scholarly journals Inside Forest Diplomacy: A Case Study of the Congo Basin under Global Environmental Governance

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Minette Nago ◽  
Symphorien Ongolo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Knowledge Resources ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Global Environmental

The growing global interest in biodiversity conservation and the role of forestland sustainability in climate change mitigation has led to the emergence of a new specific field of global environmental governance that we called ‘forest diplomacy’. With the largest tropical forest area after the Amazon, Congo Basin countries (CBc) constitute a major negotiation bloc within global forest-related governance arenas. Despite this position, CBc seem embedded in a failure trap with respect to their participation in forest diplomacy arenas. This paper examines the major causes of the recurrent failures of CBc within forest diplomacy. A qualitative empirical approach (including key informant interviews, groups discussion, participant observation, and policy document review) was used. From a conceptual and theoretical perspective, this research combines global and political sociology approaches including environmentality and blame avoidance works. The main finding reveals that the recurrent failures of CBc in forest diplomacy are partly due to the lack of strategic and bureaucratic autonomy of CBc that strongly depend on financial, technical, and knowledge resources from Western cooperation agencies or consultancy firms. Our discussion highlights that this dependency is maintained by most of the key actor groups involved in forest diplomacy related to CBc, as they exploit these failures to serve their private interests while avoiding the blame of not reducing deforestation and biodiversity loss in the Congo Basin.

NGO’s Authority: A Discussion in the Global Environmental Governance

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-97
Author(s):  
Xiaolong Zou ◽  
Chuan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
International System ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Sociological Institutionalism ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Important Position

As non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assume incrementally important roles in global environmental governance, literature regarding their functions also multiplies. Studies are available about their features, structural advantages or impacts. However, very few have sufficiently explained what makes them tick in the international system as non-state actors. In this article, we argue that NGOs’ important position in global governance lies in its authority. We build our analysis on sociological institutionalism and the principal–agent models, arguing that NGOs are independent and autonomous with both inherent authority and granted authority by sovereign states or inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). It is through this authority that NGOs could function independently and autonomously in global governance instead of being the affiliated or appendant actors of parties. To shed some new light on understanding NGOs in the international system from a theoretical perspective, we employ cases from environmental governance domain as evidence for illustration.

Challenging Global Environmental Governance: Social Movement Agency and Global Civil Society

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy H. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Toxic Waste ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
A Site

In line with a critical theoretical perspective, which sees global environmental governance as embedded in the wider neoliberal global political economy, this article argues that accounts of global environmental governance grounded in orthodox International Relations lack an analysis of agency and power relations. This is particularly visible in the problematic assertion that global civil society—where social movements are said to be located—presents a democratizing force for global environmental governance. Through a critical conceptualization of agency the article analyzes social movements (including NGOs) and the challenges to global environmental governance, with an illustration of movements campaigning against toxic waste. It suggests that the potentiality of radical social movement agency is best understood through a neo-Gramscian approach, which identifies global civil society as simultaneously a site for the maintenance of, as well as challenges to, hegemony. It explores the extent to which global social movements constitute a counter-hegemonic challenge.

Movements, Networks, Hierarchies: A Gender Perspective on Global Environmental Governance

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bretherton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Transnational Mobilization ◽  
Environmentally Sound

Environmental governance may be distinguished from environmental management by the implication that, in the former, some form of participatory process is involved. Here, the focus is upon the potential for women's movements and networks to influence the principles and practices of global environmental governance (GEG). It is contended that, in principle, women are uniquely placed to oppose the dominant norms informing GEG; and that women's participation would, in consequence, be crucial to the achievement of equitable and environmentally sound forms of governance. In practice, however, a number of factors combine to create divisions between women, and hence to impede transnational mobilization by women around environmental issues. This article examines these issues.

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