Environmental globalization and tropical forests

Abstract

Environmental globalization is a distinct dimension of the multi-dimensional phenomenon of globalization, in which the process in each dimension can be defined in a similar way. Environmental globalization involves an intensifying, deepening and expansion of global networks leading to increasing global uniformity and connectedness in regular environmental management practices. It has so far been neglected, differing from the environmental outcomes of economic globalization, and from the rise of global environmental governance. The history of external attempts to impose restrictions on tropical forest use shows that environmental globalization has been resisted by the governments of developing countries through: (a) policy ambiguity, and (b) collective action to directly contest the imposition of new institutions, most notably in defeating plans for a Forest Convention. This experience suggests that environmental globalization will only spread slowly in future, at least as far as tropical forests are concerned.