Ingrid J. Visseren-Hamakers

Interaction management by partnerships: The case of biodiversity and climate change

This article examines the contributions that partnerships make to interaction management. Our conceptualization of interaction management builds on earlier contributions to the literature on regimes and governance. The article focuses on the interactions among the biodiversity and climate change governance systems, since these systems interact intensively on the issues of biofuels and forests (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation—REDD+). The article shows that seven partnerships actively manage the interactions by fulfilling several critical interaction management functions. Their main contributions include creating markets for sustainable biofuels through the development of certification standards and creating markets for “multiple benefit” REDD+. Although the partnerships improve interactions on case-by-case bases, they fail to fundamentally improve existing interactions between the biodiversity and climate change governance systems. Improved meta-governance and public-private interplay are necessary for more effective interaction management and, more generally, the effective governance of sustainable development.

Connecting Earth observation to high-throughput biodiversity data

Understandably, given the fast pace of biodiversity loss, there is much interest in using Earth observation technology to track biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. However, because most biodiversity is invisible to Earth observation, indicators based on Earth observation could be misleading and reduce the effectiveness of nature conservation and even unintentionally decrease conservation effort. We describe an approach that combines automated recording devices, high-throughput DNA sequencing and modern ecological modelling to extract much more of the information available in Earth observation data. This approach is achievable now, offering efficient and near-real-time monitoring of management impacts on biodiversity and its functions and services.

Partnership as Governance Mechanism in Development Cooperation: Intersectoral North–South Partnerships for Marine Biodiversity

This significant study discusses the emergence of partnerships for sustainable development as an innovative, and potentially influential, new type of governance. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the ‘partnership paradigm’ is discussed and the contributors explore the process, extent and circumstances under which partnerships can improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of governance for sustainable development.

Comparative Analysis of the Interactions between the FLEGT and REDD+ Regimes in Cameroon and the Republic of Congo

SUMMARY This paper aims to examine and compare the interactions between policy to combat illegal logging (FLEGT VPA) and avoiding deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo by applying an institutional interaction approach. Several interactions have occurred between the two regimes, and more interactions are expected. In both countries, the process for developing the VPA has served as a policy model for designing elements of REDD+. Overlaps in issue-areas and membership triggered these interactions. Implementation of the VPA is also expected to result in positive behavioural change among forest stakeholders that could in turn have positive impacts on REDD+. There are also disruptive interactions, such as the slow pace of VPA implementation affecting REDD+ progress in both countries. Furthermore, there is substantial similarity in terms of the nature and quality of interactions between Cameroon and Congo. Building understanding and exchange of information among stakeholders and request for assistance and jurisdictional delimitation could enhance synergies and mitigate disruptive interactions between the two regimes in both countries.

Compensating for livestock killed by lions: payment for environmental services as a policy arrangement

To address human–wildlife conflicts and the related threat of extinction of the African lion, in 2003, the Maasailand Preservation Trust established a fund at the Mbirikani Group Ranch in southern Kenya to provide monetary compensation for livestock killed by wildlife. In this paper, the policy arrangement approach (PAA) is used to analyse this arrangement as a form of payment for environmental services (PES). Although there has been a considerable reduction in the number of lions killed, the analysis reveals several limitations of this arrangement, including three main side effects, namely it has initiated a process that is difficult to sustain or reverse, created a new cycle of dependence and widened the gap between different groups in the community. In conclusion, the drawbacks of this type of compensation fund must be addressed by combining such arrangements with other public and private policies and initiatives. Careful examination and comparison of different kinds of experiments with PES-like arrangements are required to further build understanding of the potential and different contributions of public and private, market-based initiatives in biodiversity governance.

The Institutional Capacity for Forest Devolution : The Case of Forest Land Allocation in Vietnam

The article assesses the institutional capacity of a devolution policy, namely forest land allocation (FLA) in Vietnam. We applied the governance capacity framework, which is based on the policy arrangement approach, to examine the extent to which the policy enables actors to work together in order to solve collective problems. The findings reveal that, overall, the institutional capacity of FLA in Vietnam is rather low, although it varies from region to region. This result is determined by the restricted and ambiguous codification of property rights; the limited resource availability; the symbolic venues for deliberation and the lack of openness of actors towards others’ views in the policy process. External factors, particularly agricultural development, also had a major impact on institutional capacity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The Sustainable Development Goals and REDD+: assessing institutional interactions and the pursuit of synergies

This paper analyzes potential synergies between two recent sustainable development initiatives, namely the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), a climate mitigation mechanism negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The paper elaborates a conceptual framework based on institutional interactions and distinguishes core, complementary, and supplementary synergies that may be realized between the SDGs and REDD+. Potential synergies are analyzed at the global level, as well as within two national-level contexts: Indonesia, with its long-standing REDD+ programme, and Myanmar, which is in the early stages of implementing REDD+. Both are now also engaging nationally with the SDG implementation process. Our research draws on literature review and document analysis, direct observations of global policy processes relating to REDD+ and SDGs, as well as extensive engagement (of one author) at national level in Indonesia and Myanmar. Our analysis reveals that there are currently significant opportunities to pursue synergies in the implementation of these international initiatives at the national level, although pro-active interaction management is necessary, especially to achieve complementary synergies.

Tourism-conservation enterprises for community livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in Kenya

Tourism-conservation enterprises (TCEs), such as eco-lodges, are a relatively new strategy of the African Wildlife Foundation for enhancing community livelihoods and wildlife conservation in wildlife-rich areas outside state-protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa. This article investigates the extent to which TCEs succeed in meeting these objectives by focusing on two enterprises in Kenya: the Sanctuary at Ol Lentille and the Koija Starbeds. Empirical data were gathered between October 2010 and March 2013 through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, literature review and document analysis. Both TCEs demonstrated significant contributions to employment, education, healthcare and security. Compared with the Starbeds, the Sanctuary realised a much larger conservation area and more pronounced biodiversity recovery. The analysis showed that the contribution of TCEs to livelihoods and biodiversity conservation depends on the nature of the partnership arrangement, as well as the local, national and international contexts in which they operate.

Towards durable multistakeholder-generated solutions: The pilot application of a problem-oriented policy learning protocol to legality verification and community rights in Peru

SUMMARY This paper reports and reflects on the pilot application of an 11-step policy learning protocol that was developed by Cashore and Lupberger (2015) based on several years of Cashores multi-author collaborations. The protocol was applied for the first time in Peru in 2015 and 2016 by the IUFRO Working Party on Forest Policy Learning Architectures (hereinafter referred to as the project team). The protocol integrates insights from policy learning scholarship (Hall 1993, Sabatier 1999) with Bernstein and Cashores (2000, 2012) four pathways of influence framework. The pilot implementation in Peru focused on how global timber legality verification interventions might be harnessed to promote local land rights. Legality verification focuses attention on the checking and auditing of forest management units in order to verify that timber is harvested and traded in compliance with the law. We specifically asked: How can community legal ownership of, and access to, forestland and forest resources be enhanced? The protocol was designed as a dynamic tool, the implementation of which fosters iterative rather than linear processes. It directly integrated two objectives: 1) identifying the causal processes through which global governance initiatives might be harnessed to produce durable results ‘on the ground’; 2) generating insights and strategies in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. This paper reviews and critically evaluates our work in designing and piloting the protocol. We assess what seemed to work well and suggest modifications, including an original diagnostic framework for nurturing durable change. We also assess the implications of the pilot application of the protocol for policy implementation that works to enhance the influence of existing international policy instruments, rather than contributing to fragmentation and incoherence by creating new ones.

A framework for analyzing and practicing Integrative Governance: The case of global animal and conservation governance

This article presents a framework to analyze and practice Integrative Governance, defined as the theories and practices that focus on the relationships between governance instruments and/or systems. The need to pay explicit attention to such relationships is increasingly recognized, especially in achieving the transformative change needed for sustainable development. The Integrative Governance framework focuses on explanatory analyses of the relationships and performance of governance instruments and/or systems, and is inspired by a pragmatic theoretical perspective. It includes three steps of analysis, with the first focused on the governance instruments and the relationships between them, the second on the combined performance of governance systems, and the third on explanations for the relationships and performance. Especially for this third step, insights from different theoretical perspectives are used, incorporating insights from rational choice theory, institutionalism, constructivism and critical theory. The application of the framework is illustrated by the example of the global animal and conservation governance systems. The preliminary analysis shows that the global conservation governance system is relatively more developed than the global animal governance system. The latter is mainly focused on animal health, with fewer instruments on welfare, and none on animal rights. The former includes more governance instruments and has some systems in place for monitoring implementation. The performance of both systems however remains limited, and there are few interactions between the systems. Main explanations include the interests of countries involved in the governance systems, the dominant anthropocentric discourses, and the current mostly animal-unfriendly and unsustainable political economy. Applying the Integrative Governance framework enables an enhanced understanding of the multiple and intertwined explanations of the relationships and performance of governance systems, allowing academics and practitioners to develop more realistic, durable solutions both in the shorter and longer term.