Marine Protection as Polycentric Governance: The PEMSEA Network of Local Governments

Abstract

This study observes environmental city diplomacy in the Global South through the example of the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia Network of Local Governments (PNLG). It offers several theoretical lessons: First, an environmental transnational city network can successfully expand membership into a politically restrictive state when the entry point is highly embedded in global capital flows and houses a strong specialized policy knowledge base. Such is the case of the Chinese city of Xiamen, which translated foreign trade management experience into international governance cooperation competence, leveraged its substantial local knowledge base in coastal management and thus came to be chosen as the home of the PNLG Secretariat. This preceded the expansion of Chinese city membership into PNLG thereafter. Second, the policy performance of member cities over time, including the frequency of implementation of new marine protection policies, is shown to be linked both to PNLG membership activities and frequency policy learning exchanges with other cities, independently of PNLG activities, domestically and internationally. Last, Global South cities, at least through the example of China, would appear to not be as dependent on Global North actors for policy knowledge as posited in existing literature.