Mechanisms of Weak Governance in Grasslands and Wetlands of South America

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; Paraguay

Published in

Sustainability
2020, Volume: 12, number: 17, article number: 7214Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Lana, Marcos

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG12 Responsible consumption and production
SDG15 Life on land


UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177214

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/108122