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The distance between governments and firms is associated with firms’ economic activities, while the association of geographic proximity to environmental agencies with industrial pollution emissions is unclear. To explore the effects of geographic distance on firms’ pollution emissions, we use the fixed-effect models with data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database. Our results show that the firms located further away from environmental agencies release more SO2 (β = 0.102, p < 0.01) than those close to those environmental agencies. Subsequent investigations reveal that geographic distance has a positive correlation with the short-term performance of firms (total production value and fixed investment) but a negative correlation with firms’ long-term performance (green innovation, technological updates and clean energy use). Heterogeneous checks show that the influence of geographic distance on SO2 emissions is mainly found in non-local firms, suggesting a possibility of collusion between proximate firms and local government. This study highlights how the firm-agency distance relation affects pollution emissions and suggests that policymakers should consider more efficient instruments for environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human and ecological values influence all aspects of governance and management processes and in doing so, contribute to environmental decisions and outcomes. However, there is an absence of coherent and well-developed guidance to assist understanding of how values influence the different aspects of environmental governance and management. This paper addresses the gap between environmental values theory and governance and management practice. With in the context of Government policy making and implementation we examine the meaning and influence of principle, contextual and relational values in connection to the normative, empirical, and applied aspects of environmental governance and management. We present a conceptual framework articulating the relationships between value types and their influence on governance and management processes, demonstrating that management actions (applied) are based on empirical understandings (contextual values) through a lens of normative judgments (principle values). In addition to clarifying the role of values in governance and management, the framework is envisaged as an analytical tool to assist management practitioners to: 1) elucidate the values operating in a given governance or management setting; 2) tease out how different values influence the aspects of governance and management (e.g. goal setting, assessment, and choosing and applying management strategies), and how those aspects interact to influence outcomes; and 3) to identify potential value conflicts or synergies to guide the integration of multiple environmental interests, priorities and knowledges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity and climate stability, but the political economy of deforestation and land-use change constantly challenges their integrity. In this article, we analyse 50 years of policy development in the municipality Marqués de Comillas, located in Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico, to understand how development and conservation priorities have evolved, interacted, and shaped land-use in a tropical forest frontier. By analysing peer-reviewed literature and empirical data, we identify five phases of policy continuity and change that have produced diverse socio-environmental outcomes. We reveal a persistent state-led prioritisation of rural development over environmental concerns, pursued through policies promoting settlements and agricultural expansion and exacerbated by external market forces. This focus has caused substantial ecosystem degradation and deforestation without significant livelihood improvements. Recent conservation initiatives, such as payment for ecosystem services, show potential for challenging the status quo by offering alternative livelihood opportunities benefiting both people and ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental phenomena shed light on the fiction that inter-state borders constitute on some level, and the limitations of state-based environmental governance. Transboundary watersheds, in particular, flow across borders of different kinds, evincing the interdependence of water bodies, both human and nonhuman. The lack of cross-border comprehensive environmental governance imposes regional forms of inequity and inefficient forms of water protection. In Central America, to address such problems, citizens have created a legal prototype for how transboundary watersheds could be governed as a commons going forward. This endeavour has been led by Salvadorans, concerned as they are by their country's position as a lower co-riparian and their significant interdependence with transboundary water bodies. I argue that, in addition to destabilizing established approaches to environmental governance, the legal prototype opens avenues for forms of earthly politics and multispecies justice by placing the reproduction of life, human and nonhuman, side by side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Aarhus Convention' – regulating access to environmental information, public participation and justice in environmental decision−making – is a key international agreement with a long history and a considerable number of signatory countries. While implementation has been studied nationally, there is little comparative research at the transnational level. Based on ten criteria, we analysed national implementation reports of the 2014, 2017 and 2021 reporting cycles in terms of how 33 countries in Europe have implemented the access to information and public participation pillars, and identified obstacles they encountered. We also studied similarities and differences supra-nationally. Overall, countries are quite successfully fulfilling the obligations of the two pillars. Most obstacles reported concern four criteria: access to information, information provision, interaction, and trust. Implementation practices have changed little from 2014 to 2021. However, East- and South-European countries report more, and more persistent or repetitive obstacles, compared to Northern and Western European countries. The national democratic context seems to affect the quality of implementation. The Convention's compliance bodies and national agencies responsible for coordinating the implementation are encouraged to interact more closely, to account for the differences and leverage implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locating the analysis in the context of the various shifts in Brazil’s development trajectory since 2003, this article problematises the dynamics underpinning processes of environmental governance. Adopting a critical institutionalist approach, the article analyses how evolving claims of sovereignty over natural resources are used to legitimise contested policy agendas for environmental governance of the Amazon region within Brazil’s coalition politics, and how bricolage processes (innovation, adaptation, and legitimisation) shape these agendas and their outcomes. In a context of territorial fragmentation and ideological differences between an expanding network of actors (federal, state, municipal and non-state) involved in the institutional bricolage of environmental policy-making, the analysis demonstrates that the coalition dynamics of each administration determines the extent to which environmental policies are implemented within Brazil as well as the social-environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving green growth requires that development projects with potential environmental impacts undergo a rigorous environmental impact assessment process to address negative consequences. The attainment of green growth, and consequently the Sustainable Development Goals, depends on an effective Environmental Impact Assessment regime. In Ghana, this regime must ensure that projects strictly adhere to the guidelines outlined in the Environmental Assessment Regulations, LI 1652, and LI 1703, before commencement. This research examines the effectiveness of Ghana's environmental assessment regulation in protecting the environment to achieve green growth. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, environmental consultants, and environmental impact assessment proponents in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The findings from these engagements revealed several major challenges in Ghana's environmental assessment regulations that hinder full compliance before projects begin. These challenges include: 1) A shortage of local experts, 2) Insufficient logistics for the EPA's monitoring and evaluation department to conduct frequent inspections, 3) Lack of intervener funding, 4) Poor coordination among government agencies, and 5) Delays in the EIA process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn 2019, Japan’s Ministry of Environment (MoE), led by Koizumi Shinjirō, embarked on a quest to end the country’s ‘coal addiction’ against the coal industry’s interests, as represented by the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Against all expectations, Prime Minister Abe Shinzō sided with MoE and implemented restrictions. It initiated the end of Japan’s government support for ‘unabated’ coal-fired power plant exports despite their continued high demand from overseas. This article uses the Advocacy Coalition Framework to explain the importance of the MoE and Environment Minister Koizumi Shinjirō in shifting Abe’s posture towards the global energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmentalists, ranchers, and Indigenous nations are increasingly coming together on environmental issues in what have been called "unlikely alliances," offering important insights into the role of collaboration and collective action in environmental governance. We examine two cases of unlikely alliances that formed in response to large rural-to-urban water transfer projects in the western United States, drawing on narrative analysis of interviews and focus groups with diverse participants. We highlight several key insights about unlikely alliances in action, finding that they 1) can take many different forms, often shifting over time; 2) require a delicate balance between alignment and autonomy, particularly when involving sovereign Indigenous nations; 3) can involve divergent understandings and expectations in regard to what it means to ally, with a notable distinction between issue-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches, and 4) are valued by participants even as they grapple with these challenges, particularly in the context of growing political polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks are foundational to modern environmental governance, and particularly influential in supporting societal navigation of rapid environmental change. Social network science crosses disciplinary boundaries and provides theoretical and methodological tools to predict and assess relationships between network characteristics, structures, and the diffusion of information and innovations critical to navigating environmental governance challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Most network studies examine networks that operate at a particular spatial scale, and research questions often rest on the relationships between simple network structures and characteristics of individual network actors and their associations. Geographers are poised to further develop theory underlying social network science specifically relevant to navigating human–environment governance challenges by disentangling the influences of scale, place, and identity in network studies. In this article, we advance the concept of environmental governance networks as multiscale, multilevel, and multi-identity social networks formed organically in response to environmental governance challenges. We propose that geographers are well positioned to expose the socially constructed nature of environmental governance networks as barriers and opportunities for societal navigation of rapid environmental change by explicitly theorizing critical influences across time, space, place, levels of social organization, and the multiple roles and social identities individual network actors hold. We develop a research agenda that leverages geographic theory to expand network science questions relative to concepts such as network proximity, affiliation, interaction, and intra-individual roles and identities to better understand the position and potential of environmental governance networks as a social structure for navigating rapid environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has endorsed the idea of 'ecological civilization' for over a decade. How has the Chinese making of the ecological civilization imaginary informed and been affected by on-ground practices? Inspired by insights into anticipatory politics, this study disentangles an officially intended ecological civilization pilot—the 'Great Yangtze River Protection Programme' (GYRPP)—to examine the interplay of China's ecological civilization imaginary, specific policies, and on-ground practices of environmental governance. Informed by fieldwork and documents of GYRPP, this study argues, first, the Chinese state has constructed the ecological civilization imaginary through rendering a concerted future of environmental protection and socio-economic development, which inherently strengthens the regime's legitimacy. Second, the ecological civilization imaginary has informed a set of policies and been used to coordinate specific local practices. Finally, people, institutions, and other resources are mobilized to serve multiple but sometimes conflicting goals, which in turn reconstitutes the ecological civilization imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe outdoor air pollution in China has long constituted a threat to public health and environmental governance efficiency. Surveillance of online search behaviours that reflect real-time public risk perception and behavioural responses on environmental issues is essential in improving environmental governance. However, owing to the absence of an appropriate analytical framework, quantitative evidence of analysing online data is scarce in the extant research. To address this research gap, we analysed Baidu search indexes (BSI) keywords relevant to the public risk perception and behavioural responses on outdoor air pollution by a surveillance framework consisting of two parallel steps (prediction and monitoring). The proposed framework may improve environmental risk governance efficiency and benefit environmental risk governance policy decision-making through considering real-time public risk perceptions and behavioural response information. Using online search behaviour data, this study adds to the methodology for improving the efficacy of environmental social risk governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this systematic review of 68 English-language articles we explore the roles of customary authorities in environmental governance in sub-Saharan Africa. We identify four roles that customary authorities take: a managing role is most common, followed by supporting, enforcing, and rent-seeking roles. These roles often occur in combination (most commonly managing with rent-seeking and managing with supporting) and in many environmental domains, often involving land. Importantly, the impact of customary authorities on environmental governance is more often positive than negative, especially in supportive roles and in the environmental domains of biodiversity and climate change. Rent-seeking is most often associated with negative environmental outcomes; managing both with positive and negative outcomes. Unclear relationships or legal frameworks between customary authorities and the state are also associated with less effective governance. Our work demonstrates the important roles of customary authorities in environmental governance and provides suggestions for further comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication is an integral part of natural resource management and sustainability transformations, and questions on how communication helps or hinders the development of more sustainable relationships between people and their environments have become increasingly urgent. This special issue directs our attention to the processes and outcomes of such communication and explores what a focus on communication makes visible and accessible for practical as well as academic analysis. The twelve articles collected in this issue examine a wide range of contexts and practices of environmental communication, here understood as the joint construction of meaning related to environmental and sustainability issues. In this editorial, we propose five conceptual lenses that, as we argue, are crucial for an in-depth engagement with environmental communication. Together, these provide us with an understanding of communication as arising from manifold interactions that are shaped by and shaping disagreement, power relations and, more generally, the interplay between structure and agency. We examine the contributions to this special issue in light of these conceptual lenses and highlight how the twelve articles help us to understand the role of meaning-making in environmental management and sustainability transformations. We conclude with suggestions for future work, identifying spaces for further conceptual development and empirical scrutiny as well as scope for new ideas on environmental communication to gain in importance and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of restoration efforts in the U.S. Columbia River Basin (CRB), recovery of anadromous fish remains elusive. Regional stakeholder conflicts about objectives for fish restoration complicate efforts to collaboratively develop successful governance systems. While ecological research and solutions have been primary considerations for restoration initiatives, much of the literature recognizes social complexities as the root of the problem. This research employs a qualitative approach that illuminates how sociopolitical histories and lifeways underpin stakeholders' divergent objectives that challenge the formation of good governance in the CRB. We show how sociopolitical histories and lifeways reproduce a lack of representation of tribal members in leadership which inhibits the formation of good governance. This has significant implications for the process and outcomes of participatory governance and how governance processes can meaningfully integrate diverse voices in an intentional way to facilitate a just and equitable outcome for humans and ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds a theoretical framework on how subnational governments use promotion schemes to motivate local bureaucrats to address conflicting tasks of economic development and environmental protection. We argue that subnational (province) governments can strategically allocate polluting industries to border areas to make neighbors bear the social cost of pollution and use promotion incentives to make their subordinates (city leaders) comply. Hence, when the central government imposes a stricter environmental regulation policy on provincial governments, border-city leaders obtain a higher probability of promotion. Based on a panel dataset of leaders' career information and administrations across cities in China, we find an increase in promotion probability for border-city leaders compared with their non-border counterparts after 2011 when the environmental protection task became more important. A potential channel is that border-city leaders accept the migration of polluting industries as a signal of compliance. In addition, this effect is more prominent for newly appointed leaders who have stronger political motivations and rely more on their superiors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binding regulations have, recently, emerged in the Global North with the aim of holding companies accountable for environmental and/or human rights impacts throughout their supply chains. This article develops and applies an analytical framework to analyze corporate accountability dynamics in global trade, with a focus on the French Duty of Vigilance (DV) law. We analyze how companies in the agri-food sector have complied with the law as well as the emergence of new accountability dynamics. We find that while companies have improved their due diligence systems over time, they enjoy much discretion to interpret their obligations according to a managerial logic and to disclose information selectively. Nevertheless, the DV law has contributed to new accountability dynamics, wherein civil society can use civil liability to pressure companies to comply. Overall, the article advances our understanding of company compliance with new supply chain regulations and the accountability dynamics activated by such rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental governance of transnational corporations is a global challenge. On one hand, these corporations can contribute to environmental protection through ecofriendly technologies and equipment. On the other hand, their activities can lead to environmental degradation and pollution. This article explores China's due diligence legislation for environmental governance, including historical perspectives and future prospects. Chinese administrative law, relevant regulations, and the guidelines issued by Chinese trade associations are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental governance in China is a hybrid of mandatory and voluntary regulations in both implementation and enforcement. This paper aims to explore how voluntary environmental regulations (VERs) affect corporate green innovation (CGI) and the role of mandatory environmental regulations (MERs). The study uses panel data of 1,232 Chinese-listed manufacturing firms from 2004 to 2016 and the main findings are: first, VERs have a significant positive effect on CGI. Second, no significant effect has been found of MERs on firms' CGI. Third, in areas where mandatory environmental regulations are weak, voluntary environmental regulation can better serve as a supplement to promote firms' green innovation. The results are robust to a series of sensitivity checks. This study provides evidence that voluntary environmental regulation is more effective in encouraging enterprises to engage in green innovation activities, and it is an important supplement to mandatory environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local government (LG) in South Africa (SA) is mandated to provide adequate service delivery and to ensure environmental protection within municipal boundaries. Local Environmental Governance (EG) is influenced by the actions of municipal councils and political leadership, resulting in politicized local EG. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has been gradually losing political power since 1994, and corruption and unprofessionalism in LG have increased and influenced EG. Limited scholars have attempted to examine the in-depth relationship between political dynamics, environmental issues and local municipalities within the political−administrative interface in SA. To address this, we utilize a Political Ecology Approach (PEA) to assess the influence of political dynamics on local EG in the uMzinyathi district and Endumeni local municipalities in SA. A mixed methods approach was utilised. The findings revealed that political dynamics both enabled and impeded local EG. While mainstreaming and alignment to national policy were evident, EG interventions and environmental resources were often co-opted for political canvassing and incentivization, or the relative prioritization of EG was dependent on political mandates. The research contributed to a detailed understanding of how EG 'takes a back seat' to political exigencies within a predominately fragile and under functioning LG sphere in SA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differentiation has become a core feature not only in the European integration process but also in the implementation of European policies. Among the means to address differentiated implementation are European Administrative Networks (EANs). Through the exchange of information, best practices and advice, EANs are expected to contribute to more uniform implementation. However, the ways and extent to which they do so remain largely unexplored. This article addresses this gap through the empirical analysis of the European Network of Heads of Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA Network), drawing on a unique survey dataset and social network analysis. On the one hand, the findings uncover the EPA Network as a voluntary and informal network with a fragmented and clustered structure around key members. At the same time, several participants have recognised the network as a valuable asset to improving national implementation and developing innovative policy initiatives. Therefore, while there is significant diversity within and across the network, the network's perceived contributions and added value point to the considerable importance of these instruments in EU policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that contemporary debate on innovative urban environmental governance underestimates the influence of bureaucratic self-referencing practices. Informed by organisational and institutional theories, we define them as mechanisms for strategic incorporation of new environmental rules while keeping former administrative structures stable. Analysis of new units in Polish cities identified three such practices: defining bureaucratic identity, translating environmental issues, and managing external actors. Thus, urban bureaucracy is 'a gatekeeper' that can soften or strengthen the administrative boundaries of environmental progress. We, therefore, recommend the careful evaluation of innovative administrative forms to determine whether they meet social and environmental expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of the shift towards neoliberalism on environmental management in post-1994 South Africa. The adoption of ecological modernisation as a policy strategy for sustainable development is examined, focusing on the reliance on market mechanisms. However, a lack of balance between the environment, society, and the economy is observed, as socio-economic and environmental concerns are often compromised for economic growth concerns. The resulting technocratic and bureaucratic approach to environmental governance is thus disconnected from the realities on the ground, indicating weak ecological modernisation. This study specifically assesses the implementation of ecological modernisation in waste management initiatives and emphasises the importance of policy implementation. The findings underscore the need for greater attention to policy imperatives to achieve a more effective, just and sustainable approach to waste management in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the advancements in information and communication technologies and growing concerns over environmental issues, environmental protection agencies are increasingly turning to official social media platforms to promote environmental governance, especially in rapidly developing nations. The adoption of government social media has improved the effectiveness of environmental governance in various aspects, while also presenting some challenges. This paper summarizes findings from recent literature on the role of government social media in enhancing environmental governance. It also highlights prospective research topics on the use of social media in e-government within environmental protection departments, including investigating efficient government-citizen communication strategies using social media tools, comprehensively addressing aspects of e-government from both supply and demand perspectives, and understanding the underlying factors that contribute to the varying operating patterns of different government social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, heating accounts for half of the final energy consumption and is still based mainly on fossil fuels. Nevertheless, the transition to renewable heat has been widely criticized for progressing too slowly. To accelerate the heat transition, an increased use of biogenic residues and waste is discussed as a possible approach, as model calculations show considerable potential for these materials. This paper examines the barriers to an increased use of biogenic residues and waste in the context of municipal heat transition, including their use in district heating networks. The results are based on qualitative stakeholder and expert interviews and focus groups in rural municipalities in Germany. As a central finding, this study identifies the main barriers as multiple fragmentations in different areas (material, utilization paths, actor structure, framework conditions and knowledge) and their interdependencies. These findings contribute to a better understanding of structural obstacles of heat transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the roles of actors such as the state and state-owned enterprises within “Global China” elicit significant scholarly attention, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are relatively less critiqued. These members of Chinese civil society are playing an increasingly important role in the environmental governance of the country’s overseas activities. By analyzing firsthand observations and interviews and secondhand materials produced by NGOs and the Chinese government, this article traces how and why Chinese NGOs seek to “green” China’s engagement beyond its borders. First, we identify four types of Chinese NGOs with a variety of state- and non-state founders. Then, we examine how NGOs’ objectives and state policies jointly shape the way they “go out.” As both knowledge and political actors, Chinese NGOs accumulate, produce, and disseminate knowledge related to Global China’s environmental issues, across domestic and international spaces. Though the specific strategies pursued by NGOs depend on their type, overall, their alignment with Chinese state policies and interests constitutes a crucial condition for their success. This research offers new insights into Chinese non-state actors’ expanding participation in international activities. As the country’s civil organizations endeavor to exert influence both within and beyond China’s borders, the effects of their interventions on global governance may grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia have organized on issues that affect their rights at the local, national, regional and global level. This article argues that one important component of the rise of this activism is the presence of regional scalar bridging organizations that link activism across scales and support the growth of Indigenous movements by providing access to global and regional opportunities for action. In Southeast Asia, the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and Tebtebba play this role through their presence in global political arenas and their many activities with partner organizations in the region. Drawing on social movement theory, this article outlines how regional social movement organizations potentially support global activism in the Global South by scale bridging in the areas of (1) resource mobilization, (2) creation of political spaces and opportunities and (3) the diffusion of ideas. To illustrate this, the case of Indigenous peoples activism on climate change in Southeast Asia is presented through an examination of the work done in these three areas by the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and Tebtebba [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we present this special symposium to advance knowledge on environmental governance of China's overseas engagement. While China's fast-growing investments across the world have large implications for global and local environmental politics, this phenomenon has so far received insufficient attention of students of environmental politics. Moreover, China has become increasingly proactive in promoting green development in the BRI, but little research has assessed relevant governance initiatives. Recognising this research gap, contributors to the symposium provide rigorous analysis on institutional interactions involving China and host country actors as well as forces driving new governance initiatives aiming to green the BRI. Building on the insights drawn from the symposium, we propose a research agenda to focus on the effects of China-US geopolitical rivalry, institutional evolution, and agency of host countries to understand the evolving system governing environmental impacts of China's overseas engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the energy mix of China's overseas electricity investments across Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) recipient countries. We focus on Indonesia and Pakistan. Our research is based on both newly gathered project-level data and in-depth interviews with stakeholders of Chinese-backed power plants in Indonesia and Pakistan. We examine (1) why Chinese actors are involved in renewable power generation in Pakistan and not in Indonesia, and (2) why Chinese-backed coal-fired projects in Pakistan are cleaner than in Indonesia. We argue that variations along the three dimensions – scope, governance regime, and issue linkage – lead to different energy mixes in Chinese-invested power plants across BRI countries. This framework specifies how supply and demand factors interact across multiple levels regarding the formulation and implementation of China's overseas electricity projects. Our findings shed new light on the environmental implications of BRI projects and the dynamics of renewable energy development in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of public trees planted in urban areas by tree planting initiatives (TPIs) depends on how well the new trees fit into existing municipal structures and capacities. We sought to understand municipal management of trees in mid-sized towns through a case study in Massachusetts (US) involving a state-funded and state-managed TPI. Data was collected through structured interviews with tree wardens (municipal urban forest managers) to understand the various impacts that maintenance practices, municipal support and funding, and departmental structure may have on recently planted trees. In this Massachusetts program, municipal structure influenced the number of proactive management practices as well as the size of the tree activity budget. Consideration of municipal department roles and structure by TPIs may allow for more effective implementation of these initiatives. Our study begins to fill a research gap regarding small to mid-size municipalities and their role in tree planting and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bocas del Toro, Panama, tourists are shuffled on panga boats between Dolphin Bay, Starfish Beach, and Sloth Island in hopes of seeing and photographing those species specifically – one at a time. The aim of this research was to explore the governance of the wildlife tourism industry by gauging tourist satisfaction and assessing the relationship between industry operations and tourist demand. A mixed method approach utilized semi-structured interviews with tour operators (n = 21) and surveys with wildlife tourists (n = 101). Empirical evidence demonstrates that a collectivist organization with de facto ownership/control of wildlife tourism sites has not been effective at self-governing towards a sustainable industry capable of ensuring the well-being of target species and conservation. Communication issues between tourists and guides are also shown to be behind the creation of the de-territorialized and reductionist (and consequentially detrimental) wildlife tourism attraction map. This, along with survey results demonstrating unaddressed demand for providing more education, better wildlife treatment and conservation, together poke holes in the assumption that industry governance might be best steered by global efforts to shift consciousness to include demand for wildlife equity. Findings instead place priority on the need to interrogate the financial incentives that drive industry governance and towards understanding how the profitability of wildlife equity and conservation could be empirically demonstrated to those who control industry operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship links authoritarian populism to environmental governance and changing forms of neoliberalism, yet the central role of the contradiction between territory demarcated for (neo)extractivism and territory demarcated for conservation and protection is heavily understated. This article analyzes the rise of posttruth politics in Brazil as an effort to legitimate unmitigated extractive capitalist growth through a renewed obfuscation of this inherent ecological contradiction. We first demonstrate the concealment of the contradiction through Latin America's "post-neoliberal" period, based in a neoextractivist economic model. Following, we argue that posttruth politics represents a specific attempt to supersede the previous neoliberal consensus in the face of shrinking commodity returns. Designed to downplay, deny, and remove existing public environmental concerns, we view the posttruth of authoritarian populism as a necessarily spatial project, beyond accounts of cultural or institutional politics alone. The article thus furthers understandings of posttruth by centralizing its role in obscuring the extractivism–conservation contradiction in Brazil and beyond, and as such aligns with a critical effort to mobilize alternatives to the untenable reprimarization of Latin American societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on panel data of 285 cities in China, we carry out an empirical test for the impact of digital finance development on urban environmental governance with a fixed-effects model. The results show that digital finance can significantly reduce urban pollutant emissions, suggesting a positive environmental governance effect. After using an instrumental variable and a lagged response variable to test the robustness of the results, the conclusion still holds. Through further analysis, we find that for cities in the central and western regions and cities with a higher degree of green finance development, the environmental governance effect of digital finance is more significant. This paper enriches research on the economic consequences of digital finance and provides empirical evidence for the positive environmental effect of digital finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has established three rounds of low-carbon pilot city initiatives. However, a gap exists between policy making and successful implementation, and the effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction were found to be different among pilots. This paper considers the question of how low-carbon policies in cities can be implemented effectively and how policy combinations are adopted for GHG emissions reduction. It uses a mixed research approach, including Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and field investigation in Pilot Y (situated in the southwest China). The results show that, first, financial support and monitoring systems are necessary conditions, while political leadership is a sufficient condition. This means that the absence of financial support or monitoring systems could lead to increased GHG emissions, while the presence of political leadership always promotes the reduction of GHG emissions but may not be sufficient on its own to achieve them. Second, the target responsibility system (TRS) – a system used by higher government levels to assess the policy implementation of lower government levels – and human resource mechanisms cannot effectively lead to the promotion of GHG emissions reduction. Finally, in the absence of TRS and human resource mechanisms, environmental information disclosure (EID) was found to effectively promote low-carbon urban development by encouraging public participation. This paper reveals the complexity of the implementation of low-carbon policies in cities, identifies the link between city-level and national action, and enriches the theoretical explanation of governance and low-carbon policy implementation gaps in China. Key policy insights China's low-carbon pilot city project is critical for reducing GHG emissions, however, the effects of the low-carbon pilot city programmes varied greatly. Financial support and monitoring systems are necessary conditions, while political leadership is a sufficient condition to achieve cities' GHG emissions reduction goals. Local low-carbon development is limited and not put into practice at the city level in China, in part because of the absence of financial support and limited political attention. This study highlights the key conditions of organizational behaviour at the meso-level, and enriches the theoretical explanation of environmental policy implementation gaps in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can we learn from the prodigious expansion of the non-government protected areas that now comprise 12% of terrestrial Australia? An increasingly professional, formal, and diverse non-government sector has developed since 1990, comprising private individuals, non-government organizations, and First Nations and having close ties to governments. We investigate the drivers, dynamics, and diversity of this sector through thematic analysis of 24 key informant interviews and associated gray literature. Changing environmental movements, science-led conservation, partial recognition of First Nations land rights, international agreements, and neoliberal reforms combined to formalize the sector during the 1990s. A bipartisan policy framework for incorporating non-government lands in the national conservation estate, diverse partnerships, transnational networks, and innovation in public and private funding helped grow the sector. The confluence of interests that has transformed the politics and practice of nature conservation in Australia is likely to inform those engaged with similar changes elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the micro-politics of the Chinese state’s environmental turn and its effects on the urban growth machine. It details how several state-led attempts to fix ecological crises in Wuxi reconfigured power relations between state units and pushed local authorities to re-assess the costs of economic growth. The heightened stakes of environment protection interventions intensified tensions among subnational officials in the fragmented bureaucratic field and made it difficult to approve growth-oriented projects with potential negative environmental externalities. This article calls for a micro-level approach that goes beyond the political economy of land-centered urban growth and instead considers the complex rationalities, entangled logics, and structures of interest shaping the development and governance of Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central government of China aims to transform the Pearl River Delta (PRD) from a polluting and low value-added global factory to a sustainable region. The transformative vision of the PRD is underpinned by the ecological civilization concept. While ecological civilization represents a significant initiative in moving toward sustainable development, China’s top-down and command-and-control mode of environmental governance may fall short of addressing multi-dimensional and multi-scalar social and environmental justice issues of the PRD cities. The authors therefore suggest embracing the concept of environmental justice to enhance ecological civilization, with the aim of benefiting every stratum of society. The concept of environmental justice is multi-faceted, embracing recognition, procedural, distribution and compensatory justice at different geographical scales, often calling for institutional changes. Without environmental justice, a harmonious and sustainable PRD would not be possible. In recent years, China has made unprecedented institutional adjustments to deal with environmental issues, such as conducting annual “health screening” and five-yearly thorough evaluations to monitor conservation and development. To embrace environmental justice, legislative changes are required to recognize individual environmental rights through collective action and public participation, incorporating citizens’ inputs to the appraisal of cadres, and establishing intergovernmental institutionalized organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is reorienting global development. Few scholars, however, query relationships between green silk road discourse, BRI infrastructure, partner state development goals, and environmental governance. This article details the roots of green silk road discourse in efforts to environmentally engineer China's desert landscapes. Much like large-scale nature-based infrastructure projects in China, BRI infrastructure projects abroad precipitate a range of socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. Through juxtaposing terrestrial infrastructure development in Ethiopia with maritime infrastructure development in Djibouti, the article demonstrates how different types of BRI infrastructure projects shape environmental governance and advance the development agendas of partner countries. Sugar plantations, roads, railways, and energy infrastructure in Ethiopia further Ethiopian state development plans while transforming Indigenous people's relations to their land and livelihoods. In Djibouti, port infrastructure and military bases figure centrally in strategic rentiership for the Djiboutian state with ancillary effects on fisheries and international trade. The article illustrates how relative articulations between East African central government development interests, environmental governance, and infrastructure are mediated by varieties of Chinese capital. The comparative analysis disrupts simplistic narratives of "win-win" partnerships and "China as threat" to partner state autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we pursue a route for understanding the decentralisation of wastewater treatment that moves away from thinking in terms of individual responsibility and technical determinism and mobilises the analytical lens of care to articulate more-than-human relationality as an organising principle of governing environmental infrastructures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Dutch Flevopolder, we focus on the mundane practices of handling wastewater. We show how households are entangled in a multispecies infrastructure: they engage with wastewater as users of toilets, guardians of bacteria and reed beds, and technology-assisted monitors of pollution. We argue that these infrastructural relations are variously cared for in practice, but remain neglected as part of formalised wastewater management. Finally, we advocate a form of environmental governance that recognises and engages with the waste work undertaken by all stakeholders, as they configure an infrastructure in which unruly processes unfold, in a caring, rather than controlling, mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of environmental governance has received considerable attention. While extensive research focuses on the relationship between economic growth and environmental protection, this paper provides a different perspective by exploring the mechanisms affecting the relationship between land-based revenue and environmental performance. Based on the regression analyses of province-level data during 2000-2018 in China, the results show that: (1) land-based finance has a significantly positive impact on air pollution; (2) both central government policies and local residents' concerns incentivize local governments to improve environmental quality through land revenue; (3) regional differences exist regarding the impact of these two factors, probably due to various development stages and financial conditions; (4) local governments tend to increase expenditure on environmental protection by taking residents' concerns into consideration. This research contributes to understanding the driving forces behind the relationship between land finance and environmental performance, and it extends our knowledge of local governments' decision-making processes to accomplish multiple tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on fieldwork in rural Ireland to argue that environmental data can reinforce knowledge systems that shield structural problems and blunt efforts to rethink the role of community engagement in environmental governance. It offers a cautionary reading of how data has been instrumentalised by the EU and Irish State by showing how data diffuses responsibility and depoliticises environmental activism in cycles of funding and data collection. Since the 2000 Water Framework Directive, water governance in the European Union has increasingly relied upon extensive scientific, evidence-based decision-making and community and stakeholder involvement. We explore how these changes shape efforts to document and remediate water pollution. We expand upon Shapiro et al.'s (2018)'s "data treadmill" to understand how data rescales responsibility for pollution and its effects. The "data treadmill" gives name to cycles of data and funding that propel logics and strategies of environmental governance. We show how the data treadmill operates by perpetuating a narrative that effective action requires more precise data and evidence and solves questions of responsibility through bespoke approaches to environmental pollution. The data treadmill constrains communities through prevailing logics that surround data and environmental governance: communities become tied into European funding programmes that require, on one hand, the expertise of various professionals and consultants, on the other, place-based knowledge and social relationships to deliver innovative responses to structural problems. We offer a critical analysis of current institutional and policy in the EU and Ireland to highlight perils and contradictions of data-centric environmental governance as practiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence of the interconnections between the environment, security, and development in a maritime context, and the acute impact this relationship has on the human security of coastal populations, they remain siloed policy areas and underrepresented in the academic literature. This article zooms in on the western Indian Ocean as an example of a region where environmental dynamics intersect with other stressors, such as poverty, disenfranchisement, and a limited maritime security capability, to drive and prolong criminal disorder and violence. After providing some regional context, I explore how climate change, marine environmental degradation, and resource exploitation are linked to occurrences of maritime insecurity by drawing on fisheries crime and piracy. Next, I critically analyse how regional states have built capacity to improve resilience against environmental factors that contribute to increasing maritime insecurity. I conceptualise this under three headings: environmental governance, enforcement and monitoring, and building resilience. This analysis reveals that despite increasing governance arrangements and a shift in the rhetoric towards regionalism, significant gaps remain in terms of physical, technical and human capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different goals and assumptions enable and legitimise the ways that climate change is understood and governed through increasingly urgent, experimental, and heterogeneous interventions. We examine the ontological politics of ‘piloting’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) by weaving together stories from our ethnographic fieldwork in Central Suau, Papua New Guinea and Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Weaving partial stories is a methodological technique to examine encounters and disputes over REDD+ activities that entangle land, livelihoods, people, non-human beings, sorcery, and carbon among other entities. We propose the term ethical distance to conceptualise and foreground how governance experimentation in REDD+ intersects with local lives in ways that can reproduce and reinscribe inequalities. By attending to more-than-human entanglements and partiality, we underscore ethical dilemmas and the need to slow down our reasoning in proposing solutions to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storied to fit into the sociocultural practices and the materiality of a place, the geography of imaginaries has expanded within the disciplinary lexicon since the beginning of the twenty-first century. This Focus section advances both theoretical and empirical approaches that demonstrate how cultural, technological, and environmental imaginaries emerge, coalesce, and circulate among policy actors and others involved in the governance of the environment. It aims to fill an existing gap between more general studies of imaginaries in science, technology, and innovation and applied approaches that deal with particular outcomes in the governance of the environment. The articles within this Focus section contribute three key insights to our understanding of the complex relationships between imagination and environmental governance. First, the articles demonstrate that there are always multiple imaginaries at play when it comes to the governance of the environment. Second, and relatedly, they also examine how global-spanning imaginaries related to climate change, biodiversity, food security, and urbanization get translated into local cultural contexts. Finally, the articles demonstrate that effective environmental governance requires imagination while also showing that imagination is not a panacea. Imagination, however, opens up possibilities for rethinking human–environment relationships for envisioning radically different futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, we reflect on COP26, its outcomes, and the UNFCCC processes. While the value and results of COP meetings are often contested by researchers and activists, we highlight three areas that deserve more attention in post-COP assessments. First, the COP process creates an arena where state leaders, researchers, climate activists, and private actors regularly meet, which facilitates cooperation over time. Second, COP meetings are sites of parallel multi-level games that often result in bilateral or multilateral side agreements or initiatives. Third, COP meetings are regularly scheduled critical events, where social movements and civil society actors shape the public discourse around climate change. Our brief analysis illustrates there is still an urgent need for COP meetings as spaces that provide transparency for global climate governance, as well as media and public visibility for civil society voices, which would otherwise be lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts a textual analysis of the reports on the work of local governments to measure local governments' attention to environmental governance and study the impact of these concerns on corporate green innovation. We find evidence that local governments' attention to the environment will significantly improve corporate green innovation, and the government can promote the green technology innovation of enterprises by providing support and strengthening supervision. Further research shows that the uniformity between the central and local governments and environmental attention pressure from higher-level government reinforce the influence of local environmental attention on corporate green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of science in environmental decision-making calls for an improved understanding of how scientific advice can best inform policy. Policy-relevant science is trapped in the conundrum of being close to policy and politics while trying not to become too close, to avoid politicization. We investigate this dilemma in three scientific advisory organizations: the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Comparing marine, climate, and biodiversity governance at the international level, we reveal how the science-policy interface is understood and arranged in the institutional designs of these organizations. While they are all mandated to be policy-relevant, they aim to provide a neutral space for science that is not overtly impacted by politics. Our analysis reveals key differences in science-policy interactions regarding four issues: mandate; science-policy separation; politicization of advisory science; and knowledge inclusion. After discussing how these dimensions exhibit challenges connected to the 'proximity vs. distance' dilemma, we formulate an ideal-typical continuum comprising the following arrangements: a clear-cut boundary, a boundary zone, a fuzzy boundary. Based on this three-tiered model, we argue for a non-dichotomous understanding of science-policy relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its industrialization, China has been continuously promoting environmental governance, and it is worth studying whether this measure has been effective. In this paper, we use industrial pollution control to represent China's environmental governance. Further, we use growth drag caused by energy consumption to describe a win-win situation for energy conservation and economic development. This paper theoretically analyzes the impact of environmental governance on growth drag by incorporating the former into the growth drag model. Thereafter, using data from 283 cities for the period between 2003 and 2017, this paper applies the dynamic panel data model to investigate whether China's industrial pollution control can achieve a win-win situation and its transmission mechanism. The results show that industrial pollution control can alleviate growth drag, implying that China's environmental governance can achieve a win-win situation. However, the effect is more significant in Eastern China and areas with high industrial pollution control intensity. The transmission mechanism analysis shows that industrial pollution control achieves a win-win situation by improving technological innovation, promoting human capital accumulation, and optimizing manufacturing development, of which improving technological innovation is the most significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the interplay between different environmental governance discourses to assess to what extent each discourse finds ground for implementation. This study sheds light on the constituencies for broader transformational changes in global forest governance and, more emphatically, explores how different discourses built around forest and environmental governance employ different mechanisms (discursively and through policy instruments) within the operation of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) debate. The focus of the analysis is the case of the jurisdictional REDD+ program in the state of Acre, in Brazil's Western Amazon. The underlying assumption in this research rests in the belief that REDD+ operation is linked to coupled social-political and economic contexts, which tend to follow social contingencies, and historical dependencies. Through documental analysis and the assessment of local stakeholders´ narratives, the research highlights the overall dominance of discourses built on to concepts of efficiency in contrast to a minor presence of discourses of social justice. In more broader terms, this study suggests that path dependencies place barriers which condition the extent to which transformations are rendered possible (or desirable) through program design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore rights of nature (RoN) as an emerging rights-based environmental governance that intends to reframe nature from property to an entity with a right to exist unharmed. Its proponents claim this is a paradigm shift that reworks the imbalanced human–nature hierarchy. We interrogate this claim using data collected from more than 60 U.S. communities where RoN ordinances have been implemented. Our analysis identifies three reoccurring themes within the U.S. settler colonial context, including a coconstitution of rights for nature alongside a community's right to a healthy environment, the emphasis of self-governance and individual community empowerment, and the overwhelming Whiteness of settler communities that implement RoN laws. We put these themes into conversation with critical race scholarship, which evaluates the racialized impacts of a liberal legal system of rights to examine how within the U.S. settler colonial context RoN mobilizes Western White liberal conceptions of legal rights to address our current environmental crises. In analyzing these themes through the lens of critical race scholarship, we contend that rights-based environmental governance in the form of RoN laws appears to reinforce many of the entrenched social-legal-environmental relations that characterize White liberalism recast through a language that claims universal rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]