ABSTRACT
This article examines how a local environmental NGO in southern China transformed Guantouling Hill, once a prominent poaching hotspot along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, into a recognised model of community-based biodiversity conservation. Drawing on 6 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentary analysis, this study analyses governance practices that have emerged through the sixteen-year conservation efforts of the Guangxi Biodiversity Research and Conservation Association (BRC). At the macro level, the analysis situates NGO action within polycentric governance, public value governance, and state-reinforced self-governance frameworks that shape state–society relations. At the meso level, it conceptualizes ‘two-way embeddedness’ as NGOs’ simultaneous integration within state institutions and local communities, enabling them to translate policy priorities into context-specific interventions. At the micro level, it explores collaborative governance practices grounded in trust, relational authority, and everyday participation. The case of BRC illustrates how sustained ecological monitoring, joint enforcement with state actors, and community trust-building can produce gradually stabilized governance practices without formal delegation of authority. The findings contribute to debates on non-state actor roles in development-oriented environmental governance and demonstrate how NGOs can extend state capacity, institutionalize local participation, and generate new governance spaces within fragmented institutional landscapes.