Research Themes

Governance structures and policies that impact biodiversity and economic development

The management decisions of diverse actors are shaped by the complex, dynamic, and often place-specific interactions of regulatory constraints and imperatives (e.g., law, policy etc.), and indigenous cultural orientations and economic strategies. In other words, human use and action on the landscape is mediated through formal and informal institutions (Carney and Farrington, 1998; Healey 1997). Understanding the institutional dimensions of landscape change in a region also characterized by cultural diversity is therefore a crucial area of research for (i) understanding the 'drivers' of land use change, (ii) understanding the efficacy of various policy measures, and (iii) identifying effective ways of halting or altering the trajectory of environmental change in a given locale by fashioning strategies for improved equity, political stability, environmental management and restoration (Wood, Stedman-Edwards, and Mang, 2000).

NW Yunnan provides a superb laboratory for pursuing research questions in environmental governance. While these questions have universal, academic salience, they also are compelling in terms of the trajectory of change occurring in Yunnan.

Issue 1 . Decentralization, democratization, and natural resource governance : China, like many biodiversity-rich nations, is a transitional political and economic system. Processes of decentralization of governance, village-level democratization, and changing land tenure rules (among others) are having important consequences for the way in which natural resources of NW Yunnan are used and managed. While the decentralization of natural resource governance is said to simultaneously promote efficient management and democratize policy and resource use, (Buck et al.2001) some recent empirical work highlights the dysfunctional dimensions of localized control and the potential for enhancing inequality and tension among diverse local actors (Leach et al . 1999, Ribot, 2002). Our IGERT students, under the leadership of Friedman, Jiang, Lane and Streiffer, will have the opportunity to study how decentralization is influencing the implementation of environmental policy in NW Yunnan and whether the goals of efficiency and equity in environmental management are being achieved as a result of decentralization.

Issue 2. Reconciling national interests with diverse local interests and imperatives : The utilization of the landscapes and resources of NW Yunnan for broad national purposes and interests potentially conflicts with the imperatives of diverse local groups. This reflects a universal problem in environmental governance: fashioning environmentally just outcomes (Harvey, 1996). These issues are accentuated by processes of globalization, which might simultaneously serve to intensify tribalism (or difference), particularly in terms of competition for access to productive natural resources, and weaken the mediating effect of the central state (Diamond 1999). Given the differing value and importance of NW Yunnan for diverse local actors and broader, national interests, a crucial question is how national and local interests are reconciled. Subsidiary questions include: How do local people interpret and respond to formal institutional and policy prescriptions? How equitable is environmental policy and management? What are the main sites of contestation and interaction?

Issue 3 . Institutional 'bricolage': Governance arrangements for a region such as NW Yunnan are so complex that they appear chaotic. The principal actors include: (i) the agencies of central, provincial, and local government, (ii) diverse local peoples and informal institutions, (iii) transnational actors including international NGO's and private corporations, and (iv) global actors and regulators (e.g. UNDP etc.). These multiple institutional arrangements in environmental management are characterized by intersecting points and a lack of distinction between informal and formal or local and state. We need therefore to understand this institutional bricolage, and understand the complex ways in which practices and priorities unfold in a given locality, and identify the points or moments for effective intervention and reform (Mehta et al . 1999). Discerning the patterns of this complexity is a crucial precondition for considered improvements in governance.

Issue 4. Governance and valuing diverse landscapes and resources. Environments and natural resources are not merely physical, material, or tangible products. They are also viewed in symbolic terms, having historically and culturally constructed meanings and values. The ways in which different actors - at multiple scales -- understand and assign value to different environments and resources is a crucial dimension of policy and management (Berkes, 1999). There are two principal issues here. First, failure to account for indigenous knowledge and values in landscape has been directly linked to failures in environmental plans and policys (Scott 1998). Second, failure to recognize local meanings and values is linked to unjust environmental practices and policies (Harvey 1996). IGERT Fellows, will seek to understand these diverse meanings and values and will investigate whether they are recognized in policy.