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Karlsson‐Vinkhuyzen, Sylvia I.
doi: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2011.01435.xpmid: N/A
Twenty years of international deliberations on sustainable development reaches another peak in 2012 during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. However, with every review of the implementation of the ambitious Agenda 21, it becomes more difficult to reignite the “spirit of Rio” and in this paper I argue that one contributing factor is the inability to find a way to vertically integrate institutions and other actors across governance levels. The paper analyzes this long deliberation process and its normative outcome with respect to its multi‐levelness and approach to vertical integration. It concludes that both the first Earth Summit in Rio 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development expressed high ambitions for dynamic interaction between governance at different levels, both in the deliberation and implementation stages. Yet, the actual number of practical links between levels could have been much higher and the references to vertical linkages in the conference process decreased over time. The preparations for Rio+20 continue this downward trend despite a widespread recognition that the need for coherence and integration were major motivational factors for Rio+20. The prospects for the process to stimulate the forming of coalitions of the willing that could bring closer vertical integration and implement multi‐level governance are thereby limited.
Keskitalo, E. Carina H.; Liljenfeldt, Johanna
doi: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01442.xpmid: N/A
Working with sustainability goals at the local level places large requirements on developing and integrating priorities within the budgeting and organization of local government. This study reviews how selected Swedish municipalities have dealt with developing local sustainability processes, in particular in regard to the Aalborg Declaration commitments. The study highlights difficulties, including the lack of funding and staff time for clearly relating to outside sustainability documents and strategies. It also focuses on the requirement for dedicated resources to development, prioritization and follow‐up of sustainability goals, especially in smaller municipalities.
da Fonseca, Igor Ferraz; Bursztyn, Marcel; Allen, Benjamin S.
doi: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01441.xpmid: N/A
Interventions focused on sustainability at a local level tend to employ practices according to criteria that are widely accepted in the international development community. These practices constitute an informal “handbook,” establishing general rules for sustainable development to be applied to any situation. In response, local communities endeavor to formally meet these procedural criteria regardless of whether or not the desired end — sustainable development — can be achieved through them. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how the factors that are regarded as necessary for good governance affected the implementation of Agenda 21 programs in three Amazonian municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. We find that, contrary to expectations among international development practitioners, preoccupation with a formal adherence to good governance criteria is associated with the opening of a gap between the discourse of sustainable development and the actual results of the Agenda 21 processes. This paper stresses the need to avoid overtaking the rationale of ends by the discourse concerning means.
Ferraro, Gianluca; Brans, Marleen
doi: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01443.xpmid: N/A
The Rio Declaration of 1992 called for states to integrate environmental protection in their process of development in order to achieve the ultimate goal of sustainable development (Principle 4). The paper investigates to what extent the People's Republic of China (PRC) has integrated environmental protection into her fisheries policy. The environment/development nexus is analysed in relation to the adoption and implementation of the Fisheries Law of 2000. Official documents and, more importantly, interviews conducted in several organizations at multiple levels of governance disclose a complex reality beyond the formal commitment to sustainable fisheries. Diverging interests, goals and strategies can be traced beyond formal policy documents in Beijing, Guangdong and between the Centre and the Province. Inter‐organizational divergences at the central and local levels, as well as between them, hinder the pursuit of environmental protection in the development of China's fisheries sector. The paper highlights the political complexity of pursuing more responsible fisheries in the multi‐actor and multi‐level political‐administrative system of the PRC. Here, as well as in many other developing countries, economic development constitutes the policy priority. Environmental protection often remains not only an ambitious objective but also an unperceived need.
doi: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01445.xpmid: N/A
Water is fundamental for the development of any society. Several concepts in water management promote integration, cooperation and a basin‐wide approach as a means to achieve sustainable development of water resources. Management institutions aiming to put these concepts into practice are developed around the world, with varying success. This paper looks at the institutional setting in the Tonle Sap Lake area in Cambodia, and analyses three initiatives for establishing a coordinating organization for the lake basin. Due to the significance of the Tonle Sap to the entire country and the transboundary Mekong River Basin, the area's management is an important yet contested issue. Our study indicates that while the discussion about the most suitable forms of management revolves around commonly accepted ideals of cooperation and sustainability, the actual drivers for institutional reforms are strongly influenced by the existing institutions and their political rivalries and interests. Following, the basin‐wide approach currently dominant in water management — for good and logical reasons — can actually hinder institutional cooperation, as the existing institutional hegemons may see it as a threat to their mandate. We therefore argue that a process seeking to establish a new basin organization should pay particular attention to the existing institutions, including the way the differing scales, levels and boundaries within the basin affect their relations.
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