Toward an analytical framework of environmental governance from the time axis perspective: Implications of theory and practice of adaptive governance

• In Event: Meet the Author/ Poster Session / Coffee Break Sponsored by Springer Press
  In Poster Session: Poster Session

Abstract

The third sector plays a vital role in steering society, aiming for the common collective social purpose in a plural and polycentric manner, the governing structure of which has often been described as “governance” (e.g., Ansell and Torfing eds, 2016, Bevir, 2008). In this situation, the following two trends are well observed. First, the governing structure is mainly viewed from the horizontal and vertical axis perspective, where interaction between actors, including NPO/NGOs, and between local–national–global scale levels is focused. Second, in the current Anthropocene era, the theme of environmental degradation and resource depletion becomes quite essential in the case of steering society for sustainable development. A governance system aligned with these two trends can be described as environmental governance.

However, in environmental governance studies, research issues concerning the time axis perspective remain less investigated, leading to research questions like the following: How can the environmental governance system’s changes, adaptations, and dynamics be explained? What are the drivers and consequences? What kind of horizontal and vertical governing structure is emerging at each stage of environmental governance, for example, agenda setting, policy preparation, policy implementation, and policy evaluation?

The poster presentation will discuss future possible directions for the analytical framework of environmental governance from the time axis perspective. This is a follow-up case study of Miyanaga and Nakai (2021), where adaptive governance practice in invasive alien plant management in Lake Biwa (Japan) is explored. The main reason is that the adaptive governance concept in environmental science, which means an environmental governance system equipped with a learning mechanism for addressing complexities and uncertainties in a socio-ecological system (SES), would partly clarify the time axis aspects of environmental governance.

Three key issues will be proposed in the presentation. First, a transition of invasive alien plant management strategy from “eradication” to “early detection and rapid action” has been realized in the case. In summary, the case implies how it is possible for an environmental governance system to take precautionary measures rather than reacting to environmental degradation after it occurs. The study of environmental governance should increasingly focus on the theme of governance transition in the future.

Second, the organizational learning process, which enables the environmental governance system to avoid the competency trap caused by conformity bias, might have occurred and induced the transition in the case. Hence, the environmental governance system’s changes, adaptations, and dynamics might be partly intertwined with the learning process.

Third, in the “eradication” stage of the case, the environmental governance system is primarily occupied by the prefectural government. At the same time, there is a growing demand for fishery cooperatives or local NPO/NGOs to monitor and visit the site regularly in the “early detection and rapid action” stage. This would indicate that the third sector’s role and function could be changed per the SES situation at each policy stage.

References

Ansell, C. & J. Torfing. Eds. 2016. Handbook on theories of governance, Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bevir, M. 2008. Key Concepts in Governance, SAGE Publications Ltd.

Miyanaga, K. & K. Nakai. 2021. Making adaptive governance work in biodiversity conservation: lessons in invasive alien aquatic plant management in Lake Biwa, Japan. Ecology and Society 26 (2):11.

Author

• Kentaro Miyanaga, Kyoto Sangyo University