Andreas Duit

The Dynamics of Social-Ecological Systems in Urban Landscapes: Stockholm and the National Urban Park, Sweden

Abstract: This study addresses social‐ecological dynamics in the greater metropolitan area of Stockholm County, Sweden, with special focus on the National Urban Park (NUP). It is part of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and has the following specific objectives: (1) to provide scientific information on biodiversity patterns, ecosystem dynamics, and ecosystem services generated; (2) to map interplay between actors and institutions involved in management of ecosystem services; and (3) to identify strategies for strengthening social‐ecological resilience. The green areas in Stockholm County deliver numerous ecosystem services, for example, air filtration, regulation of microclimate, noise reduction, surface water drainage, recreational and cultural values, nutrient retention, and pollination and seed dispersal. Recreation is among the most important services and NUP, for example, has more than 15 million visitors per year. More than 65 organizations representing 175,000 members are involved in management of ecosystem services. However, because of population increase and urban growth during the last three decades, the region displays a quite dramatic loss of green areas and biodiversity. An important future focus is how management may reduce increasing isolation of urban green areas and enhance connectivity. Comanagement should be considered where locally managed green space may function as buffer zones and for management of weak links that connect larger green areas; for example, there are three such areas around NUP identified. Preliminary results indicate that areas of informal management represent centers on which to base adaptive comanagement, with the potential to strengthen biodiversity management and resilience in the landscape.

Greening Leviathan: the rise of the environmental state?

‘Bringing the state back in’ to research on comparative, inter-, and trans-national environmental politics and policy will contribute to better understanding of the limits and prospects of contemporary approaches to environmental politics and the overall evolution of contemporary states once environmental issues become central. The rationale for the state as an analytical perspective in environmental policy and politics is explained, and an empirically oriented concept of the environmental state is introduced, along with a tentative sketch of its evolution in historical perspective. A research agenda on the environmental state is mapped out, centring around variation and convergence in environmental states across space and time; the political/economic dynamics of contemporary environmental states; and inter-linkages among environmental problems, the constitution of political communities, and the functioning of the public power. In conclusion, the ways in which the contributions to this volume address that research agenda are introduced.

The four faces of the environmental state: environmental governance regimes in 28 countries

The primary task for the environmental state is to address problems related to the market’s externalisation of environmental costs. It has four main resources at its disposal: regulation, redistribution, organisation, and knowledge generation. The way these four resources are deployed make up a state’s environmental governance arrangements. Using data on environmental regulation, taxes, public administrations, and knowledge production from 28 countries, and a hierarchical cluster analysis, four different types of environmental states are identified: established, emerging, partial, and weak. This is followed by some suggestions for further research on the environmental state in a comparative perspective.

NGO Influence in International Organizations: Information, Access and Exchange

While there is broad consensus that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sometimes succeed in influencing policy-making within international organizations (IOs), there is much less agreement on the factors that make NGO lobbying effective. In this article, we make two contributions to this debate. First, we examine the determinants of influence among NGOs active in different IOs, issue areas, and policy phases. The analysis builds on original survey data of more than 400 NGOs involved in five different IOs, complemented by elite interviews with IO and state officials. Second, we advance a specific argument about how the strategic exchange of information and access between NGOs and IOs increases NGO influence in IOs. We contrast this argument, derived from theories of lobbying in American and European politics, with three alternative explanations of NGO influence, privileging material resources, transnational networks, and public-opinion mobilization, and sketch the broader implications of our results for research on NGOs in global governance.

Saving the woodpeckers: Social Capital, Governance, and Policy performance

This article investigates if higher levels of social capital, better governance structures, and a more ambitious conservation policy are positively linked to the ability of states to address biodiversity loss. Serving this purpose is a data set containing estimates of woodpecker diversity in 20 European countries. These data are argued to be a more valid indicator of biodiversity than most other available cross-national measures of environmental quality. A seemingly unrelated regression analysis reveals that none of the indicators are linked to higher levels of woodpecker diversity, which in turn leads to the conclusion that present institutions, environmental policies, and social structures have negligible effects on biodiversity compared to long-term landscape transformations.

Patterns of Environmental Collective Action: Some Cross-National Findings

Many environmental problems such as global warming, biodiversity loss and waste accumulation can be described as large-scale collective action dilemmas. Previous research on collective action in Common Pool Resource settings has demonstrated that institutional structures and social capital are important for successful management of natural resources. The objective of this article is to investigate the effect of such factors on large-scale environmental collective action. The analysis employs survey data and indicators of institutional quality for 22 countries. Two measurements of environmental collective action are used: (1) intermediate group collective action; and (2) latent group environmental action. Findings point to a dominating role for two factors – institutional quality and membership in voluntary organisations – as key determinants of participation in both latent and intermediate group environmental collective action. These results are interpreted as indications of a possible decoupling between trust and participation in large-scale collective action.

World poverty, environmental vulnerability and population at risk for natural hazards

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. The objective of the accompanying map is to show the relation between world poverty, environmental vulnerability and population at risk for natural hazards. Sub-national infant mortality rates are used as proxy for poverty and mapped as a bivariate choropleth map together with national levels of environmental vulnerability. Past density and distribution of natural hazards were mapped on to a textonequarter degree grid and presented as an inset map. An inset map with global population densities is also provided. All maps are in Lambert cylindrical equal-area projection. The main map scale is 1:100 000 000. According to the result from the bivariate mapping of poverty and environmental vulnerability, the world can be stratified into three groups. 1) Regions with low poverty rates and relatively high degree of environmental vulnerability (e.g. Scandinavia, North America). 2) Regions with high levels of poverty and a relatively low degree of environmental vulnerability (e.g. parts of East-Africa, parts of Russia). 3) Regions with high poverty rates and high degrees of environmental vulnerability levels (e.g. middle parts of Asia). When this information is combined with that of population density and natural hazard density and distribution it is clear that those belonging to group three are very vulnerable with usually high population densities and a location prone to natural hazards. This type of small scale mapping is a good way of exploring relations between variables, observing geographical patterns and bringing forward new hypotheses for future research directions, and should be viewed as a complement to large scale mapping and field inventories.

Dealing With a Wicked Problem? A Dark Tale of Carnivore Management in Sweden 2007-2011:

In this article, we investigate whether increased participation offers a way of addressing wicked policy problems. We utilize a natural policy experiment in the form of a 2010 reform of Swedish wildlife management policy aiming to solve longstanding conflicts over predators through increased stakeholder participation in regional Wildlife Management Boards. Using a panel study design containing quantitative and qualitative data, we estimate pre- and post-reform levels of three wickedness-reducing mechanisms: legitimacy, deliberation, and conflict intensity. Despite a substantial increase in participation, we find no evidence of reduced wickedness after the reform.