Environmental Governance Arrangements Research Articles

Situated dynamics of environmental governance in Swedish smart energy experimentation: Tentativeness, demonstration, upscaling

In this article unfolding processes of environmental governance are explored through the case of smart energy experimentation in Sweden. When experimentation merges with place-based dynamics, particular dispositions are shaped, with different implications for environmental politics. In accordance with other researchers’ findings it is illuminated how such dispositions tend to reinforce neoliberal environmental governance arrangements, whereas it is revealed how experimentation can also reconfigure governance. Attending to unfolding processes of accomplishing governance across a variety of spaces, this plasticity of experimentation is explored. The contribution consists of highlighting the situated dynamics playing out as environmental governance is produced across different places. This involves two analytical steps. First, disentangling some characteristics of experimentation as a situated disposition, through following how smart energy experimentation arranges environmental governance across the national Swedish energy and environmental policy landscape. The analysis highlights how particular characteristics of Swedish environmental governance molds experimentation into providing impetus for neoliberalization. Second, by zooming in two cases of experiments, elucidating the effects of the tentative and situated character of experimentation as governance is accomplished. Such analysis attends to the situated micro-politics of experiments, and how these can shape localized dispositions that refract broader neoliberal political rationality. Thereby the existence of a dominant ‘experimentation governmentality’, or disposition, is discovered, whereas situated experiments may always provide seedbeds of alternative forms of environmental governance due to experimentation’s plasticity.

Peopling the Environmental State: River Restoration and State Power

Dam removal in the United States is an increasingly attractive option for advocates of river restoration. We argue that dam removal in New England (United States) is a useful lens for examining state actors’ capabilities to govern environmental processes. Our analytical framework builds off and integrates strategic-relational approaches (SRAs) to state power and those approaches more concerned with “peopling” the state through state agents’ everyday encounters with civil society. The complex suite of issues—ranging from safety and the environmental benefits of free-flowing rivers to historical preservation and cultural heritage—characterizing dam removal and similar restoration efforts challenge state agents to become more multidimensional in environmental governance. Our research reveals that some state agencies in New England have been more effective than others at adopting these novel roles and managing environmental conflicts. Our research also suggests we view the “state” as a complex collective of relations and actors that exerts power over nature–society relations in strategic and often contradictory ways. Our empirical findings, coupled to more nuanced theories of state–nature relations, direct attention to how state power is unevenly distributed within environmental governance arrangements. These findings also suggest that consideration of environmental interventions directed by state agents has the potential to contribute to a progressive and ecologically mindful set of political commitments.

Does Local Environmental Governance Improve Tourism Companies’ Performance? Evidence from Vietnam

Institutions (rules of law) are important to tourism activities. However, national institutions cannot become effective when the execution of rules of law is inconsistent at the local levels. This study thus examines the role of local governance arrangements on the performance of tourism companies, focusing on environmental governance quality. Utilizing institutional theory, we propose a U-shaped relationship between tourism performance and environmental governance. When environmental governance arrangements are initially implemented, the performance of local tourism companies may be negatively affected due to institutional conflicts. However, as new environmentally responsible values are gradually institutionalized, the performance of the local tourism sector will improve. Analyzing more than three thousand tourism companies in Vietnam in 2018 using instrumental variable technique to control for endogeneity, we find some evidence to support the U-shaped function. Also, it is found that the U-shaped effect is stronger on foreign inbound tourists than on domestic tourists.

Process Makes Perfect: Perceptions of Effectiveness in Collaborative Environmental Governance.

In evaluating effectiveness for collaborative environmental governance arrangements, a key concern is describing not just the processes and actors that are a part of these systems, but also the impacts that these processes have on ecological and social conditions. Existing research delineates an emphasis on process variables over outcome variables, as well as the difficulties of demonstrating causal relationships between collaborative governance processes and ecological outcomes. In this paper, we examined how process and outcome criteria are used by sponsors, industry practitioners, and participants of collaborative environmental governance (CEG) arrangements in Canada's forest sector to ascertain effectiveness. We explicitly sought evidence from sponsors and industry practitioners of self-described effective forest advisory committees, anticipating that sponsors or practitioners might place greater emphasis than participants on outcome criteria over process criteria. We analyzed data from a nation-wide survey of forest advisory committee participants, conducted interviews with sponsoring agencies, and completed two in-depth case studies. We found that sponsors and industry practitioners, like participants, perceived a strong relationship between process and effectiveness. The perspectives of all participants helped us articulate ten key process criteria that they determined as essential for CEG. By including the insights of sponsoring agencies, our study provides both on-the-ground and management interpretations of process and outcomes as well as a nuanced approach to understanding the relationship between the two. However, we conclude that systematic evaluation approaches involving outcome-based criteria are still necessary and would provide a clear step towards encouraging accountability in CEG decision-making, both for sponsors and members.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire? Environmental governance vulnerabilities in post-Brexit Northern Ireland

Environmental governance in Northern Ireland has been highly problematic and the subject of intense criticism. Since the collapse of the devolved government in January 2017, environmental policy development and urgently needed processes of environmental governance reform have stagnated. Combined with the continuing uncertainty surrounding Brexit, this situation has the potential to exacerbate an already challenging governance context and the severe environmental consequences of political inaction are already becoming clear. This article will reflect on how future environmental governance arrangements in Northern Ireland might develop in light of both distinctive local challenges and reforms that have been proposed for other parts of the UK post-Brexit. Its central theme is the potential for the distinctive environmental governance vulnerabilities present in Northern Ireland to be compounded by Brexit. It concludes that a process of reform centred on the development of common frameworks, underpinned by environmental objectives, principles, rights and duties and enforced via meaningful accountability mechanisms would help strengthen environmental protection even where the political will or power is lacking. Such a process of reform could help address both existing environmental problems and potential environmental governance gaps posed by Brexit, as well as providing valuable lessons for other jurisdictions facing major environmental governance reform or contending with the practical implications of governance without a functioning government.

A conceptual framework for exploring voluntary stewardship programs for land managers as a tool of New Environmental Governance

ABSTRACTNew Environmental Governance describes the widening over the past five decades of the range of public and private instruments, institutions, and actors available to govern the environment. But implementing New Environmental Governance arrangements has been difficult. This article responds to the call for more context-specific empirical investigations to better understand how New Environmental Governance institutions work in practice, by focusing on one tool in the expanded array of options – non-government voluntary stewardship programs for private land managers. The article applies a conceptual framework to three working examples of voluntary stewardship using a qualitative methodology to tease out key elements of their operations and unpack the relationship amongst three groups of actors – land managers who participate in the programs, organisations that manage the programs, and stakeholders who have an interest in private land stewardship. Important tensions emerge from the research, which revolve around the lack of strategic alignment between land managers’ participation in programs and how stakeholders leverage their influence. These tensions limit the potential of stewardship programs as tools of New Environmental Governance arrangements.

Gobernanza ambiental y pagos por servicios ambientales en América Latina

Este artículo presenta una revisión de los arreglos de gobernanza ambiental de los pagos por servicios ambientales (psa) en América Latina identificando los actores, marcos normativos y las instituciones que sustentan su instrumentación. Describir los arreglos de gobernanza ambiental es de particular relevancia ya que dentro de éstos se enmarca la gestión de los recursos naturales bajo el contexto de los servicios ambientales. El análisis demuestra que el Estado sigue cumpliendo un papel muy importante de arbitraje y de asignación de roles entre los actores involucrados, a pesar de la neoliberalización de la naturaleza y de la política de conservación. El estudio hace evidente la presencia de diferentes arreglos de gobernanza ambiental, caracterizados por el involucramiento de diversos actores, específicamente del sector privado, organizaciones no gubernamentales, organismos multilaterales y actores de base. Se concluye que, si bien los arreglos de gobernanza de los pagos por servicios ambientales han permitido democratizar los beneficios de la conservación, es necesario establecer derechos claros de propiedad sobre este tipo de servicios para contrarrestar las asimetrías experimentadas por las comunidades locales como parte de su condición vulnerable dentro de la lógica de la conservación neoliberal.

Environmental governance for urgent and uncertain problems

Environmental governance aims to support positive ecological outcomes by establishing effective joint decision-making processes. Yet, complex environmental problems, such as invasive species management, often require urgent action under conditions of uncertainty. Establishing clear and workable environmental governance arrangements in these circumstances can be challenging, or even overlooked completely, in the rush to take action. We undertook an exploratory study, involving semi-structured interviews with 15 policy-makers and scientists, to examine the proposition that some aspects of environmental governance can be more important than others when urgent action is required under conditions of uncertainty. We analysed qualitative data regarding the major decisions points of a case study of invasive species management in Tasmania, Australia. We identified specific elements of governance that, when used under conditions of urgency and uncertainty, can: (a) undermine the ability to establish effective governance arrangements over the longer-term; or alternatively (b) lay the foundation for inclusive and adaptable governance arrangements. Aspects of environmental governance that can be more important than others when responding to urgent and uncertain problems relate to: assessing context; establishing a temporary task-force and setting goals; co-producing knowledge with stakeholders; engaging early; and clarifying and communicating responsibilities and governance arrangements. From our findings, we pose questions for policy-makers and practitioners to ask when responding to urgent problems, creating an opportunity to establish basic governance arrangements even when immediate action is required. These basic arrangements can have the capacity to evolve and respond to increasing levels of certainty, complexity and inclusion.

Through the Lens of Accountability: Analyzing Legitimacy in Environmental Governance

Environmental governance implies creation of novel interdependencies among actors and actions, and this innovation and diversity presents challenges. One of these challenges is the maintenance of legitimacy. To understand processes of legitimation at the level of individual organizations and at the level of the larger assemblages represented by governance arrangements, we develop a conceptual framework that analyzes accountability relationships. Within this framework, we use artifacts of accountability, material representations of accountability relationships, to understand the creation, maintenance, and erosion of legitimacy. We study the creation and administration of a multifunctional forested landscape in New Hampshire, USA. Empirical assessment of the varied institutional logics that structure and contribute to legitimacy in this material and organizational landscape allows us to advance understanding of persistence, change, and failure of environmental governance arrangements.

A Cooperação na Governança Ambiental Global para Construção de Uma Arquitetura de Prevenção de Conflitos em Torno dos Recursos Naturais

This article aims to demonstrate the effectiveness and the importance of cooperation in global environmental governance arrangements to prevent conflicts and promote pea- cebuilding through analysis the partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) around the natural resources and conflict prevention. The problem to be addressed and the challenge to overcome by the international community is the fra- gility of some countries in creating and maintaining institutions to manage and prevent violent conflicts over natural resources. The research identifies the role that the UN-EU promote conflict prevention. This research also shows that governance actions taken by these actors provide tools to improve the ability of national states in making decisions in such conflicts, providing results that materialize a global environmental governance promoting peace.

The four faces of the environmental state: environmental governance regimes in 28 countries

The primary task for the environmental state is to address problems related to the market’s externalisation of environmental costs. It has four main resources at its disposal: regulation, redistribution, organisation, and knowledge generation. The way these four resources are deployed make up a state’s environmental governance arrangements. Using data on environmental regulation, taxes, public administrations, and knowledge production from 28 countries, and a hierarchical cluster analysis, four different types of environmental states are identified: established, emerging, partial, and weak. This is followed by some suggestions for further research on the environmental state in a comparative perspective.

Discursive claims to knowledge: The challenge of delivering public policy objectives through new environmental governance arrangements

Land and game management in Scotland is following wider rural governance trends in becoming both multi-level and multi-actor, aiming to meet multiple objectives. However, these recent changes have not yet resolved many disputes over land and game management. This paper explores the reasons for this lack of success. Our research investigated discourses on changes in land management objectives and governance. We found that many game managers perceived changes in public policy objectives, coupled with social changes, as an attack on their traditions and heritage and a threat to cultural and economic interests tied to long-standing practices based on knowledge and ties to the land. In defence, game managers utilised a discourse claiming that only those with a long-standing association with the land had the true knowledge to manage the countryside, and this knowledge could not be learnt by others. This inherently irrefutable discourse united a heterogeneous coalition of land managers, who would otherwise disagree on specific issues, and, coupled with private property rights, helps to explain why recent governance arrangements have not been more successful in implementing policy changes aimed at delivering wider public benefits.

Social capital in large-scale environmental collaboration: the case of the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program

Environmental collaborative governance arrangements have the potential to build social capital, leading to long-term cooperation among parties with a history of conflict over water use, in particular in irrigation, hydropower production and riverine wildlife habitat. Previous research on social capital in the context of collaborative governance has emphasized small-scale grassroots initiatives where actors hold common membership in civic associations. This study explores a large-scale policy level collaborative arrangement as a case of collective action facilitated by elements of social capital, with a special emphasis on the concept of the institution as social capital. The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program is the basis for initial findings that social capital formation and cooperative implementation of innovative approaches to water policy can occur at both the local action and large-scale policy levels of collaboration.

Who's in and who's out? Inclusion and exclusion in Canterbury's freshwater governance

AbstractThe question of who is included, or who is excluded, from environmental governance arrangements is at the heart of debates of institutional legitimacy. The recent redefinition of representation as a claim to ‘speak for’ another provides an opportunity to re‐examine the inclusiveness of environmental governance arrangements. This article builds on these developments by empirically evaluating the inclusiveness of three representative claims embedded in freshwater governance in Canterbury since 2002. The contribution argues that accounts of environmental governance must consider implicit forms of representation that can exclude or marginalise and raises some caveats relating to expansion of network governance.

Confronting risk: A case study of Aboriginal peoples' participation in environmental governance of uranium mining, Saskatchewan

AbstractWhile the number of non‐regulatory environmental governance arrangements overseeing mining has been growing in Canada, there remains limited research critically examining Aboriginal peoples' experiences in these emerging institutions. This is especially notable with respect to the sharing of techno‐scientific information, often used as a means of enabling Aboriginal peoples' participation and engendering their trust. A qualitative case study of the Northern Saskatchewan Environmental Quality Committee oversight of uranium mining, this research explores how techno‐scientific information in the form of risk assessments was socially constructed and discursively employed by government and industry, and how Aboriginal participants responded. Findings illustrate that risk assessments were presented in ways that rendered development as controllable and inevitable, which facilitated dominant political economic agendas and capitalist practices. Aboriginal participants, however, introduced alternative interpretations of risk and sought to claim spaces within this governance institution through underscoring absent uncertainties, and asserting knowledges of global technological failures and local conditions that contradicted scientific reassurances. Aboriginal participants also highlighted the social injustices of development processes in Saskatchewan's north, which shaped their interpretations of risk, raising important questions about the value of these alternative governance institutions for Aboriginal peoples and their environments.

Voluntary Environmental Governance Arrangements in the Australian Building Sector

Voluntary environmental governance arrangements (VEGAs) are designed to minimise negative outcomes through the use of collectively agreed arrangements. They have attracted a large literature, but issues remain unresolved, especially regarding their effectiveness. This article takes up a small part of this challenge of mapping the role of VEGAs in larger systems of environmental governance by examining the development and implementation of a range of VEGAs in the Australian building sector, here defined as the construction and use of buildings.人们设计了自愿环境治理计划，意在通过集体认同的安排尽量减少消极结果。它吸引了大量文献的关注，但问题依旧是问题，特别在效率方面。本文试图回答其中一小部分问题，通过考察其在澳大利亚建筑部门（这里定义为建筑和建筑物的使用），看看自愿环境治理计划在更大的环境治理中究竟扮演什么样的角色。

Success Without Direct Results? Voluntary Environmental Governance Arrangements in the Australian Building Sector

Voluntary environmental governance arrangements (VEGAs) have focal attention in academic and policy debates. The current literature expresses high expectations, but empirical findings show that VEGAs are often unsuccessful in achieving significant levels of improved environmental performance by their participants. At the same time the literature reports an ongoing use of them. Based on a study of fifteen VEGAs in the Australian buildings sector this research paper aims to understand whether VEGAs may have positive effects, but without showing direct measurable results in terms of high(er) levels of environmental performance. Four subtle roles of VEGAs are uncovered: transformation of norms; providing business cases; filling in voids in governmental requirements; and, facilitating the implementation of governmental requirements.

Neoliberalizing environmental governance? Land trusts, private conservation and nature on the Oak Ridges Moraine

With recent changes in the ways that state agencies are implementing their environmental policies, the line between public and private is becoming increasingly blurred. This includes shifts from state-led implementation of environmental policies to conservation plans that are implemented and managed by multi-sectoral networks of governments, the private sector and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). This paper examines land trusts as private conservation initiatives that become part of neoliberal governance arrangements and partnerships that challenge our conceptions of environmental preservation and democratic participation. The paper starts with an examination of the concept of neoliberalized environmental governance. Next, it addresses the shifting social constructions of property and land in the context of protecting large scale ecosystems. Through a case study of the extension of new environmental governance arrangements on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Ontario, we examine the relationships that have formed between different levels of the state and environmental non-governmental organizations. Finally, we analyze the expansion of land trusts and private conservation initiatives that are predicated on private land ownership and the commodification of nature, the emerging discourses and practices of private conservation, and how these are implicated in the privatization and neoliberalization of nature.

‘Nature’, Place and the Recognition of Indigenous Polities

In the postcolonial context of Australia there has been a belated legal recognition of sui generis Indigenous rights and interests over much of the continent. However, the pervasive environmental discourse guiding resource management practices remains firmly based on ‘commonsense’ settler understandings of ‘nature’ as an external domain to be managed and/or preserved. In order to understand how this could be otherwise, this paper examines ideas about political landscape formation and the implications of the changing role of the nation-state and civil society in relation to the recognition of Indigenous political subjectivities. Taking the situation faced by Indigenous peoples in two settler societies as our vantage point, I argue here that we need to move away from assimilative environmental governance arrangements and politicise the concept of ‘nature’. This will open up spaces for the recognition and active participation of Indigenous polities in the realm of natural resource management. The paper concludes by contrasting the situation faced by Indigenous landowners in Australia's Kakadu National Park with the overtly political negotiations occurring in two northern regions of Canada. In the latter, in a process similar to what Tully calls ‘daily subconstitutional politics’, it is through the recognition of Indigenous polities in environmental governance issues that Indigenous peoples are starting to refashion their stake in the governing ideas and institutions of the broader regional, provincial and national polity.