Abstract
This article pioneers new thinking on learning by organizations created by international environmental agreements, especially the boundaries within which learning can take place. It hypothesizes that there are ideological, institutional and technical boundaries to learning, which negatively impact the effectiveness of international environmental programming. This theory is rigorously tested by applying it to a group of new programmes, the forest-focused payment for environmental services programmes, which find their origin in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The article systematically researches unintended effects of these programmes and clusters them into four categories. The uncovering of these unintended effects leads to the main research question: do international organizations actually succeed in adapting to these unintended effects? By combining three methods (a structured literature review, a systemic internal programme document analysis and expert interviews), the research finds that organizations struggle to adapt to these unintended effects. Whereas some of the limits to learning can be overcome by enhancing technical capacities, other limits, notably those that are induced by ideological thinking and institutional imperatives, are hard to overcome.
Highlights
There has been a strong rise in the number and size of payment for environmental services programmes in the world (Ezzine-de-Blas et al 2016), and this number is set to increase further as countries start to increase their funding for climate change mitigation activities (United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 2018)
This research focuses on forest management, as here payment for environmental services is in vogue and donors are channelling hundreds of millions of dollars into these programmes via, for instance, the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programmes of the United Nations (Bayrak and Marafa 2016)
To increase the relevance and coherence of the analysis, we used the following inclusion criteria (1) the publication had to concern primary research; (2) the publication had to analyse at least one unintended effect; (3) the publication had to focus on unintended effects which had already taken place and were not a prediction; (4) the publication had to concern payment for environmental services (PES) schemes in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)1 only; and (5) the publication had to be relevant for forest conservation PES
Summary
There has been a strong rise in the number and size of payment for environmental services programmes in the world (Ezzine-de-Blas et al 2016), and this number is set to increase further as countries start to increase their funding for climate change mitigation activities (United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change, UNFCCC 2018). This research focuses on forest management, as here payment for environmental services is in vogue and donors are channelling hundreds of millions of dollars into these programmes via, for instance, the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programmes of the United Nations (Bayrak and Marafa 2016). These programs were initially proposed by international environmental agreements, notably the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
