The complexity of cooperative governance and optimization of institutional arrangements in the Greater Mekong Subregion

This study’s focus is on the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The study’s approach is to find, analyse and solve problems, and the method used is the mixed application of theoretical and empirical analysis based on rich materials and data. The study goal is to design an optimized framework of institutional arrangements through the complexity analysis of intricate causes that have hindered cooperative governance in the GMS. Concretely, we first summarize the changes in the GMS in the past 20 years to understand the development background. Second, we classify marked issues into three aspects: (1) the contradiction between livelihood development and environmental protection, (2) the imbalance between the principle of “common but different” and the guideline of maximizing national interests and (3) the conflict between the support and opposition for hydropower development in the Mekong between upstream and downstream countries. Third, based on an in-depth analysis of the complicated causes of these issues, we design four interactive solutions to optimize institutional arrangements for future cooperative governance: (1) breaking the inner connection of poverty, drugs and crime; (2) promoting the strategic shift from blood transfusions to haematopoiesis in socioeconomic development; (3) establishing mechanisms of interest sharing; and (4) building a diverse and polycentric regional coordination system. Finally, we systematically analyse the complicated relationship among the different solutions and additional challenges for the future.     

Adjusting policy to institutional,cultural and biophysical context conditions: The case of conservation banking in California

This paper examines the political construction of a policy instrument for matching particular institutional, biophysical and cultural context conditions in a social–ecological system, using the case of conservation banking in California as an example. The guiding research question is: How is policy design negotiated between various actors on its way from early formulation of ideas and principles to an accepted policy solution on a state or national level? The underlying assumption is that in order for a policy instrument to be implemented, it has to be adjusted to various context conditions. That is, it has to become accepted by affected actors associated with the institutional framework, and it has to gain local validity for implementation by actors related to a particular ecological and cultural context. We assume that ideas about policy adjustments are not only functionalistic questions determined for example by the materiality of the resource it governs, but are constructed and politically negotiated because these ideas may differ among the mental models of the associated actors. These actors are stakeholders affiliated with the policy process, i.e. authorities, public and private organizations, interest groups, firms or think tanks dealing with, or being shaped by, the policy at different stages of its development.As a result certain context conditions and related concerns such as institutional interplay or match to ecological particularities become inscribed in policy design as an outcome of power struggles, values, and interests. These in turn may vary at different stages of policy development and implementation. Each time the instrument is transferred in a new setting it is likely that the incipient policy design may be opened-up and begin a mutual adjustment process among the newly concerned actors. Thus, such policy developments are not immutable but are dynamic. In this paper, the creation of fit for policies on conservation banking to the issue of species protection in the State of California and later to the U.S. environmental governance domain, are analyzed to understand the instrument's emergence and development toward an established policy solution. The focus is on the negotiation processes among the enrolled actors and their strategies for matching the instrument to certain institutional, cultural and ecological context conditions on different scales. Changes in policy design, its underlying influences, actors’ interests, conflicts and perceived effects are identified, respectively.     

The dilemma of property rights and indigenous institutional arrangements for common resources governance in China

Traditionally, property rights have been seen as an efficient means of optimizing the allocation of common resources. The arrangement of property rights, however, has historically led to a number of social, economic and ecological issues. Herders living in China are currently exploring collective grazing partnerships as they seek to maintain balance between ecological protection and livelihood development in the process of grassland governance. For the purposes of this study, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the property rights dilemma, offering possible solutions for indigenous institutional arrangements as exemplified in six typical cases. We assert that (1) stakeholders should respect local culture by ensuring the participation of herders in policymaking, (2) the use of fences for the demarcation of property rights is ineffective and often serves as a catalyst for the destruction and degradation of grassland ecosystems, and (3) herders’ use of collective action techniques should be reinvented with the support of state policy.     

Beyond the community in participatory forest management: A governance network perspective

Governance of the environment and natural resources involves interests of multiple stakeholders at different scales. In community-based forest management, organisations outside of communities play important roles in achieving multiple social and ecological objectives. How and when these organisations play a role in the community-based forest management process remains a key question. We applied social network analysis to a case study in Indonesian Borneo to better understand the evolution of interactions between organisational actors, and with communities. NGOs featured most prominently in initiating the permit process, implementing management, and providing other support activities, while also being well-connected to donors and government actors. The network configurations indicated significant cooperation among organisations when initiating the community forest process, while bridging between village and organisational levels characterised all stages of the community forest process. While community-based forest management often evokes images of grassroots efforts and broad local capacity to manage forests, reality shows a more dynamic and heterogeneous picture and broader involvement of different actor types and motivations in Indonesia. These findings can be applied to other countries implementing and expanding their decentralised forest policies.     

Food policy and poverty in Indonesia: a general equilibrium analysis*

Rice is Indonesia's staple food and accounts for large shares of both consumers' budgets and total employment. Until recently, Indonesia was the world's largest importer, but rice import policy is now highly protectionist. Since early 2004, rice imports have been officially banned. Advocates of this policy say it reduces poverty by assisting poor farmers. Opponents say it increases poverty, stressing negative effects on poor consumers. This paper uses a general equilibrium model of the Indonesian economy to analyse the effects of a ban on rice imports. The analysis recognises 1000 individual households, including all major socioeconomic categories, disaggregated by expenditures per person. It takes account of effects on each household's real expenditure and its income, operating through wages and returns to land and capital. The results indicate that the rice import ban raises the domestic price of rice relative to the import price by an amount equivalent to a 125 per cent tariff, six times the pre‐2004 tariff. Poverty incidence rises by a little under 1 per cent of the population and increases in both rural and urban areas. Among farmers, only the richest gain. These results are qualitatively robust to variations in key parametric assumptions.     

An interval fuzzy chance-constrained programming model for sustainable urban land-use planning and land use policy analysis

In this study, an interval fuzzy chance-constrained land-use allocation (IFCC-LUA) model is developed for sustainable urban land-use planning management and land use policy analysis under uncertainty. This method is based on an integration of interval parameter programming (IPP), fuzzy flexible linear programming (FFLP) and chance-constrained programming (CCP) techniques. Complexities in land-use planning management system can be systematically reflected, thus applicability of the modeling process can be highly enhanced. The developed method is applied to planning land-use allocation practice in Nanjing city, China. The objective of the IFCC-LUA is maximizing net benefit from LUA system and the main constraints include investment constraints, land suitability constraints, water/power consumption constraints and wastewater/solid waste capacity constraints. Modeling results indicate that desired system benefit will be between [1.34, 1.74] × 10¹² yuan under the minimum violating probabilities; the optimized areas of commercial land, industrial land, agricultural land, transportation land, residential land, water land, green land, landfill land and unused land will be [290, 393] hm², [176, 238] hm², [3245, 4390] hm², [126, 170] hm², [49, 66] hm², [1241, 1679] hm², [102, 138] hm², [7, 10] hm² and [178, 241] hm². They can be used for generating decision alternatives and thus help decision makers identify desired land use policies under various system-reliability constraints of economic development requirement and environmental capacity of pollutant. Tradeoffs between system benefits and constraint violation risks can also be tackled.     

The contested environmental governance of Maori-owned native forests in South Island,Aotearoa/New Zealand

In this study we set out to critically examine the environmental governance of native forests owned and managed by the Maori in New Zealand, with a specific focus on ‘SILNA’ lands given to the South island Maori as compensation lands for lost ancestral tribal lands. We will interrogate reasons for different forestry pathways in terms of how the process of European colonisation unfolded politically and spatially, the response of the Maori SILNA forest owners to pressures linked to land allocation and land rights issues over time, and the repercussions of these responses for biodiversity preservation in indigenous forest management systems. In order to unravel the complex environmental governance processes at play in the New Zealand context, we will pay particular attention to ‘exogenous’ (i.e. propelling forces outside Maori communities) and ‘endogenous’ regulation mechanisms (i.e. regulation of native forest management within SILNA forest blocks). New Zealand is a particularly appropriate setting as Maori governance, forest management and land rights issues have come to the fore over the past decades. Our findings suggest that Maori SILNA forest owners have used the full spectrum of forest management pathways, ranging from outright clearfelling and associated biodiversity depletion to forest preservation. The study highlights the complex interplay between endogenous environmental governance processes (actor embeddedness with their land and the role played by trusts and committees in particular) and exogenous drivers, in particular through the influence of international logging companies, and the policy environment which has sent mixed, and at times confusing, messages to Maori SILNA native forest owners.     

Misfits and compliance patterns in the transposition and implementation of the Habitats Directive—four cases

This paper investigates the transposition and implementation of the Habitats Directive in four European member states, namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece, and Romania, and the role that institutional misfits have played in more or less successful implementation processes. Departing in the ‘Worlds of Compliance’ literature, it also explores if this typology can be useful for understanding the ways member states address institutional adaptation pressures in the implementation steps following the transposition phase. The requirements in the Habitats Directive expanded most member states’ nature conservation frameworks, especially in the obligation to introduce pro-active conservation, and it also laid down a number of steps to be taken for creating the European Natura 2000 network. It was found that the transposition did mostly follow general compliance types, but that these types also helped understand the extent and adequacy of adaptations and changes to the institutional framework in the implementation processes following the directive’s adoption. Implementation challenges were different for different countries. They showed a need to align institutional frameworks for a) Natura 2000 in areas with several existing types of landscape protections and ensuing spatial and institutional overlaps; b) clarifying the roles and responsibilities of various authorities involved in implementation; c) ensuring coordination with the other sectorial policy areas that interact with the Habitats Directive (such as the Nitrate Directive and the Water Framework Directive). It turned out that there could be a need for more flexible and less-top-down European legislation, providing a larger room-for-manoeuvre for integration with domestic approaches.     

The impact of forest management plans on trees and carbon: Modeling a decade of harvesting data in Cameroon

By 2010, about 25% (180 million ha) of The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) producer countries’ permanent forest estate was being managed using an approved forest management plan (FMP). While the existence of a FMP is often used as evidence of sustainable forest management (SFM), State officials mandated to monitor and verify FMPs’ implementation often lack the technical knowledge and political incentives to assess the changes that have been introduced, notably in terms of harvested volumes and species. Among tropical timber producers, Cameroon is considered to be exemplary for its progressive forest regulatory framework. Here we aim to estimate for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa the causal impact of the implementation of FMPs on harvested volumes, species and carbon stocks. We do so by using a 12-year (1998–2009) unbalanced longitudinal data set of a detailed, official harvesting inventory of 81 concessions in Cameroon. Results provide evidence to the theoretical expectations that for many years many practitioners have had on the implementation of SFM, i.e. that FMPs show a substantial opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from forest while presenting logging companies with acceptable financial trade-offs. We explore the technical and political reasons for our findings and conclude that these analyses are important for countries that are underwriting carbon-related schemes in which they propose to reduce their emissions through the effective implementation of SFM. We also demonstrate that producer countries do record useful information that, when effectively used, can help them to inform their policies and improve their sustainable development strategies.     

Multifunctional forest management in Northern Portugal: Moving from scenarios to governance for sustainable development

If there is a strong argument in favour of multifunctional forest management, there is also controversy regarding the types of multifunctionality able to instil virtuous circles across landscapes. Managing forests in such a way that user groups, sustainability practitioners and forestry institutions all agree to, is not easy. For any reliable consensus to occur, via viable landscape design procedures, through which multiple functions (production, environmental protection and recreation) may be coordinated by means of innovative planning, there is a need to negotiate a set of common objectives and shared responsibilities. This paper examines the policy dimensions of multifunctional forest management, and, through an exploratory case study, proposes an approach for cooperative planning and institutional design. The case study involved two parishes in the Minho region of Portugal (Gavieira and Entre Ambos-os-Rios) combining the local communities, the National Park, and local forestry officers. The case study created, developed and validated two scenario storylines through a series of participatory processes (two focus group meetings, one comprehensive workshop, and one expert meeting). One scenario focussed on continuity of the traditional management patterns, with an emphasis on direct goods such as timber and livestock grazing (traditional multifunctionality). The other concentrated on indirect ecological services, such as soil and water protection, as well as carbon sequestration (new multifunctionality). An attempt was also made to implement the scenario storylines through initiating a pilot project in both of the case study areas. However, there were neither robust planning mechanisms nor adaptive governance systems with the capacity to put into place forest management “futures” likely to deliver more sustainable landscape-scale uses in these areas. This paper illustrates the difficulties in forging governance systems that have the capacity and the vision to be able to put sustainable development concepts into practice, even when a coherent package of planning measures are tried out, given a policy setting that is confused, contradictory, and where the “status quo” tends to be given prominence.     

Assessing governance of biosphere reserves in Central Europe

The biosphere reserve (BR) concept, developed within UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, represents a hallmark in seeking to reconcile conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The MAB Programme functioning mechanisms leave the responsibility for the translation of its BR objectives to the management authorities of the participating countries. While a shift to broad social and livelihood perspectives is emerging in the BR Programme, reflecting contemporary requirements for the sustainable management of larger territories including protected areas, it suffers from implementation deficits at the local level.     

我国水务一体化制度保障体系的局限性及重构

我国各地对待水务一体化的态度及具体实施模式不一,这与水务一体化制度保障体系不健全存在较大的关联性。我国已颁布了涉及"水务一体化"的国家政策,不少省市也出台了相关的地方性政策,但从法律法规层面来看,国家立法并未就"水务一体化"问题做出明确规定,除海南省、广州市外,其他省市地方立法均未直接规定"水务一体化"内容。由于相关立法前期研究尚不充分、中央机构设置与水务一体化不完全匹配,目前不宜贸然以国家立法方式强制推行水务一体化。建议近期我国已实施水务一体化的城市加强地方制度建设,但从长远来看,必须消除部门利益对政策制定的不当影响,一旦立法条件成熟,应以国家法律形式明确规定细致且具有可操作性的水务一体化制度。     

Designing intergovernmental fiscal transfers for conservation: The case of REDD+ revenue distribution to local governments in Indonesia

A REDD+ scheme would involve the transfer of financial resources to forested developing countries taking part in it. This paper simulates different approaches to the design of intergovernmental fiscal transfers (IFTs), a possible means to channel a REDD+ international payment to local governments which, in several countries, have a certain degree of authority over forest management. Using Indonesia as a case study, the cost-reimbursement and the derivation approaches are tested. It is demonstrated that both approaches could be used. Using the cost-reimbursement approach, localities with more degraded forests would receive a higher compensation per unit of carbon emission reduction than districts with primary forests. Avoiding further conversion of logged-over areas is associated with higher opportunity costs when compared with preventing the conversion of primary forests. In contrast, the derivation approach sets a fixed percentage and rate to distribute REDD+ revenues and ignores the opportunity costs of REDD+ incurred by local governments. The distribution of REDD+ revenues to eligible local governments is based on an assumed market price of carbon credits from REDD+. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for designing the distribution of REDD+ revenues, both for Indonesia and more generically for other developing countries.     

Agrarian reform and cooperation between settlers in the Midwest of Brazil: An institutional approach

Cooperation is an important factor in improving the efficiency of agrarian reform, but hardly occurs, which is a serious problem in Brazil. This research tries to explain why cooperation is so difficult in Brazilian settlements. It focuses on the Midwest of Brazil, a region with a high concentration of land, located in the main region for production of commodities. Research combines a New Institutional approach with aspects from the economic sociology. The model developed in the paper is original and highlights factors responsible for cooperation. Research differentiates institutional arrangements according to asset specificity and sunk costs. Beside associations for representation with public authorities, where cooperation is easier, cooperative arrangements need specific investments from the settlers, who require warranties before participating. Institutions serve as warranties for adopted governances. In the case of cooperation in Brazilian settlements, these warranties should come from informal institutions, which can be a problem in some communities. Leadership of a producer can also have an important role in hierarchical networks.     

The disappearing chain of responsibility: Legitimacy challenges in the political governance of Finnish Forest and Park Service

This article analyses the consequences of institutional and organisational arrangements for the legitimacy of the governance of Finnish public forests. It focuses on normative legitimacy, which comprises input legitimacy (accountability), throughput legitimacy (power relationships, transparency and inclusiveness) and output legitimacy (problem-solving capacity). These components, and the challenges involved in them, are analysed in relation to the governance of the Finnish Forest and Park Service. It is a hybrid agency which combines business economic tasks with broader societal duties related to public forests. The article draws on the relevant laws, parliamentary reports and comments, policy and planning documents, as well as interviews with MPs, government officials and agency staff. The discrepancy between written regulations and policies on the one hand, and the actual governance practices and rationalities that guide informants’ interpretations and implementation of the regulations on the other, constitutes (in addition to the regulatory vagueness) the key challenge to the system's legitimacy. The Finnish case shows that assigning to Parliament a central formal role in the governance of public forests may serve more as window-dressing than providing genuine legitimacy to the decisions being made, as its actual role is dependent on how – and by whom – such decisions are prepared. The results highlight the importance of inclusiveness and transparency in the governance process; and of concrete, measurable criteria and indicators for each policy goal, against which performance may be assessed on a regular basis.     

Public participation in environmental governance in the Philippines: The challenge of consolidation in engaging the state

This paper provides an overview of the extent of institutionalization of public participation in environmental governance in the Philippines using the three-pillar framework of the Aarhus Convention and Principle 10 Guidelines: access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. It analyzes the shifting demarcations of public engagement and how these are defined by the interplay of institutional-legal structures with the country's political economy constraints. It argues that while the country appears to have a strong institutional design for public participation, there is a decisively low level of institutionalization of actual participatory processes that could not achieve substantive autonomy from power structures. A critical factor to this is the weakness in public deliberations and interactions among civil society groups in the country that constrain legitimacy of representation, coherence and necessary consolidation in engagements with government institutions. While pluralism is a key tenet of public participation, the situation in the Philippines shows the limitations of its application, particularly amid a patrimonial political context. Such weakness amid complexities in aggregating public interest allows particular interests to predominate in reconfigurations of the boundaries of involvement in environmental matters, displacing otherwise legitimate groups in the margins of collaborative governance.     

Understanding property market operations from a dual institutional perspective: The case of Lagos,Nigeria

This paper examines the Nigeria Land Use Act and considers how provisions of the Act inform and influence traditional landholding systems, the operation of the commercial real estate market, and the activities of the “omo-onile.” The research adopts a qualitative strategy and combines analysis of legal statute with in-depth, semi-structured interviews with market participants active in different capacities within the land and property markets of Lagos, Nigeria.The paper identifies a number of inconsistencies in the provisions of the Act and concludes that the recognition given to the traditional landholding system by the Act has not been effective in tackling informality and illegality in Lagos land and property markets.The paper provides insight into how informal institutions of norms, culture, and conventions of a real estate market characterize property ownership and affect transaction processes. This study shows how informal institutions may be used to circumvent formal institutions of a market when formal rights to property are poorly delineated and assigned. In these conditions market actors will incur higher transaction costs in the process of policing transactions and enforcing contractual agreements.     

Management of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites in Nigeria: Current challenges and future direction

Sites affected by petroleum hydrocarbons from oil exploitation activities have been identified as a major environmental and socio-economic problem in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The current Nigerian regulatory instruments to manage these contaminated sites are fragmented and the roles and responsibilities of government agencies, such as the Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR), and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), are not well defined. This lack of coordination has led to ineffective land contamination policy and poor enforcement more generally. Appropriate, risk-based policy instruments are needed to improve regulatory capacity, and to enhance the regulator's ability to manage new and existing petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated sites. Lessons can be learned from countries like the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States America (USA) that have experience with the management and clean up of historically contaminated land. In this paper, we review the status of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites management in Nigeria and identify the gaps in existing policy and regulation. We review the contaminated land policies and regulation from the UK and the USA, and identify lessons that could be transferred to the Nigerian system. Finally, we provide a series of recommendations (e.g. source – pathway-receptor approach, soil screening criteria, clean-up funding, liability) that could enhance contaminated land legislation in Nigeria.     

Social involvement in environmental governance: The relevance of quality assurance processes in forest planning

Socio-environmental policy issues are characterized by inherent scientific uncertainty, ignorance and frequently by social discrepancies. Lack of recognition of the complexity and uncertainty of environmental issues has given rise to problems that have cast doubt on the adequacy of the science for policy model and traditionally employed evidence-based policy, thus leading to a crisis in science. In this context, there is a need for quality assurance procedures to assess policies and measures resulting from decision-making in environmental governance issues.Involving quality assurance in decision-making processes recognizes the different types of uncertainty related to an issue and the limits of problem-solving analysis. This approach requires participatory methodological frameworks in which stakeholders analyze the robustness of the assessment process used as well as the validity of assessment results. The approach considers governance as being a relative term depending on the historical, social, economic, political, environmental and cultural context in which it is developed.A participatory methodology is applied to an assessment of forest track alternatives on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands). In this study, a social sensitivity analysis explores the social validity of this assessment through the concept of quality understood as ‘fitness for use’. Such a methodology facilitates processes of dialogue and consensus needed in decision-making in conflictive situations. As a result this methodology should serve as a reference for other places with similar situations.     

Exploring land use changes and the role of palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia

This study compiles and analyses national-level data on land use change (LUC) and its causes in Indonesia and Malaysia over the past 30 years. The study also explores the role that palm oil has played in past LUC and that projected growth in palm oil production may play in LUC until 2020 and suggests strategies to minimize negative effects. Data collection for the study revealed that the quality and quantity of data on LUC on a national scale over time are low. Despite these uncertainties, the overview of past LUC indicates that large changes in land use have occurred in Indonesia and Malaysia. In Indonesia, LUC can primarily be characterized by forest cover loss on 40 million ha (Mha) of land, a 30% reduction in forest land. Deforestation in Malaysia has been smaller in both absolute and relative terms, with a forest cover loss of nearly 5 Mha (20% reduction in forest land). Other large changes in Malaysia occurred in permanent cropland (excluding oil palm), which has decreased rapidly since the early 1990s, and in land under oil palm cultivation, which experienced a sharp increase. Projections of additional land demand for palm oil production in 2020 range from 1 to 28 Mha in Indonesia. The demand can be met to a large extent by degraded land if no further deforestation is assumed. In Malaysia, expansion projections range from 0.06 to 5 Mha, but only the lowest projection of oil palm expansion is feasible when only degraded land may be used. The role of palm oil production in future LUC depends on the size of the projected expansion as well as agricultural management factors such as implementation of best management practices, earlier replanting with higher yielding plants, and establishment of new plantations on degraded land. The current use of degraded land needs to be investigated in order to reduce possible indirect LUC, land tenure conflicts, or other social impacts. In addition to minimizing direct and indirect LUC by the palm oil sector, measures that reduce deforestation triggered by other causes must also be implemented. A key element for doing so is better planning and governance of land use, which entails more appropriate demarcation of forest land and protection of land that still has forest cover, improved monitoring of land use, and more research to uncover the complexities and dynamics of the causes and drivers of LUC.