at foster social learning in the governance networks. As an example of such an initiative, the case of the recent experiment of Sustainability Impact Assessments is examined.
Interlinkages: Governance for sustainability This 2008 UNEP report highlights the opportunites of interlinkages. The complexity, magnitude and the interconnectedness of environmental change do not mean that decision-makers are faced with the stark choice of â€œdoing everything at once in the name of integrated approaches or doing nothing in the face of complexity.â€ Governance approaches that are flexible, collaborative and learning-based may be responsive and adaptive, and better able to cope with the challenges of integrating environment and development. Such adaptive governance approaches are well placed to address complex interlinkages, and to manage uncertainty and periods of change. They are likely to result in incremental and cost-effective evolution of institutional structures, and reduce the need for more fundamental institutional restructuring. Tools for dealing with interlinkages, such as assessments, valuation techniques and integrated management approaches that link environment to development, provide a critical foundation for adaptive governance.
Emerging forces in international governance This introductory book chapter by Norichika Kanie and Peter M. Haas outlines the challeges faced by environmental governance. They take care to celebrate the real successes and gains that have been made over the last 20 years, while acknowledging the challenges that still lie ahead. The book highlights the role that social scientists can play in developing more effective governance in the future.
Institutions for Sustainable Development: Learning from international experience This background paper by Hayley Vujcich and Wendy McGuinness provides an assessment of the institutional framework for sustainable development of nine countries â€” Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Five elements are selected to act as a lens with which to frame the analysis – administration and implementation, integration, participation, monitoring and independent review. This background paper concludes that although there appears to be no optimal institutional framework that can be applied to all countries, the five elements above, when developed in light of the unique characteristics and resources within each country, have generally resulted in the publication of a definitive NSDS. More publications looking in more detail at the New Zealand experience can be found from the SustainableFuture website.
Network Governance of the Commons This paper by Lars Carlsson and Annica SandstrÃ¶m acknowledges that the survival of the commons is closely associated with the potential to find ways to strengthen contemporary management systems. There is a need to make them more responsive to a number of complexities, like the dynamics of ecosystems and related, but often fragmented, institutions. A discussion on the desirability of finding ways to establish so called cross-scale linkages, i.e. connections among different actors from different levels of organisation and geographical settings, recently has been vitalised in the literature. The establishment of such linkages is believed to have many advantages for the sustainable management of the commons. In the same vein, concepts like adaptive management, comanagement and adaptive co-management have been discussed. In essence, these ways of organizing management to generate alternative governance systems are more closely related to network governance and social network theory, than to political administrative hierarchy.
Using participatory and learning-based approaches for environmental management to help achieve constructive behaviour change This report from Will Allen, Margaret Kilvington, and Chrys Horn looks at how agencies can influence people’s behaviour to improve environmental management. It highlights new approaches that work with multi-stakeho