Blog Contributor: Lyndsay Bott

This blog is part of a series where we will focus on unpacking terminology commonly used by sustainability scientists. Today we begin with the term governance. Governance is a broad, all-encompassing term that is understood in a range of ways. We are pleased to provide our interpretation here.

Background of Governance

Governance is the coordination of groups or “actors” that use both formal and informal processes to work towards a shared goal. This concept includes both governments and non-governmental groups, such as non-governmental organizations, industry, and the public.

Governance differs from ‘government’ in that it involves a shift from government-centered decision-making and direction setting approaches to those where power and engagement is more widely distributed; therefore, governance requires coordination between society and the government. Governance is essential to integrate the varying interests and knowledge of actors into decision-making, which is important for addressing contemporary environmental problems that are complex and interacting with other factors and issues at a range of scales (biophysical, jurisdictional, time) and levels (from local to global).

Governance differs from management in that it is a broader range of activities and processes with direction-setting outcomes, where management is focused on analyzing, monitoring, and developing and implementing measures that have a direct impact on the system.

Key Features of Good Governance

Here we focus on ‘good governance’ approaches. Important conditions for good governance include:

• Inclusiveness: providing equal opportunity for all relevant actors to engage in governance processes
• Participation: engaging all relevant actors in decision-making
• Transparency: clarity in how decisions are made
• Accountability of all actors: all relevant actors
• Polycentricity: Connectedness within and across levels that various actors work in
• Collaboration: working together among relevant actors in governance processes

Since governance of the environment involves many and complex interactions between natural and social systems (called a ‘social-ecological system’), there are additional considerations for good governance. Other key features of governance that support social-ecological systems are the consideration for the diverse needs of systems, fit between the scales of the problem and the actors that govern it, as well as remaining flexible, adaptive, and active to address the complexity and uncertainty inherent in these systems.

Types of Governance for the Environment

Various ways of thinking about governance have developed over time to address governance needs in specific contexts. Some examples of forms of governance related to our interest in the environment and social-ecological systems are environmental governance, adaptive governance, and water governance.

Environmental governance focuses on governing environmental issues, including the physical ecosystems humans and other species rely on for survival and wellbeing. Environmental governance focuses on shared decision-making among the state (e.g., governments), community (e.g., non-governmental societal actors) and the market (e.g., industry) across scales. It emphasizes decentralization through new organizational entities (e.g., community-based groups) with authority and corresponding responsibility distributed more widely than in a government-centered approach. Within the realm of governance types, environmental governance is primarily aimed at influencing environmental actions and outcomes.

Adaptive governance, a type of environmental governance, was developed to better manage the uncertainty and complex interactions in social-ecological systems. The focus of adapting is on managing, or coping with, change including known and unknown disturbances. Adapting, and adaptive governance, happens through a range of mechanisms, including monitoring, experimenting, and learning together with others who bring diverse knowledge and perspectives. Overall, adaptive governance is an approach that recognizes the need for flexibility and capacity for change in response to unpredictable change at levels from local to global.

Finally, governance approaches for specific natural resources have also been developed. A good example of this is water governance – a range of systems that include social, economic, and administrative aspects to manage water resources at various levels of society. The importance of water governance has been emphasized due to climate change and its uneven impacts on water quality and availability, as well as extreme events including flooding and droughts. For more information regarding climate change impacts on water from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), click here.

The study of governance approaches to environmental issues is a focus of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University, and through transdisciplinary partnerships such as the Partnership for Freshwater Resilience.

Enacting Environmental Governance Through Innovative Partnerships at Brock University

The Partnership for Freshwater Resilience between the Environmental Sustainability and Research Centre (ESRC) at Brock University and WWF-Canada works to advance the understanding and applications of freshwater resilience and stewardship. Beginning in 2019, this 5-year partnership works to understand how to build resilience in Canada, during times of climate change and increasing threats. Specifically, in the context of governance, this partnership looks to generate innovative and evidence-based approaches to freshwater governance and management within the Wolastoq/St. John River basin. Key outputs from this partnership so far include a ‘map’ of the governance network of flood planning in the basin, and assessments of the fit of flood governance to the scope of the issue. Overall, this partnership works to harness the shared expertise in research and practice between WWF-Canada and the ESRC for practical and policy impact.

References

Ansell, C. (2002). Debating Governance: Authority, Steering, and Democracy. Edited by

Jon Pierre. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 251p. The American Political Science Review, 96(3), 668–669. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305540281036X

Booth, J. (2021, April 5). The Brock-WWF Partnership for Freshwater Resilience. Brock

University. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://brocku.ca/esrc/2021/04/05/the-brock-wwf-partnership-for-freshwater-resilience/

Chaffin, B. C., Gosnell, H., & Cosens, B. A. (2014). A decade of adaptive governance

scholarship: synthesis and future directions. Ecology and Society, 19(3), 56–. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06824-190356

Chaffin, B. C., & Gunderson, L. H. (2016). Emergence, institutionalization and renewal:

Rhythms of adaptive governance in complex social-ecological systems. Journal of Environmental Management, 165, 81–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.09.003

Farhad, S., & Baird, J. (2021). Freshwater governance and resilience⁎. Reference Module 

in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-819166-8.00109-2

Garmestani, A.S., & Benson, M. H. (2013). A Framework for Resilience-based Governance of    Social-Ecological Systems. Ecology and Society, 18(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES- 05180-180109

Hall, A. W., & Rogers, P. (2003). Effective Water Governance. In TEC Background Papers

(Vol. 7, pp. 1–49). essay, Global Water Partnership.

Hasselman, L. (2017). Adaptive management; adaptive co-management; adaptive