Collaborative Environmental Governance Research Articles

Evaluating conflict in collaborative environmental governance: A study of environmental justice councils

AbstractThe formal engagement of diverse stakeholder groups in environmental policy design and implementation is increasingly common. While engaging diverse stakeholders in common fora can help address complex environmental dilemmas, insofar as different stakeholders have varying perspectives and resources to contribute, this same variance can lead to intractable conflicts. While policy scholars have developed various conceptual approaches to understanding conflict in the policy process, few scholars have applied conceptual approaches to understand how policy conflicts are reflected in interpersonal communications among diverse stakeholders. In this article, we draw on environmental justice council meeting minutes and use qualitative, computational, and statistical methods to analyze, over time: (i) the extent and severity of policy conflict observed among council actors; (ii) the association between actor‐level attributes and conflict, as conveyed in two‐way communication between actors; (iii) the association between actor's sector and change in conflict; and (iv) variation in conflict across council activities. By exploring the overtime association between policy conflict and attributes of policy actors (e.g., sectoral affiliation and interpersonal attributes), our analysis addresses not only the influence of the number of interactions for an actor at the meeting but also how they are interacting at the meeting by leveraging their position in the meeting communication network. Our article contributes to the study of the public policy process and collaborative governance, drawing attention to how conflict materializes in a collaborative forum engaged in policy making.

An actor-network theory analysis and modelling of carbon reduction policy coordination in China: A collaborative environmental governance perspective

In order to probe collaborative environmental governance (CEG) in China's “1 + N” policy framework for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this paper applies the Actor-network theory (ANT) as an analytical framework to explore carbon reduction policy coordination. We then model ANT's relations with an evolutionary game theory (EGT) model to examine the evolutionarily stable strategies in CO2 emission reduction by various actors including the central government, local governments, commercial banks, and polluting enterprises. Our objective is to examine policy coordination as the key enabler for governing success via an ANT-based mechanism design in China's institutional context. Combining the strength of ANT with a four-party EGT model, we investigate how to improve policy coordination to mobilize the actor-network for promoting CEG. Simulations are conducted to examine the effectiveness of policy coordination involving multiple policy instruments for controlling carbon emissions. The central government fulfills leadership in translating the interests of other actors and shaping the desired collaborative network. Without proper coordination, environmental policies may counteract each other. Government transfers and subsidies have direct impacts, but in the long run enhanced competitiveness and profitability of enterprises represent the intrinsic key to CEG success. From a methodology perspective, policy simulation in an EGT framework represents a novel addition to the research toolbox that expands ANT.

Pollution Transfer under Intergovernmental Competition: Suppression or Opportunity

In recent years, the Sustainable Development Goals have introduced a “race to the top” mechanism to complement the “race to the bottom” in local governance and have an impact on pollution. This study utilizes the environmentally oriented accreditation of National Civilized Cities as a policy shock and applies the PSM-DID method to identify the pollution-relocation effects among cities triggered by the competition in local governance. The results indicate that environmentally oriented intergovernmental competition leads to the transfer of industrial enterprises to non-accredited cities, resulting in a significant increase in their pollution emissions and industrial pollution intensity. This indicates that the competition in asymmetric local governance will lead to the transfer of pollution to backward regions, which hampers the overall implementation efficiency of national environmental policies. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact is more significant for cities in the central and western regions. Being nominated for the National Civilized City accreditation helps to inhibit the influx of polluting enterprises. Cities that are not part of integrated environmental regulatory regions show a more pronounced increase in pollution emissions compared to other cities, indicating that symmetric local government environmental regulations and environmental collaborative governance contribute to restraining pollution transfer.

Leading the charge: A qualitative case-study of leadership conditions in collaborative environmental governance structures

Collaborative governance structures are increasingly common among natural resource managers. While studies have assessed the conditions under which collaborative action occurs, little emphasis has been placed on the role leadership may play in joint-jurisdictional systems. Management of species under the Endangered Species Act offers an opportunity to assess the collaboration of federal, state, and tribal resource agencies. The Gulf of Maine Distinct Population Segment of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was managed under a structure called the Atlantic Salmon Recovery Framework (ASRF) from 2011 to 2019. Using the ASRF as a case study, we examined the influence of leadership approaches on perceived program efficacy, member buy-in, and experience through semi-structured interviews. Participant reflections revealed three major leadership themes that participants found inadequate: (1) shared goals, (2) transparency, and (3) trust. Collaborative approaches that foster these leadership conditions may increase adaptive capacity and the likelihood of sustained success in this, and other, environmental governance structures.

Central-local collaborative environmental governance and firm-level environmental performance: the role of firm ownership

Central-local collaborative environmental governance and firm-level environmental performance: the role of firm ownership

Environmental governance of transnational regions based on ecological security: The China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor

Ecological security patterns (ESPs) can alleviate the conflict between economic development and ecological protection to ensure regional ecological security. The present study considered the use of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC) for building an interregional ESP by integrating ecological vulnerability with the supply and demand of ecosystem services using the circuit theory. The results revealed that the supply and demand of ecosystem services in the CMREC were not consistently spatially distributed. High supply areas decreased from east to west and north to south, whereas high demand mainly occurred in highly urbanized areas. The supply and demand imbalance of ecosystem services affected the determination of ecological sources. Fifty-five ecological sources (529,635.56 km2), mainly distributed east of the Northeast Plain, Far East, and around Lake Baikal, were identified. There were no ecological sources in the southwest. Ecological vulnerability decreased from south to north. Mongolia (0.60) had the highest average ecological resistance, followed by China (0.42) and Russia (0.38). According to the circuit theory, 87 ecological corridors (13,306.42 km) and 13 main ecological corridors (3302.50 km) can effectively connect the ecological resources of the CMREC. These sources and corridors are dominated by forests and grasslands. The results also suggest that the connectivity of ecological corridors among the three countries should be improved, ecological restoration in the southern part of the Mongolian Plateau should be emphasized, and the functional stability of the ecological shield areas should be ensured. We propose some management guidelines for optimizing regional ESPs and collaborative environmental governance of the CMREC.

Covid-19 epidemic and regional carbon emissions: A study based on metabolic multivariate grey model with new information priority

The COVID-19 epidemic has had an unexpected impact on global carbon emissions. In this context, carbon emission prediction is very important for policy formulation and implementation. It is worth pondering how the grey model deals with the prediction of unexpected events. Considering the spatial dependence of carbon emissions, this paper improves the multivariate grey model, gives new information a higher reference weight, and constructs a metabolic multivariate grey model -MMGM(1,m|λ) which takes new information as the priority. An optimization algorithm is constructed with the minimum error as the goal to determine the value of the weight adjustment parameter λ. Then we simulate and predict the carbon emissions of three regions: China’s Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui), the North American Free Trade Area (Canada, Mexico, and the US), and West Europe (the UK and France). These three cases have different regions, different numbers of behavioural variables, different degrees of influence by COVID-19, and different trends, which are comparative. The results show that the new model has a good fitting effect, and it is still applicable in dealing with unexpected events. The new model can reflect regional carbon emission changes more systematically and accurately. Finally, according to cases and discussions, we get some management enlightenment to promote regional environmental collaborative governance.

The Effect of Local Government Environmental Concern on Corporate Environmental Investment: Evidence from China

This paper uses machine learning tools to construct local government environmental concern indicators and empirically examines the impact of local government environmental concern on corporate environmental investment. From the resource endowment perspective, corporate resources’ moderating role is also verified. The major findings are as follows: (1) local government environmental concern has a significant positive effect on the environmental investment of corporations in their jurisdictions; (2) corporations with fewer financial and political resources will pay more attention to the local government’s intention when making environmental investment decisions, and the promotion effect of local government environmental concern on the environmental investment of such corporations is more prominent. Further analysis shows that this promotion effect is more significant in regions with a high intensity of environmental regulation and high levels of economic development, and is more effective for key regulated corporations. This paper verifies the effect of local government on micro-corporations in environmental governance from the perspective of environmental concern, broadens the boundary of research on the relationship between government and corporate environmental responsibility fulfillment, and enriches the study of factors influencing corporate environmental investment behavior. It also provides important empirical evidence for central and local governments to implement green development and build a government–business collaborative environmental governance system.

Probabilistic network analysis of social-ecological relationships emerging from EU LIFE projects for nature and biodiversity: An application of ERGM models in the case study of the Veneto region (Italy)

Considering social-ecological relationships in managing protected areas is fundamental to ensuring effective biodiversity conservation and restoration governance. Network analysis offers valuable methods to disentangle intangible relations between and within the social and ecological systems. In this way, it could be possible to identify and integrate multiple social and ecological variables that inevitably affect collaborative environmental governance's effectiveness. Nevertheless, this research area is still nascent, with few methodologies and concrete applications reported in the scientific literature. With this study, we aim to propose a robust novel application of a network methodology to enrich the evaluation of the effectiveness of collaborative environmental governance for nature and biodiversity, which has been applied through the analysis of social-ecological relationships that emerged from EU-cofounded LIFE-NAT projects. Specifically, we focus on LIFE-NAT projects implemented in the Veneto Region (Italy) financed in the last programming period (2014–2020). Through formulating four research hypotheses to be tested through Exponential Random Graph Models, we analyze 13 LIFE-NAT projects involving 83 social actors and 29 Natura 2000 (N2000) sites composed of 57 protected habitats. Results show that LIFE-NAT projects in Veneto Region stimulate polycentric governance. Nevertheless, they still need to concretize a multi-actor and multilevel governance. Furthermore, the analysis highlights that selected LIFE-NAT projects implement activities in N2000 sites able to support ecological connectivity and synergies across marine, freshwater, and land habitats through the bridging role of forests, especially in estuarine and coastal areas.

The Evolution of the Collaborative Environmental Governance Network in Guizhou Province, China

China has successively set goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, aiming to transform to a green and low-carbon economy. Collaborative environmental governance (CEG) is an important way to achieve this transformation. To improve collaborative environmental governance, the study of the evolution of the collaborative environmental governance network (CEGN) is necessary. In this study, the CEGNs in different periods in Guizhou Province, China are established based on social network analysis. Then, the evolution of environment governance policy implementers’ functions in the network is investigated by two-dimensional (breadth and intensity) matrices. Moreover, the evolution of core implementers’ functions and its impacts on the operation of the network are analyzed based on the network stability. The results show that the network size, frequency of collaboration, and cohesion have gradually increased, and the network structure has changed from a loose pattern to an expanded and balanced system. Implementers such as the governments of municipalities (prefectures) (MGs) and counties (districts) (CGs), urban management committee (UMCs), and municipal (prefecture) ecological environment bureaus (MBEEs) have played leading and coordinating roles at different phases. However, the cohesion of the network is low, indicating a low level of collaboration. This study integrates the collaborative governance theory and social network analysis, which provides a new way for the study of CEG. In addition, the CEG effect is evaluated by analyzing the evolution of the CEGN, which provides a reference for the CEG policy making in developing regions.

Editorial introduction: Punctuated equilibrium, multiple streams, environmental governance, and many more

Editorial introduction: Punctuated equilibrium, multiple streams, environmental governance, and many more

Examining the spatiotemporal evolution, dynamic convergence and drivers of green total factor productivity in China’s urban agglomerations

This study investigates the green total factor productivity of urban agglomerations, a high-level urban organisational form, by estimating the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of 285 cities in China from 2003 to 2017 using global data envelopment analysis and a super-slack-based measure model with undesirable output. Based on these estimations, we obtain the GTFP of 19 urban agglomerations and analyse the spatiotemporal evolution, dynamic evolution of spatial distribution, and regional differences in the urban agglomeration GTFP using various analytical tools such as the Dagum Gini coefficient, subgroup decomposition, σ and β convergence analysis, and kernel density estimation. Additionally, we identify and analyse the driving factors of GTFP growth in urban agglomerations by employing a panel model from the perspective of improving the efficiency of cities within urban agglomerations and optimising the development of intercity industrial and spatial structures. The results are as follows: First, the GTFP of urban agglomerations generally exhibit a fluctuating upward trend with low values in northwest-central China and high values in the north-southeastern coastal areas. Second, the GTFP differences among the urban agglomerations present an overall convergent trend, with the smallest gap between the national-level urban agglomerations and a stable performance. The gaps between regional and local urban agglomerations undergo considerable narrowing of the evolutionary trend, whereas gaps between local urban agglomerations and other urban agglomerations keep expanding. Third, economic growth, environmental regulation, energy consumption, and foreign direct investment and technological progress are conducive to improving urban GTFP, and a U-shaped relationship exists between cooperative industrial agglomeration and urban agglomeration GTFP. We suggest that strengthening regional collaborative environmental governance can improve the GTFP in urban agglomerations.

Drivers and Dynamics of Collaborative Governance in Environmental Management

This special issue brings together new case studies and comparative works highlighting the drivers and dynamics of collaborative environmental governance. Each case is part of the Collaborative Governance Case Database, which is an open-access resource allowing individuals to contribute and access cases to support research projects. This article highlights the special issue’s contributions to collaborative governance theory. Common themes that cut across the studies include: the importance of using a broad definition of collaborative governance to capture the diversity in interorganizational relationships across contexts; improving our understanding of the drivers for initiating collaborative governance; an enhanced understanding collaboration’s lifecycle dynamics and developmental trajectories; the importance of individuals and their roles in collaborative processes; the political dynamics of collaboration; the role of accountability; and the challenges associated with assessing the performance of collaborations. Collectively, the cases also demonstrate the value of using resources such as the Collaborative Governance Case Database to undertake small-n and medium-n comparative studies that further theory building.

Mitigating conflict with collaboration: Reaching negotiated agreement amidst belief divergence in environmental governance

AbstractHigh levels of conflict among coalitions in a policy process are often attributed to belief divergence and may lead to policy gridlock. Thus, reducing belief divergence may facilitate negotiation and open the door for policy change. Beliefs are notoriously difficult to change, however, especially in high‐conflict settings. Collaborative governance has been touted as one method for mitigating conflict to a level where negotiation is possible by means including but not limited to belief change. This study investigates the relationship between belief divergence as a driver of policy conflict and collaborative governance as a conflict mitigation tool by analyzing the beliefs of two opposing coalitions as they participate in a decade‐long collaborative environmental governance process that ended in negotiated agreement. Using longitudinal survey and interview data, we find that coalitions' beliefs diverge more at a later point in the process, due primarily to the reinforcement and strengthening of one coalition's beliefs; however, we also identify aspects of the collaborative process that helped foster negotiated agreement amidst this growing belief divergence. These findings can inform scholarship on conflict mitigation in environmental governance as well as the design of more effective collaborative processes in high‐conflict settings.

Environmental collaborative governance of urban agglomeration in China: influencing factors and drivers.

This study attempts to examine how urban agglomerations establish sustainable environmental collaborative governance. To achieve this goal, the qualitative comparative analysis method is used to explore the conditions and models for urban agglomerations to establish environmental collaborative governance, with 12 urban agglomerations approved by the Chinese authorities as examples. Based on the collaborative governance framework, this paper proposes six starting conditions that affect the establishment of urban agglomeration collaboration: vertical intervention, horizontal cooperation, leadership attention, governance capacity, initial pollution, and economic governance. The interaction of these conditions was tested in the practice of environmental cooperation in urban agglomerations. The results show that horizontal cooperation, leadership attention, and economic governance are necessary conditions for the establishment of urban agglomeration cooperation. The authority-driven mode, capability-driven mode, and pressure-driven mode can promote cooperation. Vertical intervention, governance capacity, and initial pollution constitute the external and internal driving forces of urban agglomeration cooperation. These findings supplement the literature on urban agglomeration collaboration and provide policy makers with insight into sustainable urban agglomeration collaborative environmental governance.

A game theoretical model for the stimulation of public cooperation in environmental collaborative governance.

Digital technologies provide a convenient way for the public to participate in environmental governance. Therefore, by means of a two-stage evolutionary model, a new mechanism for promoting public cooperation is proposed to accomplish environmental collaborative governance. Interactive effects of government-enterprise environmental governance are firstly explored, which is the external atmosphere for public behaviour. Second, the evolutionary dynamics of public behaviour is analysed to reveal the internal mechanism of the emergence of public cooperation in environmental collaborative governance projects. Simulations reveal that the interaction of resource elements between government and enterprise is an important basis for environmental governance performance, and that governments can improve this as well as public cooperation by increasing the marginal governance propensity. Similarly, an increase in the government's fixed expenditure item of environmental governance can also significantly improve government-enterprise performance and public cooperation. And finally, the effect of government's marginal incentive propensity on public environmental governance is moderated by enterprises' marginal environmental governance propensity, so that simply increasing the government's marginal incentive propensity cannot improve the evolutionary stable state of public behaviour under the scenario where enterprises' marginal environmental governance propensity is low.

Environmental governance in the Russian federation: firms and regulator perception of environmental NGOs

ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of increasing public awareness of global environmental challenges, this paper examines the potential for collaborative environmental governance in the Russian Federation. To do so, we examine regulators’ and firms’ perceptions of, and collaborations with, environmental non-governmental organizations (eNGOs) in three Russian regions. Our findings highlight that Russian firms rarely collaborateor include eNGOs in environmentally-focused activities because they perceive them to be ineffective, invisible, or irrelevant. Russian regulators do engage with eNGOs, but not as equal partners in the form of collaborative governance arrangements; regulators reduce eNGOs to the positions of subordinates and/or assistants.

Drivers of (in)equity in collaborative environmental governance

AbstractCollaborative environmental governance seeks to engage diverse stakeholders to tackle complex challenges efficiently, sustainably, and equitably. However, mixed empirical evidence underscores a need to understand the conditions under which particularly equity is or is not achieved. Here, we use the empirical case of California Sustainable Groundwater Management to quantify the extent to which vulnerable small and rural drinking water users' needs are addressed in collaborative groundwater planning. Drawing on a diverse array of mixed method data, we then employ Boosted Regression and Classification Trees (BRCT) to assess potential driving factors including collaboration, representation, elite capture, stakeholder engagement, and problem severity/salience. We find each to be influential, highlighting their relevance for equitable planning. We also find evidence that these relationships are complex and outcome specific. Nonetheless, the overall effect on the three equity measures is modest at best. More institutional analysis of collaborative governance regimes from diverse contexts is needed to build a comprehensive understanding of how to meaningfully advance social and environmental equity in such decentralized reforms. Based on our results, we suggest the answer, if there is one, may transcend current focal domains such as stakeholder representation and engagement.

Finally Throwing Those Wellies Away? Collaborating in Search of a Solution for Venice Flooding

Collaborative governance is often advocated as a way to address ‘messy’ problems that individual stakeholders cannot solve alone. However, whereas stakeholders’ participation brings a broad range of response options to public decision-making, the complexities of the perspectives at stake may also lead to conflicts and stalemates. This is especially true in collaborative environmental governance, where conflict is common and stakeholders’ interdependence in more than one arena tends to be frequent. Based on a longitudinal field study, we explore how to break stalemates in collaborative environmental governance when they occur, and move the collaboration towards a shared decision. The successful collaborative decision-making for the defence of Venice against floods represents our empirical setting. Our findings show that, in this context, the combined effect of three factors seems to be important to break stalemates and lead stakeholders towards a shared decision in collaborative environmental governance: stakeholders’ reactivation, fear of marginalization and leaders acting as orchestrators.

Evolutionary Logic and Development Foresight of Environmental Collaborative Governance Policy in the Yangtze River Delta

The experience of environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta has formed the practical paths of cross-administrative cooperation and eco-civilization adaptation to economic development. As a result of a scientific analysis of policy texts on collaborative environmental governance in this region, this paper explores differences and core concerns, uncovering the development vein and mapping out the internal logic in order to provide a reference example for multi-regional governance. The policy has shifted from decentralization to authority, from universality to precision, from sustainable development to a community of common ecological destiny, from authoritarianism to co-governance, and from institutional norms to propaganda and guidance. Since the beginning of the new century, the internal logic of environmental governance policy in the Yangtze River Delta has been in line with the trend of coordinated development. In the future, efforts should be made to deepen the trinity mechanism of decision making, implementation, and supervision. When making decisions, we should further emphasize the unified standard of centralized environmental management and adhere to precise pollution control. Implementation will gradually establish the three-dimensional coordination mechanism of region, function, and role; supervision will involve the platform “internet + environment”, and the assessment will involve “pressure mechanism + environment”.