No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Examining processes or/and outcomes? Evaluation concepts in European governance of natural resources
Environmental Policy and Governance
Abstract
Effectively evaluating the governance of natural resources is a precondition for its improvement in contexts of change. In order to do so, one can use methods for evaluating (1) the outcome of a governance process or (2) the governance process itself. Outcome‐oriented and process‐oriented approaches have different strengths and weaknesses. This paper explores the challenges associated with both options when applied to European biodiversity and water governance – namely the implementation of the Habitats Directive (Natura 2000 network) and the Water Framework Directive.
Current evaluation practice, concerned with governance processes for EU policy implementation, focuses mainly on outcomes. In this paper, we examine the methodology involved and argue that, for three reasons, it makes sense to combine the two approaches: a normative reason, relating to standards of good governance; a substantive reason, relating to the complexity of the system to be governed; and a third, instrumental, reason relating to the task of policy evaluation and implementation itself. Combining outcome‐ and process‐oriented evaluation of governance processes is not without caveats, but it appears a promising approach in the light of current problems in European governance of natural resources. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
... En la mayoría de los estudios de evaluación de procesos participativos, los autores identifican al menos dos tipos de evaluaciones: del proceso y de los resultados (Abelson y Gauvin, 2006;Chess, 2000;Kovacs et al., 2017;Rauchsmayer et al., 2009). Las evaluaciones de proceso se enfocan en analizar lo que ocurre mientras un mecanismo de participación está en desarrollo (Abelson y Gauvin, 2006) y tienen como propósito suministrar información sobre el proceso, para aprender e implementar mejoras necesarias (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). En cuanto a la evaluación de los resultados, los análisis se centran en estudiar si el programa ha producido los resultados previstos (Abelson y Gauvin,2006) y las consecuencias de esos resultados (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). ...
... Las evaluaciones de proceso se enfocan en analizar lo que ocurre mientras un mecanismo de participación está en desarrollo (Abelson y Gauvin, 2006) y tienen como propósito suministrar información sobre el proceso, para aprender e implementar mejoras necesarias (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). En cuanto a la evaluación de los resultados, los análisis se centran en estudiar si el programa ha producido los resultados previstos (Abelson y Gauvin,2006) y las consecuencias de esos resultados (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Sin embargo, en este último punto, la definición sobre cuándo finaliza un ejercicio de participación generalmente no está clara (Abelson y Gaubin, 2006). ...
... Los buenos procesos de gobernanza contribuyen a los resultados de al menos dos maneras: a) un buen proceso mejora la calidad sustancial del resultado y b) un proceso legítimo facilita que los resultados tengan una mayor aceptación (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Sin embargo, es importante ser cautelosos al utilizar evaluaciones de procesos como sustituto de evaluaciones de resultados. ...
Resumen El presente artículo evalúa un proceso de gobernanza colaborativa realizado en Chile a escala regional. Se convocó a actores públicos y privados con el fin de definir desafíos y compromisos para la sostenibilidad e inclusión de la región de Los Lagos bajo un enfoque colaborativo de gobernanza, que concluyó con un conjunto de compromisos públicos y privados para ocho sectores productivos. El estudio aplica un modelo evaluativo integrado de la experiencia, que combina la evaluación de objetivos y de procesos. Se diseñaron y aplicaron instrumentos de evaluación consistentes en análisis documental y tres encuestas de percepción dirigidas a los actores involucrados. Los resultados indican alta adhesión a nuevas formas de gobernanza colaborativa, una valoración positiva de la experiencia y disposición para participar de procesos similares, además de una percepción optimista sobre el cumplimiento de los compromisos pactados. No obstante, los actores señalaron que el financiamiento público de las iniciativas y la coordinación representan los aspectos más críticos para el cumplimiento de los compromisos establecidos. Este trabajo constituye una contribución al campo de la evaluación, un área menos desarrollada en el análisis de políticas y programas
... This period is characterized by the ambition to balance wood production and environmental objectives. We review the extent to which evidence-based knowledge from conservation biology and landscape ecology is applied in policy, leads to outputs, and has consequences on the ground [53]. First, concerning policy development we focus on the environmental objective slogan "Living forests". ...
... This heading's topic matches the essence of the concept policy cycle, and how development of complex processes can be assessed ( Figure 2). This requires studying the policy creation process, the implementation outputs, and the consequences on the ground [53]. Evaluation of the policy creation process involves assessment of what is good or democratic governance [8,58,59], including elements such as more and improved information management and learning, a legitimate process, and the normative aims of transparency and participation. ...
... Evaluation of the policy creation process involves assessment of what is good or democratic governance [8,58,59], including elements such as more and improved information management and learning, a legitimate process, and the normative aims of transparency and participation. According to Rauschmayer et al. [53], the outcomes of policy creation processes have two parts. The first part is about implementation outputs in terms of policy norms and rules to be applied by governors at multiple levels, and pronouncements of norms [60] in terms of strategic performance targets. ...
Swedish policies aim at conserving biological production, biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreational assets. This requires compositionally and structurally functional networks of representative habitats, the processes that maintain them, and resilient ecosystems. The term green infrastructure (GI) captures this. We review (1) policy concerning forest biodiversity conservation from the 1990s; (2) the implementation outputs, including the formulation of short-term and evidence-based long-term goals for protected areas, education, and the development of hierarchical spatial planning; (3) the consequences in terms of formally protected and voluntarily set-aside forest stands, as well as conservation management and habitat restoration. We assess the successes and failures regarding policy, outputs and consequences, discuss challenges to be addressed, and suggest solutions. Policies capture evidence-based knowledge about biodiversity, and evidence-based conservation planning as an output. However, the desired consequences are not met on the ground. Thus, the amount of formally protected and voluntary set-aside forests are presently too low, and have limited quality and poor functional connectivity. GI functionality is even declining because of forestry intensification, and insufficient conservation. Challenges include limited collaborative learning among forest and conservation planners, poor funding to conserve forest habitats with sufficient size, quality and connectivity, and national politics that ignores evidence-based knowledge. As solutions, we highlight the need for diversification of forest management systems with a landscape perspective that matches forest owner objectives and regional social-ecological contexts. This requires integrative approaches to knowledge production, learning and spatial planning.
... To measure governance is a precondition for its improvement (Bovaird & Löffler, 2003;Heinrich, 2002;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Hertting and Vedung (2012, p. 38) indicate the rationale of governance evaluation as "to create repositories of descriptive and judgmental insights for reasoned practical thought and action". ...
... To precisely measure governance is difficult and "there are no silver bullets in measuring governance" (Kaufmann & Kraay, 2007, p. 3). Scholars discuss the importance of the measurement (Buduru & Pal, 2010), the various definitions of 'good governance' (Patton & Director, 2008;Rotberg, 2014), the difficulties that may be encountered when measuring governance (Haarich, 2018;Kaufmann & Kraay, 2007), and approaches to measure governance (Anten, 2009;Ehler, 2003;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). ...
... Given the research question about the effectiveness of policy, the evaluation of the public objective of social stability, the outcome-oriented approach is applied in this paper. This is in line with the current governance practice worldwide, where an increase in the assessment of policy outcomes in relation to policy objectives has been witnessed (Rauschmayer et al., 2009;Rotberg, 2014). This can be understood if one realised that a smooth or 'good' process of governance may not necessarily end up in effective policy (Kelly & Swindell, 2002). ...
In the past decade, Public Rental Housing (PRH) has become the program of providing affordable rental housing to low- and middle-income households in China. Even though descriptions of the governance results are numerous, the previous studies are not underpinned by a theoretical foundation from a governance perspective, nor have they empirically examined whether PRH governance works on the ground. This explorative and empirical paper aims to fill this gap of an outcome-oriented evaluation of the impacts of governance as perceived by the final user. Central government formulated the objective for PRH governance as maintaining stability in the society. Whether the tenants perceive the goal of social stability as achieved was measured along three governance outcome dimensions: satisfaction with housing quality, satisfaction with housing quantity, and willingness to communicate with the government about PRH governance. Data were collected from questionnaires to PRH-tenants in Chongqing, the most important pilot city of PRH provision in China. The findings show that the perceived governance outcomes were quite mixed as tenants were moderately satisfied with PRH housing quantity, but less satisfied with housing quality, and thought they could relatively easily communicate with local government. In view of these mixed outcomes, to strengthen the effectiveness of PRH governance in the eyes of the tenants, this study suggests local governments: (1) to rethink and redevelop the performance evaluation; (2) to rethink the relations with non-governmental actors and organise a monitoring system that will assist in optimizing housing quality; and (3) to facilitate tenants’ communication with local government.
... Evaluation is an assessment of any kind of activity that focuses on expected and achieved accomplishment, examines the processes, contextual factors and causality in order to clarify achievements or the lack thereof (UNEG, 2016). An effective evaluation of the governance of natural resource management is a precondition for systems´ improvements in the context of change (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Thus, it´s crucial to regularly evaluate both the governance process and its outcomes. ...
... An evaluation of governance processes must refer to three elements, the process itself, its outputs and consequences ( Figure 2). If the governance processes can be considered satisfactory, i.e., in accordance to the NRM principles for good governance practices, the process may reduce certain uncertainties and that way increase the reliability of an outcome-oriented evaluation (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). According to Rauschmayer et al. (2009), there are four main themes that need to be covered in a governance evaluation: 1) knowledge management, referring to the multiple ways various knowledge is translated and integrated and how issues of ignorance and uncertainty are addressed; 2) social dynamics, referring to the level of active stakeholders´ involvement in participatory processes at various administration levels; 3) legitimacy that combines process and output related indicators and deals for instance, with transparency, representation issues and accountability and; 4) effectiveness referring in particular to outcomes and the state of the governed system. ...
... If the governance processes can be considered satisfactory, i.e., in accordance to the NRM principles for good governance practices, the process may reduce certain uncertainties and that way increase the reliability of an outcome-oriented evaluation (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). According to Rauschmayer et al. (2009), there are four main themes that need to be covered in a governance evaluation: 1) knowledge management, referring to the multiple ways various knowledge is translated and integrated and how issues of ignorance and uncertainty are addressed; 2) social dynamics, referring to the level of active stakeholders´ involvement in participatory processes at various administration levels; 3) legitimacy that combines process and output related indicators and deals for instance, with transparency, representation issues and accountability and; 4) effectiveness referring in particular to outcomes and the state of the governed system. ...
Every summer, free-roaming sheep graze large parts of Icelandic rangeland ecosystems, even though some of these rangeland areas are estimated to be in a severely eroded or even collapsed ecological condition. Improved rangeland management and ecosystem restoration of severely degraded rangelands have been designated as official agricultural and environmental policy tasks of the Icelandic government for the last decades. Several new agri-environmental programs and projects have been established since 1990, with the aim of maintaining and improving the ecological condition of rangeland ecosystem and to facilitate behavioral changes among sheep farmers in relation to sustainable rangeland management. Nevertheless, little is known about the overall long-term progress of these activities and their processes and outcomes have never been studied in an interdisciplinary manner.
The main aim of this thesis was to carry out research on rangeland management and restoration in Iceland by examining, through a social-ecological lens, if the expected long-term progress of identified policy goals and all related programs and projects has been achieved. The first step of the research was to do a historical analysis on the main drivers of ecological restoration in Iceland during the last century and map if the drivers had changed over time. That study was based on a catalogue of 100 restoration programs, projects and areas of restoration activity (75-85% of all restoration activities in Iceland). The second step included an investigation of the SES surrounding rangeland restoration in Iceland to assess whether social factors, such as stakeholders´ attitude and behavior, influenced the effectiveness of agricultural and environmental policies related to rangeland restoration and improved rangeland management. That study was based on qualitative research, where 15 stakeholders were interviewed. The third step was to examine if a large-scale rangeland restoration program had facilitated expected attitudinal and behavioral changes among the sheep farmers who participated in the program. This step was based on a questionnaire where sheep farmers were asked about their attitude and behavior in relation to rangeland restoration and land management and the replies from participating farmers were compared to the replies from a control group of non-participating farmers. The fourth step was to map the administrative structure that steers rangeland management and explore the governance system’s structure and functions in order to elucidate the policy context in which agricultural and environmental policy targets for improved rangeland management practices were framed. This final study was also based on a questionnaire that was distributed to selected public and semi- public sector employees and sheep farmers. The results were used to gauge the participants’ attitude concerning rangeland management, their perception on state support and level of collaboration related to rangeland restoration and their views on current policies related to rangeland management.
The findings from the first step of the research revealed that catastrophic soil erosion, depleting farmlands in the beginning of last century, was an early driver of ecosystem restoration in Iceland. The
III
findings also showed that soil erosion still ranked high as a driver in the early 2000s, although other drivers, such as moral values and nature conservation, along with concerns about use values, such as in relation to recreation, were also strong motivators for restoration actions. Public policy programmes were found to be a minor driver, which might indicate weaknesses in the policy instruments used for ecological restoration. The findings from the second step of the research showed that social factors, such as attitude and behavior, can be used as indicators of the effectiveness of restoration policies. They also pointed to a lack of functionality in the governance of SESs that could deter progress in achieving policy goals, and possibly block the necessary behavioral change among related stakeholders. Results from the third step showed that the restoration program investigated had not facilitated behavioral change in relation to improved rangeland management among participating farmers compared with non-participants, even though the participating farmers were shown to be more aware of the potential of rangeland restoration and were more motivated to engage in further collaboration, compared to the non-participants. The results also indicated that the direct incentives provided by the program were pushing the participants to favor agronomic instead of ecological approaches in their restoration activities. Furthermore, several organizational errors within the program management were detected, for instance regarding integration of participatory approaches and level of personal connections between the participants and the Soil Conservation Service that might be halting its further progress. Results from the fourth step indicated strongly that neither the governance process nor the current administrative structure of rangeland management had significantly facilitated expected changes in attitude among local authorities or among sheep farmers needed to bring about improved rangeland management practices within the agricultural sector.
The key findings of this thesis were that the stated policy objectives of improving the ecological condition of rangeland, including the objectives of current agri-environmental programs and project related to rangeland management, have not yet been fully achieved. The thesis also pointed to the need for improved governance practices, by highlighting that the governance system for rangeland management was structurally limited, suffering from weak vertical and horizontal integration, and not designed to maintain and improve the ecological condition of rangelands’ ecosystems in the context of traditional sheep grazing management practices.
... By contrast, however, only 41% of Europeans know what the word "biodiversity" means [ibid.], reflecting the different vocabularies policy and society use to discuss the environment, but not limiting the fact that citizens can still express their objectives and concerns regarding it and construct meaning for it in their societal context [5][6][7]. ...
... European policy operates on a transnational level, whereas many of the studies above stress the locality and heterogeneity of how we relate to and experience nature. Therefore, there may be significant differences across Europe in what a country or society perceives as most pressing in terms of environmental topics [7,34]. Assuming that the general public finds it natural or simple to participate in supranational policy deliberation or management evaluation is rather optimistic [35,36]. ...
... As remarked in the introduction, this trend is not completely novel, although the extent to which these types of open spaces manage to produce meaningful outputs of multiple perspectives is still questionable [47,80,81]. Also, designing participatory processes that allow for the integration of different types of knowledge has been found challenging [7]. As mentioned in the reflective workshop, there is value in retaining diverse perspectives. ...
The current European Union biodiversity strategy is failing to reach its targets aimed at halting biodiversity loss by 2020, and eyes are already set at the post-2020 strategy. The European Commission is encouraging the active role of citizens in achieving policy objectives in the coming years. In this paper, we explore ways citizens discuss their priorities regarding biodiversity and abilities to influence environmental problems at individual, collective and policy levels. We also examine how the citizen discussions resonate with scientific environmental priorities and how researchers see the role of citizens in policy processes and harmonising citizen and scientific knowledge. To pursue the citizen voices, an expert working group acting as knowledge brokers, facilitated a series of citizen workshops in seven European locations and a reflective researcher workshop in Belgium. Based on the results, participants identified many concrete and value-related measures to stop environmental degradation. The environmental priorities differed between citizens and scientists, but not irreconcilably; rather, they complemented one another. Both groups stressed environmentally minded attitudes in individuals and policy. Displaying diversity of perspectives was regarded as positive and adding legitimacy. Improving methods for balanced encounters among science and society is central for participation to become more than rhetoric in the EU.
... The analyticaldeliberative approach combines both the functionalist and the deliberative rationale (ibid.). The fact that the ambition and rationale behind such approaches may be very different, potentially leading to a diversity of practical procedures, has important consequences for quality assessment: it is difficult to objectify quality criteria when the approach to a large extent is characterized by normative ambitions that may differ in nature depending on the diversity of preferences of those involved (Row et al. 2004;Rauschmayer et al. 2009;Renn 2008). We will return to this issue in the discussion section. ...
... Rowe et al. (2004) conclude that the complexity of participatory processes make it difficult to identify clear benchmarks for evaluation. Rauschmayer et al. (2009) stress the fact that such processes involve a diversity of actors, and as such a diversity of preferences, also from the point of view of process evaluation. This may lead to the fact that process outcomes are valued differently from different actor perspectives. ...
Background: Dealing with complex issues per definition bears the burden of imperfection. Whatever comforting theoretical concepts may promise, real life complexity will take its messy toll once travelling from conceptual ambition to real life practice. We specifically reflect on the social scientific contribution to these inter- and transdisciplinary endeavours. Purpose: We reflect on how social scientific research has tried to find its way in complex real life research practice in the field of environment and health and specifically focus on the challenges posed by the imperfections we encountered. Setting: Two case studies in the field of environment and health in Belgium. One case study focuses on policy interpretation of research results. The other focuses on a selection of research priorities. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Not applicable. Data Collection and Analysis: inter- and transdisciplinary research and multi-criteria analysis Findings: Resulting from our practical experiences we present a typology of imperfections: imperfect information, imperfect expert assessment, imperfect processing of incommensurable data, imperfect socio-political weighing/deliberation and reflection on imperfection. As easy as it seems to design processes of structuring complex issues and decision making in which involvement of a relevant diversity of actors and factors is considered praiseworthy, as complicated it is, as we have shown, in practice to organize and live up to expectations. In judging the quality of this endeavour, diverse theoretical yardsticks maybe applied that will not necessarily do justice to the practical complications of research practice. The concepts of abduction, intersubjectivity and transferability, offer interesting qualitative notions of pragmatic approaches that seem relevant to our work.
... Hence, the conservation of semi-natural grasslands as functional green infrastructure is complex (Benstead et al., 1997) and requires continuous knowledge production and learning, and ongoing maintenance and monitoring programs to assess consequences on the ground (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). The systems analysis approach to enhance collaborative learning among researchers and stakeholders through analyses of multiple landscape case studies is an appropriate tool for practicing transdisciplinary research through collaboration among natural and social scientists and practitioners in different contexts. ...
... Increasing demands for natural resources, an exodus from rural regions, biodiversity conservation, and climate change require environmental governance systems that can exercise transformative change towards sustainable landscapes. This requires evaluation of policy implementation in terms of what develops between the establishment of an agreed policy and the ultimate impact of subsequent actions in the real world (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Three key evaluation steps are (1) the policy process (e.g., who takes part?), (2) outputs (e.g., policy instruments, planning processes?), and (3) the consequences in terms of outcomes on the ground (e.g., the functionality of ecological networks, or green infrastructures, forming trust, livelihood for landowners, supporting human well-being and biodiversity conservation). ...
This study aims at supporting the maintenance of representative functional habitat networks as green infrastructure for biodiversity conservation through transdisciplinary macroecological analyses of wet grassland landscapes and their stewardship systems. We chose ten north European wet grassland case study landscapes from Iceland and the Netherlands in the west to Lithuania and Belarus in the east. We combine expert experiences for 20–30 years, comparative studies made 2011–2017, and longitudinal analyses spanning >70 years. Wader, or shorebird, (Charadrii) assemblages were chosen as a focal species group. We used evidence‐based knowledge and practical experience generated in three steps. (1) Experts from 8 wet grassland landscapes in northern Europe's west and east mapped factors linked to patterns and processes, and management and governance, in social‐ecological systems that affect states and trends of wet grasslands as green infrastructures for wader birds. (2) To understand wader conservation problems and their dynamic in wet grassland landscapes, and to identify key issues for successful conservation, we applied group modeling using causal loop diagram mapping. (3) Validation was made using the historic development in two additional wet grassland landscapes. Wader conservation was dependent on ten dynamically interacting ecological and social system factors as leverage points for management. Re‐wetting and grazing were common drivers for the ecological and social system, and long‐term economic support for securing farmers’ interest in wader bird conservation. Financial public incentives at higher levels of governance of wetland management are needed to stimulate private income loops. Systems analysis based on contrasting landscape case studies in space and over time can support (1) understanding of complex interactions in social‐ecological systems, (2) collaborative learning in individual wet grassland landscapes, and (3) formulation of priorities for conservation, management, and restoration. We used evidence‐based knowledge and practical experience generated in three steps. (1) Experts from 8 wet grassland landscapes mapped factors that affect states and trends of wet grasslands as green infrastructures for wader birds. (2) We then applied group modelling using causal loop diagram mapping. (3) Validation was made using the historic development in two additional wet grassland landscapes.
... According to Rauschmayer et al. (2009) outcomes of policy processes can be divided into two parts. Firstly, the implementation of policy tools and initiatives to be employed by planners and managers (Angelstam, Andersson 2001;Manton et al. 2021), https://doi.org/10.17221/64/2021-JFS ...
... However, this second step in the policy implementation process is often poorly studied (e.g., Mansourian, Vallauri 2014, Popescu et al. 2014. Thus, there is a need to assess the consequences in the field (Rauschmayer 2009;Manton et al. 2021). Following two decades in action, the woodland key habitat (WKH) initiative provides an excellent opportunity to fill this gap. ...
In response to the degradation of forest ecosystems, their habitats and the loss of species, many formal conservation policies and voluntary forest conservation tools have been proposed and implemented. The woodland key habitat (WKH) is one such initiative that aims to protect biodiversity. This generally involves two key actions: (i) the creation of policy (conservation action) and (ii) the consequences of the policy or initiative in the field. However, the final step of measuring their success in the field is often missing. The aim of this study is to assess the contribution of the WKH initiative to conserve biodiversity in Lithuania. We compared the changes in spatial distribution, species assemblages and richness within the WKH network between 2005 and 2017. Results showed that the spatial distribution of WKHs decreased in number and by area after 12 years. However, species occurrence, abundance and richness of the WHK network generally increased. In conclusion, we found the WKH initiative has contributed to the conservation of forest habitats and biodiversity in Lithuania. However, the future of the WKH network is uncertain due to the current voluntary system, lack of support and funding.
... According to international and national policy documents, biodiversity conservation is an integral part of sustainable forest landscape management [25][26][27]. Conservation should therefore be based on the principles of good landscape governance, representing relevant actors and stakeholders and equity [28][29][30][31]. ...
... Sustainable landscapes can thus be viewed as integrated systems encompassing diverse ecological, economic, cultural and social functions through landscape stewardship that empowers all landscape's stakeholders [30,37,42]. Thus, both the governance process and the outcomes on the ground need to be assessed [31]. ...
Regional clear-felling of naturally dynamic boreal forests has left remote forest landscapes in northern Europe with challenges regarding rural development based on wood mining. However, biodiversity conservation with higher levels of ambition than what is possible in regions with a long forest history, and cultural heritage, offer opportunities for developing new value chains that support rural development. We explored the opportunities for pro-active integrated spatial planning based on: (i) landscapes’ natural and cultural heritage values in the transboundary Kovda River catchment in Russia and Finland; (ii) forest canopy loss as a threat; and (iii) private, public and civil sector stakeholders’ views on the use and non-use values at local to international levels. After a 50-year history of wood mining in Russia, the remaining primeval forest and cultural heritage remnants are located along the pre-1940 Finnish-Russian border. Forest canopy loss was higher in Finland (0.42%/year) than in Russia (0.09%/year), and decreased from the south to the north in both countries. The spatial scales of stakeholders’ use of forest landscapes ranged from stand-scale to the entire catchment of Kovda River in Russia and Finland (~2,600,000 ha). We stress the need to develop an integrated landscape approach that includes: (i) forest landscape goods; (ii) other ecosystem services and values found in intact forest landscapes; and (iii) adaptive local and regional forest landscape governance. Transboundary collaboration offers opportunities for effective knowledge production and learning.
... In these predefined structures, citizens and other non-governmental actors find limited scope for action or for challenging the governmental domain and their structuring power (Lai and Forester, 1990). An analysis of the shift from top-down to comanagement arrangements in the implementation of European Union (EU) nature conservation directives (Rauschmayer et al., 2009) identified a gap between the rhetoric and practice of participatory co-management arrangements. In other cases, however, powerful non-governmental actors have also been observed to have a strong impact on the results of policy-making (Krott et al., 2014). ...
... Consequently, it is important to keep a differentiated, critical perspective towards co-management constellation and to question the actual political agency of citizens in such communicative and deliberative approaches. The case study shows there are critical voices who question if co-management approaches actually go beyond rhetoric or showcase participation (Uitermark and Duyvendak, 2008;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). A broad variety of different actors can support a culturally diverse discourse and can also support the integration of different meanings and interests to provide a common ground for long-term sustainable landscape development. ...
... Az érintettek bizalma ugyanis meginoghat a bevonási folyamatban, s egy következő, hasonló kezdeményezésben nem akarnak majd aktívan részt venni. Más esetekben a konfliktusok elmélyülhetnek ahelyett, hogy a feloldásukhoz közelítenénk (Rauschmayer et al. 2009, Young et al. 2013, Díez et al. 2015. A társadalmi részvétel és a természetvédelem kapcsolatát részletesen tárgyalja Mihók et al. (2016) ...
... A Natura 2000 területek kijelölése az uniós tagállamokban természetvédelmi szakmai elvárások alapján történt, először szélesebb társadalmi egyeztetés és kompenzáció nélkül, amely konfliktusokat okozott számos országban (Hiedanpää 2002, Rauschmayer et al. 2009, Grodzińska-Jurczak & Cent 2011. Magyarországon a fenntartási tervezés során, leggyakrabban a kijelöléshez közeli első projektben, de még a harmadik projektben is felszínre kerültek ilyen jellegű konfliktusok. ...
A társadalmi részvétel intézményesülésének még csak csírái találhatók meg hazánkban, ennek ellenére az érintettek bevonása a Natura 2000 területek fenntartási terveinek készítésébe már gyakorlattá vált. Értékelésük hasznos lehet a tervek készítői, a részvételi folyamatok irányítói és a természetvédelmi döntéshozók számára is. Ebben a cikkben a nemzetközi szakirodalomban alkalmazott értékelési kritériumokra építve a részvételi fenntartási tervezéshez kiválasztott és adaptált 12 szempont alapján értékelünk 23 természetvédelmi részvételi tervezési folyamatot, melyek 2007 és 2016 között valósultak meg. Vizsgálataink azt mutatják, hogy az értékelt folyamatok csak részben felelnek meg az elvárt kritériumoknak. illetve a fenntartási tervek természetvédelmi hatásainak megítéléséhez nem is rendelkezünk megfelelő információval. Az elemzésben megjelenő tervezési folyamatok erőssége a felkészült, társadalomtudományos hátterű és független részvételi csapat. Emellett azt is megállapíthatjuk, hogy a fenntartási tervezés és a kapcsolódó részvételi folyamatok sikerességéhez kiemelten fontos a támogató szakpolitikai háttér is.
... Rauschmayer F. analyzes natural energy resource management in the European Union, emphasizing state audit mechanisms in assessing consumption patterns and production José María Cordero Aparicio efficiency. The study highlights inconsistencies in national policies across EU member states and underscores regulatory oversight as a key factor in sustainable energy governance [2]. Giljum S. et al. explore scenarios for sustainable resource use, focusing on extraction and consumption trends [3]. ...
Effective management of natural resources is a crucial aspect of state regulation, particularly in the face of increasing environmental challenges. State audit mechanisms play a key role in ensuring transparency, legality, and efficiency in resource utilization. This study examines the experience of the European Union (EU) in auditing natural resource governance and evaluates its applicability to Kazakhstan. The main objective is to analyze the effectiveness of EU auditing strategies, including monitoring under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and strategic planning mechanisms. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, including comparative analysis of international practices and evaluation of regulatory mechanisms. The findings highlight key principles that can be adapted for Kazakhstan, such as integrating environmental indicators into audits, establishing a dual-level strategic reporting system, enhancing public-private cooperation mechanisms, and introducing financial incentives for sustainable resource management. The practical significance of this study lies in the development of recommendations to improve Kazakhstan’s state audit framework, ultimately leading to enhanced environmental policy effectiveness, improved resource governance, and long-term economic sustainability.
... The criteria selected for empirically assessing the governance of BoscoInCittà proved to be effective in combining processes and impacts assessment (i.e. cross-fertilization) and in providing a more solid and comprehensive methodology, as well as reliable results, compared to existing approaches that do not integrate multiple governance aspects (Rauschmayer et al. 2009;Wilde et al. 2015). The adoption of the framework allowed to enhance our understanding of how actors' collaboration functions at the local level in shaping urban forestry decision-making processes, policies and practice, as well as governance outcomes, especially in terms of forest benefits provision and collective goals achievement. ...
Although urban forest governance is gaining momentum in the literature, scholars have paid limited attention to assessing its functioning and performance. This article addresses this gap by adopting a governance capacity lens and providing an assessment framework tailored for local-level application. Using a mixed-methods approach, the framework is operationalized to investigate the governance of BoscoInCittà in Milan. Results show that actors collaboration is crucial for establishing effective governance arrangements that ensure the successful management of urban woodlands, tackle urbanization pressure, enhance ecological connections , and deliver forest benefits, even in the absence of parti-cipatory processes and comprehensive management and monitoring plans.
... Measurement and evaluation of natural resource systems and management performance: Rauschmayer et al. examined ideas surrounding natural resource assessment in Europe, contending that approaches that are both process-and results-oriented are required for water governance and biodiversity [47]. While all scenario assessments address many sustainability challenges, more complex scenarios based on stories, simulations, and model coupling are the most thorough, according to Reinhardt et al.'s assessments of integrated natural resources management under various scenarios [48]. Efficiency has been evaluated as a critical performance indicator for natural resources in a number of studies. ...
The topic of "Performance management of natural resources" has drawn more attention in the last few decades. Investigating how to manage natural resource performance more optimally is crucial for the long-term social and economic advancement of a nation. This study reviews the research progress of performance management of natural resources (including water resources) based on the pertinent literature of "Performance management of natural resources" and "performance management and evaluation of nature resources" in Web of Science. Through a review of the literature and inductive analysis, the authors found that the pursuit of sustainable resource consumption and management has emerged as the frontier direction of study. However, there is still room for development in the natural resource performance management evaluation system and methods, as well as the requirement for a comprehensive conceptual interpretation and analytical framework. As the literature on the factors impacting the success of natural resource management is currently lacking in depth, future research should concentrate on bolstering the usage of quantitative models. Enhancing the combination of research and quantitative models is also essential. This study builds research framework for natural resource performance management based on the body of current literature and the real-world experience of nations worldwide. In order to support decision-making for the sustainable use of natural resources, the authors describe the process and mechanism of performance management of natural resources and provide some workable evaluation methods based on a variety of evaluation objectives, subjects, and means.
... For instance, methods like randomized control studies, various experimental studies, and various types of case-studies that are widely used in the social sciences are also frequently applied to measure the effect of specific governance programmes or projects (Clark et al., 2021). Moreover, the well-known techniques of process evaluation and process tracing have also been used to assess and understand the causal efficacy of governance arrangements (Rauschmayer et al., 2009;Schmitt & Beach, 2015). Finally, benchmarking has for many decades played a crucial role in the manufacturing and financial sectors in order to gauge relative performance. ...
... This section presents the main results of the participatory action research. We suggest that results can be understood in terms of outputs, outcomes, and impact (Piggot-Irvine et al., 2015;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). By outputs, we refer to the concrete ideas and proposed solutions that the stakeholders/ participants in the workshops produced. ...
... One of the challenges by comparing these frameworks, however, is that key terms such as impacts, effects, outputs, or outcomes are used interchangeably, resulting in lack of conceptual clarity. Moreover, authors have identified several research gaps in this field of study, most of all in relation to environmental outcomes (Koontz and Thomas 2006;Koontz, Jager, and Newig 2020), as well as in relation to evaluation of processes (Rauschmayer et al. 2009). ...
Increasing irrigation efficiency has been high on the political agenda in Spain for many years. However, the overarching aim to reduce agricultural water consumption has not been met so far. To explore this phenomenon, Nora Schütze investigates processes of coordination between the water and agricultural sector in three Spanish river basins in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive implementation. From the perspective of polycentric governance, she identifies multiple mechanisms which illustrate how and why actors interact in certain ways, and thus shows why environmental aims of the Water Framework Directive remain unachieved.
... This section presents the main results of the participatory action research. We suggest that results can be understood in terms of outputs, outcomes, and impact (Piggot-Irvine et al., 2015;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). By outputs, we refer to the concrete ideas and proposed solutions that the stakeholders/ participants in the workshops produced. ...
This report presents the results of participatory action research (PAR) conducted in the 13 MATILDE regions between mid-2021 and early 2022, focusing on TCNs integration paths and on the role of migrants within processes of local development in rural and mountain areas of Europe. In each country, activities took place under the coordination of the Local Case Study Working Group, with full involvement of local stakeholders and good media coverage in most cases.
For each of the 13 case studies presented, the authors introduce the objectives of the local action research, then identify and describe the actors involved (focusing on TCNs), the type of activities actually carried out and the main outcomes achieved, considering also the impact in terms of change eventually produced (e.g., new perceptions and representations about the role of migrants, self-consciousness of TCNs with respect to their contribution to local economies and societies, etc.).
Particular attention is paid to the reflexive analysis of the participatory research tools used (referred to MATILDE Toolbox) and how they have been modified and adapted to the needs of the territorial contexts investigated (for example, to respond to the challenge posed by the pandemic or to face peculiar local challenges).
The national reports presented here should be read in relation to their being place-sensitive and contextual: in each case study, in fact, the research tools used and the approaches adopted constitute a particular territorial declination of the broader heuristic and conceptual approach developed by MATILDE since WP2. Moreover, each case study has been focusing on peculiar thematic issues, specifically relevant at local level, with respect to local economy, society and territory, in relationship to the phenomenon of international immigration.
... Natural resources systems and management performance measurement and evaluation: Rauschmayer et al. explored concepts related to natural resources assessment in Europe, arguing that a combination of results-oriented and process-oriented approaches is needed for biodiversity and water governance [47]. Reinhardt et al. conducted assessments of integrated natural resources management under different scenarios and found that all types of scenario assessments address many sustainability challenges but more complex scenarios based on stories, simulations and model coupling are the most comprehensive [48]. ...
In recent decades, the issue of “Performance management of natural resources” has received increasing attention. To explore the optimization of performance management of natural resources is of great significance to the sustainable development of a country’s society and economy. Based on the relevant literature of “Performance management of natural resources” and “performance management and evaluation of nature resources” in Web of Science from 1990 to 2021, this study reviews the research progress of performance management of natural resources (including water resources) with the help of the CiteSpace V. Through literature review and inductive analysis, the authors found that the pursuit of sustainable utilization and management of natural resources has become the frontier direction of research. However, performance management of natural resources still lacks a general conceptual interpretation and analysis framework, and its evaluation system and methods still need to be further improved. The existing research on influencing factors of natural resources management performance still lacks depth, and the application of quantitative models needs to be strengthened in the future. The combination of research and quantitative models also needs to be further strengthened. Based on the existing literature and the practical experience of countries all over the world, this study constructs the research framework of performance management of natural resources for China. On the basis of multiple evaluation objectives, subjects and means, the authors describes the process and mechanism of performance management of natural resources, and gives some feasible evaluation methods for the performance management of natural resources, in order to provide decision support for the sustainable utilization of natural resources for China.
... The framework and the criteria chosen effectively allow to combine governance processes and impacts assessment (i.e. cross-fertilization), and their evolution over time, providing in this way a more solid and consistent methodology, and reliable results, in comparison with evaluative approaches investigating only one aspect of (urban) environmental governance (Rauschmayer et al., 2009;Wilde et al., 2009). Its adoption can foster our understanding of how actors' collaboration is crucial also at the local level to shape (potentially) inclusive, strategic, data-driven, and effective decision-making and develop comprehensive UF management plans. ...
... Uncertainty is not necessarily an analytical shortcoming but can be a valuable finding if it is explicitly discussed and integrated with the analysis. Some land-use changes require an acceptance that there will always be uncertainty because of the difficulty of attributing one factor as a cause and another one as an outcome (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). ...
This article illustrates the potential of the telecoupling framework to improve causal attribution in land system science (LSS). We shed light on the distinct analytical approaches that have characterized telecoupling research to date, how these can contribute to LSS with new insights, and whether such insights can improve causal attribution. By reviewing 45 empirical telecoupling studies, we firstly demonstrate how telecoupling is applied in a broad variety of ways within LSS and across different disciplines and research topics, albeit with qualitative data and assessments being underrepresented. Secondly, we show that telecoupling is clearer in its contribution to causal attribution when applied explicitly in framework integration or empirical application, rather than when it is included more indirectly as a narrative. Finally, we argue that telecoupling can complement existing LSS theory with a flexible and holistic approach to dealing with the uncertainties and complexities related to attributing causality in a globalized world.
... modelling) and water resource outcomes (Lautze et al., 2011). While some governance researchers similarly argue for a separation of water governance process and outcome functions (Rauschmayer et al., 2009), others suggest that both must be analyzed to identify the relevant drivers of change and their (positive/negative) results (López-Gunn et al., 2013). For the purposes of this paper it is most useful to draw on both these principles of good water governance to "create important bases for assessing the state of water governance in a given location, and … opportunities for improvement" (Lautze et al., 2011, pg. ...
The transfer of successful water market governance between international settings is increasingly attractive to policy makers under globalization. This paper tests lesson-drawing approaches to water market governance transfers using data from Spain and the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Spain is the blueprint country for water market adoption in Europe, while Australia is often presented as a world leader in innovative water market arrangements. A preliminary comparative analysis framework linking water market governance principles to observed institutional arrangements and outcomes is provided. Finally, some key lessons, problems and policy transfer potential to stimulate and enhance Spanish water markets from lesson-drawing approaches are drawn, with an emphasis on adaptive capacity as an institutional performance metric. We find that Spain’s current water governance institutions and arrangements offer a solid platform for marketing reform, where some key adaptive capacity constraints are able to be addressed. The lessons drawn from this study highlight those areas of change which, while challenging, can be achieved in our view.
... Two key tasks are to define performance targets and planetary boundaries for safe operation (e.g., Svancara et al. 2005;Rockström et al. 2009;European Commission 2021), and approaches to stewardship toward ecological, economic, and social sustainability (e.g., Steffen et al. 2011). This calls for assessments in terms of diagnosing the consequences on the ground in social-ecological systems (Rauschmayer et al. 2009;Angelstam and Elbakidze 2017). ...
Exploitation of natural forests forms expanding frontiers. Simultaneously, protected area frontiers aim at maintaining functional habitat networks. To assess net effects of these frontiers, we examined 16 case study areas on five continents. We (1) mapped protected area instruments, (2) assessed their effectiveness, (3) mapped policy implementation tools, and (4) effects on protected areas originating from their surroundings. Results are given as follows: (1) conservation instruments covered 3-77%, (2) effectiveness of habitat networks depended on representativeness, habitat quality, functional connectivity, resource extraction in protected areas, time for landscape restoration, ''paper parks'', ''fortress conservation'', and data access, (3) regulatory policy instruments dominated over economic and informational, (4) negative matrix effects dominated over positive ones (protective forests, buffer zones, inaccessibility), which were restricted to former USSR and Costa Rica. Despite evidence-based knowledge about conservation targets, the importance of spatial segregation of conservation and use, and traditional knowledge, the trajectories for biodiversity conservation were generally negative.
... In Australia, a number of empirically and theoretically grounded frameworks have been developed to analyse and evaluate natural resource governance systems and other complex systems, including their constituent plans, programs, strategies and institutions (Althaus et al., 2007;Bellamy et al., 2001;Connick & Innes, 2003;Curtis et al., 1998;Hajkowicz, 2009;Turnbull, 2005;Vogel, 2011). While it is widely recognised that governance systems operate in a non-linear, systemic fashion, they are not always analysed in this way (Abrahams, 2005;Carman, 2007;Hoggarth, 2010;Plummer & Armitage, 2007;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Thus, GSA was developed to deal with the management of complex governance contexts such as complex landscape management and natural resource management (NRM) (see . ...
... In Australia, a number of empirically and theoretically grounded frameworks have been developed to analyse and evaluate natural resource governance systems and other complex systems, including their constituent plans, programs, strategies and institutions (Althaus et al., 2007;Bellamy et al., 2001;Connick & Innes, 2003;Curtis et al., 1998;Hajkowicz, 2009;Turnbull, 2005;Vogel, 2011). While it is widely recognised that governance systems operate in a non-linear, systemic fashion, they are not always analysed in this way (Abrahams, 2005;Carman, 2007;Hoggarth, 2010;Plummer & Armitage, 2007;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Thus, GSA was developed to deal with the management of complex governance contexts such as complex landscape management and natural resource management (NRM) (see . ...
... In Australia, a number of empirically and theoretically grounded frameworks have been developed to analyse and evaluate natural resource governance systems and other complex systems, including their constituent plans, programs, strategies and institutions (Althaus et al., 2007;Bellamy et al., 2001;Connick & Innes, 2003;Curtis et al., 1998;Hajkowicz, 2009;Turnbull, 2005;Vogel, 2011). While it is widely recognised that governance systems operate in a non-linear, systemic fashion, they are not always analysed in this way (Abrahams, 2005;Carman, 2007;Hoggarth, 2010;Plummer & Armitage, 2007;Rauschmayer et al., 2009). Thus, GSA was developed to deal with the management of complex governance contexts such as complex landscape management and natural resource management (NRM) (see . ...
Northern Australia, the region of Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is characterised by profound difference and complexity in cultures, worldviews and ways of being. An array of diverse governance responses to the way this complexity and difference manifests itself has been discussed elsewhere (Stephens et al., 2014). This chapter reflects, in particular, on the use of Governance Systems Analysis (GSA) in Northern Australia in improving governance outcomes in this complex world. GSA is an analytical tool deployed to support deliberative dialogue among those involved in complex governance systems and contexts in the north. To date, its most common use has been in the mobilisation of the dominant norms of governmental practice to resolve complex problems at a landscape scale. In the context of multiplicity and incommensurability of different ways of being, this chapter seeks to enhance GSA’s ability to engage explicitly and ethically with genuine cultural difference embedded within Northern Australian society. It uses Critical Systems Thinking (CST) to revisit, through systems thinking, GSA’s structural-functionalist foundations. The chapter’s objective is to enhance an approach to complex problem solving that is already used in Northern Australia to support practical policy engagements.
... They include the "framework for assessing and monitoring forest governance" of the Food and Agriculture Organization , the "natural resource governance framework assessment guide" of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (Campese, 2016), and the "governance of forest initiatives indicator framework" of the World Resource Institute . While these frameworks do not offer direct inferences on the economic, ecological and social outcomes of governance systems, they provide a comprehensive understanding of governance processes that is likely to contribute to improvements in the quality of decision-making and implementation (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). The Governance of Forest Initiative (GFI) indicator framework is widely recommended for forest governance assessments given its comprehensive coverage, providing a series of indicators for analysing different dimensions of forest governance systems (Agung et al., 2014;Brito et al., 2009). ...
... Evaluation of policy implementation is about what develops between the establishment of an agreed policy and the ultimate impact of subsequent actions in the real world [49]. Rauschmayer et al. [50] focused on three steps for evaluation, being (1) the policy process, (2) outputs (e.g., policy instruments, strategic assessments, planning processes), and (3) the consequences in terms of outcomes on the ground (e.g., the functionality of green infrastructures in terms of functional habitat networks for biodiversity conservation). This study focuses on the outcomes ( Figure 2) and their consequences ( Figure 3). ...
There is a rivalry between policies on intensification of forest management to meet the demands of a growing bioeconomy, and policies on green infrastructure functionality. Evaluation of the net effects of different policy instruments on real-world outcomes is crucial. First, we present data on final felling rates in wood production landscapes and stand age distribution dynamic in two case study regions, and changes in dead wood amounts in Sweden. Second, the growth of formally protected areas was compiled and changes in functional connectivity analysed in these regions, and the development of dead wood and green tree retention in Sweden was described. The case studies were the counties Dalarna and Jämtland (77,000 km²) representing an expanding frontier of boreal forest transformation. In the wood production landscape, official final felling rates averaged 0.84%/year, extending the regional timber frontier. The amount of forest <60 years old increased from 27–34% in 1955 to 60–65% in 2017. The amounts of dead wood, a key forest naturalness indicator, declined from 1994 to 2016 in north Sweden, and increased in the south, albeit both at levels far below evidence-based biodiversity targets. Formal forest protection grew rapidly in the two counties from 1968 to 2020 but reached only 4% of productive forests. From 2000 to 2019, habitat network functionality for old Scots pine declined by 15–41%, and Norway spruce by 15–88%. There were mixed trends for dead wood and tree retention at the stand scale. The net result of the continued transformation of near-natural forest remnants and conservation efforts was negative at the regional and landscape levels, but partly positive at the stand scale. However, at all three scales, habitat amounts were far below critical thresholds for the maintenance of viable populations of species, let alone ecological integrity. Collaboration among stakeholder categories should reject opinionated narratives, and instead rely on evidence-based knowledge about green infrastructure pressures, responses, and states.
... It is important to include all the relevant stakeholders from the point of view of the quality of the information and the efficiency of the agreements, considering that all opinions and interests have the right to participate [68,69]. Thus, it is necessary that the participatory processes have a wide range of participants from different areas [70,71], also combining local and scientific knowledge [72][73][74], which will ultimately result in the legitimacy, acceptance and transparency of the process itself [75][76][77], and in the social learning derived from it [31,78,79]. ...
The planning of rural land depends to a large extent on the agrarian and forestry development model agreed upon for it. Within the framework of agrarian multifunctionality, to evaluate different development alternatives and their effect on territorial planning, its multiple dimensions must be considered as well as the interests and needs of the stakeholders. This work thus addresses the comprehensive evaluation of development alternatives for the rural area of a municipality of the Basque Country (Spain) through the implementation of a multi-criteria evaluation method with social participation. The results show, firstly, the existence of trade-offs between the functions to be promoted in the various development models evaluated. Secondly, the results indicate the need to reverse recent trends in the sector and the convenience of moving towards an agro-livestock model of greater ecological and local character, independently of the followed forest model. In fact, the evaluation carried out also reveals, thirdly, the existence of more or less latent conflicts, in particular with regards to forest policy.
... While these frameworks do not offer direct inferences on the economic, ecological and social outcomes of governance systems, they provide a comprehensive understanding of governance processes that is likely to contribute to improvements in the quality of decision-making and implementation (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). The Governance of Forest Initiative (GFI) indicator framework is widely recommended for forest governance assessments given its comprehensive coverage, providing a series of indicators for analysing different dimensions of forest governance systems (Agung et al., 2014;Brito et al., 2009). ...
Good forest governance is a prerequisite for sustainable forest management and the successful implementation of initiatives that aim to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. The necessity for good governance is high in Zambia´s Miombo ecoregion, which is characterised by persistent deforestation that also threatens forest-dependent livelihoods. Zambia has adopted policies and initiatives to improve forest governance. We use the Governance of Forests Initiatives (GFI) indicator framework from the World Resource Institute in 24 communities in the Miombo ecoregion to examine Zambia´s status in this respect. The Wilcoxon rank test is applied to compare the de facto governance performance between different arrangements with differing tenures and restrictions to forest access and use. We employ factor analysis to test the applicability of the GFI framework based on community perceptions and cluster analysis to examine whether patterns of community clusters reflect the governance structure of the provincial local government administration. Comparative results show low mean scores for governance indicators, which do not differ significantly between arrangements. This indicates a weak de facto forest governance performance across arrangements, specifically characterised by an inadequate enforcement of rules and restrictions on use, insufficient institutional financial, human and technical capacities and unsatisfactory participatory land use planning and forest policy-making processes. We recommend support for financial and technical institutional capacities combined with coordination mechanisms to permit the satisfactory enforcement of forest rules. Frequent monitoring, apprehension and graduated sanctions are proposed as part of the rule enforcement procedures. Stringent de jure requirements coupled with capacity building for participatory land use planning and public policy participation also need to be adopted. This would also contribute towards achieving targets for Zambia´s climate change response strategy, national development plan 2017-2021 and REDD + preparedness phase. The factor analysis largely confirms the GFI framework's suit-ability for governance analysis on the ground since factors generally mirror GFI indicators. However, because de facto governance processes sometimes do not precisely reflect thematic areas of the framework, we warn against the use of single indicators to exclusively represent a thematic area. Similarly, specific attention has to be paid to customary rules and institutions when applying the GFI framework because compared to the framework, the respective aspects are more clearly differentiated on the ground. Cluster analysis reveals a high variability of governance processes within and across provinces. Decentralization measures should take into account clusters that may in some cases follow administrative levels or in other cases go beyond the established administrative boundaries. Specifically, initiatives to integrate customary structures into the decentralized governance structure should take these regional differences into account.
... Among the multi-criteria methods with social participation, different rationalities can be distinguished in the pursuit of social participation. Fiorino [43], in his pioneering work on social participation, describes substantive, normative, and instrumental arguments that justify participatory processes compared to technocratic approaches: (i) according to substantive arguments, the quality of processes is enhanced by considering problems, issues, or solutions of actors that may not be taken into consideration when decisions are based solely on expert knowledge [44]; (ii) normative arguments defend the notion that democratic principles require the incorporation of all visions in decision-making processes; and (iii) instrumental arguments show that social participation gives legitimacy to decision-making processes, and that the adopted agreements are more likely to be accepted and therefore more efficient [45,46]. Socio-ecological systems are complex and there are different points of view and value systems concerning them [47]. ...
Decisions on environmental issues are complex and multidimensional as they represent multiple interests and values. Nevertheless, the ability of participatory multi-criteria methodologies to deal with this kind of problem is widely acknowledged. Traditionally, multi-criteria methods have focused more on technical issues than on the representation of participants’ preferences. In participatory processes there are questions such as who establishes the mechanisms of participation, in what terms these processes are developed and who is going to participate, which are determining factors that have not been sufficiently studied in multi-criteria analysis. This paper, in order to shed light on this gap, aims to compare the creation of social preferences under two different participatory approaches. For this purpose, two different participatory approaches are compared. On the one hand, applying the social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) method, a deliberative process is developed following the principles of deliberative democracy. On the other hand, an aggregation process of individual preferences has been developed based on information collected through surveys. Both approaches have advantages as well as constraints. Our main finding is that the information obtained through the different participatory methods is different and complementary. Therefore, we can state that both participatory methods can be enriching assessment processes.
... Pettersson et al. (2010), analysing and comparing landscape planning processes in connection with developing wind energy plants in Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), established a qualitative framework based on investigating three major aspects: the institutional context, the legislative framework, and territorial planning procedures (including an evaluation of the environmental impacts of windmills). Rauschmayer et al. (2009) analysed the governance of natural resourcesnamely, the challenges in implementing the Habitats Directive (Natura 2000 network) and Water Frame Directive (WFD) in the EU. Their research emphasises that 'both the current task of the Natura 2000 network (the development of management plans) and the WFD place considerable emphasis on good governance, in particular with regard to participation' (Rauschmayer et al., 2009:170). ...
Landscape is an important public interest with social, cultural, ecological, and environmental dimensions. It is central to the formation of local cultures and contributes to human well-being. Some areas are protected by supranational agreements that have significant international value. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) calls for integrating landscape considerations into other policy areas such as motorway planning that may directly or indirectly impact the landscape. The key challenge is the integration of existing institutional backgrounds and governing traditions. This paper compares how two qualitative case studies managed landscape protection while planning motorways. Specifically, we examine two internationally protected areas – one in Hungary that focuses on nature and one in Sweden the focuses on culture – to consider how these areas were assessed during the planning of the new motorways. Analysing the cases through the theoretical lens of institutional interplay, we found that the main differences between the two cases can be attributed to the different governing traditions and interpretations of landscape.
... But how can the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation policies be evaluated? Rauschmayer et al. [9] suggest that this can be done by assessing either their outcomes or their implementation processes. ...
“Natura 2000” is a coordinated network of protected areas that stretches across the European Union in compliance with two directives (the so-called “Habitats Directive” and the “Birds Directive”) that underpin the Union’s policies on biodiversity conservation. This study is aimed at assessing the implementation of the network by qualitatively analyzing how Special Areas of Conservation are being designated. Such designation process, which is being implemented, although with great delay, in a number of member states, entails the establishment of site-specific conservation measures that may be included within appropriate management plans or other development plans. A systematic documental analysis of official acts establishing Special Areas of Conservation and approving conservation measures and management plans was performed by taking Italy as a case study. The analysis focuses on four key topics, as follows: use of conservation measures and appropriate management plans; multi-level governance of the Natura 2000 sites, in terms of involved institutions and tiers of government; stakeholders’ inclusion in the designation process; and the relationship between conservation measures and the wider spatial planning system. The results show significant differences regarding the implementation of the Natura 2000 network and highlight potential general hindrances to completing the designation process in the European Union.
... Among the multi-criteria methods with social participation, different rationalities can be distinguished in the pursuit of social participation. Fiorino [43], in his pioneering work on social participation, describes substantive, normative, and instrumental arguments that justify participatory processes compared to technocratic approaches: (i) according to substantive arguments, the quality of processes is enhanced by considering problems, issues, or solutions of actors that may not be taken into consideration when decisions are based solely on expert knowledge [44]; (ii) normative arguments defend the notion that democratic principles require the incorporation of all visions in decision-making processes; and (iii) instrumental arguments show that social participation gives legitimacy to decision-making processes, and that the adopted agreements are more likely to be accepted and therefore more efficient [45,46]. Socio-ecological systems are complex and there are different points of view and value systems concerning them [47]. ...
Decisions on environmental issues are complex and multidimensional as they represent multiple interests and values. Nevertheless, the ability of participatory multi-criteria methodologies to deal with this kind of problem is widely acknowledged. Traditionally, multi-criteria methods have focused more on technical issues than on the representation of participants’ preferences. In participatory processes there are questions such as who establishes the mechanisms of participation, in what terms these processes are developed and who is going to participate, which are determining factors that have not been sufficiently studied in multi-criteria analysis. This paper, in order to shed light on this gap, aims to compare the creation of social preferences under two different participatory approaches. For this purpose, two different participatory approaches are compared. On the one hand, applying the social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) method, a deliberative process is developed following the principles of deliberative democracy. On the other hand, an aggregation process of individual preferences has been developed based on information collected through surveys. Both approaches have advantages as well as constraints. Our main finding is that the information obtained through the different participatory methods is different and complementary. Therefore, we can state that both participatory methods can be enriching assessment processes.
... Further, the shift in theory from evaluating governance based on linear models to more systemic concepts has been slowly progressing. Fragments of understanding about governance activity within isolated domains, organizations, and functions are a common approach in the literature (Rauschmayer et al. 2009;Dale et al. 2013). One means of addressing this governance evaluation gap has been proposed by Dale et al. (2013) through their governance system analysis (GSA) framework for the systematic evaluation of complex governance systems. ...
To achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), all countries’ efforts are essential, and each country needs to recognize their level of achievement in terms of the SDGs, identify the goals and targets that require more effort, and build more effective and well-performed governance systems to accelerate their efforts toward achieving the SDGs. This study identifies different governance system structures for achieving the SDGs and the challenges they face in improving their performance using a new matrix tool to evaluate governance systems for the SDGs. We use Japan and Indonesia as case studies to provide perspectives from countries at different levels of economic development. The results show that the governance systems for the SDGs are structurally and functionally different in the two countries, which face different challenges. Japan has relatively well-structured “vision and objective setting”, “research and assessment”, and “strategy development”, but faces challenges in relation to “implementation” and “monitoring, evaluation, and review”, while Indonesia has relatively well-structured “research and assessment”, “strategy development”, and “monitoring, evaluation, and review.” However, Indonesia faces challenges in relation to “vision and objective setting” and “implementation.” We found that the differences in the governance systems for the SDGs have arisen in relation to three key elements: differences in the development of governance systems for the SDGs, differences in the lead ministries, and the existence or otherwise of a supportive legal framework. We argue that the proposed matrix tool is useful in identifying the structure of governance systems for the SDGs and the challenges that must be overcome to improve the performance of these systems. However, some analytical limitations must be overcome before the tool can be applied to other countries.
... Additionally, governance is asymmetric between regional, member state and EU levels, which makes it difficult to coordinate and thus ensure coherent forest policy steering. Given the diversity of forest and woodland types and social-ecological systems in Europe, it is therefore important to understand how to translate forest and forest-related policies into action in different contexts, and to assess the consequences on the ground (e.g., Rauschmayer et al. 2009;Angelstam et al. 2013). ...
Context
Achieving sustainable development as an inclusive societal process, and securing sustainability and resilience of human societies as well as the natural environment are wicked problems. Realising sustainable forest management (SFM) policy in local landscapes is one example.
Objectives
Using the European Union as a case study for the implementation of SFM policy across multiple governance levels in different contexts, we discuss the benefits of adopting an integrated landscape approach with place and space, partnership and sustainability as three pillars.
Methods
We map the institutional frameworks for implementing SFM policy within all EU member states. Next, we analyse whether or not there is EU-level forest governance, and how power is distributed among EU, member state and operational levels.
Results
Mechanisms to steer a centralized forest governance approach towards SFM in the EU are marginal. Instead, there is a polycentric forest governance with 90 national and sub-national governments, which create and implement own and EU-wide SFM-related policies. Additionally, both among and within regional governance units there is a large variation in governance arrangements linked to land ownership at the operational level.
Conclusions
To effectively translate EU-wide SFM and SFM-related policies into action in local landscapes, it is crucial to acknowledge that there are different land ownership structures, landscape histories and alternative value chains based on multiple ecosystem services. Therefore regionally adapted landscape approaches engaging multiple stakeholders and actors through evidence-based landscape governance and stewardship towards sustainable forest landscape management are needed. Model Forest, Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research platform and Biosphere Reserve are three of many examples.
... El concepto de capacidad de gobernanza de la red, definido por Arts y Goverde (2006), abarca la idea anterior y la extiende al siguiente cuestionamiento: hasta qué punto la red es capaz de disminuir o solucionar problemas sociales y administrativos, es decir, qué tan efectivos son los procesos colaborativos de gobernanza ambiental. El análisis de la efectividad de la gobernanza ambiental se divide en dos niveles: uno, el nivel de la producción social (social outcomes), hace referencia al logro de acuerdos, a los programas diseñados y establecidos, a las nuevas regulaciones puestas en práctica a partir de la colaboración entre actores públicos y privados, o a cambios en la política pública, es decir al proceso de gobernanza en sí mismo (Felix Rauschmayer, Berghöfer, Omann, & Zikos, 2009). En este estudio nos referimos a este nivel como el nivel de la capacidad de gobernanza desde el punto de vista del desempeño de la red. ...
El objetivo del presente libro es proporcionar una visión teórica-práctica sobre el tema de la gobernanza ambiental desde sus orígenes etimológicos hasta sus contextos actuales, las confusiones que giran a su alrededor y las diferentes posturas que se dan respecto a este concepto. En un segundo momento se presenta a la gobernanza desde la perspectiva de las teorías del aprendizaje organizacional ejemplificando con estudios de caso naciones donde el análisis se centra en los códigos culturales, experiencias, aspiraciones personales entre otros factores que llevan a la toma de decisiones.
Una tercera parte se enfoca a la gobernanza ambiental moderna, al análisis contextual del funcionamiento de redes de políticas públicas que conforman la participación de actores distintos al gobierno que persiguen un objetivo común y que se necesitan mutuamente para llegar a una solución. Y finalmente una gobernanza que no es gobernanza en donde las debilidades en el diseño de política pública evidencia las medidas contradictorias a las que se llegan ocasionando confusión y rechazo social.
Es una invitación a profundizar en cómo se da y no se da una gobernanza ambiental, un tema actual sin duda importante para todos los interesados en la política pública.
The objective of this book is to provide a theoretical-practical view on the issue of environmental governance from its etymological origins to its current contexts, the confusions that surround it and the different positions that are given regarding this concept. In a second moment, governance is presented from the perspective of organizational learning theories exemplifying with case studies nations where the analysis focuses on cultural codes, experiences, personal aspirations among other factors that lead to decision making.
A third part focuses on modern environmental governance, the contextual analysis of the functioning of public policy networks that make up the participation of actors other than the government that pursue a common goal and that need each other to reach a solution. And finally a governance that is not governance where the weaknesses in the design of public policy evidence the contradictory measures to which they come causing confusion and social rejection.
It is an invitation to deepen in how environmental governance is given and not given, a current issue without doubt important for all those interested in public policy.
... Governance means both the process and the institutions involved in decision making, but not necessarily the consequences of the decisions made [23]. In general, governance means "the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a region's affairs, comprising the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups express their interests, exercise their legal rights, fulfil their obligations and mediate their differences" [24]. ...
In this article, the results of the bibliometric analysis applied to research on “Water Governance” are presented in order to observe behavior patterns in the key areas of this field of knowledge (progression, most productive authors, etc.). This research is complemented with a co-citation analysis. When considering two databases, a comparative study is carried out between both databases through coverage, overlap, dispersion, or concentration indicators. The results indicate that this area of knowledge has evolved rapidly and has gained popularity and importance among researchers, especially since 2009, when the real boom of the discipline took place, with about two-thirds of the papers being published in the last five years. The main authors, the most relevant articles based on the citation criterion, the institutions, and countries with the highest number of investigations and the journals where this topic is published are also identified. Scopus is the database that performs better coverage by collecting a higher number of articles and obtaining a greater number of citations.
... In other words, the subsidiary levels where the goals and objectives from 'level one' steering policies (WFD, Natura 2000, CAP) are operationalised with concrete manifestations in particular settings and places (Mickwitz et al., 2009). This is a focus that can help build knowledge of environmental policy implementation (Rauschmayer et al., 2009). ...
Inadequate Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is often thought to hinder adaptive management of socio-ecological systems. A key influence on environmental management practices are environmental policies: however, their consequences for M&E practices have not been well-examined.
We examine three policy areas - the Water Framework Directive, the Natura 2000 Directives, and the Agri-Environment Schemes of the Common Agricultural Policy - whose statutory requirements influence how the environment is managed and monitored across Europe. We use a comparative approach to examine what is monitored, how monitoring is carried out, and how results are used to update management, based on publicly available documentation across nine regional and national cases.
The requirements and guidelines of these policies have provided significant impetus for monitoring: however, we find this policy-driven M&E usually does not match the ideals of what is needed to inform adaptive management. There is a tendency to focus on understanding state and trends rather than tracking the effect of interventions; a focus on specific biotic and abiotic indicators at the expense of understanding system functions and processes, especially social components; and limited attention to how context affects systems, though this is sometimes considered via secondary data. The resulting data are sometimes publicly-accessible, but it is rarely clear if and how these influence decisions at any level, whether this be in the original policy itself or at the level of measures such as site management plans.
Adjustments to policy-driven M&E could better enable learning for adaptive management, by reconsidering what supports a balanced understanding of socio-ecological systems and decision-making. Useful strategies include making more use of secondary data, and more transparency in data-sharing and decision-making. Several countries and policy areas already offer useful examples. Such changes are essential given the influence of policy, and the urgency of enabling adaptive management to safeguard socio-ecological systems.
... Stakeholders, and the positions they prioritise, have become increasingly important considerations in the management of ecosystem goods and services [30,39,46]. This is especially so in marine aquaculture, where efforts to increase production to meet growing demand places unique stressors on both the environment and communities where fish and shellfish farms operate [37,57]. ...
A 56-statement Q Methodology constructed a hierarchy of values from the views of eighty-six high-level, well-informed stakeholders on the subject of salmon aquaculture development in Ireland. These values, sorted by z-scores, provided a direct comparison on the strength of stakeholder priorities associated with salmon aquaculture, other maritime economic sectors, and the ecosystem goods and services they rely upon. By clustering issues within eight interrelated social-ecological systems themes and performing Principal Components Factor Analysis, five factor groups were identified. High-priority consensus views were identified from factor group Q sorts. Stakeholders broadly agree that maintaining healthy and productive maritime habitats is a priority for all related sectors, that the sector would benefit from an independent regulatory body, and that a policy movement away from single-sector and toward multi-sector approaches is needed to alleviate conflict in the shared maritime space. Ireland produced approximately 16,300 t of farmed salmon in 2016, one percent of the global share of production, and have are aiming to surpass 22,000 t per annum by 2023. This study shows that Q Methodology has the capacity to quantify hierarchies of values within communities and highlight areas of stakeholder consensus at a policy-relevant level. In doing so, Q Methodology allows policy-makers, managers, and stakeholder leaders to better define priorities, recommend broadly supported policies, and resolve conflict.
... The water policy literature emphasizes the need for wide participation across institutions, at multiple levels (European, national, regional and local), in order to guarantee effective implementation and harmonization across EU countries [1][2][3]. The task becomes more difficult when it comes to managing water bodies in freshwater PAs, which are also designated as nature reserves (i.e., enlisted in the Natura 2000 network). ...
The increasing pressure on water resources in Europe’s broader area led member states to take measures and adopt a common legislative “umbrella” of directives to protect them. The aim of this research is to investigate practicing deficiencies, information lacks and distances from optimal status as set by the Water Framework Directive and supporting water uses. This contributes to the improvement of the efficiency and harmonization of all environmental goals especially when management of Protected Areas is addressed. Gap analysis, an approach that reveals the distance between current and desired level, was carried out, targeting five Mediterranean hydro-ecosystems, covering three major water policy pillars “Monitoring Practices”, “Management Practices” and “Water Quality and Pressures”. Data for such analyses was collected by literature research supported by a query matrix. The findings revealed a lack in compliance with the Water Framework Directive regarding the “Monitoring Practices” and several deficiencies in sites burdened by eutrophication and human pressures on “Water Quality and Pressures” field. As for “Management Practices”, extra effort should be applied in all hydro-ecosystems to reach the desirable state. We suggest that gap analysis, as a harmonization tool, can unify apparently different areas under the same goals to reveal the extra necessary “investment”.
The topic of alternative farming practices for sustainable development has gained significant attention in recent years as global concerns over soil nutrient loss, environmental degradation, climate change, and the limitations of industrial agriculture have been widely researched. Traditional farming practices in countries like China, India, and the USA have long incorporated principles of sustainability, and these approaches hold valuable lessons for modern agriculture.
Coastal forest ecosystems can benefit from an empirical study of the sustainable governance of natural gas exploration. But, policymakers and practitioners cannot make informed decisions in the absence of thorough and comprehensive research. This study examines empirical research on the sustainable governance of natural gas exploration within the coastal forest ecosystem, identifies research gaps and outlines future directions. Researchers utilised the theories, context, characteristics, and methodologies (TCCM) analysis in the systematic narrative review of nine studies. The study findings revealed that sustainable governance of natural gas exploration to lessen coastal forest ecological consequences is questionable since most of the study indicated negative impacts on coastal forests. Furthermore, the study findings contributed by identifying the most prominent theories, such as economic theory and efficient taxation, which are thought to maximise long‐term economic benefits while minimising the degradation of forest ecosystems. Natural gas exploration‐related taxes have the potential to support conservation initiatives and coastal forest ecosystem restoration. Furthermore, the study acknowledges that most studies do not have guidelines for evaluating the concepts of sustainable governance. Moreover, the research suggests the need for sustainable governance that strikes a balance between the goals of natural gas development and the protection of coastal forest ecosystems, enacts laws and regulations that promote good governance towards the Green House Gases protocol, and sets up monitoring and control mechanisms. Furthermore, the government should provide incentives, such as research grants, to encourage research and dissemination, as well as sustainable management techniques for natural gas extraction and coastal forest ecosystem management and conservation.
An important, although insufficiently answered, environmental governance research question concerns how exactly participation improves policy implementation at different scales. Numerous studies have highlighted important variables influencing the effectiveness of participatory processes. However, studies of participation tend to be strongly process‐oriented rather than system‐oriented and often overlook the reality that participatory processes are part of increasingly complex and broader decision‐making systems. By analyzing particular process‐system linkages, this paper contributes new knowledge regarding how participatory processes can influence decision‐making in polycentric governance systems. This study focuses on the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, which aims for good ecological and chemical status in all European waters, in six German states with varied polycentric decision‐making structures. No direct decision‐making power was found to be associated with any of the participatory processes themselves. Rather, the power remained embedded within the other established institutional structures. Nevertheless, the participatory processes did still intend to influence decision‐making within those established structures through the aggregation and multiplication of information. The findings show that only a few representatives or a small proportion of the total number of decision‐makers are involved in participatory processes. Therefore, those processes may either affect decisions directly due to the binding nature of the decisions taken within participatory processes or alternatively have effects through more complex and nuanced multiplication routes following the conclusion of each participatory process. Moreover, all of the participatory processes examined in this study were reliant to some extent on such multiplication mechanisms to amplify the effects on decisions throughout the overall polycentric governance system.
The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty, has usually been studied via the correlation between resource endowment and specific economic variables. Moving away from a purely economic approach, the present article broadens the perspective of the analysis and contends that the key factor in the explanation of this paradox is the governance of natural resources. Given the specific characteristics of environmental governance, we propose that it be studied applying the analytical approach provided by adaptive governance and the postulates of post-normal science. The subject chosen for our research is an electrification project carried out in the Republic of Cape Verde, involving the building of a mini-solar-wind power plant in the village of Vale da Custa on the island of Santiago.
The post-normal science framework sets out to provide methodological tools aimed not at the search for solutions (i.e., the search for the truth), but at broadening our knowledge of the processes of environmental governance through the assessment of quality. This, in fact, is the guiding principle of the analysis. For our study, we propose a novel combination of methodologies, bringing together socio-institutional analysis, the Pedigree scheme and social sensitivity analysis, in order to generate synergies and enrich our exploration of governance.
The application of this methodology to the electrification project sheds light on the diversity of the difficulties facing initiatives of this kind: for instance, the lack of adaptation of the regulatory frameworks to the situation in the country, socio-cultural problems, the lack of technical training of the local population, and shortages in the supply of materials. It also provides valuable information on the multiplicity of stakeholders involved: political representatives at international, regional, national and local levels, the town's inhabitants, and the technical staff and experts in the field of renewable energies. All these actors have their own interests, objectives and resources, and also their own perspectives on the problem at hand, namely, the absence of an electricity supply system in Vale da Custa.
The incorporation of participatory processes enriches the analysis and shows that improving governance in developing countries requires a consideration of the extended-peer community and a rejection of the traditional technocratic analysis. The study stresses the potential of quality assessment methodologies and their ability to shed light on the reality of countries like those in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Biodiversity loss, climate change and natural resource depletion are major concerns at local, state-wide and global scales. In the European context, addressing these challenges depends largely on the implementation of European Union (EU) environmental policy. This Special Issue sheds light on the making of environmental Europe in localized action and practice, from the perspective of non-linearity of policy implementation processes and trajectories. The different articles address three analytical challenges examining policy implementation of (i) highlighting the ties between the macro and the micro scales of implementation; (ii) taking into account the materiality of ecosystems as well as the diversity of forms of knowledge, representations and values associated with nature; (iii) characterizing the new relational configurations emerging between public and private actors involved in hybrid forms of governance. Through examination of the implementation of EU environmental and sustainable development policies primarily in the French context, the Special Issue contributes to a renewed understanding of policy implementation as institutional change. Further, the articles highlight the values underlying the implementation of environmental Europe and the specific role of science in shaping the representations, instruments and strategies at stake.
When watersheds span multiple administrative jurisdictions, ensuring the equitable division of responsibility, conflict resolutions and information sharing are all needed to achieve ecological balance, economic development, and social security. Under socio-ecological conditions full of uncertainties, diverse participating groups and multiple perspectives on resource threats need to be involved. Adaptive governance as a theory refers to the structures and processes by which people can address successive interventions and optimize governmental decisions. Through reviewing existing research and analyzing case studies, we uncover problems for shared water governance and highlight attributes of good adaptive governance processes. We emphasize the importance of learning, resilience, as well as accountability, and discuss how these features have the potential for building effective governance with adap-tive capacity. We propose a conceptual model to help enable and measure the adaptive capacity for shared water governance at regional scale.
What has gone wrong with nature conservation and how do we bring about transformative change to create a more sustainable future? Which types of knowledge, ethics, principles and actions are needed to reverse the decline of biodiversity? And given the urgency to act, how can we harness them to sustain a just and diverse future for life on Earth?
These are the questions underlying Seeds of Change – provocations for a new research agenda, a compilation of expert reviews and essays generated by the Biodiversity Revisited initiative, led by the Luc Hoffmann Institute in collaboration with WWF, Future Earth, ETH Zürich Department of Environmental Systems Science, University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, and the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research at University College London.
The 30 essays and 6 reviews offer diverse, innovative insights and perspectives on biodiversity conservation from around the world covering six themes: concepts, narratives, science, governance, systems and futures.
The Biodiversity Revisited initiative aims to raise new awareness about biodiversity and how to conserve it, and will culminate in a five-year research and action agenda.
https://www.biodiversity-revisited.earth/
The European Union (EU) and its member states have an urgent and important task ahead in order to achieve their stated goals of fostering innovation and moving towards sustainability. This chapter examines the case study of the European water sector using examples from the UK, Germany, and Greece and insights drawn from the analysis of the contested making of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).1 This empirical materiai2 is placed in the context of the key theoretical and practical questions that have underpinned the analysis presented this book (see chapter 1). In particular, the aim of this chapter is to explore the way in which innovation and sustainability are articulated with the emergence of a multi-level (or multi-scalar) “gestalt of governance.”
When Roderick Lawrence and Carole Després introduced a special issue of the journal Futures on transdisciplinarity in 2004, they called it a word ‘à la mode’ (Lawrence and Després,2004). More attention has been paid in the literature to research practice. From the beginning, however, the concept was linked with the goal of changing higher education and its relationships to society. This chapter presents an overview of theoretical and conceptual frameworks for transdisciplinary (TD) education, curriculum models, in situ modes of learning in professional practice and community settings, and a culminating reflection on transdisciplinary skills.
In this article, we look at the evolving collaborative natural resource management movement in the United States and discuss current calls to evaluate it. We then explore approaches researchers have used to evaluate both specific efforts and the broader movement. Evaluative criteria developed thus far by several researchers show commonalities as well as differences. We argue that evaluation approaches will necessarily vary with the evaluation's intent, the type of collaborative effort being evaluated, and the values of the evaluator. Evaluators need to consider and make explicit their standards for comparison, criteria, and methods in order to clarify the nature of an evaluation and facilitate the synthesis of findings.
The continuing development of the European Union (EU) is transforming policy and politics in its member countries, and possibly in an even larger number of potential members. This book offers a detailed investigation of the Europeanization of national environmental policy in ten western European countries since 1970. By blending state-of-the-art theories with fresh empirical material on the many manifestations of Europeanization, it sheds new light on the dynamics that are decisively reshaping national environmental policy. It also offers an original assessment of how far Europeanization has produced greater policy convergence in western Europe. Throughout, the approach taken is genuinely comparative, drawing on the insights provided by leading country specialists. © 2004 Andrew Jordan and Duncan Liefferink. All rights reserved.
There is a growing sense of dissatisfaction among political philosophers with the practical sterility and empirical inadequacy of the discipline. Post-Rawlsian philosophy is wrestling with the need to construct a 'contextualized morality' that is sensitive to the particularities and complexities of actual moral reasoning but does not succumb to the temptations of relativism. We argue that this predicament is due to its inability to take the pluralism of our moral universe, the multi-layeredness of our social reality, the indeterminacy of our normative principles and the complexity of our practical reasoning seriously. To incorporate these properties of the 'human condition' we have constructed a complex evaluative framework, balancing moral, ethico-political, prudential and realist criteria. We argue that political philosophy new style is well advised to adopt such a framework and to position itself, as a true 'art', between political philosophy old style and the social sciences. Thus political philosophy is better equipped to deal with the big tradeoffs of today, rekindle our utopian hopes and regain political bite.
This article explores features of the environmental valuation process through a co-evolutionary approach. Based on established works concerning complexity, living systems, and social, economic, evolutionary and hierarchy theories, it is argued that a special form of recursive co-evolution takes place between articulated values and methods of value articulation, within the environmental valuation system. It is proposed that this co-evolutionary approach provides new insights into (1) the process of environmental preference formation and (2) the phenomenon of value incommensurability. Finally, it is suggested that this approach also reveals that monetary unit-based environmental valuation methods are counter-productive to their own purpose of 'taking the economic worth of un-priced environmental goods and service into account.' This constitutes a new critique of monetary valuation, which is not addressed by a pragmatic defence of the practice. It is suggested that, in lieu of monetary valuation, taking the economic worth of these phenomena into account may be better served by focusing efforts on the design of new value articulation methods that are capable of expressing their priceless economic worth.
This article investigates protected areas governance and the role of justice in it. The article argues that protected areas governance is needed because resources such as biodiversity and heritage create conflicts over their use and preservation. The resolutions of these conflicts need to be justified for the involved and affected interest groups in order to guarantee their legitimacy and effectiveness. The legitimacy of governance solutions is argued to rest on both distributive and procedural justice. On one hand, the distribution of beneficial and adverse consequences of protected areas governance must be justifiable and justified. On the other hand, decisionmaking regarding protected areas has to satisfy expectations regarding procedural justice. The article exemplifies these arguments by analysing the European Union's Habitats Directive and experiences in implementing it. The article demonstrates how the lack of attention to distributive and procedural justice has resulted in conflicts which have delayed the implementation of the directive and have undermined its effectiveness.
2000/60/ΕΕ και το Ελληνικό σχέδιο νό-µου (Ν.3199) για την διαχείριση των υδάτων, θέτουν τις βάσεις για µια νέα προσέγγιση στη διαχείριση των υδατικών πόρων και εισάγουν την έννοια της συµµετοχής. Η παρούσα εργασία µελετά την πόλη του Βόλου, µια σηµαντική αστική περιοχή, που παρου-σιάζει ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον καθώς ανήκει στο υδατικό διαµέρι-σµα Θεσσαλίας, όπου εφαρµόζεται πιλοτικά σχέδιο ολοκληρωµέ-νης διαχείριση της λεκάνης απορροής του Πηνειού, αλλά και το πρόγραµµα µερικής αποκατάστασης της λίµνης Κάρλας. Μέσω της λειτουργίας ενός άτυπου κοινωνικού δικτύου µε την συµµετο-χή των σηµαντικότερων τοπικών φορέων που σχετίζονται µε τους υδατικούς πόρους, αναδεικνύονται τα προβλήµατα που αντιµετω-πίζουν καθώς και οι προοπτικές συνεργασίας τους µέσα από ένα κοινό πλαίσιο δράσεων για την επίλυση τους. Επιπλέον, το δίκτυο δείχνει ότι µπορεί να λειτουργήσει υποβοηθητικά και για την εκ-πλήρωση επιµέρους στόχων της Οδηγίας 2000/60/EC, αναφορικά κυρίως στην πληροφόρηση και συµµετοχή του κοινού καθώς και στις διαδικασίες διαβουλεύσεων και να αποτελέσει πρότυπο για ανάλογες προσπάθειες σε άλλες περιοχές τις χώρας. Abstract The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) and the rele-vant Greek Legislation (Law 3199) for the Water Management set up the base for a new approach on the water resource man-agement, introducing the concept of participation. This work, studies the city of Volos, an important urban area, which pre-sents significant interest as it is included in the water district of Thessaly where Pinios river basin management plan is applied along with the partial restoration of Lake Karla. Through the operation of a non-formal social network of the involved local actors, the main water-related problems of the area are identi-fied and common actions are proposed to cope with them. Addi-tionally, it seems that the network could have a supportive role concerning the implementation of specific targets of the Direc-tive 2000/60/EC, particularly those that are linked with public participation and consulting. Finally, such a social network could constitute a guiding example for similar efforts in other areas of Greece.
This paper discusses how public administrations handle cross-sectoral government strategies such as those on sustainable development (SD), and how this could (or should) change in the future. It puts SD strategies and their key objective of improving the cross-sectoral integration of policies into the wider context of public administration in two respects. In a first step, the paper shows that SD strategies are a progressive step in the protracted debate on planning and strategic management in the public sector. In a second step, however, the paper explores the functioning of specialized public administrations as one explanation for the shortcomings of SD strategies in Europe. Consequently, the paper concludes that SD strategies should be developed further into a tool of strategic public management that helps to adapt administrative approaches to the integrative challenges of SD. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
This paper addresses the problems of institutional changes in governance and the framing of biodiversity conservation policy at the level of the enlarged European Union. The current development of European Union governance has become more complex and multilevel, partially usurping competences from the central state and relying on networks of interconnected actors rather than on a hierarchy dominated and defined by the state. This shift is particularly challenging for biodiversity governance in new member states, where current decision making is still affected by post-socialist relations and massive ongoing institutional changes, often resulting in inefficient institutional designs and over-exploitation of natural resources. The paper offers a cross-country analysis of five Central and Eastern European countries, characterized by different socialist regimes and different transition processes from hierarchical to democratic and market governance. The theoretical basis of the paper is institutional rebuilding in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of the emerging multilevel environmental governance of the EU. The data were collected from desk study research and interviews. The results show that some elements of multilevel governance existed in these countries prior to the transition, but that EU integration empowered lower levels of self-government. The mismatch between the old hierarchical institutions developed under socialism and the new decentralized institutions introduced during the transformation process still persists and is visible. The emergence of multilevel governance with multiple actors' participation is prone to create tensions, but evidence from the countries studied indicates that this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Decreed in May 1992 by the eec with a view to conserving biodiversity, the Habitats directive envisages, between now and the year 2004, constructing a European ecological network named Natura 2000. The implementation of the network, based firstly on compiling a list of habitats and species that could be recognized as being of Community importance, generated considerable conflict in France, to the extent that the directive was suspended in July 1996. The analysis of the Habitats directive system has taken a two-fold approach. The procedures first of all correspond to the tools for reaching the goals set out in the Brussels text, in the time allowed and based on scientific criteria. The second dimension refers to an interpretation of the debates and conflicts generated by the application of the directive's conservation measures on the territory. This second dimension in fact would have been difficult to implement were it not for the support of the area administrators, since their involvement was crucial. In this context, we have interpreted the changes in the procedures of the Habitats directive and the role given to negotiations as well as the issues raised by the nature conservation policies that could no longer be restricted to scientific criteria.
Knowing how people think about public participation processes and knowing what people want from these processes is essential to crafting a legitimate and effective process and delivering a program that is widely viewed as meaningful and successful. This article reports on research to investigate the nature of diversity among participants' perceptions of what is the most appropriate public participation process for environmental assessment and decision making in 10 different cases. Results show that there are clearly distinct perspectives on what an appropriate public participation process should be. We identified four perspectives: Science-Centered Stakeholder Consultation, Egalitarian Deliberation, Efficient Cooperation, and Informed Collaboration. The literature on public participation tends to presume that there are clear and universal criteria on how to “do” public participation correctly or that context is the critical factor. This study has revealed that even within a specific assessment or decision-making effort, there may be different perspectives about what is viewed as appropriate, which poses a challenge for both theorists and practitioners. Among the active participants in these 10 case studies, we found limited agreement and strong differences of opinions for what is a good process. Points of consensus across these cases are that good processes reach out to all stakeholders, share information openly and readily, engage people in meaningful interaction, and attempt to satisfy multiple interest positions. Differences appeared about how strongly to emphasize science and information, how much leadership and direction the process needs, what is the proper behavior of participants, how to tackle issues of power and trust, and what are the outcome-related goals of the process. These results challenge researchers and practitioners to consider the diversity of participant needs in addition to the broad context when conceptualizing or carrying out participatory processes.
The concept of inclusive risk governance is based on a normative belief that the integration of knowledge and values can best be accomplished by involving those actors in the decision-making process that are able to contribute all the respective knowledge as well as the variability of values necessary to make effective, efficient, fair and morally acceptable decisions about risk. In the risk arena the major actors are governments, the economic sector, scientific communities and representatives of civil society. The paper addresses the conceptual issues of how to integrate the contributions of the different actor groups in risk governance. Who and what is or should be included in the deliberations, and how is closure accomplished or reached in such settings? The main thesis in the paper is that these two questions can only be answered in the context of six underlying concepts of deliberation in democratic societies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
In countries with the Anglo-Saxon tradition, public participation is synonymous with participatory democracy. People there
associate the very concept of democracy with the activity of participating in government decision making. Although many do
little more than vote, the term embraces much more. In some European countries, namely Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian
countries, public participation practices evolved largely from the labor movement, in particular with regard to co-determination
of corporate management. It is only recently that participation has spread to governmental activities (Guild 1979). Participation
in Germany, for example, is largely realized through the institution of political parties. To be involved, even at a local
level, one must first join one of the local political parties. In recent years, however, Germany as well as the several other
European countries has experienced the emergence of many social movements which demand more direct democracy, in particular
in decisions related to environmental quality and technological choices (Brand 1987: 31).
By reference to the particular field of multi-criteria assessment, this paper examines some key themes in the general relationship between participatory deliberation and quantitative analysis in the appraisal of environmental performance. The paper builds on Fiorino's distinction between normative, substantive and instrumental approaches to appraisal. Although often contrasted, both analysis and deliberation are found to be similarly sensitive to different kinds of ‘framing conditions’. After Collingridge, it is argued that both approaches are therefore susceptible to various political and institutional pressures for decision justification. Based on this analysis, it is concluded that there exists an important but neglected characteristic of social appraisal that is equally applicable to both participatory and analytic approaches and which in many ways transcends the importance of this distinction. This concerns the difference between the functions of appraisal in ‘opening up’ or ‘closing down’ wider policy discourses. By exploring some detailed implications for participatory multi-criteria assessment, the paper points towards a more balanced emphasis on these two modes of appraisal.
This paper reviews definitions and uses of the Driving Forces–Pressures–State–Impacts–Responses (DPSIR) framework and argues that it is a relevant tool for structuring communication between scientists and end-users of environmental information, while it is inappropriate as an analytical tool. An apparently deterministic ‘causal’ description of environmental issues inevitably downplays the uncertainty and multiple dimensions of causality inherent in complex environmental and socio-economic systems. Consequently, the paper comõplements and reframes ‘DPSIR’ using a complex system methodology based on the distinction between four ‘spheres’ of sustainability (environmental, economic, social and political) and the analysis of their functioning and relationships. The pair-wise interface aspects are characterised through investigation of the ‘demands’ and ‘supply’ of each sphere relative to the others.Within the resulting conceptual framework, each of the five D, P, S, I and R concepts are specified, for application in integrative analysis of relationships between policy, society, economy and biodiversity in one of the world's largest European integrated research projects on biodiversity (ALARM).
In order to address contemporary issues economics and decision sciences need to expand their empirical relevance by introducing more and more realistic (thus more complex) assumptions in their models. One of the most interesting research directions in the field of public economics is the attempt to introduce political constraints, interest groups and collusion effects explicitly (J.J. Laffont, Incentives and Political Economy, 2000). The main argument developed here is the proposal of the concept of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) as a possible useful framework for the application of social choice to the difficult policy problems of our millennium, where, as stated by Funtowicz and Ravetz, “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent”. This paper starts from the following main questions:1.Why “social” multi-criteria evaluation?2.How should such an approach be developed?The foundations of SMCE are set up by referring to concepts from complex system theory and philosophy, such as reflexive complexity, post-normal science and incommensurability.To give some operational guidelines on the application of SMCE basic questions to be answered are1.How is it possible to deal with technical incommensurability?2.How can we deal with the issue of social incommensurability?To answer these questions, using theoretical considerations and lessons learned from real-world case studies, is the main objective of the present article.
Social scientists have long relied on a wide range of tools to collect information about the social world, but as individual fields have become more specialised, researchers are trained to use a narrow range of the possible data collection methods. This book, first published in 2006, draws on a broad range of available social data collection methods to formulate a set of data collection approaches. The approaches described here are ideal for social science researchers who plan to collect new data about people, organisations, or social processes. Axinn and Pearce present methods designed to create a comprehensive empirical description of the subject being studied, with an emphasis on accumulating the information needed to understand what causes what with a minimum of error. In addition to providing methodological motivation and underlying principles, the book is filled with detailed instructions and concrete examples for those who wish to apply the methods to their research.
Evaluation has become a central tool in the development of contemporary social policy. Its widespread popularity is based on the need to provide evidence of the effectiveness of policies and programmes. This book sees evaluation as an inherently political activity, as much about forms of governance as scientific practice. Using a wide range of examples from neighbourhood renewal, health and social care and other aspects of social policy, it relates practical issues in evaluation design to their political contexts. With contributions from leading academics and evaluation practitioners, the book considers key issues in the politics of evaluation including: governance and evaluation; participatory evaluation; partnerships and evaluation; and learning from evaluation. The politics of evaluation is important reading for academics, social researchers, policy makers, service providers and professionals across the public services as well as professional evaluators. It will be a valuable resource for students on a range of social science and professional courses and those concerned with recent developments in social research methodology.
'Risk Governance is a tour de force. Every risk manager, every risk analyst, every risk researcher must read this book - it is the demarcation point for all further advances in risk policy and risk research. Renn provides authoritative guidance on how to manage risks based on a definitive synthesis of the research literature. The skill with which he builds practical recommendations from solid science is unprecedented.' Thomas Dietz, Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Michigan State University, USA "A masterpiece of new knowledge and wisdom with illustrative examples of tested applications to realworld cases. The book is recommendable also to interested students in different disciplines as a timely textbook on 'risk beyond risk'." Norio Okada, Full Professor and Director at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan 'There are classic environmental works such as The Tragedy of the Commons by Hardin, Risk Society by Beck, The Theory of Communicative Action by Habermas, and the seminal volumes by Ostrom on governing the commons. Renn's book fits right into this series of important milestones of environmental studies.' Jochen Jaeger, Professor at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada 'Risk Governance provides a valuable survey of the whole field of risk and demonstrates how scientific, economic, political and civil society actors can participate in inclusive risk governance.' Jobst Conrad, Senior Scientist, Social Science Research Center Berlin, Germany 'Renn offers a remarkably fair-minded and systematic approach to bringing together the diverse fields that have something to say about 'risk'. Risk Governance moves us along the path from the noisy, formative stage of thinking about risk to one with a stronger empirical, theoretical, and analytical foundation.' Baruch Fischhoff, PhD, Howard Heinz University Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA 'I cannot describe how impressed I am at the breadth and coherence of Renn's career's work! Written with remarkable clarity and minimal technical jargon… [this] should be required reading in risk courses!' John Graham, former director of the Harvard Risk Center and former deputy director of the Office of Budget and Management of the Unites States Administration This book, for the first time, brings together and updates the groundbreaking work of renowned risk theorist and researcher Ortwin Renn, integrating the major disciplinary concepts of risk in the social, engineering and natural sciences. The book opens with the context of risk handling before flowing through the core topics of assessment, evaluation, perception, management and communication, culminating in a look at the transition from risk management to risk governance and a glimpse at a new understanding of risk in (post)modern societies.
New research relating to Mediterranean grazingland management issues, e.g. fire hazard control, biodiversity conservation, vibrant rural areas, etc. addresses the role that livestock farming systems can play. Established technical knowledge about livestock farming cannot contribute to these issues because it relies on standardised animal feeding techniques, focusing on cultivable forage areas and distribution of feed. These have led to the decline of the herders’ knowledge of grazing management and of herding practices. Thus original research works were needed. The works have been carried out by an interdisciplinary team of researchers in animal sciences, ecology and social sciences, from an INRA laboratory in Avignon (France)
The research focuses on how the herders interact with ecosystems and landscapes through the management of their flocks, and investigations deal with the question of ‘how can one steer grazing for animal production and environment maintenance?’ (i.e. control scrub development, maintain biodiversity and promote the habitat of particular populations of plants and animals in need of protection). The paper presents the chronicle of this research over twenty years. It asks how the problematic evolved as a result of the accumulated scientific knowledge and the shift in societal questioning in relation to the rise of environmental concerns and the changes in rural and residential issues. Field observations, surveys and inquiries, public policies analysis, farm monitoring and systems modelling were used, combined or successively, in the course of five different research stages
The authors lead up to an analysis of the different epistemological standpoints of disciplines and types of actual action representing a transdisciplinary approach. This approach is founded on a distributed view of knowledge, articulating different forms of scientific knowledge – according to the set of involved disciplines – and lay person knowledge and know-how in order to produce relevant categories and rules of action.
Federal agencies have taken steps to include the public in a wide range of environmental
decisions. Although some form of public participation is often required by law, agencies
usually have broad discretion about the extent of that involvement. Approaches vary
widely, from holding public information-gathering meetings to forming advisory groups to
actively including citizens in making and implementing decisions. Proponents of public
participation argue that those who must live with the outcome of an environmental
decision should have some influence on it. Critics maintain that public participation slows
decision making and can lower its quality by including people unfamiliar with the science
involved. This book concludes that, when done correctly, public participation improves
the quality of federal agencies' decisions about the environment. Well-managed public
involvement also increases the legitimacy of decisions in the eyes of those affected by
them, which makes it more likely that the decisions will be implemented effectively. This
book recommends that agencies recognize public participation as valuable to their
objectives, not just as a formality required by the law. It details principles and approaches
agencies can use to successfully involve the public.
Researchers studying the role institutions play in causing and confronting environmental change use a variety of concepts and methods that make it difficult to compare their findings. Seeking to remedy this problem, Oran Young takes the analytic themes identified in the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC) Science Plan as cutting-edge research concerns and develops them into a common structure for conducting research. He illustrates his arguments with examples of environmental change ranging in scale from the depletion of local fish stocks to the disruption of Earth's climate system.Young not only explores theoretical concerns such as the relative merits of collective-action and social-practice models of institutions but also addresses the IDGEC-identified problems of institutional fit, interplay, and scale. He shows how institutions interact both with one another and with the biophysical environment and assesses the extent to which we can apply lessons drawn from the study of local institutions to the study of global institutions and vice versa. He examines how research on institutions can help us to solve global problems of environmental governance. Substantive topics discussed include the institutional dimensions of carbon management, the performance of exclusive economic zones, and the political economy of boreal and tropical forests.
Policy evaluations in the UK have increasingly espoused a ‘Theories of Change’ (ToC) approach, drawing on North American experiences. Features of ToC include the expectation that all affected stakeholders will be involved in developing, agreeing, monitoring and evaluating a relevant theory for the proposed intervention, and the assumption that widespread stakeholder involvement will extend ownership of the intervention to achieve ‘total ownership’ and also improve attribution. Drawing on the experiences of three English evaluations (Health Action Zones, New Deal for Communities and Local Strategic Partnerships), this article examines the possibilities and limitations associated with the achievement of ‘total ownership’. Analysis reveals some important differences between the English and North American contexts and leads to the development of alternative models of ownership including ‘elite’,‘evaluator’,‘principal’ or ‘community’ ownership. The article concludes that if these models are more realistic than ‘total ownership’ in the English policy environment then this has implications for the appropriate application of ToC.
In order to address contemporary issues economics and decision sciences need to expand their empirical relevance by introducing more and more realistic (thus more complex) assumptions in their models. One of the most interesting re- search directions in the field of public economics is the attempt to introduce political constraints, interest groups and collusion effects explicitly (J.J. Laffont, Incentives and Political Economy, 2000). The main argument developed here is the proposal of the concept of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) as a possible useful framework for the application of social choice to the difficult policy problems of our millennium, where, as stated by Funtowicz and Ravetz, ''facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent''. This paper starts from the following main questions: 1. Why ''social'' multi-criteria evaluation? 2. How should such an approach be developed?
How can and should risk managers collect public preferences, integrate public input into the management process, and assign the appropriate roles to technical experts, stakeholders, and members of the public? Which concerns are legitimate for being used in decisions that may determine the life or death of many people? There are no simple answers to these questions. This paper discusses the potential and requirements for an analytic−deliberative decision making process in the field of risk management. It articulates the requirements for integrating analytic reasoning with deliberation and interpretation. As a result of these requirements a model of participation is developed that attempts to meet two major objectives: first, to enhance the competence in the decision making process and, second, to assign a fair share of the responsibility of managing risks to those who are or will be affected by the potential consequences. The model, named cooperative discourse, consists of three major steps: elicitation of values and criteria (stakeholder groups); provision of performance profiles for each policy option (experts); and evaluation and design of policies by randomly selected citizens. The paper provides some empirical evidence about the application of this method from experiences in three different countries. The case studies show that analytical thinking and deliberative exchange of arguments cannot be separated but should be’integrated in the decision making process. At the same time, the sequential involvement of stakeholders, experts, and the general public proved to be a productive way of ensuring competence, fairness, and efficiency.
This article examines the key contributions of the political science and systems theory based literatures on environmental governance, and uses them to analyse the governance of biodiversity in Europe. The article suggests that the key insights of the two bodies of literature are a distinction between governance frameworks and regimes on one hand, and the importance of multifaceted and multiple scales on the other. These key insights draw attention to horizontal and vertical forms of interplay. The article suggests that interplay, both between actors and levels and between frameworks and regimes, is ubiquitous and ambivalent: it can either foster or hinder environmental governance. The article illustrates this discussion in the context of governance of biodiversity in Europe, highlighting how vertical and horizontal interplay between the governance framework for biodiversity and the broader institutional setting or regime have characterized the implementation of the Habitats Directive, both complicating and fostering the governance of biodiversity in Europe. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
This article is part of a growing body of literature evaluating public participation approaches and implementation efforts. It compares the characteristics and performance of citizen advisory boards established by the U.S. Department of Energy's Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program (DOE/EM) and by the U.S. Department of Defense's Army (DoD/Army) as a major part of the public participation programs that were undertaken to help the agencies plan and implement the cleanup of their contaminated installations. We first present the elements of the Acceptability Diamond, an evaluative framework developed by the authors through extensive fieldwork on public-federal agency interactions that identify five objectives of agency–public interactions and public participation programs, and link them to existing literature. We then use the Acceptability Diamond as a basis for comparing the performance of the DOE/EM and DoD/Army advisory boards. In the early 1990s, both DOE and DoD participated in the Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee (known as the FFER Dialogue Committee) and were influenced by the Committee's recommendations on public participation. However, the Site Specific Advisory Boards (SSABs) subsequently established by DOE/EM and the Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) subsequently established by DoD and the Army were governed by significantly different policies and management. We describe some of these key differences and compare the performance of the SSABs and RABs. The article draws on a series of research studies conducted by the authors on the DOE/EM public participation program from its inception in the early 1990s through its transition to accelerated cleanup in 2002 and also on a recently completed study of seven Army RABs.
The combination of deliberative and analytical methods is supposed to have a high potential for the resolution of environmental conflicts. But selecting methods and tools for a specific case often remains nebulous. In this article, we evaluate different deliberative and analytical methods according to characteristics defined by Wittmer et al. (2004). We put a special focus on multi-criteria methods as these analytical methods are especially suited for participation. This evaluation identifies strengths and weaknesses of methods, and can ground the selection of one specific method (or the combination of several) on a systematic basis. A brief definition of the methods reported in this issue is given and these are evaluated. The next step consists of identifying which characteristics are most important in a specific case. Applying these two steps can guide the selection of methods for resolving environmental conflicts. We conclude that the combination of participatory and multi-criteria methods generally provides a good starting point for conflict facilitators looking for methods supporting the decision-aid process. r 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Preface This article concludes a special issue on resolution of land use conflicts, exploring the potentials of combining multi-criteria and participatory processes. This issue is the result of a workshop funded by the European Science Foundation, which took place in June 2002 at the UFZ—Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig.
Current political trends and scholarly research increasingly promote collaborative and participatory governance in multi-level systems as a way to more sustainable and effective environmental policy. Yet empirical findings as well as conceptual works from different academic fields remain ambiguous about this claim. This paper explores whether and to what extent the existence of multiple levels of governance affects the ability of participatory decision-making to deliver high quality environmental policy output and to improve implementation and compliance. To this end, findings from the literature on multi-level governance, public participation and policy implementation as well as on complex systems are integrated in five sets of hypotheses. In order to put these to a ‘plausibility probe’, a meta-analysis of 47 case studies from Northern America and Western Europe is conducted. These cases provide qualitative insights and allow for some generalization in the form of correlation analysis. The study finds that, predominantly, environmental preferences of the involved actors determine the environmental outputs (and outcomes) of decision-making. Further, face-to-face, but not mere two-way, communication appears to positively influence the ecological standard of decisions. The analysis also suggests that a highly polycentric governance system comprising many agencies and levels of governance yields higher environmental outputs than rather monocentric governance. However, correlations between governance effectiveness and decision-making scale, as well as policy delivery and institutional fit to ecosystem, could not be identified. The paper concludes by outlining pathways for more systematic comparative research on these pressing research questions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Community-based conservation (CBC) is based on the idea that if conservation and development could be simultaneously achieved, then the interests of both could be served. It has been controversial because community development objectives are not necessarily consistent with conservation objectives in a given case. I examined CBC from two angles. First, CBC can be seen in the context of paradigm shifts in ecology and applied ecology. I identified three conceptual shifts-toward a systems view, toward the inclusion of humans in the ecosystem, and toward participatory approaches to ecosystem management-that are interrelated and pertain to an understanding of ecosystems as complex adaptive systems in which humans are an integral part. Second, I investigated the feasibility of CBC, as informed by a number of emerging interdisciplinary fields that have been pursuing various aspects of coupled systems of humans and nature. These fields-common property, traditional ecological knowledge, environmental ethics, political ecology, and environmental history-provide insights for CBC. They may contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary conservation science with a more sophisticated understanding of social-ecological interactions. The lessons from these fields include the importance of cross-scale conservation, adaptive comanagement, the question of incentives and multiple stakeholders, the use of traditional ecological knowledge, and development of a cross-cultural conservation ethic.
The EU Water Framework Directive, WFD (Dir. 2000/60/EC) introduces an innovative, integrated and holistic approach to the protection and management of water resources. New methodologies and tools are required to support implementation of the new policy. To fulfil these requirements, tools such as Decision Support Systems (DSSs) that integrate environmental, social and economic concerns and that facilitate the involvement of interested parties in the formulation of strategies may be useful. The MULINO project has developed a methodology and a DSS tool to tackle such problems. Focus is on connecting environmental tools and decision support methods by combining the DPSIR (Driving force, Pressure, State, Impact and Response) approach with multi-criteria analysis methods in a Decision Support System called mDSS. The proposed approach can be applied in decision processes in which a group of people (i.e. decision makers and stakeholders), share a common conceptual framework and procedure, to structure the problem, discuss the decision and communicate the proposed solution. In this paper, the MULINO approach is presented, focusing on its potential for the current implementation process of the WFD, according to the recently released guidance documents and the experience gained in several case studies carried out during the research project. The evaluation of the potential of the tool for applications in real-world management problems is carried out by taking into account the feedback from project partners and from end users, within and outside the research consortium.
This editorial shows that environmental conflicts are characterised by the combination of two types of complexities, ecological and societal. Decisions to resolve these conflicts have often been oriented to efficiency improvements and/or cost-effectiveness, and instruments to reach the decisions have been arranged accordingly. Both criteria do not suffice to distinguish appropriate instruments from those that cannot cope with the complexities. Therefore, new criteria oriented to process legitimacy and information management will be included in order to facilitate the selection of appropriate instruments for the resolution of environmental conflicts.
I describe grassroots resistance that evolved in the rural municipality of Karvia in SW-Finland in response to the introduction and development of the EU-wide protected areas system known as Natura 2000 Reserve Network. I have two main aims in this paper. First, I explore the local forest economy, looking at how it works and how it is structured. This I do by focusing on the multilevel well-being of key actors and by exploring the motives lying behind the behaviours and decisions of people working within the forest economy, particularly forest owners. Second, I identify and describe the principles that can help uncover the conflicts and contradictions between forest economy and conservation planning and create a framework for innovative solutions to such contradictions on the local level.