Abstract: Protected river area is a special type of protected area to maintain the outstanding value of rivers, and governance by government is the main mode of management for protected river area. Adaptation aims to reduce the adverse effects by adjusting the main body to environmental changes, which can provide ideas and methods for the management of protected river areas. Based on the adaptive analysis framework, this paper compares the mode of government-led governance and evolution process of protected river areas in the United States, New Zealand, Canada and Australia from four aspects: legal policies, governance bodies, resources ownership and funding sources. The following conclusions are drawn: four different modes of government-led governance have been formed in the four national protected river areas; federal centralized management is a prominent feature of the federal-led mode in the United States, central-led and moderate decentralization is the manifestation of the comprehensive governance mode in New Zealand, the cooperative co-management mode in Canada values and respects multiple stakeholders, and the management authority of the local self-government mode in Australia mainly belongs to the local management department. Adapting to the changes of the management system of natural protected area and political system in various countries is the reason for the difference in the mode of government-led governance of protected river areas. In the future, the construction of protected river areas in China must be based on the concept of adaptation, take into account the national conditions and the construction status of natural protected areas system, and the direction of national legislation, hierarchical management and franchising should be explored, so as to enrich and implement the planning of natural protected areas.