Transboundary environmental cooperation: A conversation on issues in research and methodologies

Abstract

How do we understand nature, let alone manage it, especially if we attempt to confine nature into nation-state containers. In a recent meeting of academics and practitioners, a conversation1 ensued to discern how something so fluid like nature could be bounded by administrative boundaries. This conversation also attempted to discuss the power relations and politics that determine the conservation and environmental governance of natural resources and transboundary environmental issues such as air and water pollution as well as how we judge, measure, and ameliorate environmental conflicts? This conversation is an important one as it touches upon a larger philosophical discussion on the role of scientific management of the environment. Scientific management of nature gets even more complicated across states that share borders but little else. Some of these complicating transborder factors include asymmetrical economies along with vastly different cultures of knowledge creation and dissemination.