The co-management network governance system for sustainable natural area tourism in Kyrgyzstan

The natural environment of Kyrgyzstan is a significant tourism attraction, particularly the country’s mountains which account for a high proportion of the country’s land mass. It is these mountains which have been the focus of an ongoing research project, centred upon commercial mountaineering on Lenin Peak, since 2017 (see Komissarov and Taylor, 2019; and Komissarov, Taylor, and Turova, 2021). Central to this research is the issue of the sustainability of tourism activities on Lenin Peak and the requirement for an effective system of governance to oversee these activities. As will be explored below, this requires a complex response to a complex situation! This short article briefly outlines the key components of the co-management network governance system (CNGS) that can be adopted and applied for the governance of natural area tourism in Kyrgyzstan’s mountains and beyond! This is based upon the author’s doctoral research (Taylor, 2016) which developed a governance system oriented towards the sustainable development of natural areas within the context of UK national parks.