Elena Nikitina

Institutional Fit and River Basin Governance: a New Approach Using Multiple Composite Measures

The notion that effective environmental governance depends in part on achieving a reasonable fit between institutional arrangements and the features of ecosystems and their interconnections with users has been central to much thinking about social-ecological systems for more than a decade. Based on expert consultations this study proposes a set of six dimensions of fit for water governance regimes and then empirically explores variation in measures of these in 28 case studies of national parts of river basins in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa drawing on a database compiled by the Twin2Go project. The six measures capture different but potentially important dimensions of fit: allocation, integration, conservation, basinization, participation, and adaptation. Based on combinations of responses to a standard questionnaire filled in by groups of experts in each basin we derived quantitative measures for each indicator. Substantial variation in these measures of fit was apparent among basins in developing and developed countries. Geographical location is not a barrier to high institutional fit; but within basins different measures of fit often diverge. This suggests it is difficult, but not impossible, to simultaneously achieve a high fit against multiple challenging conditions. Comparing multidimensional fit profiles give a sense of how well water governance regimes are equipped for dealing with a range of natural resource and use-related conditions and suggests areas for priority intervention. The findings of this study thus confirm and help explain previous work that has concluded that context is important for understanding the variable consequences of institutional reform on water governance practices as well as on social and environmental outcomes.

Reorganisation of Environmental Policy in Russia: The Decade of Success and Failures in Implementation and Perspective Quests

During the nineties, significant reorganization of the Russian domestic and international environmental policy took place. Together with broader opportunities for institutional innovations in the environmental sector, the specifics of changes in economic, social and political systems, and instability of their major parameters during transition imposed constraints on institutional capacity building in environmental protection. Many of the newly introduced instruments of environmental management, most of them copied from the West, were significantly modified and deformed under such impacts: they had produced non-standard outcomes, and their effectiveness appeared to be lower than predicted at the start of reforms at the beginning of 1990s. This article analyses major success and failures in environmental policy implementation in Russia during the last decade, and outlines main features in approaches of the new government to institutional reorganization. Further developments are to demonstrate to what extent it would succeed in fostering economic growth in ways that protect the environment.

Chapter 6 Adaptive governance of risks: climate, water, and disasters

How water is managed is emerging as one of the core challenges of sustainable development and earth system governance (Pahl-Wostl, Gupta, & Petry, 2008a; Biermann et al., 2009). Floods and droughts already have a huge impact on human development and well-being. Adaptation to existing climate variability to reduce water insecurities is already a pressing need (Pielke, Prins, Rayner, & Sarewitz, 2007). Securing access to safe drinking water, allocating sufficient water to grow food, protecting life and property from floods, as well as maintaining river and floodplain ecosystems as countries develop economically, however, is a complex set of interlocking and dynamic challenges.

Conservation of marine resources in the former Soviet Union: An environmental perspective

Abstract In the 1980s the Soviet Union, like other coastal states, extended its economic zone and put in place new policies and structures for managing marine resources. These measures followed years of neglect, and resource conservation did not fit well with Marxian doctrine or the centrally planned economic system. Hence, overexploitation and environmental deterioration continued. Democratization, peres‐troika, and the restructuring of bureaucracies in the late 1980s gave new impetus to resource conservation. But these developments were overtaken by the upheavals of 1991 in which the communist system was repudiated, the economy almost collapsed, and the Soviet Union disintegrated. In the new sovereign states (especially Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet Unions extended economic zones) a more decentralized management regime is emerging. These states have opportunities to significantly improve their production of marine products but face a formidable task in reversing the depletion of resources ...

Climate and Security in Asia and the Pacific (Food, Water and Energy)

The impacts of increasing natural climate disasters are threatening food security in the Asia-Pacific region. Rice is Asia’s most important staple food. Climate variability and change directly impact rice production, through changes in rainfall, temperature and CO2 concentrations. The key for sustainable rice crop is water management. Adaptation can occur through shifts of cropping to higher latitudes and can profit from river systems (via irrigation) so far not considered. New opportunities arise to produce more than one crop per year in cooler areas. Asian wheat production in 2005 represents about 43 % of the global total. Changes in agronomic practices, such as earlier plant dates and cultivar substitution will be required. Fisheries play a crucial role in providing food security with the contribution of fish to dietary animal protein being very high in the region – up to 90 % in small island developing states (SIDS). With the warming of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and increased acidification, marine ecosystems are presently under stress. Despite these trends, maintaining or enhancing food production from the sea is critical. However, future sustainability must be maintained whilst also securing biodiversity conservation. Improved fisheries management to address the existing non-climate threats remains paramount in the Indian and Pacific Oceans with sustainable management regimes being established. Climate-related impacts are expected to increase in magnitude over the coming decades, thus preliminary adaptation to climate change is valuable.

Mechanisms of Environmental Security in Russia: Out of Order?

Recently non-traditional threats to national security are gaining their importance in Russia and environmental security is among them. Since the 1990s, Russia elaborated new approaches to environmental security, as well as protective instruments. Some factors of the transition period in Russia influenced negatively the implementation of new concepts, and some environmental threats are accelerating. Standard instruments of environmental policy borrowed from the West and transferred to Russia without preliminary adaptation to specifics of transition period have resulted in non-standard outcomes while some instruments are blocked.

Solving Transboundary Air Pollution Conflict: A New Framework for Countries in Transition

In this chapter we discuss the transboundary air pollution conflict between the Nordic countries and Russia; the main source of this pollution is emissions from Norilsk Nickel’s nonferrous facilities on the Kola Peninsula. We attempt to assess the major elements of Russia’s newly created economic and political framework and their implications for the implementation of possible solutions to this environmental problem. Further, we offer an explanation of the failures of efforts, both domestically and internationally, to solve the problem.