Bringing Local Voices to the Global Negotiation Table: Norm Dissemination and Consensus Building on Tropical Forests and Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria G. Rodrigues

AbstractInitially rejected by the parties to the Kyoto Protocol, efforts to protect tropical forests are now an accepted strategy to mitigate the impact of climate change. Inspired by long-standing demands of Amazonia’s forests peoples, the notion of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has been embraced in global arenas. What accounts for this shift in perceptions about the relation between forests and climate change? Answers lie in the efforts of a transnational advocacy network (TAN) at norm dissemination and consensus-building within Brazil and in the Kyoto Protocol. This study highlights the importance of domestic activism unfolding in democratizing societies to enhance the influence of transnational advocacy networks in norm dissemination and consensus building in global arenas. It enlarges the explanatory power of normative approaches by documenting a case in which the idea and set of values being globally propagated do not emanate from a Western liberal tradition.

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 637-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hadden ◽  
Lorien Jasny

What explains variation in the tactical choices of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? This article uses network autocorrelation models to establish how the tactical choices of climate change NGOs are shaped by their embeddedness in transnational advocacy networks. Specifically, it finds that NGOs are more likely to adopt protest tactics when adjacent organizations – those with whom they have direct ties – have already done so. The choices of equivalent organizations – those that occupy similar relational roles in the network – do not appear to be influential. Qualitative evidence also shows that NGOs are affected by relational pressure from their peers, which alters their perception of costs and benefits. These findings enhance understanding of how networks influence actors’ behavior and offer insights into the relational processes that generate protest in global politics.


Author(s):  
Amanda Murdie ◽  
Marc Polizzi

Human rights advocates have been argued to be working as part of a larger “network” of actors supporting the respect and security of individuals. However, until recently, much scholarship in this area has used “network” as a synonym for “connected actors” instead of examining the network characteristics of advocacy actors and the ways in which the nature of the advocacy network could influence human rights outcomes. This chapter examines the growing literature that focuses on human rights advocacy using network theory and methodologies. It outlines both global and local data collection efforts and the state of the literature and addresses how this literature has drawn on the larger political networks literature. It concludes with a call for future work on how the network characteristics of advocacy actors influences both which human rights issues receive international attention and whether this attention translates into improvements in human rights practices on the ground.


Author(s):  
Lovleen Bhullar

The program, ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’ (REDD), which operates within the international climate change policy framework, is projected to emerge as one of the key climate change mitigation mechanisms for developing countries. The existing Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) mechanism, operating under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, may prove useful for drawing lessons for the emerging REDD program, since both mechanisms represent flexible means for developed countries to achieve compliance with their mitigation targets under the Kyoto Protocol. The possible means include CDM as the basis for a project-based approach for the implementation of REDD (if adopted) or the inclusion of REDD within CDM. This article compares the features of A/R CDM and REDD, identifies similarities and differences, and analyses the extent to which the former can provide guidance for the development of a carbon governance mechanism for REDD.


2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca De Winter

This essay examines the impact of activist mobilization within the anti-sweatshop movement on shared understandings of corporate moral agency. The anti-sweatshop movement represents a transnational advocacy network, which arose in response to the global restructuring of the apparel industry and is organizing to demand that apparel manufacturers be accountable to communities, workers, and consumers. The movement has been central in contesting received notions of corporate rights and responsibilities and in reconstituting the boundaries of the corporate moral agent. Underpinning this investigation is a discussion of the ascription of moral agency to collective actors. With the aid of a relational approach, it is argued that corporate moral agency is a construct emerging out of social historical interactions that reflect processes through which the boundaries of actors are drawn and justified. Through the use of rhetoric linking private economic transactions and international labor and human rights standards, the movement has successfully challenged corporate practices that were previously considered unremarkable.


2022 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kennedy Muthee ◽  
Lalisa Duguma ◽  
Priscilla Wainaina ◽  
Peter Minang ◽  
Judith Nzyoka

Deforestation and forest degradation of tropical forests are major global concerns due to their ecological, social, and economic roles. In the wake of climate change and its diverse global effects, fragmentation and degradation of tropical forests have jeopardized their ability to support livelihoods and regenerate climate regulating services. Concerted efforts by local, national, and international players, which are primarily scientific, technological, or economic, have borne minimal results in safeguarding these forests from destruction, necessitating a more integrated and inclusive approach. The Rio Earth Summit (1992) brought together world leaders to set targets and priorities on the global sustainability agenda and laid a strong foundation for international policy cooperation in the future. This study employed a systematic review of articles published between 1992 and 2020 to establish how various policy mechanisms have been developed and evolved to bridge forests and climate change discourse in tropical forests while highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The initial search of peer-reviewed publications and gray literature yielded 2622 records, which were subjected to inclusion and exclusion criteria based on The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta Analyses guidelines, resulting in a final list of 65 records for in-depth qualitative analysis. The study establishes that the mechanisms in place have contributed mainly to more coordination and incentives to manage climate risks, primarily through tropical forests conservation. However, hurdles such as inadequate participation and involvement of the local and indigenous people, insufficient national and local policy frameworks and bureaucracies around emissions monitoring, measuring, reporting, and verification processes continue to slow tropical forest conservation. Thus, there is a need for more integrated, multilevel, and diverse stakeholder engagement to achieve the set global targets effectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-292
Author(s):  
Muhammad Zahrul Anam ◽  
Sugito Sugito

This article aims to investigate the impact of the international network and social capital on the effectiveness of Muhammadiyah’s emergency response in the 2006 Bantul earthquake. Despite paying more attention to religious and spiritual issues, Muhammadiyah, an Islamic-based social movement, plays a significant role in humanitarian issues. The 2006 earthquake in Bantul devastated public amenities, claimed thousands of people, and caused economic loss. The local government and private sectors of Bantul could not cope with the disaster. The most disaster-affected districts in Bantul Regency were Pundong, Bambanglipuro, and Jetis. Then, Muhammadiyah made an immediate emergency response to help those affected districts. In collaboration with overseas counterparts, Muhammadiyah collected humanitarian assistance. Muhammadiyah might not complete its humanitarian mission without the support of existing local Muhammadiyah in those districts. In other words, Muhammadiyah’s social capital is influential for humanitarian missions. This paper utilized two concepts to elaborate on the effectiveness of Muhammadiyah’s emergency response, namely transnational advocacy networks (TANs) and social capital. Then, this article argues that the higher level of TANs and social capital Muhammadiyah has, the more emergency response it can complete effectively. This paper discovered that three districts had different levels of TANs and social capital. In Pundong, the level of leverage politics (TANs) was higher than social capital. However, both Bambanglipuro and Jetis had a high level of social capital, whereas their leverage politics were low.


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