Environmental Policy Governance Research Articles

Identifying the driving forces of global ecosystem services balance, 2000–2020

In 2019, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly announced the implementation of the “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030)” initiative. However, overexploitation continues to severely impact the global ecosystem services (ESs) balance. Identifying the global ESs balance and its driving forces can effectively identify sensitive areas under such high ecological stress and corresponding governance responses. The world is currently facing increasing pressure on natural resources, while research on this issue remains controversial at global level. To address the gap, we portrayed the spatial characteristics of global ESs balance across county units worldwide in 2000, 2010, and 2020, and we further examined the driving forces of ESs balance covering six continents of the world (excluding Antarctica) by Geodetector model. Our results showed that the deficit areas of ESs balance were concentrated in urban and barren areas, while the surplus areas were distributed in areas with dense vegetation, especially primary forest communities. Furthermore, the global Moran's I value of ESs balance averaged 0.719 over three years, demonstrating a significant spatial dependence of its spatial distribution. According to the spatial statistical analysis, the factors that affected ESs balance varied among continents and had evolved over the last two decades. Nevertheless, nighttime light intensity and forest proportion consistently showed high contributions, with maximum values of 0.569 and 0.546, respectively. The contribution of socio-economic factors is higher in the developed regions and lower in the less developed regions. This work provides a framework for future global large-scale ESs balance assessments. It identifies similarities in impact mechanisms across continents and the dominance of individual drivers to encourage contextualized, collaborative governance in environmental policy.

Explaining reflexive governance through discursive institutionalism: estuarine restoration in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT The paper examines an instance of reflexive governance in environmental policy and planning and explains its emergence through a discursive institutional lens. Discursive institutionalist frameworks draw attention to the articulation and institutionalisation of new ideas and the way they produce the objects of governance, powerfully influencing the conceptualisation of problems and solutions, determining who is involved in governance processes and the nature of their interactions, and environmental policy outcomes. We draw on the notion of a discursive institutionalist spiral as a way of understanding the nearly 40-year evolving relationship between ideas, discourses and institutions that have shaped the planning context in an estuary restoration initiative on the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand. The case is based on the analysis of an archive of historical policy, planning and technical documents, and 25 in-depth interviews with participants representing different groups involved in a current restoration initiative. We suggest that the case represents a new degree of reflexivity by the responsible governing authority, that this can be explained by reference to the historical dynamic of discursive and institutional change, and that it indicates the benefits of the interactive and participatory formulation of goals and strategies in environmental governance and management.

The Relationship Between Information-Sharing and Resource-Sharing Networks in Environmental Policy Governance: Focusing on Germany and Japan

The Relationship Between Information-Sharing and Resource-Sharing Networks in Environmental Policy Governance: Focusing on Germany and Japan

Agreement based land consolidation – In perspective of new modes of governance

A comparative study on the performance of new modes of governance in selected Central and Eastern European countries stated the problem that the emergence of new modes of governance in environmental policy is impaired by weak governance capacities in state and civil society and lack of mutual trust among stakeholders (Börzel, 2009a). The purpose of this article is to draw attention to agreement based land consolidation for implementation of area based environmental policies. The article contends that land consolidation exclusively based on agreements can cope with capacity constraints in state and civil society and at the same time apply the principles of new modes of governance. The research questions are: (i) how are principles of new modes of governance applied in agreement based land consolidation? (ii) what are the incentives and the technique in agreement based land consolidation? and (iii) what are the capacity building requirements for an agreement based land consolidation approach? The Danish land consolidation procedure is used as an example of an agreement based approach. Transaction technique, planning technique, and incentives are exposed with reference to transaction cost theory. The impact on trust is illuminated with reference to theory on social capital. The wetland projects serve as an example of area based environmental projects and is illustrated by a case. Data, however incomplete, indicate that agreement based land consolidation has been and is used as an important implementation tool in land related environmental policies in Denmark. The article concludes that the agreement based approach displays key features of new modes of governance. The principle of voluntary agreements grants the affected non-state actors a strong position to influence the final policy outcome and they contribute with local knowledge and mediation. The approach avoids conventional enforcement. Agreement based land consolidation is possible but relies on demanding preconditions. The investment in incentives and capacity building can be justified by a broad range of benefits.

Explaining Coordination in Collaborative Partnerships and Clarifying the Scope of the Belief Homophily Hypothesis

The move towards collaborative governance in environmental policy often takes the form of collaborative partnerships involving multiple stakeholders with divergent beliefs and interests. Within such partnerships, stakeholders selectively coordinate with one another to varying degrees to achieve both individual and shared objectives. Using interview and questionnaire data from 10 US marine aquaculture partnerships in 2009–2011, we test three theoretical hypotheses regarding how individuals within collaborative partnerships decide with whom to coordinate. These competing propositions include belief homophily (individuals will coordinate with whom they share beliefs), trust (individuals will coordinate with those whom they trust), and resources (individuals will coordinate with those who hold critical resources). Results suggest that specific aspects of trust and resources are more important than shared beliefs in driving coordination in marine aquaculture partnerships. This finding qualifies previous studies that identified shared beliefs as a driving factor. This study concludes with a theoretical discussion about the explanatory boundaries of belief

Changing aspects of government–society relations in South Korea: evidence from the evolution of environmental policy governance

In South Korea, the development of environmental policy did not garner much attention from either the government or society before the mid-1980s, although policy-making in this sphere had a long history prior to this time, as with other traditional policy areas. Moreover, it is significant that mid-1980s in Korea was a period characterised by a new political–economic landscape that induced changes in the aims and roles of the government and society in policy-making. Thus, specific developments of Korea's government–society relationship may be reflected in the evolution of its environmental policy. This paper aims to analyse the changing aspects of this relationship in the area of environmental policy by examining environmental policy governance since 1971. The research results show that the government–society relationship in this policy area has been gradually transformed – from a stage of confrontation to that of complex interactions. Per the findings, this paper argues that the relationship needs to be further enhanced to a stage of institutionalisation, and explores ways of achieving this goal.