Decentralization and Deforestation: Comparing Local Forest Governance Regimes in Latin America

Abstract

This chapter examines how local governance institutions respond to decentralization and how this response affects the stability of the resource base by comparing local forest governance regimes in three Latin American countries: Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru. It begins with an overview of the evolution of modern forestry policy in developing countries, followed by a review of the core findings in the decentralization literature related to forest governance. It then frames the issue of decentralization within a new institutionalist perspective and develops a testable hypothesis on the environmental effects of decentralization. It considers state capacity as an important determinant of the effectiveness of local governments in both formally decentralized and formally centralized settings. It also uses a comparative research design that exploits the variation in institutional conditions both within and across national policy regimes.