Institutional bricolage and the application of the No Net Loss policy in Quebec: can we really engender ‘social fit' for more sustainable land use planning?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Offsetting and, more broadly speaking, the mitigation hierarchy have been widely studied in terms of decreasing the impacts of economic activities on biodiversity. There has been considerable tendency to anchor these mechanisms in science, promoting the idea that they are scientifically constructed. Building on Quebec’s recent regulatory changes concerning the introduction of offsetting and the mitigation hierarchy for wetlands and streams, we argue that their implementation relies strongly on political and social constructs. Using institutional bricolage, we highlight the implication of power relations, dominant views and path dependency in this new institutional setting. Indeed, the No Net Loss principle seems to raise historical tensions in water management policies, especially those between strong centralized governance and fragmented territorial management. But No Net Loss application also confronts powerful traditional land use planning with a long history of promoting development interests. To overcome these tensions, No Net Loss can be viewed as an opportunity for innovation towards more sustainable land use planning that acknowledges collective values. To investigate the potential for a novel social fit for wetland offsetting, we call upon Actor-Network Theory to rethink land use planning for a collective vision of the territory.