Codifying and Commodifying Nature: Narratives on Forest Property Rights and the Implementation of Tenure Regularization Policies in Northwestern Argentina

Carla Inguaggiato,Michele Graziano Ceddia,Dimitris Christopoulos,Maurice Tschopp

doi:10.3390/land10101005

Abstract

Environmental resource management requires negotiation among state and non-state actors with conflicting goals and different levels of influence. In northwestern Argentina, forest policy implementation is described as weak, due to governance structure and ambiguities in the law. We studied how policy actors’ attitudes and their positions in the forest governance network relate to the implementation of land tenure regularization in a context where land tenure regularization is at the core of struggles over environmental policies. We focused on the Chaco Salteño part of the Gran Chaco ecosystem, one of the world’s major deforestation frontiers. We argue that the presence of weak advocacy coalitions requires an analysis of agency to understand this policy process. Our policy network analysis revealed a lack of clear contrasting factions, due to a core–periphery structure. The core of the network brings together all core beliefs but not all of the most influential actors. Assessing network centrality and reputational influence enabled us to identify actors with exceptional agency. We contribute to the debates on advocacy coalitions and on land tenure by distinguishing between attitudes toward tenure regularization policies and their actual implementation in a context where actors have diverging interests and objectives.

Highlights

Policy implementation emerges as a result of the contestation among state and nonstate actors involved in a policy debate that is characterized by substantial goal conflicts, important technical disputes, and multiple actors from several levels of government [1,2]
We studied empirically how policy actors’ attitudes and their agency in forest governance at both group and actor levels relate to the practical implementation of land tenure regularization
We examined the following questions: (1) What are the primary land tenure attitudes, and are they consistent with advocacy coalition formation? and (2) In a context of weak coalitions, how do actors with exceptional agency influence policy implementation? We argue that the presence of weak advocacy coalitions requires an analysis of agency, and we hypothesize that the land tenure attitudes of actors with exceptional agencies can influence the implementation of land tenure policy—especially in the given context of a law that is open to wide interpretation

Summary

Introduction

Policy implementation emerges as a result of the contestation among state and nonstate actors involved in a policy debate that is characterized by substantial goal conflicts, important technical disputes, and multiple actors from several levels of government [1,2]. These kinds of policy processes cannot be understood only by looking at single entities; a closer look at specific parts of the political subsystem is needed [3]. There is a debate in the literature on the role of land tenure in developing and tropical regions in promoting conservation [8]

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Results

Conclusion