The efficiency of the Environmental Management Charge in the Cairns management area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park*

Using data from a survey of more than 1000 domestic visitors to the Northern section of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) – predominantly those travelling on live‐aboard dive boats – this research investigates the (tax) efficiency of the Environmental Management Charge (EMC). The travel cost method (with a zero truncated negative binomial specification) is used to estimate the price elasticity of demand, and those estimates are used to estimate the deadweight losses, the losses in visitor numbers that could be ‘blamed’ on the EMC and the associated taxation revenues for different types of trips. The welfare loss for each dollar of revenue raised from the EMC was estimated at less than one per cent for each type of trip considered. The analysis therefore suggests that, for these types of trips in this part of the reef at least, the EMC is a very efficient tax – particularly when compared with other taxes. This has important implications beyond the GBR, particularly in countries who struggle to find sufficient funds to properly manage world heritage areas: taxes such as these may be a relatively efficient and equitable means of collecting such revenues.     

Private transaction costs of participation in water quality improvement programs for Australia's Great Barrier Reef: Extent,causes and policy implications

The direct private cost to landholders of participating in programs that result in improved farming activities (IFAs) is generally well understood. However, the private indirect or transaction costs, such as the cost of a landholder's time and the expense to learn about IFAs and apply for assistance to implement these changes on‐farm, are not so well understood. Where these have been studied, they have been shown to be extensive. We assess the extent and causes of private transaction costs incurred by sugarcane growers participating in the Australian Government's Reef Rescue scheme which pays farmers to adopt environmentally beneficial farm management practices. Utilising a mail‐out‐mail‐back survey of 110 growers, we found that the average total transaction cost per farm of participating in the program was AU$8389. The average total transaction costs per farm as a percentage of the average funding provided was 38 per cent. We also assessed which type of improved farming activity (soil, nutrient, pest or water management) generated the greatest transaction costs and how landholder characteristics such as bounded rationality, opportunism and social connection impacted on the extent of transaction costs.     

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.     

Land-use conflicts in coastal tourism and the quest for governance innovations

Based on media content analysis this study examines 213 land-use conflicts in Danish coastal tourism to understand the formats of land-use struggles and the methods used to manifest discontent. It contributes to emerging, but still under-investigated risks of overtourism and spatial degradation and it addresses who is active in conflicts, with what means they communicate, and with what results. A typology of issues that kick off conflict includes “Construction and rebuilding”, Change in land-use”, “Infrastructure alteration”, “Illegal activity”, “Landscape modification”, “Climate change” and “Access permission”. These are issues raised most frequently by neighboring residents and holiday home owners, followed by nature associations and public authorities. Institutionalized channels of complaint are most often used, while more radical forms, such as demonstrations, protest movements and vandalism, are rare. However, successful multi-modal campaigns and national energy planning are affected by tourism-related protests. Overall, the Danish planning system proves capable of accommodating most tensions, and the settled power balance in the planning systems largely continues, although planning is a target for remonstration and activism. The article discusses the participatory deficits observed. It informs protesters and government bodies alike, and contributes to the ongoing scholarly discussions about the nature of spatial development.     

Drivers of innovation in groundwater governance. The links between the social and the ecological systems

Global groundwater overexploitation positions groundwater governance as a critical issue for improving sustainable water management. Evidence of aquifer recovery after overexploitation is scattered, as is the research on the drivers behind recovery. The Fuencaliente Aquifer in Spain faced a tragedy of the commons situation, but after an innovative governance arrangement was implemented, the aquifer is gradually recovering. In this research, we identify the drivers that made possible the emergence and acceptance of such an arrangement using the social-ecological system framework. We identified external drivers such as market incentives and limited enforcement capacity of the water authority as the main factors that led to groundwater depletion, but we also found that these same drivers, under a new regulatory framework that reinforced monitoring and sanctioning capacities, are the basis for the effective recovery of the aquifer. Internal drivers such as the socioeconomic attributes of the users, their limited collective action and the power differences between traditional and commercial farmers are also critical in explaining the acceptance of the new governance arrangement. Even if these drivers are context-specific, we identified innovations that might be transferable and contribute to the literature on good practices in groundwater governance and management.     

Landscape governance for or by the local population? A property rights analysis in Austria

Diverse and unique landscapes not only are one of the key assets of Austrian tourism industry, but are also highly valued for local identity, quality of life and their ecological functions. Society tries to prevent unintended landscape change and thereby purposefully intervenes in landscape development by countless environmental regulations, contracts with landholders, agri-environmental schemes, landscape and nature reserves, food-related activities such as ‘eat the view’ and labels of origin. In the face of increasing state control and the growing influence of (inter-) nationally acting civil society groups, the paper poses the question whether the local population still has a saying in the governance of their landscape. Is it the local people, their costumes and institutions that shape the diversity and uniqueness of landscapes (i.e., the ‘root meaning of landscape’ [Olwig, K.R., 2002. Landscape, Nature, and the Body Politic. From Britain's Renaissance to America's New World. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.]) or is local peculiarity lost to national or international landscape control? The paper analyses the changing structures of use and control rights to Austrian landscapes and resulting shifts between locally driven and centrally controlled landscape change. The paper is a meta-analysis of ten empirically founded interdisciplinary research projects on cultural landscapes in Austria. The results are compared with international literature that indicates a loss of control of the local rural population over their natural resources. In the Austrian case however, the local population (re-) negotiates and (re-) interprets complex and conflicting international and state regulations according to their respective needs before concretizing them in actual land use practises. Some participation projects and self-governed local civic society movements integrate non-landholders. In few of homogenisation forces such as CAP and international regulations, diverse and unique landscapes call for the involvement of the local preferences, traditions, knowledge and skills—of both local non-landholders and landholders.     

Heterogeneous governance capabilities,reference emission levels and emissions from deforestation and degradation: A signaling model approach

Heterogeneous governance capabilities of developing countries are one of the major challenges to the effectiveness of REDD+ projects. Consequently, the effects of heterogeneous governance capability, and reference emission levels on emissions from deforestation and degradation under information asymmetry, are both theoretically and empirically analyzed by using two signaling models to interrogate the panel data during the period 2011–2015 from 13 partner developing countries involved in the UN-REDD Programme. Empirical results confirm that compensation payments based on heterogeneous governance capability can improve the incentive effectiveness of such compensation payments in REDD+ projects, thereby making developing countries more willing to reduce their emissions from deforestation and degradation. Furthermore, higher baseline targets for reducing emissions can lead to greater efforts to reduce emissions. Therefore, the heterogeneous governance capabilities of developing countries should be considered in calculating the level of compensation payment for future REDD+ projects. Instead of a uniform compensation payment for all developing countries, compensation payments should be distributed according to the heterogeneous governance capabilities of each of those developing countries.     

The effects of farmland use rights trading and labor outmigration on the governance of the irrigation commons: Evidence from China

The governance of the commons depends on collective action by resource users, which may be influenced by land use dynamics and changes in livelihood. We examine the case of China that has experienced massive outmigration of its rural population and significant changes to its land use policy. We contribute to the literature by examining the interaction effects of farmland use rights trading and rural labor out migration on collective action for the governance of the irrigation commons, which has the potential to open up a new line of theoretical and empirical inquiry. Using the socio-ecological system framework, we run ordered probit regression based on data from a survey of 125 villages in 18 provinces in China. We find that a moderate degree of farmland use rights trading has a positive effect on collective action for the governance of the irrigation commons and can slow down and mitigate the negative effect of rural labor outmigration. We conclude with implications for land use policy and governance of the commons.     

A typology of actors and their strategies in multi-scale governance of wind turbine conflict within forests

Wind turbine construction, governed by complex multi-scale governance systems, can cause conflict between actors interested in forest management. We examined wind turbine conflicts in forests in two case studies, the state of Maine, USA and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Specifically, we examined based on triangulation of documents, participant observation, and qualitative interviews with 46 actors how actors argued in favor of certain scales within the wind turbine multi-scale governance systems and how they applied scalar strategies within them. In this paper, we propose a typology that describes actor behavior within multi-scale governance systems. Seven different actor types within multi-scale governance were identified: the Knowledge Exchanger, the Linker, the Creator, the Maintainer, the Power Shifter, the Mobile Learner, and the Overwhelmed & Passive. Actors involved in wind turbine conflicts within forests re-shaped and re-defined the governance system by their actions in the conflict process. However, not all actors could equally participate in scalar strategies. Therefore, only some actors had advantages in re-shaping the governance system according to their interests.     

论城乡社会治理一体化的必要性与实现路径——关于实现“市域社会治理现代化”的思考

将社会治理区分为城市治理与乡村治理,并在两个方面实行不同的制度,这与国家治理现代化的要求南辕北辙。社会治理的这种二元结构,会导致经济效率降低、社会平等缺失以及社会稳定程度减弱。中国共产党十九届四中全会强调"市域社会治理现代化",是解决这个问题的办法。中国需要做出系统性改革,最终建立城乡一体化的社会治理体制。     

The meanings of forest governance in Esmeraldas,Ecuador

Participatory forestry has become the most accepted way of exploiting timber resources in tropical rain forests. This paper shows the links between participatory forestry, sustainable forest management and the continuing objective of reconciling conservation with commercial development in the province of Esmeraldas, one of the poorest and most rapidly deforested regions of South America. I describe and contextualize the evolving logging programme of a leading Ecuadorian wood-processing group to show that the decentralization of the development process, the recognition of local communities as legal entities in the management of natural resources, and the active involvement of profit-oriented firms in biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation all contribute to the emergence of new alliances between the Ecuadorian government, the logging companies, conservation and human rights organizations, and local Black and indigenous communities. My central argument is that devolution in this context leads to conflictive interpretations of regulation. I end with a discussion of the multi-scalar nature of “forest governance”, and highlight the contribution it makes to our understanding of control, regulation and management in new contexts of privatization and decentralization.     

The agricultural,environmental and socio-political repercussions of Brazil's land governance system

Although many contemporary studies of agriculture associate larger properties with higher relative productivity, this assumption has limited relevancy for the analysis of situations in which property owners profit more from large-scale property accumulation itself rather than any superiority in exploitation opportunities offered by increased size. In Brazil, the efficiency-of-scale paradigm has been used to criticize peasant agriculture as unproductive and hide contradictions deriving from land concentration. As this paper argues, however, small-scale agriculture is actually responsible for most of Brazil's food production, rural employment and agricultural income. The paper utilizes a land governance perspective to analyze the implementation of structural reforms aimed at turning back the land monopolization tide as well as efforts to weaken long-standing legal principles that socially condition individual property “rights” in Brazil.     

嵌入宗族社会网的自然村小型公共品治理——桂东南B乡K村互助基金的个案研究

自然村小型公共品由村民自主治理可能是行之有效的办法,自主治理的关键在于能否有效协调个体与集体行动,能否实现个体和集体利益的兼容。处于制度变迁中的宗族社会网在自主治理中仍发挥独特的作用,把村庄公共品嵌入宗族社会网可能是解决自然村公共品治理问题的一个好办法。     

The institutional fit of peatland governance in Indonesia

The Government of Indonesia has published a number of policies and regulations to better manage its vast amount of tropical peatland, yet the degradation and conversion of Indonesian peatlands still continues. This paper analyses the institutional fit between Indonesian regulations related to peatland use and the characteristics of peatland users. We reviewed Indonesian legal policies and regulations on peatland use and management and conducted questionnaires and interviews with peatland users and policy makers in order to understand their practices and incentives in relation to the implementation of the four main peatland regulations. We focus on two provinces with large peatland areas: Jambi and Central Kalimantan. Using a framework for assessing the degrees of fit between the rule creators and adopters for peatland management, this paper shows that the degree of technical, political, and cultural fit of Indonesian peatland regulations can be classified as low to moderate. The paper shows that many peatland users are insufficiently aware of peatland regulations. The lack of socialisation on the contents of the regulations and the alternatives for peatland best practices, together with the lack of field monitoring and law enforcement are the important causes of non-compliance with peatland regulations. However, there are ongoing processes of fitting visible that are largely driven by the local government and NGOs. We discuss the degrees of fit and present some lessons for increasing the degree of fit for peatland regulations.     

The wellsprings of work: The USA and the UK

Summary

The results of research on the US economy are discussed. It is based on a file of 5.6 million business establishments which is used to study how each business evolves. Underlying relatively slow changes in the aggregate totals was a set of large flows, and substantial ‘churning’. Most regions in the USA lose about 8 % of their jobs each year, and the healthiest economies have the highest losses. Small firms were significant creators of new jobs. Studies in the UK found that the contribution of small firms to employment generation is small, that the rate of new firm formation depends upon whether a region is dominated by large firms, that subcontracting, cheap premises and a good general environment are important. Births and deaths of businesses balanced each other at around 8 % each per annum, but some regions were declining because they were not sharing in the growth side of the equation, as in the USA. One difference between the USA and the UK is in terms of micro‐ and macrostability. Microstability is that of the individual job and business, and macrostability that of the economy as a whole, and the two are in inherent conflict. The choice between these two forms of stability is a very painful one, and a price must be paid either way.     

The organisation of complexity: A set of five components to organise the social interface of rural policy making

During the last decades the European countryside has witnessed some major changes. This ‘rural restructuring’ implies a shift from an agricultural and manufacturing-based economy towards a service-centred economy in which the countryside is considered to be a place of consumption instead of a place of production. These major changes are accompanied by a shift in policy towards more engagement of stakeholders for the development and implementation of government objectives. However, making this shift from a steering government to a more enabling one does not come about naturally and authorities often lack adequate recourses, professional skills and equipment to take on this enabling role. In their search for the development of sound policy, policy makers are often confronted with a social interface to overcome. In line with Long (2003), we defined this social interface as “a critical point of intersection between different life worlds, social fields or levels of social organisation, where social discontinuities based upon discrepancies in values, interests, knowledge and power, are most likely to be located”. Making an (analytical) distinction between three main dimensions of the interface of policy making, namely the presence of a multitude of actors, the difficulty of integrating different knowledge systems and the need to reconcile different policy levels, enabled us to deal with the complexity of policy making processes. The objective of this paper is to investigate how this interface can be organised in such a way that a constructive collaboration allows a sound and widely accepted rural policy to develop. We describe three cases in Flanders (Belgium) for which new rural policy needed to be developed: agrarian architecture, the development of a landscape vision and the development of a policy strategy for castles, manors and their parks. Based on the comparative analysis of these cases, we were able to define five components that allow the organisation of the social interface: define common goals; identify the actors; integrate different knowledge systems; design the process; and guard transparency, fairness and procedural justice of the process.     

The River agreement in Italy. Resilient planning for the co-evolution of communities and landscapes

According to the “evolutionary” approach (Davoudi & Al., 2012), urban resilience implies that urban systems have capacity to react to several external disturbances - economic, social, environmental - regarding all components of urban governance and transforming itself in a new development model.River basins are considered an interesting space for experimental workshop on resilience, as a driver of territorial policy, for ordinary communities and landscapes, where the relationship between the sustainable use of territorial resources could led to new territorial strategies, as well as “promote managements synergies” at different levels of regional and local planning.River Agreements (RA) appear as an innovative governance method which can help in the drafting of potential plans and practices for the development of resilience in fluvial territories. It is a form of negotiated planning, that helps to involve social actors in order to: improve people’s knowledge of current territorial conditions and the effects of human activities; increase social awareness; include society in the identification and implementation of solutions; to encourage innovative changes in planning objectives and urban and architectural design, starting with the legal and planning framework of an Action Plan. Starting from the ‘80 s, RA were experimentally tested in Belgium and France and currently widespread also in Italy. In Piedmont Region (Italy), it is recognized as a successful territorial governance tool used to define shared strategies, measures, rules and projects. We will present the case study of the Sangone River Agreement as the first participate planning and design experience in Piedmont signed by local actors.     

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.     

The restructuring of the institutional real estate portfolio in the UK

Real estate investment portfolios of financial institutions have seen dramatic changes over the last three decades or more. Historically such property investment decisions have been seen within a portfolio diversification paradigm that has sought to balance risk and return. This paper considers the role of the supply of assets in the determining and constraining the UK institutional portfolio. The supply of real estate assets not only expands during property booms but has also been transformed by a long term urban development cycle as cities adapt to cars and the ICT revolution that has brought new property forms. The research examines long term trends in investment change by disaggregating into ten property forms rather than the usual three land use sectors. It then assesses to what extent investment patterns can be explained in terms of portfolio theory, short term net returns of individual sectors or driven by the supply of real estate assets. It concludes that the supply of real assets is an overlooked explanation.