Emergence of Collaborative Environmental Governance: What are the Causal Mechanisms?

Area of Science:

• Environmental governance
• Political science
• Sociology

Background:

• Environmental governance frequently involves conflict among stakeholders with diverse perspectives.
• Understanding coalition-building in conflict situations is crucial for effective natural resource management.
• Self-organized coalitions can emerge even in challenging, conflict-ridden contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and confirm causal mechanisms driving self-organized coalition-building in environmental governance under conflict.
• To analyze the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve nomination process as a case study for coalition formation.
• To contribute to theoretical and practical knowledge on building coalitions for natural resource management.

Main Methods:

• Employed an 'explaining outcomes' process tracing methodology.
• Analyzed the multi-year Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve nomination process.
• Confirmed pre-identified causal mechanisms within the case study context.

Main Results:

• Perceived severity of the problem was a key driver in coalition formation.
• Institutional emulation and institutional entrepreneurship were confirmed as significant causal mechanisms.
• Fear of marginalization emerged as a potential, yet unconfirmed, causal mechanism requiring further investigation.

Conclusions:

• The study confirms several causal mechanisms for self-organized coalition-building in environmental governance.
• Findings offer practical insights for establishing coalitions in natural resource management.
• Highlights the need for further research into the role of fear of marginalization in coalition dynamics.