Environmental NGOs Research Articles

Protein politics

Powerful actors associated with intensive livestock production are repositioning industrially produced meat and farmed fish as “sustainable protein.” This repositioning, we show, involves justifying the production of meat through a range of metrics, calculations, and valuations. These metrics and associated indicators underpin claims that sustainable protein is more efficient and less wasteful than conventional meat production. Our analysis questions the relationship between efficiency and sustainability in industrial meat production. We show, first, that the industrial meat sector has always focussed on efficiency and the reduction of waste. What is new is that metrics, calculations, and indicators on efficiency and waste reduction are being repurposed and made public to consumers and investors to underpin claims for sustainable and “climate friendly” meat. While this practice is apparent across the animal agriculture sector, it is especially evident in the production of farmed salmon. Our second argument frames sustainable protein metrics as a political logic. While these metrics have been justifiably criticized as a form of environmental “greenwashing” by environmental non-governmental organizations and others, our own critique builds on Cara Daggett’s recent analysis of energy and its political logic. Building on Daggett’s work, we aim to provide a more fundamental critique to the efficiency and waste metrics that are used to support claims for sustainable protein, while simultaneously providing the conceptual and political foundation for more progressive futures.

Normative institutional pressures and corporate green development: evidence from a quantile regression approach

ABSTRACT This study explores the often-overlooked role of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) as catalysts for sustainable practices; it unravels the impact of normative institutional pressures (NIPs) on corporate green investment (CGI). By employing the innovative panel quantile regression (PQR) methodology, this research goes beyond conventional approaches to shed light on the non-monotonic association between NIPs and corporate green investment (CGI) among Chinese listed companies (2009 − 2019). Research findings contribute to the literature on institutional forces and corporate environmental sustainability practices. Meanwhile, policymakers may consider developing frameworks that encourage partnerships, knowledge-sharing, and joint initiatives between the corporate sector and ENGOs.

The Parliament of the Scheldts. Reflections on Politics and Play in Reimagining the Coastal Landscape of the Netherlands

This text reflects on the recent Landscape Makers Congress co-organised by Studio Inscape as a design intervention seeking to re-politicise the South-Western Delta region (SWD) of the Netherlands. Like many coastal regions around the world, the Dutch coast (including the SWD) is facing serious challenges from climate change. In the SWD, these challenges are taken up and politicised through the memory of a flood disaster that devastated the region in 1953. On the one hand, the legacy of this flood, which includes the coastal engineering structures of the Delta Works, makes the consequences of climate change salient to the region’s inhabitants. Frequently, inhabitants voice frustration with the impression that their concerns are not taken seriously enough and not translated into concrete political actions. On the other hand, the same legacy also silences debates and considerations on alternative ways of responding to the many challenges of the changing climate, restricting the scope of discussions to narrow anthropocentric narratives of the ‘threat’ of water and the ‘war’ between the Dutch and the sea. Using interactive theatre, the Landscape Makers Congress invited more than 100 regional inhabitants, policymakers, water engineers and representatives of environmental NGOs to consider the future of the landscape in the SWD from a range of different perspectives. During the day, participants represented one out of several more-than-human ‘landscape makers’ in a fictional parliament and engaged in debates on several key dilemmas and different spatial strategies, situated in different periods in the future (2030, 2050 and 2100). As the day progressed, the ‘parliament’ bore witness to some of the consequences of climate change as well as the consequences of the decisions they made themselves. Through plenary discussions, workshops and interventions during the day, the audience was engaged in discussions on some different futures that might be possible in the SWD and on whose values and interests should or should not be part of the process of constructing these futures. Based on our experiences on the day and activities in the region more generally, some reflections are offered on the different concepts and strategies operationalised in the Landscape Makers Congress: its playful use of multifocality, its dramatisation of temporality and its staging of a particular experience of politics. Thus, this text offers some reflections on community engagement using design-based methodologies in the context of politicised (and the politicisation of) environments.

To mine or not to mine the deep seabed?

Several studies have noted that the International Seabed Authority (ISA) scores low on public participation. However, none have studied the efforts of non-governmental organizations to exert influence on the ISA’s rulemaking processes. I examine how environmental NGOs and private mining contractors attempt to sway one narrow, but existential, part of the ISA’s draft exploitation regulations between 2014 and 2019: the definition of “serious harm” to the marine environment. Although environmental NGOs appear to have been more successful in influencing that definition, the interests of private contractors may still prevail. Despite the efforts of environmental NGOs, the term “serious harm” remains largely undefined, allowing for more subjectivity and flexibility in interpretation. This challenge is exacerbated when combined with current institutional weaknesses and limited scientific expertise within the ISA. Ongoing negotiations and recent developments may, however, alter this outcome.

Fishers’ willingness to report incidental bycatches of endangered, threatened and protected fish species: The case of European sturgeon in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean

Incidental fisheries bycatch contributes to the dire situation of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species. Few published estimates of the severity of fisheries impacts exist as incidental bycatch is difficult to monitor, and reporting can be a sensitive matter for fishers. This paper addresses these sensitivities, the reasons for non-reporting, and possible solutions, using bycatch of the critically endangered European sturgeon (Acipenser sturio L.) in the Northeast Atlantic fisheries as a case study. This study comprises 36 interviews with fishers, fisher representatives, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researchers, and governments involved in European sturgeon conservation from four countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Fishers experience difficult economic circumstances, while fear of restrictions in their fishing area and gear makes them reluctant to report such rare bycatch. Adequate management of the European sturgeon and other marine ETP species is worsened by a lack of governmental coordination, and trust issues fuelled by some NGOs’ communication strategies using iconic species to lobby for fishing restrictions. This paper discusses solutions to strengthen fishers’ cooperation in ETP species research. This would need to include developing a shared vision, clear role separation between stakeholders, communication and trust building.

Communication, theory of change, and clean energy

Some years ago, I stepped away from my faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) to become more deeply engaged with the Sierra Club, one of the oldest environmental NGOs in the United States. Given my research, I knew insights into strategic communication in advocacy campaigns would likely be applicable, particularly, to the climate change efforts in which I was planning to participate. Climate change campaigns, like campaigns focused on other issues, usually involve multiple forms of communication—grassroots organizing, social media, demonstrations, media coverage, placards, canvassing, etc. Beyond these tactical uses, NGOs also may conceive a strategic rationale for a campaign itself as derived from core communication principles. As it turned out, I would have an opportunity to help to design one such campaign, a message driven initiative to accelerate the movement toward a greater commitment to use 100% clean, renewable energy in the United States.

The Influence of Environmental Reporting on Policy Making

Purpose: The main objective of this study was to explore the influence of environmental reporting on policy making.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings revealed that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the influence of environmental reporting on policy making. Preliminary empirical review revealed the significant impact that environmental reporting, whether through traditional media or digital platforms, can have on the policy-making process. These studies have shown that the media's framing of environmental issues, its emphasis on urgency and consequences, and its ability to mobilize public opinion can shape the policy agenda, influence decision-makers, and lead to policy changes. Moreover, the role of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social movements in leveraging media strategies to advocate for policy change cannot be understated. Environmental NGOs strategically use media campaigns to raise awareness, pressure policymakers, and drive environmental policy initiatives.
 Unique Contribution to Theory. Practice and Policy: The Agenda- Setting theory, Diffusion of Innovations theory and the Framing theory may be used to anchor future studies on environmental reporting. Based on the study, the following recommendations emerge: Foster closer collaboration between media and policymakers to enhance communication and understanding, invest in media training programs and establish reporting standards to improve the quality of environmental reporting, promote transparency and accountability in both media reporting and policymaking processes, encourage diverse and inclusive environmental reporting that represents all perspectives and communities, and embrace cross-platform and digital reporting strategies to enhance the reach and impact of environmental journalism in an evolving media landscape.

Europeanization as a hegemonic process: the counter-hegemonic coal phase-out struggle in Turkey

ABSTRACT The study examines how anti-coal groups – national and international environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) and influential think tanks – conduct a counter-hegemonic struggle to Europeanize the coal exit process in Turkey. By undertaking intellectual leadership in Turkey’s growing authoritarian political-economic space, anti-coal groups proactively have shaped the discourse on the coal phase-out debates within civil society. To delegitimize the official hegemonic frame promoting coal for energy independence, supply security, and rapid economic development, they have appealed to the European Green Deal as a powerful discursive tool to create necessary consent for a coal exit in Turkey. Based on the Europeanization perspective complemented with the Gramscian insights that enabled the consideration of the power relations and vested interests within energy transition, the study reveals that the anti-coal groups have conducted a counter-hegemonic discursive struggle for the Europeanization of Turkey’s policy of coal exit.

Public Voices in the Environmental Decision-Making in Georgia

The article presents the results of the scientific research and gives the ways to solve the problems dedicated to PP (public participation) in the process of EDM (environmental decision-making) in Georgia. Several obstacles were found, by studying the environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Georgia. All necessary information was collected through interviews and questionnaires. The study discusses the existing legislation on this issue and aims to find answers to these obstacles. Four hypotheses were developed - transparency in the decision-making process promotes successful public participation, effective cooperation with one another is a better way for NGOs to participate in the environmental decision-making process, Georgian NGO’s successful participation in the process of DM (decision-making) was related to the development of an environmental legal system, self-financing helps the Environmental NGOs in Georgia to improve their financial status and increase their flexibility in the EDM process. The Soviet regime caused the nonexistence of PP approaches in EDM. Currently, many international and trans-boundary projects are taking place and will be completed shortly in Georgia. The participation of the public, especially non-governmental organizations is a key point and crucial element in decision making as most of these developments entail additional environmental problems and to prevent damage to the environment and foster sustainable development when such projects are completed. The research gives key provisions that require improvement to increase the effectiveness of PP in EDM process.
 Keywords: public participation, environment, decision-making, NGOs

Environmental governance-public supervision and participation nexus under state supervision system and carbon neutrality targets in China.

China is now experiencing severe environmental issues due to its rapid socio-economic advancement. Environmental governance is crucial to preserving China's rapidly degrading natural ecology. Public supervision and participation are important factors that effectively promote environmental quality. Therefore, this analysis primarily examines the relationship between China's public participation and environmental governance. Hence, the primary focus of the analysis is to investigate the asymmetric impact of public participation on environmental governance from 1996 to 2020. We have employed the nonlinear QARDL model that estimates the short- and long-run impact across different quantiles. The study's results support that long-run estimates for positive change in environmental NGOs (ENGOs) are significantly positive for almost all quantiles, while those for negative change in ENGOs are negative and have a significant impact at higher quantiles. In the short run, the estimates of positive change in ENGOs are positive and significant; however, the negative change in ENGOs does not significantly impact environmental governance at lower quantiles. The Wald test also confirms the asymmetric impact of ENGOs on environmental governance across various quantiles in short and long run. The findings of this analysis underscore the critical role of public supervision and participation in influencing environmental governance in China.

Uses of scientific discourses and markers in shark attack risk management on Reunion Island

The article discusses how the uses of scientific discourses and markers, by activists and policymakers have been perceived by scientific experts and journalists and generated tensions related to science use in managing shark attack risk on Reunion Island. Following a series of shark attacks in 2011, a scientific research program was funded by French authorities to help political decision-making to reduce shark attack risk on the island's west coast, from 2011 to 2015. This program collected a large set of data to understand the ecology of the shark species implied in the attacks. The authorities have also funded a selective fishing program as an operational management device, which opposed activists from sea users' NGOs requiring shark fishing and environmental NGOs requiring sharks' protection. Based on sixteen semi-directional interviews led with local scientific experts, activists, journalists and a mandated fisherman, the study explores how activists and policymakers are perceived as having reappropriated scientific discourses to legitimize their position on shark risk management in Reunion Island. The scientific experts’ perception of activists depends on the epistemology of their discipline and the values they carry about the management of living beings. Otherwise, the political shark risk management strategy on Reunion Island is perceived as preferring to use scientific rationality instead of social claims to justify public policies. These uses of science generated conflicts between scientific experts, policymakers and sea users, and argue for the need of a dialogical process between parties to manage shark attack unpredictable risk, by better considering its social interpretation.

Managing the power of images: Environmental NGOs, networked public screens, and ‘interactive’ image events in China

Scholars have researched the ‘wildness’ or ‘tameness’ of public screens for staging image events. This study argues that in non-democratic contexts, public screens are not totally wild or tame but are constrained by institutional limits, straddling the tame and the wild. In networked public screens, activists should keep a careful balance between tameness and wildness, staging ‘interactive’ image events to conduct bottom–up social mobilization to pressure the local state while avoiding being perceived as a threat. Through a case study of environmental activism in China, we identified two interactive strategies that were organized around image events. One was a visible interaction through which activists manipulated the mediated visibility of environmental problems by constructing image events. The other was an invisible interplay through which states and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in closed-door negotiations to solve the problems exposed, without relinquishing the potential for social mobilization by constructing image events. These two forms of interactions, visible and invisible, form a circuit and are interconvertible in specific situations. With the shrinking of institutional space, invisible interaction is becoming the dominant mode of interaction with the state. The formation of such an interactive circuit has largely constrained the power of environmental images in social mobilization.

Informing strategic climate action: the Climate Social Science Network

ABSTRACT Thirty years of well-meaning efforts by environmental scientists, NGOs and foundations have failed to result in effective policy and nongovernmental action; we believe this is because the extent and nature of obstruction efforts are barely understood, and therefore not effectively countered. We built the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) to address this damaging lack of understanding of climate obstruction. In the few years since our launch in September 2020, CSSN has grown rapidly to nearly 500 scholars in 35 countries, and shown that this research agenda is of wide interest and use for some of the world’s most promising campaigns to address climate change. We wish CSSN to provide detailed, systematic and reliable information about the organizations obstructing climate action to civil society organizations, investigators, litigators, and policy-makers. However, we have learned that doing so only through scholarly outputs is not sufficient, and even with a focused effort on outreach and translation, that academic institutions are not by themselves adequate to match the complex organizational network assembled by conservative actors seeking to avoid regulation and roll back climate action.

The program efficiency of environmental and social non-governmental organizations: A comparative study.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are becoming increasingly significant stakeholders in global governance and business operations. However, measuring their efficiency is a challenging task due to their mission-driven nature. While previous research has proposed financial and non-financial indicators to measure NGO efficiency, none of them has compared the differences between environmental and social NGOs. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the program efficiency of NGOs in China and compare the differences between environmental and social NGOs. 12 indicators are employed and tested using data collected from the Chinese Research Data Services (CNRDS) platform. The study employs multiple regression analysis to examine the influential factors identified in the dataset. The findings demonstrated different influential factors of program efficiency among environmental and social NGOs. The results of the analysis provide valuable insights for NGO operators, policymakers, and researchers in the field of NGOs.

Prevention, social emancipation, and paradigmatic transition: a 40-year interdisciplinary Brazilian trajectory on accidents and disasters.

The article, in the form of an essay, systematizes a 40-year-long professional trajectory of interdisciplinary and socially engaged experiences around the analysis and prevention of accidents and disasters. This study was mainly developed within the scope of research and postgraduate studies in Public Health in Brazil, driven by the sanitarian movement and the construction of Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) in its search for democracy and social and health justices. Its empirical basis involved workers' health and environmental surveillance actions organized in networks led by SUS in conjunction with universities, unions, social movements, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and Public Prosecutors' Offices. Events of greater socio-environmental complexity in sectors such as steel, petrochemicals, mining, agribusiness, and energy forged the search for new epistemic and interdisciplinary references that encompassed two new justices, i.e., environmental and cognitive. This essay systematizes this trajectory of conceptual contributions in three movements from the 1980s to the present day (each corresponding to a socio-political and institutional context) to reflect on paradigmatic transition movements in the analysis and prevention of accidents and disasters from an interdisciplinary perspective. It ends by suggesting abyssal and emancipatory prevention to face different current crises, including environmental, health, democratic, and civilizing ones.

Enabling marine conservation through education: Insights from the Malaysian Nature Society

As a maritime country, Malaysia relies on its diverse marine ecosystems, contributing to 23% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), amounting to USD 63 billion. Anthropogenic activities threaten these ecosystems, impacting both the environment and socio-economics. Environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a crucial role in protecting the marine environment. This paper examines the educational initiatives of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), the oldest environmental NGO in Malaysia which promotes marine conservation. Through document analysis of the society's annual management report from June 2016 to May 2021, three educational strategies emerged: dissemination of knowledge, hands-on activities and application of knowledge. A guideline for implementing effective marine educational programs has been developed to enable other environmental NGOs to adopt these strategies and contribute to the conservation of marine ecosystems.

The process of frame-building regarding climate change in Indonesia

This study examines the frame-building process regarding climate change in Indonesia, an emerging country in the Global South that produces significant carbon emissions and is one of the nations most affected by the climate crisis. Through a quantitative content analysis of press releases from the Indonesian government and environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and media coverage of climate change, this study identifies three frames promoted by policy actors and five frames used by in-house journalists from print and online media organizations in Indonesia. A comparison of these frame sets shows that journalists often use frames on climate change that are not promoted by either political actors or NGOs. Nevertheless, the government is the most important source for journalists on climate change reporting. Next, a second step investigates how different contextual conditions influence the collaboration between journalists and their sources in the frame-creation process to examine it in more detail. Hence, this study relies on the hierarchy of influence (HI) and intereffication (IE) models. To this end, journalists, academics, and PR officers from Indonesia’s government organizations, environmental NGOs, and palm oil lobby organizations are interviewed. The results show that organizational structure, financial resources, and personal networks influence how successfully PR officers disseminate their frames, while journalists’ frame selection is influenced by their media affiliations, routines, professional experience, and interests. This study also discusses how macro conditions in Indonesia influence these micro- and meso-level processes, such as the social system and distinct cultural and historical contexts.

Prevenção, emancipação social e transição paradigmática: uma trajetória interdisciplinar de 40 anos no Brasil sobre acidentes e desastres

Abstract: The article, in the form of an essay, systematizes a 40-year-long professional trajectory of interdisciplinary and socially engaged experiences around the analysis and prevention of accidents and disasters. This study was mainly developed within the scope of research and postgraduate studies in Public Health in Brazil, driven by the sanitarian movement and the construction of Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) in its search for democracy and social and health justices. Its empirical basis involved workers’ health and environmental surveillance actions organized in networks led by SUS in conjunction with universities, unions, social movements, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and Public Prosecutors’ Offices. Events of greater socio-environmental complexity in sectors such as steel, petrochemicals, mining, agribusiness, and energy forged the search for new epistemic and interdisciplinary references that encompassed two new justices, i.e., environmental and cognitive. This essay systematizes this trajectory of conceptual contributions in three movements from the 1980s to the present day (each corresponding to a socio-political and institutional context) to reflect on paradigmatic transition movements in the analysis and prevention of accidents and disasters from an interdisciplinary perspective. It ends by suggesting abyssal and emancipatory prevention to face different current crises, including environmental, health, democratic, and civilizing ones.

Chinese Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Certified Wood Products

Abstract While environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been active in China in promoting forest certification, Chinese consumers’ perceptions of certified wood products in the marketplace are unclear. A survey focused on consumers’ wood-product consumption patterns was conducted in three cities—Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai—from July to August 2015. This study used data from the survey to assess urban Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward certified wood products and the demographic differences affecting these attitudes. Regression analysis was conducted to test whether consumers’ social-economic characteristics link with their attitudes toward certified wood. We found mixed correlations between these consumers’ attitudes and their demographics and positive correlations between their attitudes and exposure to environmental campaigns and environmental education. The results from this study will improve the understanding of Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward certified wood products and help producers and marketers better understand the market potential for certified products and more efficiently meet consumers’ needs. This study will also help NGOs interested in conservation to develop their future programs in China.

RESUMING OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING REQUIRING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The paper considers the question of a resuming of an administrative proceeding requiring public participation with reference to two main stages of this extraordinary procedure of a verification of valid administrative decisions. So it refers firstly to the stage of reopening a proceeding and secondly to the stage of a reopened proceeding. In both cases the author analyses the right of the public, especially the procedural rights of ecological organisations (environmental NGOs). In his opinion these organisations are entitled to demand reopening as well as to participate in a reopened proceeding