scholarly journals Climate Change Governance in Forestry and Nature Conservation in Selected Forest Regions in Serbia: Stakeholders Classification and Collaboration

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 709
Author(s):  
Mirjana Stanišić ◽  
Marko Lovrić ◽  
Jelena Nedeljković ◽  
Dragan Nonić ◽  
Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Collaboration Network ◽  
Climate Change Governance

Climate change, with various economic, environmental and social consequences, is one of the greatest challenges faced by society. Climate change governance in forestry and nature conservation includes developing joint activities and collaboration among stakeholders that combine different interests, influences and competences at national, regional and local levels. This research aims to classify climate change stakeholders within the forestry and nature conservation sectors in Serbia. They are classified according to their interests and perceived influences. We analyze factors impacting the development of different areas for the collaboration by combining stakeholder analysis and social network analysis. A total of 103 representatives of civil society and public sector organizations in forestry and nature conservation at different governance levels with expertise in climate change participated in the survey. The results show that most civil sector organizations are distributed in the ‘subject’ quadrant with lower perceived influence and are not well interconnected. Seven different areas for the collaboration were identified, with disconnected stakeholders and limited representation and mostly peripheral position of civil society organizations (except in the case of the area for the collaboration through workshop and seminars knowledge exchange). The analyzed factors have different positive and negative effects on the development of the different areas for the collaboration, with the frequency of contacts standing out as a significant factor of collaboration at the level of the whole collaboration network. There is a strong indication of a centralized, top-down approach to climate change governance in forestry and nature conservation in Serbia. Multilevel and horizontal stakeholder governance is needed to achieve effective implementation of strategic climate-change policy commitments. The most important step to achieve such a structure is the empowerment of local-level organizations in climate change collaboration.

scholarly journals Women's Voices in Civil Society Organizations: Evidence from a Civil Society Mapping Project in Mali

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Bleck ◽  
Jessica Gottlieb ◽  
Katrina Kosec
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The State ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Self Help Groups ◽  
Technical Capacity

How does women's engagement in civil society organizations (CSOs) differ from that of men, and what factors predict women's willingness to hold the state accountable? We analyze these questions in the context of rural and urban Mali, leveraging face-to-face data collected as part of a civil society mapping project during February -- March 2020 and December 2020, and an in-depth survey conducted with leaders from a randomly-selected subset of these CSOs during January -- March 2021. First, we explore the characteristics of women's groups compared to other CSOs. Second, we explore their likelihood of sanctioning a hypothetical corrupt mayor. We use an embedded survey experiment to try to understand these groups' willingness to report on the mayor as well as the payments they expect to receive from the mayor in order to not share information about the mayor's corruption. We find that women in Mali are often highly organized at the local level---frequently in self-help groups or organizations related to gendered economic activities. However, these more economically-focused groupings of Malian women frequently do not translate into civic activity. They are not typically recognized by outside actors as viable CSOs that could incentivize better governance; their strong networks and group infrastructure represent untapped social capital. We also find that CSOs comprised of women have lower informational and technical capacity, especially due to lower levels of political knowledge, and incur a higher cost of sanctioning public officials---though they have greater mobilization capacity. Women's engagement in decision-making in the home also predicts one's CSO being more hierarchical and having greater technical capacity, as well as having higher expected transfers from the mayor---findings that do not vary with respondent or CSO gender. Turning to the extent to which women involved in CSOs are willing to sanction the state, we find that they are generally less willing than men to sanction, but become more likely when their CSO is less hierarchical, when their technical capacity is higher, and when their political knowledge is greater. However, priming their importance as a CSO (by telling them they were identified by well-connected citizens as being influential) actually reduces sanctioning---perhaps by making them fear that those recommending them will engage in reprisals. Overall, our findings provide useful evidence on the organizational capacity of women and how it is likely to affect the state.

scholarly journals THE FINANCES OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY IN UKRAINE: KEY TRENDS, MODELS AND OBSTACLES IN ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Social

The financial viability is one of the most important element in achieving sustainability for a civil society, especially in post-Socialist states of Eastern and Central Europe. Despite positive assessments of the role and potential of civil society in Ukraine from scholars and analysts and comparatively high score of civil society organizations’ sustainability index taking in comparative perspective for a whole region, its financial capabilities remains its weakest part during decades of Ukrainian independence. Having comparatively friendly legal and political environment and achieving some impressive results in advocacy, building coalitions and networks and enhancing its organization capabilities Ukrainian CSOs still remain dependant from international donors. Some shifts in financial resilience of civil society demands not only efforts from its side, but finding a consensus with a state on the model to achieve. Three typical models of interrelations by civil society and government, emerged in contemporary Europe are provided, they could be distinguished based on the social and political role of CSOs and their functions in public services provision. These models based on the scales of institutionalization and level of independence of civil society relatively to the authorities and include Social-democratic (Scandinavian), Liberal (Anglo-Saxon) and Corporativism (Continental) types. Ukrainian civil society, regardless achievements in organizational capacities and sectoral infrastructure, still remains in the «emerging» transitional spot due to the extremely small amount of public funds it attracts and based on uncertainty of its role on national and local level. Perspective destinations for civic-state dialogue are emphasized, among which there are finding the consensus of desired model and adopting new National Strategy of Stimulation Civil Society in Ukraine for next five years, changes in legal framework for local self-government, social entrepreneurship, taxation of charity and means earned by CSO themselves and establishing new practices and institutions for public financing of CSOs on national and regional levels.

scholarly journals Motivations and Intended Outcomes in Local Governments' Declarations of Climate Emergency

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xira Ruiz-Campillo ◽  
Vanesa Castán Broto ◽  
Linda Westman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Environmental Action ◽  
Future Planning ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Global And Local

Near 1,500 governments worldwide, including over 1,000 local governments, have declared a climate emergency. Such declarations constitute a response to the growing visibility of social movements in international politics as well as the growing role of cities in climate governance. Framing climate change as an emergency, however, can bring difficulties in both the identification of the most appropriate measures to adopt and the effectiveness of those measures in the long run. We use textual analysis to examine the motivations and intended outcomes of 300 declarations endorsed by local governments. The analysis demonstrates that political positioning, previous experience of environmental action within local government, and pressure from civil society are the most common motivations for declaring a climate emergency at the local level. The declarations constitute symbolic gestures highlighting the urgency of the climate challenge, but they do not translate into radically different responses to the climate change challenge. The most commonly intended impacts are increasing citizens’ awareness of climate change and establishing mechanisms to influence future planning and infrastructure decisions. However, the declarations are adopted to emphasize the increasing role cities are taking on, situating local governments as crucial agents bridging global and local action agendas.

scholarly journals Climate change governance in forestry and nature conservation

2019 ◽  
Vol 143 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 445-459
Author(s):  
Jelena Nedeljković ◽  
Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh ◽  
Marta Curman ◽  
Mersudin Avdibegović ◽  
Dragan Nonić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Climate Change Governance

Klimatske promjene su jedan od najvećih izazova za postizanje ciljeva održivog razvoja. Formiranje odgovarajućih institucionalnih okvira za upravljanje klimatskim promjenama, koji uključuju i koordiniraju brojne interese i aktivnosti različitih aktera, razina i sektora, problem je i za zemlje jugoistočne Europe. Bosna i Hercegovina (BiH), Hrvatska, Slovenija i Srbija imaju značajne prirodne resurse koji su bili ugroženi proteklih godina zbog prirodnih katastrofa, što je utjecalo i na sektor šumarstva. Cilj rada je proučiti institucionalne okvire u šumarstvu i zaštiti prirode, kao i stavove ispitanika o kompetencijama relevantnih institucija i organizacija, identificirati potrebe za poboljšanjem postojećeg okvira i ocijeniti njihove interese i utjecaje u procesu upravljanja klimatskim promjenama. Prikupljanje podataka provedeno je korištenjem intervjua, u razdoblju od studenog 2016. do travnja 2017. godine. Protokol za intervju sastojao se od 22 pitanja podijeljenih u pet skupina. U svrhu ovoga rada analizirani su odgovori na pitanja u vezi s institucionalnim okvirima za upravljanje klimatskim promjenama u šumarstvu i zaštiti prirode. Uzorak je činilo 29 ispitanika (Federacija BiH-8, Hrvatska-6, Slovenija-5, Srbija-10), odnosno predstavnika javnih uprava i javnih službi u šumarstvu i zaštiti prirode, poduzeća i ustanova za gospodarenje državnim šumama i upravljanje zaštićenim područjima, obrazovnih i istraživačkih organizacija te organizacija civilnog sektora. Ispitanici su odabrani probnim uzorkovanjem (uzorak na bazi vrijednosnog suda). Ispitanici su bili predstavnici institucija i organizacija na nacionalnoj razini upravljanja u šumarstvu i zaštiti prirode, koji su izravno ili neizravno povezani s problematikom klimatskih promjena u odabranim oblastima. O postojećim institucionalnim okvirima, 52,4% ispitanika nema pozitivno mišljenje, a 85,7% se zalaže za njihovo unapređenje, u smislu poboljšanja suradnje i koordinacije između različitih sektora, institucija i organizacija. Značajne su razlike u procjeni interesa i utjecaja institucija i organizacija u upravljanju klimatskim promjenama među ispitanicima iz Slovenije i Hrvatske, kao i onima iz Federacije BiH i Srbije. Ispitanici iz područja zaštite prirode procjenjuju da je interes veći u odnosu na predstavnike šumarskog sektora (ispitanici iz područja zaštite prirode smatraju da je interes ­ „veoma visok“ – prosječna ocjena 4,6, a iz sektora šumarstva da je „visok“ – prosječna ocjena 4,1). Potrebna su daljnja istraživanja o suradnji i koordinaciji svih sudionika na različitim razinama upravljanja, kao i drugih elemenata koji, uz institucionalne okvire, dovode do stvaranja odgovornog sustava upravljanja klimatskim promjenama i rješavanja različitih izazova klimatskih promjena.

Deliberate Differentiation by the Chinese State: Outsourcing Responsibility for Governance

2019 ◽  
Vol 240 ◽  
pp. 880-905
Author(s):  
Taiyi Sun
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Chinese State

AbstractDo authoritarian governments’ responses towards different civil society organizations (CSOs) reflect policy differentiations? Building on the existing literature of graduated control, diversification of civil society, and consultative authoritarianism, this paper utilizes an online field experiment,1 and interviews with government officials and CSO leaders to demonstrate that local governments have the tendencies to intentionally treat different CSOs with different policy responses, referred to as “deliberate differentiation” in this paper. However, contrary to what the existing literature would suggest, this study reveals that at the local level, such differentiation is driven more by the state's interest in extracting productivity and outsourcing responsibility for the provision of public goods and less by the state's need to acquire information from CSOs, including politically sensitive advocacy groups.

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