Environmental sustainability has long been assumed to be a postmaterialist claim solely granted for affluent countries. This Western perception suggests that African and other developing countries are not capable of successfully dealing with environmental issues due to limited institutional and instrumental resources. Through semi-structured interviews with nine Ethiopian environment experts, and the supplementary method of field observations, this paper demonstrate empirical material from the green state of Ethiopia. Albeit being one of the poorest countries in the world, Ethiopia is displaying capacity to overcome environmental challenges and a willingness to undergo an environmentally sustainable transition process. Ultimately, environmental sustainability in Ethiopia is a possibility that contain challenges. The state have established environmental units, produced the comprehensive Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy and is actively transforming the rain-fed agriculture, investing in infrastructure and renewable energies, providing agricultural extension systems, rehabilitating degraded lands and creating environmental awareness. In addition, the national reforestation program, which includes restoration, creation and conservation of forests, boosts the forest industry and develops eco-system services, such as carbon sinks. However, weak implementation capacity disables the state from following through with ambitious environmental policies, and, in addition, the urge for economic development along an absence of strong regulative mechanisms stimulate the continuing conversion of forests and lands to agriculture.

This thesis attempts to problematize the power relations in environmental administration and decision making through the analytical lens of environmental discourse and ethics. It argues that developments in environmental politics reveal a marked increase in democratic involvement through an emerging ecological civil society as reflected in the case study of the proposed King William Reservoir in Virginia. An ecological civil society could become the leaders and educators in communities to develop the expertise needed for responsible democratic participation in environmental decision making at the local level. As reflected in the case study, however, official political marginalization and exclusion of the public are continued features of federal and state environmental processes and structures. These processes and structures should be re-formed to include new democratic elements which would increase local control and responsibility for environmental transformations, and reduce conflicts overall. / Master of Science

No description available.

Global demand of fish for consumption in developing nations is expected to continue to rise in the near future, putting pressure on stocks that are already overexploited. In the territorial waters of Panama there is a constant struggle between commercial vessels with high yield, subsistence fishermen trying to feed a remote village, and ecosystem services struggling to sustain themselves. These services are the direct and indirect benefits received by the population in the form of food, raw materials, nutrient cycling, and disaster regulation. They are being degraded by illegal and unregulated fishing, bottom trawlers raking the benthos and destroying coral reefs, longlines responsible for thousands of sea turtle and bird deaths, and purse seines that decrease species biodiversity in fish stock. While the government has passed laws to reduce the environmental impact the industrial fisheries have, they lack effective enforcement. An alternative approach is to place monetary values on ecosystem services to show the monetary value of previously unrepresented natural capital. Application of this method to fisheries management can educate policy makers on the economic losses to expect if overfishing of the seas continues and provide the economic imperative to lessen impacts on oceanic ecosystems. Through comparative analysis it is shown that the market value of all fish catch in Panamanian waters is less than that which is provided by the ecosystem services in the area. Open ocean and coral reef ecosystem services provide a combined $103 billion per year while the highest grossing fish catch in Panamanian waters managed to net $356 million in 2004. There is an economic and political imperative to protect and promote sustainability of not only the fish stock, but all ecosystem services in the ocean.

The current global capitalist system is at odds with environmental protection and the protection of indigenous people that are directly linked to the land on which they live. In environmental security literature, many have argued that, theoretically and functionally, it is possible to link national security with environmental security. However possible this may be on paper, in practice, the global capitalist system prevents this from becoming a reality. Using a world-systems approach, this thesis will show that core countries seeking to expand capital by tapping into new markets, locating new sources of raw materials and even forming strategic military partnerships in periphery countries unavoidably degrade the natural environment and thus, adversely affect the lives and health of indigenous people. It is also the argument in this paper that the primary purpose of strategic military partnerships with periphery states, such as those formed in Panama and Colombia, are primarily meant to protect economic interests, thus perpetuating the capitalist cycle. The end result is that, while it is theoretically possible, through a different theoretical lens, to bridge the definitional and theoretical gulf between national security and environmental security, the reality of the system subverts this endeavor, and will continue to do so under its current configuration.

International governance is increasingly defined by multilevel governance; with short-term projects, transnational cooperation between different groups, and unclear institutional space. In this situation, a key issue is the resilience of governance arrangements or the ability of governance arrangements to respond to political and ecological shocks to the system. Using international biodiversity governance, this study explores the question: What social and political processes produce resilient governance? This study argues that the key to understanding resilient governance is the network structure within and outside of the governance arrangement. Modular network structures are able to generate ideas from multiple sources, able to solve political problems on small scales, and able to insulate institutions from political contagion. Centralized network structures, in contrast, often result in top-down learning, politicization of the entire governance arrangement, and inability to adapt in response to problems. Those governance arrangements with limited network structures are unlikely to learn at all. The network structure theory argues that network dynamics are shaped by the structure and result in different learning and different adaptive outcomes. This argument is made in the context of international biodiversity governance which presents has a number of cases of resilience in difficult to explain cases. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 look at the network impacts in 10 different international biodiversity governance arrangements. Chapter 4, Chapter 5, and Chapter 6 explore these dynamics in the context of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) and the Caribbean Challenge. These empirical cases present a complex and robust analysis showing that network structures, more than the governance institutions or national context, shape the resulting impact of governance arrangements. The implication of this finding is that effective institutions also need resilient modular networks in order to have lasting environmental impacts. Strong institutions can be constrained by centralized networks which limit learning opportunities following shocks. This study thus complements studies of effectiveness in international relations by providing a crucial dynamic piece of the overall situation. Response to shocks is shown to be shaped by network structure and importantly by early learning and network connections. Without these, effectiveness can be disrupted by political or environmental shocks.

This dissertation reveals the long-term implications of Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs) on domestic environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) in India. It asks two questions: i. what opportunities and challenges do Indian NGOs face while addressing environmental issues within a transnational framework? ii. in what ways can southern domestic activists reduce the challenges of TAN neocolonialism and Indian state repression? It argues that TANs fail to leverage indigenous interests in the global South and that TAN activity increases Indian activists’ exposure to state repression. Existing transnational relations literature downplays the neocolonial side of transnationalism in favour of the short-term benefits of international recognition and material and financial aid. Drawing on over 50 research participant interviews and print documents collected over the course of six-months in New Delhi and Bengaluru, the research teases out the everyday lived experiences and histories of domestic activists in TANs. It analyzes how certain traditional rural-based advocacies that adopt a Gandhi-based approach such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and Pathalgadi movements reject transnational alliances with international NGOs for fear of dominance and oppression, while urban-based advocacies that receive material and financial security from abroad such as Greenpeace India, ActionAid India, and Amnesty International view TANs as a boon for the Indian environmental advocacy sector. The research argues that Indian environmentalists would benefit if they shifted away from TANs towards a ‘global solidarity’ model that incorporates intersectionality between movements and South-South Transnational Advocacy Networks (SSTANs). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Which environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) are positioned to be the most influential in climate negotiations? The structure of the environmental movement has undergone significant change over the development of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Since its inception there has been significant engagement by ENGOs with the yearly Conference of the Parties (COPs). In this tripartite project, I use an original dataset of relationship ties between ENGOs to construct a series of networks using social network analysis. Specifically, I examine network structures prior to three watershed moments in the history of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto, Copenhagen, and Paris COPs. Based on social network theory, an ENGO’s structural position can be viewed as a reflection of an ENGO’s perceived power, authority, and influence. I also study ENGO participation at COPs at these three distinct time points. In part one of this project, I describe how the structure of the environmental movement has changed over time in conjunction with the perceived success and failures of the UNFCCC process, leading to a bifurcated environmental movement. Additionally, I find that the ENGOs occupying central positions may have greater influence than other less central ENGOs, because they are more likely to serve on state delegations at the UNFCCC. In part two, I examine the role of alliance-based organizations in the larger environmental movement. Specifically, I describe how the ENGO network structure between alliance, policy and science-based organizations has changed over the history of the UNFCCC. The results suggest that alliance-based organizations occupy pivotal positions within the network, showing the potential for alliance-based organizations to help facilitate the representation of diverse viewpoints at international negotiations. In part three, I examine the relationships between ENGOs and human-centric organizations at the three distinct time points and find that despite an increased presence of ENGOs connected to human-centric organizations at the yearly COPs over time, there is still very little interconnectedness between these two movements. I also examine regions with the most ENGO/human-centric organizational connections and find Euro-centric dominance. In general, this is discussed as a missed opportunity. These findings have far reaching implications for the prospects of the UNFCCC developing, and states adopting, effective climate change policy that has the support of the environmental movement. / Political Science

[pt] Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender até que ponto é possível estabelecer nexos e limites entre as expressões da questão social e os problemas ambientais, considerando que as novas demandas sociais e os conflitos em torno da questão urbana relacionadas à preservação ambiental colocam ao mundo um grande desafio de avançar na discussão da cidadania plena e do norteamento das políticas sociais na contramão das propostas do projeto neoliberal. Portanto, o objeto de estudo dessa dissertação centra-se na tentativa de construir o debate sobre o que caracteriza uma política pública socioambiental, não só como categoria teórica, mas analisando pela pesquisa empírica atravpés do Projeto EcoBarreiras, do Governo do Estado do RJ. / [en] This research has the purpose to understand which are the limits and relations between the social problem and the environmental issues, considering that the conflicts around the urban and the city dilemmas are related with the preservation of nature, putting a challenge about the citizenship and social politics that goes to another directions from the capitalism. The object of this dissertation is centered on the construction about the debate of what characterizes a Social-environmental politic, not only as a category, but analyzing the practical meaning by the EcoBarreiras project, from the government of Rio de Janeiro.

Esta tese avaliou se o Brasil, sob a perspectiva regulatória, encontra-se preparado para iniciar localmente o desenvolvimento de gás de folhelho, principal fonte de gás não convencional. Para tal, adotou como metodologia uma análise comparativa entre a legislação do setor de gás natural dos EUA e do Brasil, com foco na regulamentação das operações de fraturamento hidráulico, buscando evidenciar e contextualizar os principais fatores de sucesso da experiência estadunidense. Na realização dessas investigações foram utilizados diversos conceitos da Política Ambiental que podem ser empregados na elaboração de normas e condutas voltadas para o gás não convencional. Pautada no resultado dessas análises, que apontou a necessidade de estudos ambientais, sociais e econômicos mais aprofundados, apresentou-se como principal recomendação uma proposta de Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica (AAE). Tal ferramenta pode orientar a decisão do governo em relação à exploração de hidrocarbonetos não convencionais no Brasil, bem como auxiliar o país na obtenção de uma licença social para operar e na criação das condições necessárias para explorar seus possíveis recursos de gás de folhelho de maneira segura e responsável. / This thesis assesses whether Brazil, from the regulatory point of view, is ready to start a local production of shale gas, the main source of unconventional gas. For this purpose, the study conducted a comparative analysis of the primary laws regulating of oil and gas exploration and production activities in the USA and Brazil, focusing on the hydraulic fracturing operations, in order to determine and contextualize the major factors of success for the American shale gas experience. Several approaches of Environmental Policy that can be used in the development of standards and rules for unconventional gas were used. The results indicated the need for additional environmental, social and economic studies. Therefore, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) proposal was the main recommendation. This tool may guide the government\'s decision about the unconventional resources production in Brazil, help the county to achieve a social license to operate and meet the conditions required to explore its potential shale gas resources.