Decision Making for the Environment Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities (2005) / Chapter Skim
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3 Institutions for Environmental Governance
3 Institutions for Environmental Governance
Pages 41-51
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THE RESEARCH NEED Environmental resources present the governance problems typical of common-pool resources, that is, resources that can be used simultaneously 41
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42 DECISION MAKING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT by more than one user, and anyone's use potentially degrades the resource for all. When ownership and the assignment of rights and responsibilities are unclear and access is unrestricted, these resources often generate socalled social dilemmas or social traps in which the outcome of decision making is less than optimal, if not wasteful or destructive.
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From the turn of the twentieth century, a dominant and continuing model for environmental policy was the multipurpose management of public lands, forests, surface waters, wildlife, and minerals underlying public lands and waters by federal agencies, based on scientific and technical expertise and guided by a doctrine of public trust to serve the overall public interest. Beginning in the New Deal era, this model was augmented by the large-scale use of government subsidies, especially for multipurpose water management projects, and by partnership arrangements with favored resource user interests, such as farmers and ranchers.
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. Criticism of centralized environmental management and regulation has drawn attention to an alternative institutional form -- market-based governance -- which has been advocated as more flexible and more economically efficient.
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For example, those affected by environmental decisions, even at the local scale, may have very heterogeneous backgrounds, needs, and interests to be represented and considered. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
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46 DECISION MAKING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT agencies and by trade associations, while being contested by grassroots organizations and national and transnational NGOs. The developments just discussed have led to increased attention to decentralization, pluralism, and innovation in crafting and adapting institutions for environmental and natural resource governance (Wilson, Nielsen, and Degnbol, 2003; National Research Council, 2002a; Schelhas, 2003; Haas, 2004a)
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. These analyses address a variety of issues, including environmental outcomes, economic efficiency, and social equity.
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Future research should also address how legitimacy and trust -- and hence the effectiveness of commons institutions -- are affected by the increased complexity and scale of environmental problems and interested publics. Linkages Across Scales The trend toward decentralization and devolution, increased interest in "co-management" institutions, and the need to govern transnational environmental resources all raise questions of how to integrate smaller-scale and place-based institutions with higher levels of governance (Hanna, Folke, and Maeler, 1996; McCay and Acheson, 1987; Ostrom, 1990; Wilson et al., 2003; World Resources Institute, 2003)
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? · How do the proliferation of horizontal linkages such as indigenous people's movements and the increased activity of nongovernmental organizations affect environmental governance?
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that are capable of yielding helpful results. Potential Value The products of the recommended research can be of considerable value to a variety of environmental policy actors by providing them with a useful and flexible conceptual framework and a growing body of knowledge, interpretable within that framework, with clear policy implications.
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, and with appropriate attention from decision makers they may become influential in other areas of environmental policy as well. The relevance is clearly there.
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