ostrom et al., 1994) this study (a) identifies and locates the diversity among and within various institutions associated with and responsible for mangrove resource conservation (b) finds out the level and extent of institutional collaboration, and (c) finds out the challenges and opportunities pertaining to such institutional collaborations and its implication for the equitable and sustainable management of mangrove resources in the Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem, a coastal Ramsar site in the state of Orissa, India.
