In what can be characterized as a period of rapid ecological change, the global community has now reached an agreement on the importance of protecting what remains of the world’s biological diversity. In 2011, world governments pledged to extend protected areas (PAs) to 17% of the earth’s surface. Although, accumulated research documents the role PAs areas play in coping with environmental change, much of conservation practice remains at odds with the actual purpose of conservation: to enable natural and human systems to adapt and sustain life. Challenges in PA planning and management, and their connections (or lack thereof) to wider socio-economic and institutional frameworks have made environmental governance a leading concern in the study of PAs. This research examined the nature and dimensions of environmental governance affecting adaptive capacity and the sustainability of protected landscapes, particularly for PAs deemed to have been established and/or operating through ‘participatory’ governance. These issues are explored through comparative research based on case studies of two coastal PAs: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve in Canada, and Saadani National Park in Tanzania. Methods utilized included gathering qualitative and spatial data through interactions with decision-making bodies and representatives of agencies at the village/First Nations and park levels, interviews with state authorities at district and higher levels and document research. The research findings on the two PAs and adjacent communities unravel the nature and dynamics of steering institutions, institutional interplay and spatial interconnectedness as they relate to cooperation, agency and adaptability within and around protected landscapes. An examination of spatial and institutional arrangements within national frameworks, and an examination of governance and management practice at the level of individual parks reveal significant mismatches between policy discourses on multi-level cooperation and actual practice in state-based conservation. This research also reveals ways in which sustainability can be conceived and addressed through institutions and institutional interplay among park and community actors. The research analyzed ways in which encompassing frameworks shaped institutions, relationships and activities on the ground, and spatial interconnectedness and interdependence shaped the actions and agency of grassroots actors. The findings also demonstrate that there are critical differences between participation and the exercising of agency. While it is important to achieve a fair distribution of burdens and benefits across levels, it is shared jurisdiction and fair institutional interplay, rather than economic benefits, which can better enable all levels of social organizations to contribute to sustainability. In this regard, enhancing agency is essential to enabling adaptability and goes beyond addressing disruptive power relations; it also entails redefining perceptions of human nature and of spatial interconnectedness among communities and natural landscapes in the design of environmental institutions. It is through institutionally-driven processes, such as giving full political and financial support to states fixed on gaining spatial control of culturally diverse landscapes through restrictive conservation approaches, that conservation has become an instrument of oppression, and it is only through institutionally-driven means that acknowledge the importance and role of indigenous approaches to preserve ecological diversity that PAs can be made to serve their purpose: to preserve nature and cultural heritage for present and future generations. / Graduate / 0534 / 0366 / aleja@uvic.ca

The presented diploma thesis deals with environmental issues in China and focuses on the analysis of environmental policy in China and its approach to sustainable development. There is also addressed international environmental cooperation and China's role within. The aim of this thesis is to present the current condition of the environment in China and its causes, to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental policy in China using the concept of environmental governance and eventually introduce the attitude of China to international environmental cooperation.

Climate change has recently arised in the international agenda as one of the top issues. The paper first provides with a theoretical comprehension of actorness in international relations. Second, the paper examines milestones of the historic development of the current climate regime. Third, the focus turns to the major actors which influence the climate change negotiations and examines their preferences, their evolution and pursuit on the international scene. It assumes politics is a two-level game and that political factors are not exclusive driving forces on the international scene. Finally, remarks on the future of climate regime are presented. The paper concludes by stating that actors differ in social identification with natural reality and that the shift in current environmental paradigm is rather unlikely.

The argument goes that, as living standards rise, the demand for better environmental management increases and a liberal political system is best placed to deal with such issues. In contrast to the dominant discussions of environmentalism, which concentrates on the relationship between democracy and environmentalism, this thesis suggests that environmental protection can become a playground for authoritarian regimes to pursue ulterior motives and goals. Using the concept of environmental authoritarianism, the following research assesses the resilience capacity of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) despite the gravity of its environmental crisis and mounting citizen grievances. An ethnographic methodology composed of different methods is employed to undertake the investigation including participant observation, field notes, interviews and document analysis. The implementation of cooperation and legitimation strategies are investigated at an urban city level in the field of environmental sustainability. Broadly, the thesis argues that the environmental governance capacity of the CCP has been developed around three ideas: (1) (re)centralise environmental governance efforts; (2) create a consensus around environmental protection (e.g. ‘ecological civilisation’); and (3) institutionalise grassroots movements. Using actor-network-theory as a method of analysis, I explore how these processes occur in practice at a local level through two case studies: a registered NGO working on waste reduction and a social enterprise aimed at strengthening rural communities and promoting sustainable agriculture. The thesis findings indicate that there has been a shift from fragmentation to a consolidation resulting in less room for contentious participation. The instrumentalisation of environmental issues by the government prevent environmental activists to resist co-optation by the government machinery. Still, empirical evidence demonstrates that actors continuously adapt to new pressures. Broadly, by focusing on Shanghai as a case study, the following research advances that environmental protection is being instrumentally mobilised to legitimise a variety of planning practices through the use of a complex combination of mobilising, politicising and depoliticising techniques. Wider conclusions are drawn on authoritarian resilience, China’s public participation, and authoritarian modes of environmental governance. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les dynamiques du secteur minier péruvien entre la fin du XXe siècle et le début du XXIe siècle permettent de saisir la mondialisation économique comme un phénomène résolument spatial où se réinventent les territoires et les identités autour d’une ressource à la fois locale et globale. Dans cette thèse, nous montrons en quoi les nouvelles règles du jeu, notamment en matière minière et foncière ainsi que la gouvernance de l’environnement, illustrent la construction nécessairement politique du territoire péruvien et des ressources par l’État central autour d’un projet national d’exploitation marchande des gisements miniers comme source de richesse économique. La réorganisation de la structure productive nationale par le capital, souvent étranger, éclaire le poids des initiatives d’acteurs sur le devenir des territoires. La hausse de l’empreinte spatiale du secteur minier et des revenus qu’il génère atteste d’une greffe territoriale et économique de l’activité minière à l’échelle nationale. Néanmoins, celle-ci est inégalement ressentie dans les territoires locaux. La multiplication des conflits miniers au début du XXIe siècle rappelle que les ressources naturelles et les régulations qui codifient la relation société-nature sont le résultat souvent instable de relations de pouvoir entre acteurs aux poids asymétriques et aux visées potentiellement antagonistes. Nous analysons ces conflits interrogeant le rôle et la place des acteurs et des territoires locaux dans les politiques de développement, comme une arme de (re)négociation des règles du jeu à la portée des « sans ». D’intensité variable, la renégociation est micro quand les enjeux sont relativement limités et les acteurs entendent accéder à une meilleure répartition des richesses. Par contraste, elle est potentiellement massive quand ils refusent la marchandisation de la nature et entendent transformer en profondeur les règles du jeu comme l’illustre le conflit minier de Conga à Cajamarca. / Analysis of the dynamics of the mining sector in Peru between the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first allows an understanding of economic globalisation as a resolutely spatial phenomenon in which territories and identities are reinvented around resources at once local and global. In this thesis, we show how the new rules of the game of mining and property, and environmental governance, illustrate the necessarily political construction of Peru’s territory and resources by the central State around a national project of market-oriented exploitation of mining deposits as a source of economic wealth. This reorganisation of the national productive structure by capital, often foreign, sheds light on the impact of economic actors on the future of the territories. An increase of the spatial imprint of the mining sector and the revenue it generates amounts to a territorial and economic transplant of mining exploitation on a national scale. This increase, however, is felt unequally in local territories. The multiplication of mining conflicts at the start of the twenty-first century recalls how natural resources and the regulations codifying the society-nature relationship are the often unstable result of power relations between actors of unequal weight and with potentially antagonistic goals. We analyze these conflicts questionning the role and place of local actors and territories in development policies, as a weapon of (re)negotiation of the rules of the game wielded by the « have nots ». Varying in intensity, negotiations can be considered micro when the stakes are relatively limited and the actors only hope to achieve a greater share of the wealth. By contrast, conflicts may constitute a weapon of mass negotiation when actors refuse the commodification of nature and attempt a profound transformation of the rules of the game, as is illustrated by the Conga mining conflict in Cajamarca.

No description available.

Interest in ‘science-based targets’ (SBTs) as a means of helping the private sector achieve greater environmental sustainability has sharply increased in recent years. However, the significant ambiguity around what SBTs for Earth systems are and how they relate to broader sustainability issues has received little attention. This study adopts an interpretive approach to explore how different ‘framings’ of SBTs reflect very different storylines about sustainability problems and the role of SBTs in delivering solutions. It treats environmental governance not as a search for solutions to a pre-defined problem, but as a struggle over the definition of the environmental problem itself. In doing so, the study addresses deeper questions about whether sustainability science and practice should work within ‘the system’ to change it or critique it as part of the problem. It uses Q methodology to explore the perspectives of 22 scientists and practitioners engaged in SBTs for Earth systems. The results show two main framings of SBTs: ‘we need to develop science-based targets for the Earth system’ and ‘we need systemic economic, political and social change – and science-based targets.’ Results indicate that two distinctive storylines exist around SBTs, which emerge from reformist and radical environmental discourses. Alongside areas of consensus, they diverge on crucial issues regarding the nature of SBTs, sustainability problems and solutions, and the role of SBTs in transformation. The study suggests that the SBT is a boundary object; its ambiguity can both promote collaboration between diverse actors and conceal more radical discourse. It concludes that the plural interpretations of SBTs and their contribution to sustainability transformations have important implications. This highlights a need for greater reflexivity within sustainability science and practice, which could move them towards their sustainability aims.

Urban public green space is a core contributor to cultural ecosystem services in cities, comprising the non-material benefits that people obtain from contact with nature. Due to the many benefits that have been ascribed to it, green space has become subject to debates on justice about its fair distribution and equal opportunities to use it. Teenage girls living in socio-economically challenged neighbourhoods appear to belong to a societal group that is restricted in accessing green space, as well as having less opportunities to influence the governance of such space. Attempting to bring further light to these issues, this study utilises a phenomenological approach in which intersectionality theory is central. It aims to explore how intersections of identity markers, such as age, gender, and place of residence, interact with girls’ lived experiences of green space. It does so by collecting first-person narratives in eight interactive and online interviews with the support of satellite, aerial and street view imagery provided by Google Maps. The result shows the great complexity of urban public green space as a place with room for both feelings of liberty and feelings of exclusion. The girls’ narratives unveil how urban green is an important source for well-being and quality of life, and how connection with nature enables connection with loved ones, the community, and with oneself. Simultaneously, identity markers, such as age, gender, and place of residence, intersect into a synergy of exclusion for teenage girls to fully encounter urban nature. Feelings of urban public green space as a place occupied by others contribute to experiences of it as inappropriate and unsafe for girls to visit in certain places during certain times. This suggests how green space works as an arena for power relations, where the opportunities for girls to benefit from its free use and from cultural ecosystem services decrease under certain circumstances. Narratives and myths that green space is dangerous for girls paint a geography of fear; in which fear of becoming a victim of crime is expressed as a fear of space. This fear increases with preconceptions and self-images that girls are defenceless and weak. Furthermore, these experiences intersect with feelings that their neighbourhoods, and the green wherein, are framed adversely and neglected by planners, politicians, municipalities and the government. Still, the girls express great appreciation and pride over the voluminous public green areas in their neighbourhoods. Despite experiencing less power to influence, they have strong visions and aspirations to impact the design and function of urban nature, which indicates prospects for empowerment and revitalisation of green space. It is concluded that recognising lived experiences of girls is essential when working towards safe and accessible, but also lively and inviting, green space. Furthermore, it is argued that insights from intersectionality is valuable when researching use of green space, as intersectionality is a profoundly spatial concept; in which social categories articulate in relation to place and time, and where power and identity contribute at shaping experiences of green space.

Soot pollution is a form of air pollution that can severely damage public health and the environment. The Residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, and its environs have been suffering from the negative environmental effects of particle (soot) pollution since the fourth quarter of 2016. The emergence of this pollution has been drawing the interest of academics, international and local civil society organizations, and the government. The study analyzes soot pollution as a grand societal challenge in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and critically understand the role of environmental governance (different stakeholders) and leadership concerning soot pollution in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Given the interest of this research, the author decided to view the research problem from a social constructive perspective. Qualitative method (interview) was adopted in collecting data from eight (8) different stakeholders; two representatives from government, oil companies, civil society, and the community members respectively. The content and thematic analysis technique was used to analyze key informant interviews. Empirical findings shows that soot pollution in Port Harcourt Nigeria is a complex problem and poses several threats to the public health, politically, economically and the social environment. Further results also indicated governance as one of the most important factors in ensuring a sustainable environment.

Mining contributes significantly to the economic development of South Africa, contributes to pollution and other negative environmental impacts. Section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Constitution) places a duty on government to, amongst others adopt legislative measures to protect the environment, prevent pollution and degradation, and secure sustainable development, while promoting justifiable economic and social development. Government responded with the introduction of new acts or the amendment of existing acts most of which require an authorisation process as a “command and control” tool to enforce environmental governance within the mining sector. The abovementioned legislative development will be discussed from a historical perspective up to the current developments. The research aims to attempt to align the authorisation process pertaining to mining. The mining life cycle will be illustrated and the authorisation requirements for each of the mining life cycle processes will be discussed alongside its challenges such as fragmentation, lack of capacity in government sectors, lack of communication and cooperative governance within government. The lack of focus within the authorisation requirements will be deliberated. To avoid the negative consequences of the current authorisation processes such as duplication, unnecessary time delays and the stifling of economic growth, an investigation into how the various fragmented authorisation processes can be aligned into a single streamlined authorisation process which will contribute to the sustainable development within South Africa will be made. / MPhil (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013