Water policy implementation in the state of São Paulo,Brazil: Key challenges and opportunities

Challenges in implementing water planning and management are common, and the effective implementation of integrated water policies is yet to occur. In Brazil, the state of São Paulo enacted a Water Act in 1991 to ensure water availability for current and future generations based on the principles of decentralization, participation and integration. This research addresses water policy implementation issues by conducting an exploratory case study in the state of São Paulo. Factors affecting the water policy implementation process were analyzed, together with some water resources management practices. The findings indicate four dimensions of key challenges: institutional and governance, political, financial and technical. The stakeholders believe the political and the institutional and governance challenges are more important than the technical and financial ones. Additionally, the results show different levels of involvement in the areas of water policy strategy, the planning and decision-making process, and implementation by the different stakeholders groups. Stakeholders external to the water sector and from local government were considered to be less involved in water-related issues, when compared with stakeholders from the water sector. The study recommends a change in current institutional and governance arrangements in order to influence decisions and investments in different levels and sectors.     

A perfect storm? Indigenous rights within a national REDD+ readiness process in Peru

Recurring disagreements during national preparations to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) are contributing to policy reform at multiple scales. The objectives of this study are to (i) develop a general framework to characterise diverse stakeholder perspectives on REDD+ programme objectives and governance arrangements, and (ii) apply this framework to analyse key stakeholders involved in REDD+ readiness process of Peru: the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana, AIDESEP), the Peruvian government and the World Bank. As indigenous peoples strive to maintain their own traditions and priorities, a turbulent readiness process is helping to resolve long-ignored issues of indigenous rights and to make REDD+ programme governance structures more inclusive. The Peruvian government/World Bank approach to REDD+ is incompatible with that of AIDESEP, therefore parallel implementation will be required for them to co-exist. Although a diversity of participants has helped to check and balance the centralization of decision-making power over REDD+ programme development, a history of failed assurances and agreements point to a need to maintain vigilance as new laws, regulations and safeguards are implemented.     

Stakeholder involvement in strategic adaptation planning: Transdisciplinarity and co-production at stake?

To address increasing climatic variability and extremes, cities are gradually forced to develop climate change adaptation strategies that can ensure a continuous and transformative adaptation process. There is widespread consensus that the sustainable establishment of such strategies requires transdisciplinary approaches, that is, the involvement of internal and external stakeholders (state, civil society and market actors) to become part of the change and find innovative ways to unite their efforts and capacities. However, there is little research and hardly any empirical evidence on the process of stakeholder involvement and co-production in the development of municipal adaptation strategies. Against this background, this paper examines the factors that influence how and why different stakeholders are involved (or excluded) during the processes of developing adaptation strategies, and how this gets reflected in process outcomes. Based on applied participatory analysis of two pioneering municipalities in Germany and Sweden, the paper identifies and contrasts existing patterns to feed back into both theory and practice. Synergies, mismatches, barriers and driving forces for adaptation co-production are identified and contrasted with current adaptation discourses. The results highlight how the level of internal and external stakeholder involvement is conditional on (changes in) the broader governance context, and the associated power constellations in which stakeholders act (e.g., standing of departments, proximity to the decision-making body, changes in [or constellations of] political parties, contractual arrangements for staff, individual champions, progress in mainstreaming). On this basis, conclusions are drawn regarding how to foster sustainable and transformative adaptation through increased stakeholder involvement. The results and conclusions are crucial to advance theory on adaptation co-production, providing a basis for further analyses, research and action. They inform how existing theory, policies and/or guidelines for strategic adaptation planning need to be revisited to support change across current risk governance.     

REDD+ policy strategy in Cameroon: Actors,institutions and governance

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is receiving increasing political and scientific attention as a climate change mitigation approach. The government of Cameroon has expressed an interest in participating in REDD+, and national deliberation on a policy strategy has attracted interest from different actors in the forest sector. This paper analyses the challenges of designing a governance structure for a REDD+ strategy in Cameroon. Theoretically, the paper builds on the literature on governance structures for resource management, focusing analytically on the interactions between actor constellations (state and non-state) and institutions (formal and informal) to produce policy outcomes. The paper draws on documentation of REDD+ policy events, policy texts and 23 in-depth interviews with members from government, civil society, research organizations, development partners and the private sector. It argues that although the actors involved in REDD+ are, to an extent, polarized around different issues and priorities, they are nonetheless increasingly distributing roles and responsibilities among themselves. The institutional arrangements within the policy process include: (1) rule-making systems for engagement; (2) expanding existing coordination mechanisms; (3) national safeguard standards; and (4) building on existing forest governance initiatives. The paper concludes that the multiple benefits promised by REDD+, such as poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation and economic development, are critical for the legitimacy of the mechanism.     

Multi-level governance for large marine commons: Politics and polycentricity in Palau's protected area network

This paper brings together institutional theories of polycentricity and critical human geography theory on scalar politics to advance understanding of the form and function of nested, polycentric regimes for the governance of large-scale common pool resources. We focus on institutional changes associated with a national marine protected area network in Palau through which national government and NGOs gain influence in local decision-making processes. Influence is gained through an attempt to scale up common-pool resource governance to an ecologically-relevant spatial scale in an effort to protect coral reef resilience and biodiversity across Palau. An institutional approach informed by scalar politics brings into focus potential tradeoffs between organizing governance reform around ecologically versus institutionally relevant scales. Our analysis suggests that prioritization of ecologically-relevant scales in institutional reform resulted in more nested but less polycentric institutional arrangements governing the network. We conclude that less distributed decision-making in the overall nested governance system could threaten the sustainability and resilience of coral reefs in the long-term by constraining institutional innovation and diversity. Results demonstrate the potential for interdisciplinary dialog to advance the research frontier on multi-level governance for large common pool resources.     

Perspectives on capacity building to guide policy and program development and delivery

This paper examines the perspectives of major interest groups on capacity development within the context of the significant contemporary global phenomenon of community-based decentralised governance at catchment scale. It focuses on providing empirical evidence to guide the development and implementation of policies and programs, especially those of governments. The research draws especially from regional governance experiences in Australia, as a country with advanced arrangements, and capacity building experiences in the sectors of health and risk and emergency management as informative arenas of learning. Twenty-two specific capacity building measures were presented in a discussion paper across human, social, institutional and economic dimensions. Perspectives were sought from regional, policy/research and Indigenous interest groups about applying these measures to enhance the effectiveness of the community-based Boards governing Australia's nation-wide network of 56 natural resource management (NRM) organisations. The research identifies a suite of specific measures and, in doing so, demonstrates the benefits of examining other sectors to inform capacity building in the NRM domain. The work highlights the need to better understand and account for differing interest group perspectives about capacity building issues, the application of specific measures, and the outcomes anticipated before developing and implementing policies and programs. While explored in the Australian context, these findings have application to decentralised governance arrangements in other countries.     

The diffusion of environmental management in Greece through rationalist approaches: driver or product of globalisation?

Globalisation trends in economy and governance have resulted in a change in policy instruments towards harmonised initiatives, which are considered to a great extent pivotal for countries to engage with. ISO14001 is seen as constitutive of these wider concepts and is the focus here in explaining their diffusion in national contexts.This article questions the extent to where the adoption of ISO14001 in Greece is motivated by environmental sustainability or processes of economic globalisation. It indicates that in order to facilitate progress towards sustainability through environmental management, proper institutional arrangements and a legal framework must be established and executed by the government and society at large.     

A framework and indicators for evaluating policies for conservation and development: The case of wildlife management units in Mexico

The Mexican government has an innovative policy model for biodiversity conservation and rural development that includes permissible use of wildlife within a System of Land Management Units (SUMA, by its Spanish acronym). This co-management approach has been successful in terms of landowner participation, since the SUMA currently covers 38.2 million hectares (nearly 20% of Mexican territory). However, after 18 years of implementation, there has been no comprehensive evaluation by which to assess its effectiveness at national level. This article introduces the SUMA policy, its implementation and outcomes, and proposes a framework for conducting institutional monitoring and evaluation within an adaptive co-management approach. Our methodology comprised analysis of the achievements and challenges reported through interviews with stakeholders, journals and grey literature, and a review of the SUMA Information System (SIS) and its decision-making information needs. As result we have developed a set of 40 environmental, social and economic indicators grouped into five distinct but complementary dimensions within a sustainability framework: (I) Biodiversity conservation,(II) Wildlife management, (III) Economics, (IV) Social welfare and (V) Administration. These indicators can be incorporated into the SIS in order to support program evaluation and strengthen decision-making. Our article provides specific pathways for developing policy-oriented evaluation systems for worldwide biodiversity and conservation initiatives.     

Effective risk governance for environmental policy making: A knowledge management perspective

Effective risk management within environmental policy making requires knowledge on natural, economic and social systems to be integrated; knowledge characterised by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. We describe a case study in a (UK) central government department exploring how risk governance supports and hinders this challenging integration of knowledge. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were completed over a two year period. We found that lateral knowledge transfer between teams working on different policy areas was widely viewed as a key source of knowledge. However, the process of lateral knowledge transfer was predominantly informal and unsupported by risk governance structures. We argue this made decision quality vulnerable to a loss of knowledge through staff turnover, and time and resource pressures. Our conclusion is that the predominant form of risk governance framework, with its focus on centralised decision-making and vertical knowledge transfer is insufficient to support risk-based, environmental policy making. We discuss how risk governance can better support environmental policy makers through systematic knowledge management practices.     

Participation in protected area management planning in coastal Brazil

Over the past ten years, efforts have been made in the Paraty region of Brazil towards more active state governance of coastal resources through the implementation and enforcement of various types of protected areas. Trindade is one of the communities making efforts to advocate for themselves as the key stakeholders in a negotiation process for a no-take protected area management plan. As is happening across South America, there has been a shift in policy in Brazil towards participatory environmental governance practices. The objective of this paper is to analyze the quality of community participation in a resource governance process, the perceptions of participating and non-participating community members, and the actual influence of community participants on the protected area management plan under review (in 2012/2013). The research was conducted as interdisciplinary action research. Data were collected through a qualitative approach, using mixed methods of narratives, interviews, focus groups, participant observation and workshops. The negotiation process and community participation in this negotiation process was studied through observation of meetings. Analysis of the negotiation process revealed the importance that community participants place on their rights as Caiçaras, and four further key themes emerged; communication disconnect, opportunity and capacity to participate, representation and decision-making, and conflict. Meaningful participation in natural resources management has not yet been achieved in the process reviewed. The process described is the initial phase of a long-term relationship between community members and government authorities, and changes need to be made so that the desired outcomes for natural resources management are more likely to be achieved.     

The interplay between knowledge and governance: Insights from the governance of recreational boating in the Dutch Wadden Sea area, 1981–2014

Through shifts toward interactive and participatory forms of environmental governance, knowledge dynamics may come into play that differ from those of traditional forms of policy-making. This paper investigates how shifts of environmental governance and knowledge are related. In order to do so, it reconstructs the development of the governance of recreational boating in the Dutch Wadden Sea on the empirical basis of interviews, document analysis, and a focus group. Moreover, it analyzes this development by means of an analytical framework that combines governance modes, knowledge systems and knowledge–governance interfaces. Our results show that in the last decades partly an accumulation and partly a sequence of various governance arrangements concerning recreational boating has occurred; this has entailed a shift from predominantly centralized governance to a combination of governance modes with a stronger emphasis on decentralized, interactive and self-governance. This shift has occurred together with an increasing prominence of qualitative local knowledge, stakeholders’ knowledge, and the integration of various forms of knowledge. Furthermore, a shift has taken place toward more participatory knowledge–governance interfaces. Our analysis suggests that environmental governance and knowledge are interconnected in various ways: the regulatory and epistemic aspects of environmental issues are bound up with each other, and governance and knowledge are coproduced and mutually constitutive. Key lessons from this analysis are that room for experimentation is an important factor in improving environmental governance, and that increasing stakeholder involvement in governance implies that new modes of jointly creating and exchanging knowledge may need to be taken into account.     

危机事件影响下环境政策变迁的过程、模式及机制研究

全球化和高速发展的城市化使得人类与生态之间的矛盾愈加严重,环境危机事件发生的频率不断上升,如何应对危机成为当今社会公共管理的主要议题。本文从环境危机事件的内涵与制度学诱因出发,通过梳理国内外相关理论和实证研究,对危机影响下环境政策变迁的过程、模式以及机制进行评述。研究表明,制度供求不匹配所带来的制度非均衡是导致环境危机出现的根本原因之一;环境危机事件有利于打破原有环境政策渐进性过程的路径依赖性,通过改变政府、公众、企业及其他利益相关体的机会格局与资源条件从而为主要政策变迁提供可能性。因此,危机事件影响下的环境政策变迁过程是自上而下和自下而上两种政策途径综合作用的结果。中国正处于“非稳定状态”的环境危机多发阶段,需要借鉴国外理论模型进行本土化研究。加强多学科之间的融合和有关理论的实际应用,为具有不同经济制度发展水平的地区制定区域可持续发展政策提供决策支持。     

Climate change vulnerability assessments as catalysts for social learning: four case studies in south-eastern Australia

Technical assessments of vulnerability and/or risk are increasingly being undertaken to assess the impacts of climate change. Underlying this is the belief that they will bring clarity to questions regarding the scale of institutional investments required, plausible adaptation policies and measures, and the timing of their implementation. Despite the perceived importance of technical assessments in 'evidence-based' decision environments, assessments cannot be undertaken independent of values and politics, nor are they capable of eliminating the uncertainty that clouds decision-making on climate adaptation As such, assessments can trigger as many questions as they answer, leaving practitioners and stakeholders to question their value. This paper explores the value of vulnerability/risk assessments in climate change adaptation planning processes as a catalyst for learning in four case studies in Southeastern Australia. Data were collected using qualitative interviews with stakeholders involved in the assessments and analysed using a social learning framework. This analysis revealed that detailed and tangible strategies or actions often do not emerge directly from technical assessments. However, it also revealed that the assessments became important platforms for social learning. In providing these platforms, assessments present opportunities to question initial assumptions, explore multiple framings of an issue, generate new information, and galvanise support for collective actions. This study highlights the need for more explicit recognition and understanding of the important role social learning plays in climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning more broadly.     

Environmental decision making in multi-stakeholder contexts: applicability of life cycle thinking in development planning and implementation

According to the targets set for sustainability, integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs is one of the main goals for development projects. A major challenge in the development field is cross-sectoral integrated planning and achieving multi-stakeholder consensus for collaborative joint projects, especially when sustainability is a goal. This increases the complexity of the multi-stakeholder interaction in decision making and requires enhanced mechanisms for stakeholder participation, coordination, and commitment beyond narrow self-interest. A critical aspect in the decision making process is to enable stakeholders to not only interpret and make decisions based on expert judgments, but also to appropriately involve the relevant parties in the research and decision making process. Therefore, scientific analyses in multi-stakeholder contexts have to be more transparent, participatory, and stakeholder-based in order to provide useful information to assist responsible decision making.This paper presents an outline of a stakeholder-based life cycle assessment approach that can be used to support sustainable decision making in multi-stakeholder contexts. The framework is discussed and compared to other common methods used to support environmental decision making in development projects. We argue that the fundamental concept of life cycle thinking can be effectively used to incorporate stakeholders in the research and decision making process, which can lead to more comprehensive, yet achievable assessments in collaboration with stakeholders. Life cycle thinking is not just a way to examine environmental impacts of activities, but also a way to comprehend and visualize a broader set of upstream and downstream consequences of decisions in development planning and implementation. A life cycle framework including the mapping of stakeholder involvement at each activity in upstream and downstream stages would give stakeholders a holistic view that they otherwise may not have.     

Making water policy work in the United Kingdom: A case study of practical approaches to strengthening complex,multi-tiered systems of water governance

We propose a suite of actions for strengthening water governance in contexts with complex, multi-tiered arrangements. In doing so, we focus on the collective water policies and approaches of the United Kingdom (UK), including those of devolved governments, which confront a host of serious water-related challenges—from massive flooding of urban areas and agricultural lands, to pressure on aquifers from rising water demand and drought. Further complexity in addressing these challenges has emerged in the wake of the June 2016 vote to leave the European Union (EU), so-called ‘Brexit’, and the ensuing ‘separation process’ with uncertainties for institutional and governance arrangements to follow. We make ten proposals for improving and reinvigorating water policy in complex, multi-layered situations, and comment specifically on their application in the UK setting. These are: put in place a system-wide water policy; fully embrace community-led nested river basin planning and management; fully fund river basin planning and management; re-focus the policy framing; use best-available data and information; create conversational spaces and become a more water-literate society; mobilise people; support and sustain core community networks; underpin river basin plans with regulatory provisions and effective monitoring and enforcement; and address systemic institutional amnesia. Individually and collectively, we contend that these actions will have a marked effect on transforming the planning and management of water resources. A system-wide water policy that maintains and builds on the substantive biophysical and socio-economic benefits delivered through implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, together with the more recent Floods Directive, will galvanise stewardship of water in the UK. We urge more active engagement with and empowerment of the multiplicity of system ‘actors’, and highlight the role of non-government actors in a post-Brexit world as conduits for reaching out to and connecting directly with a wide range of water-related actors, especially across the EU. While attention to-date has focused on a plethora of specifically water-related projects, initiatives, plans and regulations, what is really needed is a systemic, long-term view of water resource management.     

日本森林管理的最新发展——以日本神奈川县林业政策过程为例

为了追求更好的森林管理效果，对相关森林政策的实施，不是仅仅停留在传统的狭义的行政管理部门上，同时还要涉厦到经营者、市民以及当地居民等利益相关者。使他们都要以相互协调的方式参与到森林管理当中来。它是建立在一定的森林价值观基础上，基于科学原理井突破以往的技术层面而对森林进行的一系列更加合理的管理措施体系。本文以日本神奈川县的林业政策形成过程为例对森林治理问题进行了讨论。     

滏阳河流域的水资源问题

根据对华北地区水资源短缺最严重的滏阳河流域的实证研究表明,随着部门和上下游用水者之间用水竞争程度的加剧,流域从开放向闭合的转变,地下水位的逐年下降及引致的环境问题,节水的空间也变得十分有限。解决未来水资源短缺的问题很大程度上将依赖于如何运用政策、制度和经济措施实现水资源的优化配置和综合管理,提高灌区的运行绩效和实现有效的产权制度创新。     

The changing winds of atmospheric environment policy

Atmospheric environmental policies have changed considerably over the last several decades. Clearly the relative importance of the various issues has changed over half a century, for example from smoke, sulphur dioxide and photochemical smog being the top priorities to greenhouse gases being the major priority.The traditional policy instrument to control emissions to the atmosphere has been command and control regulation. In many countries this was successful in reducing emissions from point sources, the first generation issues, and to a lesser extent, emissions from mobile and area sources, the second generation issues, although challenges remain in many jurisdictions. However once the simpler, easier, cheaper and obvious targets had been at least partially controlled this form of regulation became less effective. It has been complemented by other instruments including economic instruments, self-regulation, voluntarism and information instruments to address more complex issues including climate change, a third generation issue.Policy approaches to atmospheric environmental issues have become more complex. Policies that directly focus on atmospheric issues have been partially replaced by more integrated approaches that consider multimedia (water, land, etc.) and sustainability issues.Pressures from stakeholders for inclusion, greater transparency and better communication have grown and non-government stakeholders have become increasingly important participants in governance.The scale of the issues has evolved from a local to national, regional and global scales. Consequently the approaches to atmospheric environmental policy have also been amended. The international dimensions of atmospheric issues have grown in prominence and challenge governance and politics with pressures for international cooperation and harmonisation of policies. This is reducing the policy flexibility of national governments.Partially in response to these changes, to manage environmental risks and protect their brands, leaders in the corporate sector have generally found it beneficial to increase responsibility and accountability, including establishing corporate environmental policies, environmental management systems, risk management, sustainability reporting and other measures.This analysis clearly identifies that these changes are inter-related. Acting together they have transformed the way that atmospheric issues are governed in the last several decades in developed countries. Together they have led to governments in many developed countries vacating leadership roles and becoming increasingly managers of the policy process. As the leadership role of governments has been partially eroded, governments are more reliant on persuasion and diplomacy in their relations with stakeholders. As a consequence, governance arrangements have become more complex, multilevel and polycentric.     

亚洲环境执政理论与实践

发展中国家环境执政能力问题越来越引起人们的关注.在界定环境执政能力概念的基础上,分析了亚洲国家环境执政能力状况以解释这些国家面临的环境问题,并尝试分析亚洲国家环境管理从传统手段向市场手段转变的推动因素,最后提出了亚洲国家转向环境良治的扩大和加强区域、国家和地区机构网络,促进环境政策制定执行过程中权力的下放和向地方政府的转移,增加国家立法和其他政策制定机构中环境非政府组织和社区组织成员的比例,运用战略环境评价和战略环境管理理念,关注中小型企业遵守环境法规等政策、措施方面的建议.     

日本森林管理的最新发展——以日本神奈川县林业政策过程为例

为了追求更好的森林管理效果,对相关森林政策的实施,不是仅仅停留在传统的狭义的行政管理部门上,同时还要涉及到经营者、市民以及当地居民等利益相关者,使他们都要以相互协调的方式参与到森林管理当中来.它是建立在一定的森林价值现基础上,基于科学原理并突破以往的技术层面而对森林进行的一系列更加合理的管理措施体系.本文以日本神奈川县的林业政策形成过程为例对森林治理问题进行了讨论.