Abstract
Good governance is needed to foster good management of the environment. Yet, the link between environmental governance and environmental management has received very little research attention. This paper adopts a mechanism-based framework to unpack the link between the governance and management of species at risk or endangered species in a working landscape. Using species at risk management in the South of the Divide region of southwestern Saskatchewan as a case study, we identified four governance conditions connected by five mechanisms to produce management outcomes. The governance conditions include facilitative leadership, local autonomy, trust, and incentives. The five mechanisms include institutional disruption, institutional crafting and drift, brokerage or bridging, program uptake, and alleviation of fear of harm. We discuss how using a mechanism-based approach could help us better understand the processes within the governance system that trigger particular management outcomes. For example, in this case study, dissatisfied factors disrupt the existing governance arrangements and create new ones that reflect their desire for local autonomy. Local autonomy, in turn, creates an atmosphere for local actors to form coalitions and build trust; trust enhances program uptake and the co-design and co-implementation of incentives, which then alleviates land managers' fear of harm from participating in species at risk management. Our study also suggests that top-down institutions that create room for further institutional work can become acceptable at the local level and enhance endangered species management. We conclude that a mechanism-based explanation can be useful for opening the black box connecting environmental governance and management and offering valuable recommendations to guide policy.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Black-boxed means that the causal processes linking inputs and outcomes are completely ignored, while grey-boxed implies a partial attempt to uncover these causal processes. Grey-boxing may result from equating mechanisms to intervening variables (Beach 2016). In the context of governance and management, black boxing means no attempt has been made to identify the causal processes linking the two, and grey boxing implies an attempt to use a ‘laundry list’ of governance conditions as the mechanisms that explain management.
See Pittman (2019) for a detailed account of the events that led to the instatement of the EPO in 2013.
References
Agrawal, A. 2005. Environmentality: Community, intimate government, and the making of environmental subjects in Kumaon, India. Current Anthropology 46: 161–190. https://doi.org/10.1086/427122.
Ansell, C., and A. Gash. 2008. Collaborative governance in theory and practice. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 18: 543–571. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum032.
Armitage, D., R. de Loë, and R. Plummer. 2012. Environmental governance and its implications for conservation practice. Conservation Letters 5: 245–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00238.x.
Astuti, R. 2021. Governing the ungovernable: The politics of disciplining pulpwood and palm oil plantations in Indonesia’s tropical peatland. Geoforum 124: 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.03.004.
Ayambire, A. R., J. Pittman, M. Drescher, J. Moreno-Cruz, and A. Olive. forthcoming. Working landscapes approach: A conceptual framework.
Ayambire, R.A., J. Pittman, and A. Olive. 2021. Incentivizing stewardship in a biodiversity hot spot: Land managers in the grasslands. Edited by Karen Beazley. FACETS 6: 1307–1322. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2020-0071.
Baird, J., L. Schultz, R. Plummer, D. Armitage, and Ö. Bodin. 2019. Emergence of collaborative environmental governance: What are the causal mechanisms? Environmental Management 63: 16–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1105-7.
Beach, D. 2016. It’s all about mechanisms—What process-tracing case studies should be tracing. New Political Economy 21: 463–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2015.1134466.
Beach, D. 2017. Process-tracing methods in social science. In Oxford research encyclopedia of politics, ed. D. Beach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.01.
Beach, D., and R.B. Pedersen. 2019. Process tracing methods: Foundation and guidelines. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Bennett, A., and A. L. George. 1997. Process tracing in case study research. In MacArthur Foundation Workshop on Case Study Methods, pp. 104–105.
Bennett, N.J., and T. Satterfield. 2018. Environmental governance: A practical framework to guide design, evaluation, and analysis. Conservation Letters 11: 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12600.
Berdej, S., and D. Armitage. 2016. Bridging for better conservation fit in Indonesia’s coastal-marine systems. Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00101.
Berdej, S., J. Silver, and D. Armitage. 2019. A political ecology perspective on bridging organizations and their influence on marine conservation. Society and Natural Resources 32: 1258–1275. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1626960.
Bergmann, S.A., and J.C. Bliss. 2004. Foundations of cross-boundary cooperation: Resource management at the public-private interface. Society & Natural Resources 17: 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920490430142.
Berkes, F. 2009. Evolution of co-management: Role of knowledge generation, bridging organizations and social learning. Journal of Environmental Management 90: 1692–1702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.12.001.
Biesbroek, G.R., C.J.A.M. Termeer, J.E.M. Klostermann, and P. Kabat. 2014. Rethinking barriers to adaptation: Mechanism-based explanation of impasses in the governance of an innovative adaptation measure. Global Environmental Change 26: 108–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.004.
Biesbroek, R., and J.J.L. Candel. 2020. Mechanisms for policy (dis)integration: Explaining food policy and climate change adaptation policy in the Netherlands. Policy Sciences 53: 61–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-019-09354-2.
Biesbroek, R., J. Dupuis, and A. Wellstead. 2017. Explaining through causal mechanisms: Resilience and governance of social–ecological systems. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 28: 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.08.007.
Boyle, M., J.J. Kay, and B. Pond. 2001. Monitoring in support of policy: An adaptive ecosystem approach. Encylopedia of Global Environmental Change 4: 116–137.
Brown, L.D. 1991. Bridging organizations and sustainable development. Human Relations 44: 807–831. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679104400804.
Bunge, M. 1997. Mechanism and Explanation. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 27. Sage Publications, Inc: 410–465.
Burton, R.J.F., and G. Schwarz. 2013. Result-oriented agri-environmental schemes in Europe and their potential for promoting behavioural change. Land Use Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.05.002.
Capano, G., and M. Howlett. 2019. Causal logics and mechanisms in policy design: How and why adopting a mechanistic perspective can improve policy design. Public Policy and Administration. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076719827068.
Cetas, E., and M. Yasue. 2016. A systematic review of motivational values and conservation success in and around protected areas. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12770.
Ciuzio, E., W.L. Hohman, B. Martin, M.D. Smith, S. Stephens, A.M. Strong, and T. VerCauteren. 2013. Opportunities and challenges to implementing bird conservation on private lands. Wildlife Society Bulletin 37: 267–277. https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.266.
Cragun, D., T. Pal, S.T. Vadaparampil, J. Baldwin, H. Hampel, and R.D. DeBate. 2016. Qualitative comparative analysis: A hybrid method for identifying factors associated with program effectiveness. Journal of Mixed Methods Research 10: 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689815572023.
Dedeurwaerdere, T., A. Polard, and P. Melindi-Ghidi. 2015. The role of network bridging organisations in compensation payments for agri-environmental services under the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Ecological Economics 119: 24–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.07.025.
Environment and Climate Change Canada. 2016. Action Plan for Multiple Species at Risk in Southwestern Saskatchewan: South of the Divide [Proposed]. Species at Risk Act Action Plan Series.
Environment and Climate Change Canada. 2018. Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada. Gatineau.
Ferranto, S., L. Huntsinger, C. Getz, M. Lahiff, W. Stewart, G. Nakamura, and M. Kelly. 2013. Management without borders? A survey of landowner practices and attitudes toward cross-boundary cooperation. Society and Natural Resources 26: 1082–1100. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2013.779343.
Filbee-Dexter, K., C.C. Symons, K. Jones, H.A. Haig, J. Pittman, S.M. Alexander, and M.J. Burke. 2018. Quantifying ecological and social drivers of ecological surprise. Journal of Applied Ecology 55: 2135–2146. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13171.
Folke, C., T. Hahn, P. Olsson, and J. Norberg. 2005. Adaptive governance of social-ecological systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 30: 441–473. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.30.050504.144511.
George, A.L., and A. Bennett. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. London: MIT Press.
Glückler, J., and R. Lenz. 2018. Drift and morphosis in institutional change: Evidence from the ‘Walz’ and public tendering in Germany. In Knowledge and institutions, ed. J. Glückler, R. Suddaby, and R. Lenz, 111–134. New York: Springer.
Hasund, K.P. 2013. Indicator-based agri-environmental payments: A payment-by-result model for public goods with a Swedish application. Land Use Policy 30: 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.03.011.
Hedström, P., and P. Ylikoski. 2010. Causal mechanisms in the social sciences. Annual Review of Sociology 36: 49–67. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102632.
Henderson, A.E., M. Reed, and S.K. Davis. 2014. Voluntary Stewardship and the Canadian species at risk act: Exploring Rancher willingness to support species at risk in the Canadian prairies. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 19: 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2013.819595.
Hernes, G. 2005. Inhabitants of two worlds. In Social mechanisms: An analytical approach to social theory, ed. P. Hedstrom and R. Swedberg. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holling, C.S., and G.K. Meffe. 1996. Command and control and the pathology of natural resource management. Conservation Biology 10: 328–337. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10020328.x.
Hossu, C.A., I.C. Ioja, L.E. Susskind, D.L. Badiu, and A.M. Hersperger. 2018. Factors driving collaboration in natural resource conflict management: Evidence from Romania. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1016-0.
Hysing, E. 2009. From government to governance? A comparison of environmental governing in Swedish forestry and transport. Governance 22: 647–672. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01457.x.
Innes, R., and G. Frisvold. 2009. The economics of endangered species. Annual Review of Resource Economics 1: 485–512. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.resource.050708.144207.
Jakobsen, J. 2022. Beyond subject-making: Conflicting humanisms, class analysis, and the “dark side” of Gramscian political ecology. Progress in Human Geography. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325211056442.
Kremen, C., and A.M. Merenlender. 2018. Landscapes that work for biodiversity and people. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau6020.
Lawrence, T.B., and R. Suddaby. 2006. Institutions and institutional work. In The sage handbook of organization studies, 2nd ed., ed. S.R. Clegg, C. Hardy, T.B. Lawrence, and W.R. Nord, 215–254. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608030.n7.
Lemos, M.C., and A. Agrawal. 2006. Environmental governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 31: 297–325. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.31.042605.135621.
Lockwood, M. 2010. Good governance for terrestrial protected areas: A framework, principles and performance outcomes. Journal of Environmental Management 91: 754–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.10.005.
Lockwood, M., J. Davidson, A. Curtis, E. Stratford, and R. Griffith. 2010. Governance principles for natural resource management. Society and Natural Resources 23: 986–1001. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920802178214.
Ludwig, D. 2001. The era of management is over. Ecosystems 4: 758–764. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0044-x.
Mahoney, J. 2001. Beyond correlational analysis: Recent innovations in theory and method. Sociological Forum 16: 575–593.
Martin, A., B. Coolsaet, E. Corbera, N.M. Dawson, J.A. Fraser, I. Lehman, and I. Rodriguez. 2016. Justice and conservation: The need to incorporate recognition. Biological Conservation 197: 254–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.021.
McAdam, D., S. Tarrow, and C. Tilly. 2008. Methods for measuring mechanisms of contention. Qualitative Sociology 31: 307–331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-008-9100-6.
Meine, C., and G.P. Nabhan. 2015. Historic precedents to collaborative conservation in working landscapes. In Stitching the west back together, ed. S. Charnley, T.E. Sheridan, and G.P. Nabhan, 77–80. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226165851.003.0005.
Michael, J. A. 2000. The endangered species act and private landowner incentives. Human Conflicts with Wildlife: Economic Considerations 3.
Miller, K., E. Chang, and N. Johnson. 2001. Defining common ground for the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Washington, DC.
Muradian, R. 2013. Payments for ecosystem services as incentives for collective action. Society and Natural Resources 26: 1155–1169. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2013.820816.
Namugumya, B.S., J.J.L. Candel, E.F. Talsma, and C.J.A.M. Termeer. 2020. A mechanisms-based explanation of nutrition policy (dis)integration processes in Uganda. Food Policy 92: 101878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020a.101878.
Olive, A. 2016. It is just not fair: The endangered species act in the United States and Ontario. Ecology and Society. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08627-210313.
Olive, A., and J.L. McCune. 2017. Wonder, ignorance, and resistance: Landowners and the stewardship of endangered species. Journal of Rural Studies 49: 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.11.014.
Ostrom, E. 2014. Collective action and the evolution of social norms. Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research 6: 235–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/19390459.2014.935173.
Paavola, J. 2007. Institutions and environmental governance: A reconceptualization. Ecological Economics 63: 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.09.026.
Pahl-Wostl, C. 2009. A conceptual framework for analysing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes. Global Environmental Change 19: 354–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.06.001.
Partelow, S., A. Schlüter, D. Armitage, M. Bavinck, K. Carlisle, R.L. Gruby, A.K. Hornidge, M. le Tissier, et al. 2020. Environmental governance theories: A review and application to coastal systems. Ecology and Society 25: 1–21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12067-250419.
Patterson, J.J., and R. Beunen. 2019. Institutional work in environmental governance. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 62: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2018.1538328.
Pittman, J. 2019. The struggle for local autonomy in biodiversity conservation governance. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 62: 172–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2018.1511416.
Pittman, J., D. Armitage, S. Alexander, D. Campbell, and M. Alleyne. 2015. Governance fit for climate change in a Caribbean coastal-marine context. Marine Policy 51: 486–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2014.08.009.
Pohja-Mykrä, M. 2016. Felony or act of justice?—Illegal killing of large carnivores as defiance of authorities. Journal of Rural Studies 44: 46–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.01.003.
Polhill, J.G., A. Gimona, and N.M. Gotts. 2013. Nonlinearities in biodiversity incentive schemes: A study using an integrated agent-based and metacommunity model. Environmental Modelling and Software 45: 74–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.11.011.
Potoski, M., and A. Prakash. 2013. Green clubs: Collective action and voluntary environmental programs. Annual Review of Political Science 16: 399–419. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032211-211224.
Raycraft, J. 2020. The (un)making of marine park subjects: Environmentality and everyday resistance in a coastal Tanzanian village. World Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104696.
Reed, M.G., A.E. Henderson, and S. Mendis-Millard. 2013. Shaping local context and outcomes: The role of governing agencies in collaborative natural resource management. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 18: 292–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2013.801003.
Reiter, D., L. Parrott, and J. Pittman. 2021. Species at risk habitat conservation on private land: The perspective of cattle ranchers. Biodiversity and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02199-3.
Robinson, E. 2021. Citizens, custodians, and villains: Environmentality and the politics of difference in Senegal’s community forests. Geoforum 125: 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.06.017.
Rolfe, J., S. Schilizzi, P. Boxall, U. Latacz-Lohmann, S. Iftekhar, M. Star, and P. O’Connor. 2018. Identifying the causes of low participation rates in conservation tenders. International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics 12: 1–45. https://doi.org/10.1561/101.00000098.
Schlager, E. 2002. Rationality, cooperation, and common pool resources. American Behavioral Scientist 45: 801–819. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764202045005005.
Selinske, M.J., B. Cooke, N. Torabi, M.J. Hardy, A.T. Knight, and S.A. Bekessy. 2017. Locating financial incentives among diverse motivations for long-term private land conservation. Ecology and Society. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09148-220207.
Snilstveit, B., J. Stevenson, L. Langer, J. Polanin, I. Shemilt, J. Eyers, and P.J. Ferraro. 2019. Incentives for climate mitigation in the land use sector: A mixed-methods systematic review of the effectiveness of payment for environment services (PES) on environmental and socio-economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Campbell Systematic Reviews 15: e1045. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.209.
SODCAP Inc. 2016. Providing Habitat on a Working Landscape. Providing Habitat on a Working Landscape. Regina.
SODCAP Inc. 2020. The South of the Divide Conservation Action Program Inc.’s annual report (2019–2020). Regina.
Sorice, M.G. 2012. Retooling the traditional approach to studying the belief-attitude relationship: Explaining landowner buy-in to incentive programs. Society and Natural Resources 25: 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2011.603143.
Sorice, M.G., and J.R. Conner. 2010. Predicting private landowner intentions to enroll in an incentive program to protect endangered species. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 15: 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/10871200903551985.
Sorice, M.G., W. Haider, J.R. Conner, and R.B. Ditton. 2011. Incentive structure of and private landowner participation in an endangered species conservation program. Conservation Biology 25: 587–596. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01673.x.
Sorice, M.G., C.O. Oh, T. Gartner, M. Snieckus, R. Johnson, and C.J. Donlan. 2013. Increasing participation in incentive programs for biodiversity conservation. Ecological Applications 23: 1146–1155. https://doi.org/10.1890/12-1878.1.
Spijkers, J., and W.J. Boonstra. 2017. Environmental change and social conflict: The northeast Atlantic mackerel dispute. Regional Environmental Change 17: 1835–1851. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1150-4.
Statistics Canada. 2016. Statistics Canada Table 32-10-0440-01 Total number of farms and farm operators .
Stoker, G. 1998. Governance as theory: Five propositions. International Social Science Journal 68: 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12189.
Stroman, D., and U.P. Kreuter. 2016. Landowner satisfaction with the wetland reserve program in Texas: A mixed-methods analysis. Environmental Management 57: 97–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0596-8.
Suddaby, R. 2006. From the editors: What grounded theory is not. Academy of Management Journal 49: 633–642. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.22083020.
UNEP. 2002. Global Environment Outlook 3. United Nations Environment Programme.
Uphoff, N., and J. Langholz. 1998. Incentives for avoiding the tragedy of the commons. Environmental Conservation 25: 251–261.
Wark, G. 2020. Seven years into an Emergency Protection Order, are Sage Grouse any Greater? WLA, September.
Witter, R. 2021. Why militarized conservation may be counter-productive: Illegal wildlife hunting as defiance. Journal of Political Ecology 28: 175–192. https://doi.org/10.2458/JPE.2357.
WWF. 2016. Plowprint report. Bozeman: WWF.
WWF. 2016. Plowprint report: Facts & figures. Bozeman: WWF.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through their Insight Development Grant Program (430-2018-00247) and by Environment and Climate Change Canada through their Habitat Stewardship Program.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ayambire, R.A., Pittman, J. Opening the black box between governance and management: A mechanism-based explanation of how governance affects the management of endangered species. Ambio 51, 2091–2106 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01728-w
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01728-w