Modes Of Environmental Governance Research Articles

Environmental justice and ecological civilization in the Pearl River Delta, China

ABSTRACT The central government of China aims to transform the Pearl River Delta (PRD) from a polluting and low value-added global factory to a sustainable region. The transformative vision of the PRD is underpinned by the ecological civilization concept. While ecological civilization represents a significant initiative in moving toward sustainable development, China’s top-down and command-and-control mode of environmental governance may fall short of addressing multi-dimensional and multi-scalar social and environmental justice issues of the PRD cities. The authors therefore suggest embracing the concept of environmental justice to enhance ecological civilization, with the aim of benefiting every stratum of society. The concept of environmental justice is multi-faceted, embracing recognition, procedural, distribution and compensatory justice at different geographical scales, often calling for institutional changes. Without environmental justice, a harmonious and sustainable PRD would not be possible. In recent years, China has made unprecedented institutional adjustments to deal with environmental issues, such as conducting annual “health screening” and five-yearly thorough evaluations to monitor conservation and development. To embrace environmental justice, legislative changes are required to recognize individual environmental rights through collective action and public participation, incorporating citizens’ inputs to the appraisal of cadres, and establishing intergovernmental institutionalized organizations.

Pastoralism after culture: environmental governance and human‐animal estrangement at China's ecological frontier

AbstractIn the name of ‘ecological civilization’, the Chinese state has sought to adjust the ecologies of its degraded northern grasslands, using market instruments, such as payments for ecosystem services, to induce ethnic minority pastoralists to pursue non‐herding livelihoods. In the far west of Inner Mongolia, the resultant decline in the availability of rural labour has meant that most domestic camels that remain on the rangelands are now left largely unmanaged throughout the year. Local Mongol officials and intellectuals have long regarded extensive animal husbandry as a bulwark against Mongol dispossession through Chinese agricultural expansion. This article shows how they now make use of dominant ecological and market rationalities to articulate their defence of this form of land use, by figuring these ‘semi‐wild’ camels as providers of ecosystem services. In doing so, however, their proposals bypass the figure of the culture‐possessing rural minority subject, which in this region is associated with training and working with camels, and which has been fostered by the cultural heritage policies of the reform era. Divergent understandings of the ‘wildness’ of nonhumans thus reveal tensions between ecological and cultural politics at China's margins, and anxieties surrounding the rural minority subject in the context of new modes of environmental governance.

Towards explanations for stability and change in modes of environmental governance: A systematic approach with illustrations from the Netherlands

Studies on stability and change in modes of environmental governance often remain implicit regarding the conceptualisation, nature and causes of stability and change. Moreover, they are selective in the addressed explanatory factors. Theorising of stability and change in modes of environmental governance could be brought to the next level by enhancing the comparability and alignment of explanatory studies. This paper aims to contribute to this effort using insights regarding the definition and explanation of change processes gained in the policy and political sciences. Based on these insights, we provide a systematic approach for conceptualising “stability” and “change” in modes of governance and introduce six categories of explanatory factors: physical circumstances, infrastructures, institutional settings, discourse, characteristics of agency and shock events. The case of Dutch flood risk governance shows the usefulness of the proposed approach. We conclude by reflecting on the approach's potential for providing richer and more nuanced explanations.

New Modes of Environmental Governance in Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation in Oregon

Natural resource challenges often span administrative jurisdictions and include actors and processes operating at different spatial and political scales. We applied concepts of new environmental governance to analyze Oregon’s approach to greater sage-grouse conservation. Through one in-depth case study in Lake County, we traced features of new environmental governance (cross-scale interactions, decentralization, and capacities of actors) through different governance levels. Interviews and qualitative analysis revealed that decentralization of administrative functions facilitated cross-scale interactions and relied on intermediaries, gap-filling, and perceptions of legitimacy at lower levels. State and agency guidelines steered the effort and were accompanied by financial and technical resources from multiple arenas, which increased local capacity. This study adds to the understandings of environmental governance for implementing multi-actor, multi-level conservation arrangements in resource-dependent communities. Further exploration of connections between higher levels and local contexts will reveal important, new ways to link policies with on-the-ground outcomes.

Conflict or cooperation: the patterns of interaction between state and non-state actors in China’s environmental governance

After nearly four decades of rapid economic development, China has positioned itself as the second largest economy in the world. On the downside, the country is now facing a veritable environmental challenge, which particularly manifests in a pervasive degradation of China’s environment and a deterioration of its citizens’ health. This special issue of the Journal of Chinese Governance investigates the patterns of governance, which have emerged in response to China’s environmental challenges. The analytical focus is set on the interactive dynamic between state and non-state actors in the light of deteriorating natural resources and environments. Based on a conference about China’s climate and environmental challenges, this edition has selected a set of articles that highlight the various governance modes resulting from state and non-state actor interactions. Herein, the central questions focus on how both sides interact with each other, and whether the resulting dynamic is one of conflict or cooperation. The aim of this special issue is to contribute to the broader discussion on how both state and non-state actors shape the modes of environmental governance in China. It concludes by discussing China’s experience in environmental governance, the advantages as well as shortcomings and the possibilities for replication.

Ecuador’s experiment in living well: Sumak kawsay, Spinoza and the inadequacy of ideas

In April 2017, Ecuador halted the continental drift to the conservative right in Latin America by electing leftist Lenín Moreno to the Presidency. Attention has turned, therefore, to the legacy of outgoing President Rafael Correa’s decade in power. To that end, this paper examines one of Correa’s signature programmes, ‘Buen Vivir’ (Living Well), a strategic plan for development underscored by the indigenous Kichwa cosmology of ‘sumak kawsay’. Sumak kawsay is a notion that has been co-opted into policy mechanisms in an attempt to both challenge neoliberal modes of governance, and to disrupt the ontological bifurcation of nature and society. Given the emphasis placed on ecological sensibility in sumak kawsay and Buen Vivir, critics have been quick to highlight the contradictory relations between Ecuador’s mode of environmental governance and its extractivist agenda. Such critiques are as staid as they are well rehearsed. Acknowledging the precarious composition of sumak kawsay, the paper questions the extent to which the ethos of experimentalism in politics can be sustained, eliding stymied technocratic forms of the political. It turns, therefore, to Baruch Spinoza’s treatise on adequate and inadequate ideas. In so doing, the paper examines how one can critique an idea without perpetuating a moral economy in judgment. Consequently, the paper considers the way in which Spinoza’s thought can be charged to recuperate imperilled political ideas.

Political and environmental attitude toward participatory energy and environmental governance: A survey in post-Fukushima Japan

The Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent Fukushima nuclear accident triggered citizen dialogue on energy and environmental management in Japan. However, an international survey has shown that the willingness of Japanese citizens to participate in political and social activities has declined since the Fukushima accident. Employing an internet-based survey in four urban or nuclear power plant-hosting prefectures in Japan, this study examines the willingness to participate in random sampling deliberation on post-disaster energy and environmental policy. It focuses on the effects of political, environmental, and social attitudes towards willingness to participate in citizen dialogue. The survey shows around 40% of respondents may participate in energy and environmental deliberation. Statistical analysis reveals that environmental consciousness raises the propensity to participate in deliberation, while political obedience and social hesitation decreases the will to participate. The effect of environmental attitudes is larger than that of political and social attitudes. The survey also finds that governmental response to deliberation, i.e., information generation and disclosure based on requests from citizen dialogue, encourages participation in deliberation in a conservative prefecture, when citizen dialogue is held at the national level. Random sampling deliberation opens a new mode of environmental governance regardless of local political and social characteristics.

Biodiversity Governance in Developing Countries: Brazil 1990-2010

This article approaches the evalution of various modes of environmental governance in developing countries by analyzing the Brazilian policy towards biological diversity between 1990 and 2010. Governance is broadly defined as an ensemble of systems of coordination and control among a variety of players with different purposes and objectives. This study draws on previous works on governance in the European Union (EU) that identify four main types of relationships between various political actors. Such relationships may be classified as follows: a) statism, characterized by a hierarchical relationship among political actors; b) pluralism, where a wider variety of private actors is observed; c) corporatism, where the state acts together with privileged private actors, and d) networks formed by public and private actors interacting over time. A historical-institutionalist approach coupled with process-tracing methodology allows for the comparison, over time, of critical trends in biodiversity governance clustered around three dimensions: actors (public-private dimension); institutions (rules and structures, decision making), and policy outcomes. By adapting this typology to the Brazilian case, this article seeks to shed light on the means by which public and private actors from developing countries participate in the formulation and negotiation of policies to contain biodiversity loss.Keywords: Biodiversity policy, Brazil, historical institutionalism, governance.

Building governance on fragile grounds: lessonsfrom Romania

Establishing structures of environmental governance is an important goal of external policy actors but a notoriously difficult one to achieve in states with weak regulatory capacities. Building on newer developments in governance research, this contribution offers contextual specifications for factors mediating external regulatory influence. The paper analyses the emergence and the effectiveness of environmental governance in two explorative case studies dealing with the provision of drinking water and, respectively, nature protection from Romania. The main finding is that external influence can lead to the emergence of new modes of environmental governance if supported by capable sectoral administration and pro-change stakeholders.

South Africa's Three Waves of Environmental Policy: (Mis)aligning the Goals of Sustainable Development, Environmental Justice and Climate Change

AbstractThree distinct but overlapping policy objectives have influenced environmental policy, structures and processes in contemporary large South African cities: sustainable development, environmental justice and adapting and mitigating for climate change. These goals have been characterized here as three waves of urban environmental policy. This paper responds to the position that sustainability, justice and climate change interventions must be aligned. Despite the global and national commitment to this objective, evidence suggests that environmental injustices and a lack of environmental sustainability persist in all three waves, in spite of policy efforts. What's more is that these disjunctures are not confined to South Africa, or even the global south, but are experienced globally. The wisdom behind calls for aligning these objectives is therefore questioned through a review that illustrates that despite apparent similarities between the objective of addressing environment and development concerns, the motivations behind the three waves are distinct, as are the governance arrangements and structures and tools for implementation. By focusing on the distinctions between these three modes of environmental governance, this review provides a nuanced perspective on what it means to govern the environment at the urban scale.

New Modes of Environmental Governance in Central America: Constructing a Biological Corridor Policy in Honduras

New modes of governance, such as network governance or public-private partnership have gained ground in environmental policy. While typically associated with long-term, well-established democracies, these interorganizational processes are emerging in countries with weak democracies such as those in Central America. Scholars on environmental governance are pondering if these new modes of environmental governance make decision-making more inclusive, transparent and accountable, while at the same time promoting effective environmental policy performance. We partially address this question by focusing on public and private actors' articulations of the issue surrounding biological corridors in Honduras. We draw on the institutional analysis framework of policy arrangement developed by Leroy and Ars to provide perspective on the main challenges that network governance confronts in unstable democracies. The case presented here highlights that persistent traditional political forms at the national level hinder network governance. At the same time, emerging collaborative attitudes promoted at local and international level are slowly challenging these traditional forms.

Putting sustainable fisheries on the map? Establishing no-take zones for North Sea plaice fisheries through MSC certification

Spatial approaches gain importance in the governance of marine practices and their environmental impacts. Harmful effects of fishing gear on marine habitats is seen as a considerable spatial conflict that needs to be resolved. One of the most severe measures is the instalment of ‘no take zones’. In the certification programme of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) this measure is considered to be a last resort. MSC provides a telling example of ‘informational governance’, that is, a mode of environmental governance wherein information plays a centripetal but often also contested role. Such governing through information is different from conventional state-led decision-making processes. This paper assesses the way informational processes in MSC have affected the settlement of the spatial conflict between plaice fisheries and sensitive habitats in the North Sea. It concludes that information is a formative force in bringing about sustainable fisheries but leads to different outcomes even if the target species and fishing methods are very much alike. This is due to the (nationally) specific informational interactions between non-state actors, especially fishermen and environmental Non-Governmental Organizations. Even though information in marine governance should be science-based, other information (brought in by these actors) is extremely relevant in designing spatial measures. ► In fisheries management the trend is towards spatial approaches. ► The paper explores how the gear-habitat conflicts are addressed by MSC. ► Information is central in defining spatial measures for North Sea plaice fisheries. ► If well-communicated, fisheries can profit from a commitment to ‘no-take zones’.

FISHING FROM THE SAME POOL: THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE ON LOCAL CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIONS IN SCOTLAND AND THE US PACIFIC NORTHWEST

The impact of environmental governance on the delivery of local climate change plans is examined by comparing two transatlantic sub-national jurisdictions which have adopted stringent targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Scotland and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The former relies on dirigiste top-down environmental governance, through which central government sets targets and imposes statutory duties that apply equally to all local councils. In the latter, a bottom-up multi-level form of environmental governance has emerged to compensate for the absence of a federal mandate. Specific action plans from a climate change pioneer in each location are assessed to test the strengths and limitations of these alternative modes of environmental governance: Portland in Oregon and Fife in Scotland. The Scottish dirigiste approach offers its local councils a consistent policy framework, allowing them to focus on specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while avoiding concerns about free-rider effects from non-participating councils. The asymmetrical uptake of climate change measures by United States municipalities exposes their domestic market to the risks of carbon leakage that America sought to avoid in global markets during negotiations over the Kyoto Protocol.

Towards a Conceptual Framework for The Study of Shifts in Modes of Environmental Governance – Experiences From The Netherlands

ABSTRACTIn the last decade, many authors have observed shifts from government to governance in the environmental policy domain. However, a clear conceptual framework to differentiate between modes of environmental governance is lacking and our understanding of when, how and why environmental governance changes from one mode to another is limited. In this paper we propose such a framework and we illustrate its usefulness by applying it to two environmental policy sectors in the Netherlands: urban environmental policy and policy regarding sustainable production and consumption. We show how the application of our framework leads to detailed, replicable and comparable claims about character and intensity of shifts in environmental governance. From this analysis, we conclude that character and intensity of shifts in environmental governance vary significantly. Furthermore, we show that modes of governance build on rather than completely replace one another. Finally, we point to a number of possible explanations for shifts in environmental governance, recognized in literature and in practice. We conclude with some suggestions for further research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Building Environmental Governance in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Europeanisation and Transnational Assistance in the Context of Limited Statehood

With this paper I seek to identify the conditions under which a shift occurs from hierarchical decision making towards new modes of environmental governance in a case of weak statehood (Bosnia-Herzegovina), where an external agency (the EU) exerts significant influence alongside foreign consultants and international financial institutions (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development—EBRD). The Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) undertaken as part of the development of the trans-European road network across the country are used here as case studies for examining emerging patterns of environmental governance in a state under the shadow of EU conditionality. The data suggest that whilst over a period of time the adoption of new EU-compliant formal procedures and frameworks (eg, EIA laws) does seem to be generating new modes of governance interaction and citizen involvement, the impact is contingent upon the critical didactic role played by (in this case) the EBRD in making the formal procedures effective and in building knowledge capacity within the state administration. Thus, a simple correlation between EU conditionality and substantive political change cannot be assumed, particularly where state agencies possess limited policy knowledge and nonstate actors (environmental NGOs) lack mobilisation capacity.

Adoption of the EU SEA Directive in Turkey

This paper analyses the adoption of the EU Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (2001/42/EC) in Turkey as part of a programme of environmental policy harmonisation for EU accession, to explore the extent to which this is driving wider shifts in modes of environmental governance. To do this, rather than simply assess compliance with Directive in narrow, formal, statutory terms, we use Jänicke and Weidner's concept of capacity building, which focuses on the constraints facing societal action to promote sustainable development. Despite the resources invested in pre-accession training and pilot SEA projects, Turkey's adoption of the Directive is still likely to be affected by the centralised nature of the bureaucracy (affecting the scope for sectoral integration), its politicised nature (interrupting the accumulation of policy learning), the limited capacity of civil society and environmental organisations to engage with the process, and the political dominance of economic development objectives.

China's environmental governance in transition

In the face of unprecedented economic and industrial growth levels, China is rapidly developing its system of environmental governance. Coming from a conventional command-and-control approach to environmental policy, which fitted well its centrally planned economy, transitional China is swiftly reforming and diversifying its environmental approaches, instruments, arrangements and legal regulations. This article aims to grasp and assess the direction, extent and speed of change in China's environmental governance. New relations between state, market and civil society, and an opening up towards the outside world characterise new modes of environmental governance that try to turn China's development path in more sustainable directions.

Mediating the ‘National’ and the ‘Local’ in the Environmental Policy Process: A Case Study of the CPRE

As environmental concerns press upon public policy so state agencies tend to enter into governmental ‘partnerships’ with environmental groups. On the one hand, these ‘partnerships’ allow the state to call upon forms of expertise held by the groups and to gain broad legitimacy for state policies. On the other hand, the development of policy partnerships enables environmental groups to influence policy formulation processes directly. However, it also means that such groups must ‘sell’ the agreed policy line to local members. Using the case study of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), we investigate how environmental groups manage the relationship between national policymaking and local support. Through the investigation of three CPRE county branches we reveal an uneven geography of environmental governance and show how this geography affects the diffusion of environmental policy objectives. We argue that the implementation of environmental policies must be set within local economic, political, and social conditions as these conditions ensure considerable variation in modes of environmental governance.

Energy and Environmental Governance under Ecological Modernization: a Comparative Analysis of Nordic Countries

In this study of energy and environmental governance in four Nordic countries, we aim to shed further light on the question of organization of political governance under transition to ecological modernization. Our findings are that, in spite of a number of similarities, the Nordic countries seem to be pursuing programmes of ecological modernization under rather different regimes of political governance. However, we do not find the diversity of national energy‐environmental governance regimes by reference to national policy‐making styles. Instead, our analysis indicates that a more plausible explanation of the variety may lie in differences in their industrial and resource‐based structure. Given diverse industrial structures, similar policy measures may have very different effects on national economies, and hence, motivate distinct governance measures. The paper concludes that a lock into a standardized ‘first‐best’ mode of environmental governance may prove detrimental to environmental modernization in practice, since it might expose economies to unacceptable consequences and then to a fallback to traditional industrial strategies.