Surrender or resistance to the implementation of Local Agenda 21 in Portugal: the challenges of local governance for sustainable development

The aim of this paper is to understand how Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is contributing to update local policy and decision making towards sustainable development in Portugal. Departing from a theoretical view of governance for sustainable development – its core values and challenges – and the role of LA21 in its endorsement, the paper presents the main results of a questionnaire survey submitted to Portuguese municipalities, with the purpose of understanding how far LA21 is being incorporated into planning and management. The paper then tries to expose some of the main potential, limitations and challenges in the local Portuguese case for the short-term sustainable future.     

浅谈昌吉州农村环境质量现状分析及对策研究

通过对昌吉州农村水环境、空气质量及土壤调查现状的监测分析,获取农村环境现状情况,依据取得的数据综合评价农村环境的动态变化趋势。并在此基础上,进一步探讨农村环境存在的问题及提出可行的对策及建议。     

跨界大气污染治理体系和政策措施——欧洲经验及对中国的启示

大气污染具有明显的跨界特性,跨区域联防联治机制是大气污染治理的重要手段。欧洲跨界大气污染治理具有完整的治理体系和丰富的实践经验,取得了显著成就,充分借鉴和吸收欧洲跨界大气污染治理的经验,对提高中国大气污染治理的科学性和有效性、推动解决大气污染治理难题具有重要意义。本文深入分析了欧洲跨界大气污染治理的背景、制度演化、治理体系和政策措施,结果发现,欧洲跨界大气污染治理机制是以EMEP为基础、以CLRTAP为核心、八项议定书为补充的不断扩展治理领域和政策边界的动态过程,其治理政策的制定表现出明显的阶段性特征。从科学化定量体系和制度化保障体系两个维度总结了欧洲跨界大气污染治理的主要措施,结合中国实际,对中国跨界大气污染治理提出了政策建议:(1)建立健全大气治理立法及配套执行体系,并严格落实问责;(2)尽快建立和完善跨界大气污染监测评估系统;(3)科学划分大气污染治理区域,成立跨区域组织领导机构;(4)加快研究制定符合国情的跨区域生态补偿机制。     

第四次工业革命对环境治理体系建设的影响与挑战

以人工智能为代表的第四次工业革命发展迅速,特别是能源和新材料技术的突破,极大可能改变人类现有能源格局,并对建立在化石能源思维下的传统环境治理体系带来巨大影响。为此,本文梳理了第四次工业革命代表性的科技进展,分析了其对国家环境治理体系的积极影响:(1)将改变建立在化石能源基础上的工业、农业和城市形态,打破经济发展对资源、能源和土地的高度依赖,彻底告别环境污染和生态破坏;(2)将真正实现面向现在和未来的数据精准决策,显著改善人类应对不确定性环境风险能力。另一方面,由于人工智能会极大提升公民个体对复杂科学技术和社会规则的掌握能力,会改变传统治理结构中政府—市场—社会三元力量对比,给政府在环境治理领域的政策制定和执行带来新的挑战:(1)公众的能力足以使得他们对政府做出的任何不利于自己的政策提出挑战,政府信息公开和透明决策压力空前;(2)社交媒体使得公众对政府及主流媒体信息的关注大大下降,对政府如何利用新型社交媒体进行环境保护宣传教育提出了新的挑战,同时也对社会管理部门如何培育环保社会组织,弥补政府影响力下降所产生的空白提出了新的课题;(3)个体可以同时具有律师、会计、记者等处理复杂社会问题的能力,挑战政府维护社会公平稳定的利益裁量权,对环境司法公正提出更高要求。当前,中国正在进行环境体制改革创新,追求环境治理体系和治理能力现代化,如何关注、分析并积极适应由于技术变革引起的经济基础和上层建筑变化,避免制度资源错配,对于我们这样一个正在进行工业化的后发型国家尤为重要。文章最后建议,要高度关注这个领域的研究前沿进展,在制定发展规划与改革措施过程中,以未来的技术环境为出发点;要加强治理创新,引导技术朝着有利环境保护的方向发展;要加强技术对国家治理体系和治理能力双向影响研究,推进政府改革与创新,为人民提供更好的公共产品。     

Protected area governance in Sweden: new modes of governance or business as usual?

This paper explores whether ambitions to open up the traditional Swedish model of top-down conservation methods to local influences are indicative of an actual transition in governance of Swedish national park policy (NPP), and examines whether such a shift entails an increase in local influence over local interests and needs. Methodologically, we analyse a combination of governance types and incorporate theoretical definitions of power and accountability. The establishment of new governance arrangements – where power is shared, interactions promoted and accountability is directed downwards – indicates that Sweden's NPP is undergoing a change in its mode of governance. This change also seems to include ceding some influence to local interests, and the possibility of combining conservation with the utilisation of certain natural resources. The results of our research also provide valuable insights into when the establishment of shared-governance arrangements are likely to succeed; in short, this seems more likely when there are established sectors sited in a robust legal framework and where strong international commitments potentially play a role. In conclusion, we contend that when seeking diversified governance arrangements it is not enough simply to take local practices and customs into consideration – they have to be strengthened.     

Operationalising just sustainability: towards a model for place-based governance

As the concept of sustainability broadens to include social aspects, sustainability organisations must embrace strategies that allow them to more effectively address community issues and procedural concerns. Biosphere reserves (BRs) and model forests (MFs) advocate strongly for community engagement to achieve place-based sustainability; in practice, however, these organisations have had variable success in effectively engaging community residents and addressing their needs and interests. In this paper, we offer a framework for place-based governance for sustainability that is used to compare strategies used in BRs and MFs operating in the Maritime Provinces of Canada with the operations of Vibrant Communities, an anti-poverty organisation that operates locally in Saint John, New Brunswick. We draw attention to three imperatives: comprehensive understanding, community empowerment, and community-based outcomes, and five procedural drivers: local leadership, strong networks, diverse community engagement, learning together, and information sharing. Based on our results, we provide greater clarity on processes that address the imperatives and mobilise the drivers of effective place-based governance for sustainability. Our results suggest that there is a need for theory and practice to advance beyond current understandings of sustainability governance to enhance the capacity of organisations seeking to implement community-based sustainability strategies.     

Conflict and collective action in Tonle Sap fisheries: adapting governance to support community livelihoods

This paper presents the results of action research conducted from 2009 to 2015 on the dynamics of resource conflict concerning fisheries and livelihoods in the Tonle Sap Lake, as well as the institutional context and strategies for institutional adaptation to address such conflicts equitably. Over the past 15 years, Cambodia has made significant advances in building the policy framework, regulations and institutions to support community‐based fisheries management and increase the sector's contribution to the rural economy. However, fundamental challenges of increased resource conflict and loss of livelihoods by the most vulnerable remain. Key sources of conflict include destructive and illegal fishing practices, clearing of flooded forests, competing uses of land and water, and overlapping resource claims. Addressing these challenges requires collective action by all key actors: local fishers, the private sector, civil society, development partners, and government from the local to the national level. We identify and elaborate upon four governance priorities: (1) clarify roles and responsibilities in fisheries management; (2) link civil society and government efforts in law enforcement; (3) strengthen partnerships for livelihoods development; and (4) integrate fisheries management into decentralised development planning.     

Revealing inadvertent elitism in stakeholder models of environmental governance: assessing procedural justice in sustainability organizations

Consensus-based multi-stakeholder forms of environmental governance involving government, private and civil society actors, have become popular for advancing sustainability, but have been criticized for failing to achieve procedural justice objectives including recognition, participation and strengthening capabilities. Yet, how such models have functioned within non-governmental organizations dedicated to advancing sustainability has been underexplored. This paper assesses the procedural elements of consensus-based multi-stakeholder models used within Canadian biosphere reserves and model forests, two organizations working to address environment and sustainability issues. We draw on strategic documents and semi-structured interviews from five organizations in Canada to analyze their governance structures and processes against a framework for procedural justice. We find the organizational structure reproduces elitism and professionalism associated with stakeholder models more generally and reproduces challenges associated with recognition, participation and building capabilities found in other stakeholder approaches. Meeting broader sustainability challenges requires organizations to address procedural justice issues in addition to their traditional environmental concerns.     

The road to environmental participatory governance in Taiwan: collaboration and challenges in incineration and municipal waste management

Waste management has been a problem for Taiwanese society over the past two decades due to rapid economic growth and urbanisation. The building of incinerators, however, has stimulated controversies and social discontent over the impacts of incineration on both environmental and human health. In Beitou, a district in the capital city of Taiwan, not-in-my-backyard activism was launched against the building of an incinerator, but the community later promoted the idea of a ‘zero-waste city’ and played a role in the decision by Taipei's government. Using in-depth qualitative interview methods to interview local community actors, and green society members to understand the dynamics between actors, this research discusses these changes and employs the participatory governance approach to networks among residents of the local community and other actors. This paper also concludes that there has been a power shift in state–citizen relationships at the local level, deepening and consolidating democratic politics in Taiwan.     

Local governments in the driving seat? A comparative analysis of public and private responsibilities for adaptation to climate change in European and North-American cities

The division of responsibilities between public and private actors has become a key governance issue for adaptation to climate change in urban areas. This paper offers a systematic, comparative analysis of three empirical studies which analysed how and why responsibilities were divided between public and private actors for the governance of local urban climate adaptation. For 20 governance arrangements in European and North-American cities, the divisions of responsibilities and the underlying rationales of actors for those divisions were analysed and compared. Data were gathered through content analysis of over 100 policy documents, 97 in-depth interviews and 2 multi-stakeholder workshops. The comparative analysis reveals that local public authorities are the key actors, as they bear the majority of responsibilities for climate proofing their cities. In this stage of policy emergence, local authorities are clearly in the driving seat. It is envisaged that local public authorities need to more actively engage the different private actors such as citizens, civil society and businesses through governance networks along with the maturation of the policy field and the expected acceleration of climate impacts in the coming decades.