Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2020
Mechanisms of Weak Governance in Grasslands and Wetlands of South America
Eufemia, Luca; Bonatti, Michelle; Sieber, Stefan; Schroeter, Barbara; Lana, Marcos A.Abstract
Weak governance is a major threat to sustainable development, especially in rural contexts and within ecosystems of great social and economic value. To understand and compare its arrangement in the grasslands and wetlands of the Colombian Llanos and the Paraguayan Pantanal, we build upon the Institutional and Development Framework (IAD) as we explore the role of political, economic, and social institutions and combine components of the theory of common-pool resources (CPR) and new institutional economics (NIE). This hybrid conceptualization provides a synthesis of how top-down hierarchical and market-based systems of community-based and natural resource management negatively affect sustainable development in both study areas. Our findings suggest three underlying mechanisms causing a situation of weak governance: centralized (economic and political) power, the role of central and local governments, and social exclusion. Understanding these multidimensional contextual mechanisms improves the understanding that institutional structures supporting arrangements that handle grasslands and wetlands in a sustainable way are needed to protect the ecosystem's social and economic values, especially in rural and marginalized contexts.Keywords
Colombia; common-pool resources; Orinoquia; Llanos Orientales; Pantanal; ParaguayPublished in
Sustainability2020, volume: 12, number: 17, article number: 7214
Publisher: MDPI
Authors' information
Eufemia, Luca
Leibniz Zentrum fur Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF)
Bonatti, Michelle
Leibniz Zentrum fur Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF)
Sieber, Stefan
Leibniz Zentrum fur Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF)
Schroeter, Barbara
Leibniz Zentrum fur Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Crop Production Ecology
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG15 Life on land
SDG12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
UKÄ Subject classification
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177214
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/108122