POL 4045: Environmental Politics and Institutions (2023-2024) Notes PDF

**POL 4045: Environmental Politics and Institutions (15 credits)** **Rationale** Owing to its typically complex, multi-scale and dynamic character, often including multiple actors, managing the environment tends to be a demanding task. As a result, an understanding of the mechanisms behind success...

**POL 4045: Environmental Politics and Institutions (15 credits)** **Rationale** Owing to its typically complex, multi-scale and dynamic character, often including multiple actors, managing the environment tends to be a demanding task. As a result, an understanding of the mechanisms behind successful governance of natural resources or the overall environment requires in-depth knowledge and analysis. Actors' environmental behavior is on the one hand explained by factors such as informal institutions, e.g., what values, norms, beliefs and morals the actors are having, and on the other hand formal institutions, such as how society is organized, both politically and administratively. This is applicable for all actors whether they act as individuals, groups, corporates, organizations or political entities. These various informal and formal institutions can never be ignored when trying to understand the starting point of environmental performance across regions, states, communities, or resource systems. In addition, and as clearly manifested in the idea of sustainable development, environmental degradation is closely related to economic and social welfare. This course is relevant to students of political science as it equips them with adequate skills to understand complex actors and processes that are vital in protecting the environment. Further, having recognized that the most noticeable environmental problems that we have experienced and continue to witness are as a result of human activities originally aimed at generating social and economic development, but where the environmental erosion gradually (or abruptly) lead or has already led to decreased economic and social welfare, this course will motivate students to develop strategies to solve this dilemma. **Learning outcomes** By the end of the course students should be able to: i. Explain different conceptualization of environmental problems, and environmental politics in a comparative perspective. ii. Describe the relationship between environmental and economic development and the foundations for environmental security. iii. Discuss collective action and social dilemma theory, including factors generating collective action such as values, attitudes, norms, beliefs, uncertainty, trust, media and various policy instruments available to create collective action and as well as with the challenges associated with the implementation of these policy instruments. iv. Discuss institutional theories and frameworks available in environmental management. v. Use institutional theory to explain the genesis of environmental problems and lack of collective action, as well as how institutions simultaneously can promote environmental collective action. **Prerequisites for the course** IRS 3015, IRS 3025, IRS 3035, POL 3010, POL 3040 **Course content** 1. **Introduction** 1. What is the environment? 2. What is environmental politics? 2. **History of Environmental Politics** 3. Ethical Dimension of humanity's relations with the environment 4. The history of environmental politics 5. The genesis of environmental problems 6. Evolution of Environmental problems 3. **The Environment, Theories and Institutions** 7. Environmental actors 8. Theories of environmental conservation and preservation 9. Institutional Theory and Change 10. Institutions and natural resource management. 4. **The State, Society and the Environment** 11. State-society relations and environmental politics 12. Country characteristics and exploitation patterns 13. The role of democracy, corruption, and governance 14. Case Study: Land, forest and fisheries management and environmental protection in Zambia 15. Case Study: Mining Explorations and Environmental Management in SADC. 5. **Environmental Conservation and Collective Action** 16. Policy and policy measures 17. The importance of policy acceptance 18. Social dilemmas and collective action. 19. The role of Trust, reciprocity and reputation collective action dilemmas 20. The failure of the standard rational choice prediction for collective action. 21. The role of trust, reciprocity and reputation in collective action. Evidence from laboratory public good experiment. 22. From small-scale to large-scale collective action. 23. Individual-level factors and drivers behind pro-environmental behavior and attitudes 24. The significance of personal value orientations, beliefs, and personal norms 25. How contextual factors affect individual-level mechanisms 6. **International Environmental Conventions and Protocols** **Teaching and Learning Methods** Three lecture hours per week One-hour tutorial per week **Assessment** Table: Course Assessment Components +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | Component of | Number | Contribution to | | assessment | | overall grading (%) | +=======================+=======================+=======================+ | 1. ***Continuous | | | | assessment*** | | | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | | 2 | 30 | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | | 1 | 20 | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | | | 50 | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | 2. | | 50 | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ **Prescribed Readings** Barret, S. (2019) Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of Environmental Treat-Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 13:0978-0416572119 Connelly, J., Smith, G, Benson, D. and Saunders, C. (2021) Politics and the Environment. From Theory to Practice. Routledge ISBN 13:0978-0415572118 **Recommended Readings** Bardhan, P. K. (2019) Scarcity, conflicts, and cooperation. Essays in the political and institutional economics of development. MIT Press Agrawal, Arun. (2021) Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of Resources. World Development 29: 10: 1649-1672. Dunlap R.E., K.D. Van Liere, A.G. Mertig and R.E. Jones (2000), Measuring Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm: A Revised NEP Scale, Journal of Social Issues, 56 (3), 425-442 **WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS INVOLVES?** - Environmental politics is a wide-ranging subject composed of three core components: 1. The study of political theories and ideas relating to the environment 2. The examination of political parties and environmental movements 3. The analysis of public policy-making and implementation affecting the environment at local, national and international levels. **WHY STUDY ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS?** - Can anyone claim that they are unaware of environmental issues anymore? Surely we all know something about the hole in the ozone layer, oil tanker spills, deforestation of tropical rainforests, the building of roads and dams in environmentally sensitive areas, public anxiety about the safety of mass-produced foods, or growing concern about the impact of climate change. - Again, we are familiar with images of environmental protest: Greenpeace anti-whaling actions on the high seas, anti-roads activists bulldozer-diving, digging tunnels and building tree villages, protesters uprooting GMO trial crops, or standoffs between police and activists outside meetings of the World Trade Organisation and other global institutions. And finally, we are familiar with governments attempting to respond to these issues. - An example of success is the securing of global agreements to ban CFCs to halt the destruction of the ozone layer; an example of failure is the well-publicised refusal of the United States to agree to binding reductions in carbon dioxide levels as a response to the processes of climate change. - Environmental issues and concerns are, then, simply a part of our everyday life and cannot be ignored. It is our contention that green politics rests on two fundamental insights which provide the impetus for a searching re-examination of existing political, social and economic practices. These are: 1. A recognition of the finite nature of the planet's physical resources -- 'limits to growth'. 2. An attention to the ethical dimension of humanity's relations with the non-human world. - We will briefly examine each in turn. The significance of the limits to growth thesis can be grasped by reflecting on two short parables. The first is known as 'the tragedy of the commons' (Hardin, 1998: originally published in 1968). We are asked to imagine a pasture used for grazing cattle, open to all, and to accept that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on this common pasture. Everything is fine while the number of animals that graze stays below the carrying capacity of the land. However, as Garrett Hardin writes: The rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another.... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all (Hardin, 1998, p. 26). - Substitute fish for cattle and the open seas for pasture and we have the problem of over-fishing; substitute cars for cattle and the atmosphere for the pasture and we have the problem of climate change. There are ecological limits to the use of the environment: overuse of resources by self-interested actors can lead to environmental destruction and irreversible damage. - The second parable develops this line of thinking by reflecting on the manner in which resource consumption, pollution and population levels tend to grow exponentially. A French riddle illustrates the suddenness with which exponential growth approaches a fixed limit: Suppose you own a pond on which a water lily is growing. The lily plant doubles in size each day. If the lily plant were allowed to grow unchecked, it would completely cover the pond in 30 days, choking off the other forms of life in the water. For a long time the lily plant seems small, and so you decide not to worry about cutting it back until it covers half the pond. On what day will that be? On the twenty-ninth day, of course. You have one day to save your pond (Meadows *et al*., 1972, p. 29). - This riddle is quoted in the 1972 report *The Limits to Growth* and is used to reinforce the view that humanity has limited time in which to change its ecologically-insensitive patterns of growth. As the report concludes: If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity. **THREE MORAL TRADITIONS AND THE ENVIRONMENT** Which, if any, of the theories and traditions characteristic of the Western world can support an environmentally sensitive ethic? Which is best able to provide intellectual support to our sense of having a duty to preserve nature, to conserve resources for future generations and to act justly towards those in the South affected by our economic and environmental policies? Clearly a lot is being asked for here, because the feature common to most hitherto existing types of moral theory is their exclusive focus on human concerns. It is reasonable to expect, therefore, that they will be better equipped to deal with questions of (say) distributive justice than the intrinsic value of nature. A complete environmental ethic, by contrast, has to reach beyond those concerns and extend its range to cover the sentient, the living and the non-living. It will modify our entire scale of values: human beings and their interests will still be important, but their interests will no longer be the only interests worthy of consideration. Environmental ethics, then, presents a challenge to traditional ethics: it raises questions about duties not only to animals but also towards plants and inanimate objects and natural phenomena. we shall briefly examine three moral traditions which have currency in contemporary debates: stewardship, utilitarianism and respect for life. **Stewardship** In the West our moral values are still largely shaped by a broadly Christian tradition. This is true irrespective of our individual religious affiliations, or lack of them: the Christian ethic permeates the fabric of our moral life and history. The Christian attitude towards nature in general splits into two strands: one in which the natural world is regarded as being there essentially for man's sole instrumental use; and another in which we have duties of stewardship to the natural world. The former view, in which nature is regarded as something to be exploited for its materials, as a source of knowledge leading to power and control over it, is typical of the modern scientific attitude. In paganism the natural world is understood as populated by spirits or gods and hence to be approached in a spirit of reverence and awe. By contrast the Christian view regards nature as created (but not 'inhabited') by God. This provides the ideal conditions for natural science and its associated technology to emerge and to dominate nature. This is the legacy of the 'scientific revolution' typified by the work of sixteenth- and seventeenth century figures such as Francis Bacon, which largely took the view that human beings stood over and above nature. Nature was there solely for man's use. Human needs and wants were paramount and nature, in one way or another, existed to satisfy them. This is a classic formulation of what is frequently termed 'strong anthropocentrism'. The alternative view, based on the principle of stewardship, has coexisted with the first and is rooted in a different reading of the book of Genesis. However, the issue here is not which is the correct biblical reading, but which attitude has been dominant. White argues forcefully that Christianity in practice has been committed to an exploitative attitude, sowing the seeds of the contemporary environmental crisis. But the alternative interpretation has never been entirely absent and its insights have much to offer contemporary thinking. Attfield argues that the Christian tradition should be viewed as one in which the injunction to be master of the natural world implies not a rapacious attitude towards it, but the contrary. It implies that we should have dominion in the sense of being a steward appointed by God to look after and cherish both the garden he has given us to cultivate and the creatures who live in it (Attfield, 1991). We do not unconditionally own parts of the planet, but hold them on trust. Such a view leads naturally to an ethic of environmental concern. It is certainly likely to be environmentally superior to a view in which property rights are held to be absolute, in which all parts of the natural world are held to be merely means to human ends, and where we have a right to do exactly what we want with our property even at the expense of those who come after us. The principle of stewardship is an example of 'weak' or 'enlightened anthropocentrism'. The key biblical passage here is the book of Genesis in which man was commanded to 'Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth' and that man was put 'into the garden of **Utilitarianism** For utilitarianism, actions should be judged by their consequences, not their intrinsic rightness. Desirable consequences typically include pleasure (or the avoidance of pain), happiness, well-being, or simply the satisfaction of preferences. The moral goal is held to be the maximisation of welfare in a society through calculation of which actions will bring about the greatest aggregate benefit, or, as Jeremy Bentham phrased it, 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. Clearly much of our practical reasoning is intuitively utilitarian, and it is important both to recognise this and to appreciate the scope and limits of utilitarianism, especially as it applies to debates in matters of public policy. For the moment, however, we shall look at one interesting application of utilitarianism -- the justification of vegetarianism. Although utilitarianism has traditionally been applied to solely human concerns, there is nothing in principle preventing its extension to the non-human world. Given its focus on maximising welfare in a society, the question now becomes who counts as belonging to that society. Peter Singer, in his influential book *Animal Liberation* (1983, originally published in 1975), argues that the relevant moral community comprises all those able to feel pain or pleasure. He picks up on one aspect of utilitarianism -- the promotion of pleasure and the avoidance of suffering --and combines it with Bentham's dictum 'each to count for one and none for more than one'. From this starting point he constructs an account of our obligations to animals by recognising our kinship with other sentient beings. Animals, like humans, can feel pain and suffer and this simple fact means that we can include them in our calculations of aggregate welfare. The reason for this inclusion is not their intellectual abilities or powers of reason. Just as having a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for their own ends so it does not entitle humans to exploit non-humans. The right question to ask, insisted Bentham, was not 'Can they reason? Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?' (Bentham, 1960). It is the capacity for suffering and/or the enjoyment of happiness which generates the right to moral consideration. This capacity is a prerequisite for having interests, and for Singer animals have interests which we should consider: **The significance of life** Another possibility might be to ground an ethic on the notion of respect for life, irrespective of sentience. The notion of 'reverence for life' is indelibly associated with the life and work of Albert Schweitzer. However, there are problems with such an approach. On what grounds do we have this respect? Where does it come from? Is it a feeling natural to all thinking beings able to reflect on the complex subtleties of living organisms? It certainly cannot come from any sympathy, any sharing of suffering or feeling if the organism is not itself sentient. A related problem is what the idea implies for us, it can hardly be an injunction not to consume or use living organisms, because we need to eat to live. Perhaps it is an injunction to recognize the value of what sustains us, a reminder that we should not be wasteful, wanton or destructive without good cause. In other words, it is an insistence on the moral considerability of living things; not an absolute prohibition on use or consumption. Such an interpretation has value: like Singer's argument, it draws our attention to what we otherwise might overlook and extends the bounds of moral consideration. Hence it would appear to have a role to play in any environmental ethic. But there are still two problems. First, it fails to establish priorities: what, for example, is the relative worth of animals and plants? What are the occasions on which we can consume either or both of these things? Second, it fails to extend our obligations to the non-living world. We have examined three different approaches to the moral questions of the environment. Each approach can be associated with different ways of valuing the world. Utilitarianism lays the emphasis on sentience, on the ability to suffer or feel pleasure, and hence on how we treat animals displaying these features. Animals are seen as being equal with humans in respect of their sentience, but the consequence is that a gulf arises between sentient and non-sentient beings. The stewardship tradition generates a broader view in which human beings are seen as benevolent. It is precisely because humans are conceived of as standing over and above nature, and are thought of as rational beings made in God's image, that they are given the responsibility of caring for the natural world and the creatures within it. Respect for life, in its wider sense, emphasises the continuity of humans with the whole of the natural world. There is no great gulf between human and nonhuman nature, sentient or non-sentient being. All are part of a wider whole. Each moral tradition makes a distinctive contribution to the way in which we value the natural world, and in looking at the issue of value in more detail we may draw on each to a greater or lesser extent. We have inherited a plurality of value orientations towards the natural world and all have something to offer. The theoretical task is how to combine these different aspects of our ethical heritage into a coherent theory able to underpin practice. **HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS** Environmental concerns were rooted in the vast social changes that took place in the United States after World War II. Although environmentalism can be identified in earlier years, only after the war did it become a widely shared social priority. This began with outdoor recreation in the 1950s, extended into the wider field of the protection of natural environments, and then became infused with attempts to cope with air and [water pollution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution) and still later with toxic chemical pollutants. After World War II, environmental politics became a major public concern. The Post-war era resulted in the \'[Great Acceleration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Acceleration)\', which saw a dramatic increase in industrialization, agriculture, and consumption of resources leading to a new geological era of environmental deficit. The development of environmentalism in the United Kingdom emerged in this period following the great London smog of 1952 and the Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967. This is reflected by the emergence of [Green politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_politics) in the Western world beginning in the 1970s. Notably, the 1972 [United Nations Conference on the Human Environment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Conference_on_the_Human_Environment) in Stockholm marked the entry of environmental politics into the international agenda, giving rise to new environmental political thought and its incorporation into policymaking. Since then, environmentalism has taken shape as its own political ideology and has had numerous variations, from more radical theories like \'[deep ecology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ecology)\' which seeks to prioritize environmental needs to more reformist ideologies which view environmental damage as an externality. **EVOLUTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS** ***First Generation: preservation and conservation (pre-1960s)*** Protection of worldlife and habitats Soil erosion Local pollution ***Second Generation: modern environmentalism (from 1960s)*** Population growth Technology Desertification Pesticides Resource depletion Pollution ***Third Generation: Global issues (late 1970s onwards)*** Acid rain Ozone depletion Rainforest destruction Climate change Loss of biodiversity Genetically modified organisms **Major Environmental Problems** It is important to emphasise that a wide range of views about the nature and severity of the current environmental crisis exists, and some of the issues are highly controversial. Nevertheless, there is broad agreement that the environmental crisis encompasses the following major issues. These megatrends present major global threats for planet Earth --- problems that must be solved if the world is to remain a supportive habitat for humans and other species. - - - - - - - - - - - **Overpopulation.** *Problem:* Human population continues to grow rapidly worldwide. Humanity entered the 20th century with 1.6 billion people; right now, we\'re about 7.5 billion. Estimates put us at nearly 10 billion by 2050. Growing global populations, combined with growing affluence, is putting ever greater pressure on essential natural resources, [like water](https://www.dw.com/en/a-world-with-less-water/a-19131228). Most of the growth is happening on the African continent, and in southern and eastern Asia. *Solutions:* Experience has shown that when women are empowered to control their own reproduction, and gain [access to education and basic social services](https://www.dw.com/en/world-population-day-investing-in-women/a-19392989), the average number of births per woman drops precipitously. Done right, networked aid systems could bring women out of extreme poverty, even in countries where state-level governance remains abysmal. Thus, a wide range of environmental problems has emerged; those problems include anthropogenic climate change (\'global warming\'), the depletion of stratospheric ozone (the \'ozone hole\'), the acidification of surface waters (\'acid rain\'), the destruction of tropical forests, the depletion and extinction of species, overpopulation, and the precipitous decline of biodiversity among other problems as outlined above. Yet, while all of these problems have physical (environmental) manifestations, their causes - and their potential solutions - are invariably bound up with human attitudes, beliefs, values, needs, desires, expectations, and behaviours. Thus the symptoms of the environmental crisis cannot be regarded purely as physical problems requiring solutions by environmental \'specialists\'; instead, they are intrinsically human problems and they are intimately related to the question of what it means to be human. **Environmental actors** Since environmental politics has appeared, new forms of engagement involving new actors have also been created. Environmental pressure groups were the first bodies to speak up about the human impact on nature. WWF was first created in 1961 in Morges, Switzerland followed by Greenpeace in 1971 in Vancouver, Canada. 'These are organised efforts by citizens to put pressure on governments -- or others - to accomplish various ends' The formation of green parties in many countries in Europe are new actors that are making a big difference in the understanding of the human impact on the environment and in the making of policies. Also, the creation of environmental ministries and agencies make possible the addressing of the environmental problems that have emerged. Another actor is the state, which has a very powerful and important role in the issue solving actions at national level. All states are responsible (even though some are more responsible than others) and all are committed to the new policy paradigm of sustainable development: 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' which tries to reconcile the conflicting objectives of development and economic growth with environmental protection. Big organisations like the United Nations are also a centre-actor in protecting the environment with various different programs with the United Nations Environment Program which encourage caring for the environment and making people understand why the environment is so important and why we need to make changes in our way of living to save future generations. The UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat \"dangerous human interference with the climate system) led to the creation of Conference Of the Parties in 1995. A key task for the COP (*Conference of the Parties.* *A conference of the parties is the supreme governing body of an international convention. It is composed of representatives of the member states of the convention and accredited observers)* is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by parties. Based on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by parties and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the convention. Local actors are also very important as they get together and protest or warn the population about the environment, like Greta Thunberg. Lobbies and scientists have an important role in environmental politics to indeed warn the population and come up with solutions to challenges that the environment is causing. They also come up with scientific data, research and ideas to create policies in order to help the environment. **Theories and Concepts for Human Behavior in Environmental Preservation** **Overview** This section reviews vital behavioral and environmental theories that are capable of nurturing pro-environmental citizenry. Theories are developed to explain, predict, and enhance the understanding of phenomena. Theories challenge and extend the frontiers of knowledge within the boundaries of critical bounding assumptions. Theories vary in their development on the basis of the concepts and methods employed and empirical test undertaken. The testability of a theory is one of its essential feature. An integrative application of different behavioral and environmental theories could prove to be invaluable in solving contemporary environmental problems. The models and theories reviewed in this paper include; primitive models (behavioural change model, environmentally responsible behaviour model, reasoned/responsible action theory), planned behaviour theory, environmental citizenship model, model of human interaction with the environment, the value-belief-norm theory of environmentalism, health belief theory and diffusion of innovation model. This paper concludes that none of these theories can independently entirely explain human-environment interaction, but a combination of these theories will undoubtedly provide further insights and possible solutions to the increasing 21st century environmental problems posed by humans and her technology. **1.Introduction**\ For several centuries, the environment has provided habitation for humans and numerous organism but the insatiable needs of humans have driven them to devise strategies for survival and adaptation. Several of these strategies, especially technology, have had direct and indirect negative consequences on the immediate environment, resulting in the degradation of the latter. Many of today\'s environmental problems are increasingly the outcomes of individual actions, personal consumer decisions, and the activities of small and large businesses. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the healthiness of the world's economy and people is inextricably bound to the wellbeing of the environment. This implies that now, much more than previously, there is a greater need to understand patterns, connections, systems and root causes of the degrading environment. A very strong tool for nipping the 21st century environmental problems, which are becoming lot more alarming in the bud, is environmental education. One veritable tool for achieving this feat is a proper understanding and the application of behavioural models and theories. Theory is a well-established principle that has been developed to explain some aspect of the natural world. He stated further that theories arise from observations and testings that have been carried out repeatedly and they incorporate facts, predictions, laws, and tested assumptions that are widely accepted. The theoretical framework thus provides a platform for expressing a theory of a research study. It presents and describes the theory that explains why the research problem under study exists. There is a close relationship between concepts and theories, such that, the constituents of a theory are **concepts** and **principles.** A **concept** is a symbolic depiction of an actual thing. It is the building block of the theory. The main difference between the theoretical and the conceptual framework is that a conceptual framework is the idea of the researcher on how the problem of the research will have to be explored. This is established on the theoretical framework, which lies on a much broader scale of resolution. The theoretical framework thrives that have been tested repeatedly over time that express the findings of numerous investigations on how phenomena occur. This framework provides a general representation of relationships between things in a given phenomenon. On its part, the conceptual framework describes the relationship between specific variables identified in the study. It furthermore outlines the input, process and output of an entire investigation. A model is a blueprint for action, describing what happens in reality in a universal way. Models are used to describe the application of theories for a particular case. In a nutshell, theories are well-established principles developed to elucidate dimensions of the natural world, they are made up of concepts and applied by employing models. A theory presents a systematic way of understanding behaviors, events and/or situations. It is a set of interrelated definitions, concepts, and propositions that predicts or explains events or situations by specifying relationships among the variables. The notion of generality, or broad application, is important. Thus, theories are by their nature abstract and not content- or topic-specific. Although numerous theoretical models can express the same general ideas, each theory uses a unique vocabulary to articulate the specific features considered to be significant. Additionally, there is a variation in theories in the extent to which they have been developed conceptually and tested empirically. A very crucial feature of a theory is its ability to be tested. Numerous theories and concepts exist for understanding Human Behaviors in Environmental Preservation. Few of these theories are reviewed below alongside their application to environmental preservation. These theories and concepts enhance further understanding as to why people participate in different environmentally influencing behaviors. It is however evident, that no single theory, gives a perfect explanation of the complete interactions and relationships among variables influencing Human Behavior in Environmental Preservation. Models and theories to be reviewed include the following; Primitive models (Behavioural change model, Environmentally Responsible Behaviour model, Reasoned/Responsible Action theory), Planned behaviour theory, Environmental Citizenship model, Model of Human Interaction with the Environment, The Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Environmentalism, Model of Diffusion of innovation and Health Belief Theory. To properly examine the concept of Environmentally Responsible Behavior (ERB) there are 3 theories that can aid its understanding. These are the Primitive models, Model of environmentally responsible behaviour proposed by Hines et al. and Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned/responsible action. **1.1Primitive models**\ Primitive models are the traditional, ERB field's precursors entertained beliefs that were not founded on rigorous experimentation, but rather on several assumptions interpreted from previous works. These models were founded on the assumptions that educating the public on various ecological and environmental issues could alter human behaviour. **1.2Behavioural change model**\ This reasoning was directly associated with the supposition that if people were better informed, they would become more aware of environmental problems and consequently, would be motivated to behave in an environmentally responsible manner. Many other similar models, as will be discussed subsequently, linked knowledge to attitudes and attitudes to behaviour. Thus, as evident in Figure 1, when knowledge increases, environmentally favourable attitudes that lead to responsible environmental actions are developed. Figure 1 illustrates the relationships emanating from the models proposed at that time. image Nevertheless, ulterior research refuted the arguments of those that saw the principles of human behavioural change in this model. As a result of this, the legitimacy of such simplistic linear model was not recognized or supported for a long time. Researchers then focused their attention on a hypothesis that they would quickly verify and accept over the course of the following years: that a multitude of variables interact in different degrees to influence the embracing of environmentally responsible behaviour. The behavioural model, though very simplistic, provides a base for the consideration of possible relationship existing between environmental knowledge, environmental awareness and attitude and how these can translate to action or inaction. A good knowledge of environmental variables may not necessarily imply good and sustainable environmental behavior. On the other hand, lack of environmental knowledge or awareness may also not necessarily imply a poor environmental practice. Therefore other intervening factors like the Locus of control, intention to act and personal responsibility need to be considered. While a line of possible relationship can be deciphered through this model, reality is far more complex than this linear trend, hence a more advanced model, incorporating this line of relationship is needed to offer a succinct explanation of the interacting variables of human behavior in environmental preservation. **1.3Theory of environmentally responsible behavior (ERB)**\ The ERB theory was proposed by Hines, Hungerford and Tomera. The model argues that possessing an intention of acting is a major factor influencing ERB. The Model of Responsible Environmental Behaviorindicates that the following variables; intention to act, locus of control (an internalized sense of personal control over the events in one's own life), attitudes, sense of personal responsibility, and knowledge.suggested whether a person would adopt a behavior or not. Figure 2 presents the interactions likely to develop ERB. This model considers the major variables that play a part in the individual process of ERB adoption. According to the model, the internal control centre has a very considerable impact on the intention of acting, which determines an individual's ERB substantially. This model also highlights the existence of a relationship between the control centre, attitudes of individuals and their intention to act. The authors asserted that the control centre directly affects an individual's attitudes which can lead to an improved intention of acting and improved behaviour. Thus, the theory concentrates more on existing interactions between parameters that influence a person's behaviour than on the singular impact of a single variable. In waste management processes, no single factor is responsible for current behaviors or sufficient to initiate behavior or cause behavior change. For instance, people pile up their waste materials in the middle of the streets in large cities like Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Jos etc., despite regulations from waste management authorities, prohibiting these acts. Many of these flouters do so at odd hours when law enforcement agencies are not available, others are influenced to indiscriminately dump these waste materials because they see others doing so, yet some still find ways of decently disposing off their waste materials. From the model in Figure 2, knowledge alone is grossly insufficient to act responsibly towards the environment, while some individuals' knowledge on the environment and its regulations could prompt them to have a good attitude which could translate to good intentions to act, other individuals may go through the internal and external control, such as being influenced by the actions of others or holding strongly to a belief to act rightly despite the actions of others towards the environment. Although, separate constructs of attitudes, control center and intention of acting may not be enough for creating an intention to act, united under one overarching concept they become a base on which predispositions for pro-environmental behavior are formed. **1.4Reasoned/Responsible action theory**\ This theory was proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein. The Reasoned Action Theory assumes that human behavior is grounded in rational thought, and the model uses the Principle of Compatibility, which predicts that attitudes reflect behavior only to the extent that the two refer to the same valued outcome state of being (evaluative disposition). The theory stipulates that the intention of acting has a direct effect on behaviour, and that it can be predicted by attitudes. These attitudes are shaped by subjective norms and beliefs, and situational factors influence these variables' relative importance. Reasoned Action Theory accounts for times when people have good intentions, but translating intentions into behavior is thwarted due to lack in confidence or the feeling of lack of imagecontrol over the behavior \[9\]. Figure 3, illustrates these relationships graphically. In a study published in 1995, Glenda Hanna tried to verify the coherence and validity of this Ajzen and Fishbein's model. Focusing on factors preceding the adoption of ERB, proposed a model inspired by that of Ajzen and Fishbein, the model however took the influence of previous experiences with nature into account. Shown in figure 4, preceding factors, for instance, past experience and demographic factors, interact with an individual's knowledge and ability to act. This interaction contributes to developing environmentally favourable attitudes towards relevant issues that in turn lead to reinforcing the intention to act responsibly. Finally, these intentions are given concrete expression through the individual's specific actions \[10\]. image The theory of Reasoned Action is important to the extent that it provides a foundation for the understanding of why people may not act in favor of the environment, despite having good intentions either due to their lack of confidence or for the reason that they feel they lack control above the behavior. Furthermore, as asserted by Azjen and Fishbein, on the basis of different experiences and different normative beliefs, people may form different beliefs on the consequences of performing a behavior. These beliefs, in turn determine attitudes and subjective norms which then determine intention and the corresponding behavior. As illustrated in figure 5, better understanding of a behavior can be gained by tracing its determinants back to underlying beliefs, and thus influence the behavior by changing a adequate number of these beliefs. The model gives further explanations as to how good intentions for the environment are not enough in themselves to propel an action. Attitudes and subjective norms, as seen in figure 5, contribute to behavioral intentions, which can be used to predict behavior. Subjective norms in this context denote an individual's beliefs about whether their society's members?family, friends, and co-workers?believe that the individual should or should not participate in a specific behavior. The social environment has been proven to mediate the consequence of environmental attitude on environmental behaviors. Similarly, Hanna's proposition gives a foundation for the incorporation of demographic characteristics as they influence individuals' attitudes towards the environment, positively or negatively. **2. Theory of Planned Behavior** The Planned Behavior Theory was proposed by, this model of planned environmental behavior considers the intention to act and objective situational factor as direct determinants of pro-environmental behavior. The Intention itself is considered summarizing the interplay of cognitive variables which include; (knowledge of action strategies and issues, action skills) as well as personality variables (locus of control, attitudes and personal responsibility). The Planned Behavior Theory grew out of the Theory of Reasoned Action and it suggests that human behavior is influenced by three belief constructs: beliefs about consequences; expectations of others and things that may support or prevent behavior. A strong premise of the theory is that, at the conceptual level, links among influences on behavior and their effects are captured through one of the components of the model or relationships in the model. The application of this model to this study is that, the model provides further explanations into the connection between knowledge, attitude, behavioral intention and actual behavior as they influence waste management practices. Knowledge is not a specific component in the model but "attitudes are a function of beliefs"; since in this context, beliefs refer to knowledge about a specific behavior. Azjen's model therefore, allows for representation of cognitive elements through affective elements by their influence on beliefs. For instance, when a person understands that he/she has control over a certain situation, his/her behavioral intentions reflect this understanding as much as his/her beliefs as to the outcome of a certain behavior. **3. The Environmental Citizenship Model** This model was proposed by Hungerford and Volk. The Hungerford Volk Model arrays three stages of educational involvement ranging from first exposure (entry) to real involvement (empowerment), and then suggests that each stage has certain knowledge and attitude characteristics. In the Environmental Citizenship Model, Hungerford and Tomera grouped the variables that influence whether a person takes action into three categories, as evident in Figure 6. These are; - Entry-level variables?such as general sensitivity to and knowledge of the environment - Ownership variables?including in-depth knowledge, personal commitment, and resolve - Empowerment variables?such as action skills, locus of control, and intention to act This theory is vitally important because of its potential to evolve a citizenry that is touched with the feelings of the environment, who will bear its burdens to the extent of possessing skills that can enable them act in the interest of the environment. One popular environmental variable for instance is that of solid waste. This theory could become applicable such that whether it be purchase of goods or undertaking of services, one thing will be paramount in the minds of the citizens; sustainability of the environment. Similarly, when it comes to the generation, disposal and management of wastes; citizens will be most concerned with a sustainable manner of waste generation and management hinged on avoidance, reduction, reuse and recycling. In application, the Hungerford Volk Model identifies numerous variables required to be an environmentally literate citizen. Secondly, the model provides a basis for the classification and separation of environmental literacy variables according to their importance either as a major variable or a minor variable. Also, the model provides a framework/scale to identify the level of an individual in the literacy ladder, such that one can tell if a citizen is in the entry level, ownership level, empowerment level or has grown to become an environmentally responsible citizen. **4. Model of Human Interaction with the Environment** The model of human interaction with the environment was proposed by Hammond in 1995. This model describes four interactions between human activity and the environment. These are; - - **Source:** From the environment, people derive minerals, energy, food, fibers, and other natural resources of use in economic activity, thus potentially depleting these resources or degrading the biological systems (Such as soils) on which their continued production depends; - **Sink:** Natural resources are transformed by industrial activity into products (such as pesticides) and energy services that are used or disseminated and ultimately discarded or dissipated, thus creating pollution and wastes that (unless recycled) flow back into the environment; - **Life support:** The earth\'s ecosystems?especially unmanaged ecosystems?provide essential life-support services, ranging from the breakdown of organic wastes to nutrient recycling to oxygen production to the maintenance of biodiversity; as human activity expands and degrades or encroaches upon ecosystems, it can reduce the environment\'s ability to provide such services; - **Impact on human welfare:** Polluted air and water and contaminated food affect human health and welfare directly. image This model expresses how the human activities bear imprints on the environment. While this model concerns itself with the entirety of human activities, knowledge of interacting variables in the model enhances understanding of possible outcomes for different behaviours within the environment.\ \ **5. The Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Environmentalism (Paul Stern 1999)** The Value Belief Norm (VBN) Theory was proposed by Stern. The value-belief-norm (VBN) theory of environmentalism has its roots in some of the above theoretical accounts linking value theory, norm-activation theory, and the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) perspective through a causal chain of five variables leading to behavior: personal values (especially altruistic values), shown in figure 8. This chain of five variables, grouped into categories of values, beliefs, and norms; influences whether a person is likely to adopt some environmental behaviors.  VBN theory measures from other theories to account for three types of nonactivist environmentalism: these include environmental citizenship, private-sphere behavior, and policy support (willingness to sacrifice). The discovery was that the VBN cluster of variables was far stronger in predicting each behavioral indicator than the other theories, even when other theories were taken in combination. On the VBN, behavior that will be environmentally significant is dauntingly complex, both in its variety and in the causal influences on it. Stern affirmed that, while a general theory is still yet to be arrived at, enough is known to present a framework that can increase theoretical coherence. This framework will include typologies of environmentally significant behaviors and their causes and a growing set of empirical propositions about these variables. The Value Belief Norm theory, among the hitherto discussed theories, provides a more elucidative explanation of the human- environment interaction and how these interactions can affect each other, taking into consideration a relatively ample number of variables responsible for cause and action. Furthermore, the theory is well applicable to this study because: - The Value Belief Norm approach offers a good account for the causes of the general predisposition toward pro-environmental behavior. - Environmental practices depend on a broad range of causal factors, both general and behavior-specific. A general theory of environmentalism may therefore not be very useful for changing specific behaviors. - Different types of environmental practices have different causes. These causal factors may vary greatly across behaviors and individuals, hence, each target behavior should be theorized separately. In addition to the models and theories discussed above, two theories have been identified that affect environmental behavior. These are the theory of diffusion of innovation and the health belief theory. **6. Diffusion of Innovation Model (Everett Rogers 1962)** In 1962, Everett Rogers introduced the concept of innovation diffusion. The theory purports that change spreads in a population through a normal distribution of willingness to accept new ideas. At the level of the individual, behavioral adoption occurs through the stages of knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation \[19\]. Several studies have considered and applied diffusion theory. The theory was popularized with the general public in Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 bestselling book *The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference*. According to diffusion theory, behaviors are affected across a community through change agents. There are four elements that would affect a change agent's own behavior while diffusing innovation and these are: involvement; social support; response information and; intrinsic control. This model is important because of its ability to identify and assess the environmental literacy inducing information possessed by individuals, with respect to the content, sources, quality and effect; within a social context, social process and social support as upheld by this model. **7. Health Belief Theory** Beliefs help shape behavior. While enduring, beliefs are not fixed individual characteristics, but rather are acquired through primary socialization. The Health Belief Model focuses on two aspects of an individual's views of health and behavior. These views are threat perception and behavioral evaluation. Threat perception? Or perceived risk appraisal? Is founded on one's perceived susceptibility to illness and the anticipated severity of the consequences of such an illness. The Health Belief Model submits that, anytime there is an increase in an individual's assessed level of risk, there is an increase in the likelihood that the individual will adopt recommended prevention behaviors \[24\]. Behavioral evaluation, also known as coping appraisal relates to the belief that an available course of action will be beneficial and the anticipated barriers or costs of embarking on an action do not outweigh the benefits. In addition to these core components of the model, there are demographic, socio-psychological and structural variables, as well as 'cues to action'. Cues to action are the stimuli necessary to initiate or trigger engagement in the desired, healthy actions. Cues could come in the form of media campaigns or the illness of a family member, relative or close friend. The Health Belief Model has been extensively used in health education to predict behavior change and research continues to reveal validity in the model. Over time, much of the work of environmental and conservation education has been framed to address the four core components of the Health Belief Model. The concepts of issue relevance and cues to action, for example, are prevalent in the Guidelines for Excellence of the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education. Therefore, making the concepts explicit and focusing on the secondary variables may benefit environmental education. Tenets of this theory could be applied in environmental studies for prediction of behavior change, particularly a study like this one which also bears an interplay with health in terms of some negative environmental practices that can lead to the incidence/prevalence of diseases. Also, the Health Belief Theory will enable the researcher to assert if the fear of negative outcomes from bad environmental practices will propel individuals to imbibe pro-environmental practices or not. Furthermore, since pro-environmental behavior is a mixture of self-interest (e.g., pursuing a strategy that minimizes one's own health risk) and of concern for other people, the next generation, other species, or whole ecosystems (e.g. preventing air pollution that may cause risks for others' health and/or the global climate), this model can as such provide a good base for a better understanding for such cause and action. The discourse of environmental education and waste management cuts across numerous areas especially for the reason that it deals with human behavior which is in itself a complex variable. Hence several concepts, models and theories have evolved over the years to attempt an explanation into this interaction. In conclusion, an amalgamation of these models and theories can create relational paths to finding long lasting solutions to various environmental problems created by different human behaviors. For instance, the Environmental Citizenship Model (ECM), the Value Belief Norm theory and the Reasoned Action Theory could be integrated in a way that the Environmental Citizenship model provides a framework/scale to identify the level of an individual in the environmentally literacy ladder. The ECM can help determine if a citizen is in the environmental entry level, ownership level, and empowerment level; along with the likely environmental behavior a citizen would demonstrate. The ECM is insufficient since it makes no provision for the biospheric, altruistic and egoistic values of the individual, thus, the Value Belief Norm theory (VBN) can be complementary to the ECM. Furthermore, the VBN specifies the kind of pro environmental behavior, be it activism, non-activist public sphere behavior, private sphere behavior and behaviors in communities, which are not emphasized in the ECM. The Reasoned Action Theory complements the ECM and VBN by providing a better understanding that good intentions towards the environment are not enough in themselves to propel an action. It further explains that attitudes and subjective norms, contribute to behavioral intentions, which can be used to predict behavior. The models and theories reviewed will undoubtedly prove invaluable in the quest for nurturing a citizenry who will engage the environment sustainably. **References** **SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, DEMOCRACY AND THE ENVIRONMENT** The most well-known and oft-quoted definition of sustainable development comes from the Brundtland Report, *Our Common Future:* 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' 1987. This is a broad definition, and everything hinges on its interpretation. Interpreted loosely it can be used to justify almost any activity in the present so long as we leave broadly equivalent means and resources to those in the future. Interpreted more rigorously it implies that virtually all of our activities in the present should be subject to the closest possible scrutiny to ascertain their full environmental effects, and that many of them might fail the simple test of long-term sustainability **Core ideals and themes within sustainable development** 1.*Economy--environment integration:* economic decisions to have regard to their environmental consequences. 2.*Intergenerational obligation:* current decisions and practices to take account of their effect on future generations. 3.*Social justice: all* people have an equal right to an environment in which they can flourish. 4.*Environmental protection:* conservation of resources and protection of the non-human world. 5.*Quality* of life: a wider definition of human well-being beyond narrowly defined economic prosperity. 6.*Participation:* institutions to be restructured to allow all voices to be heard in decision making. **Extending democracy: a fundamental requirement of sustainable development?** If we are to move towards a more sustainable and equitable future, social, political and economic institutions will need to adapt to new ways of doing things. On even a limited conception of needs, contemporary institutions lack legitimacy in that they have been unable to provide the conditions for the general fulfilment of human well-being. Institutions at all levels are implicated in the growing disparity of wealth within and between societies, increased environmental degradation and the inability to act within the confines of the global capitalist system. Their practices and interpretations of sustainable development are seen to favour the interests of particular politically influential groups within society and are unconcerned with the experiences and needs of the disenfranchised. Nevertheless, Deliberative or discursive democratic theory directly responds to the problems of representation and authority raised earlier. The core idea behind deliberative theories is that decisions are only legitimate if they derive from a process of argument and deliberation in which all citizens have an equal right to be heard and decisions are made through the force of the better argument. Other forms of power and political influence derived from wealth or patronage should have no place. Joshua Cohen provides a useful characterisation of deliberative politics: The notion of a deliberative democracy is rooted in the intuitive ideal of a democratic association in which the justification of the terms and conditions of association proceeds through public argument and reasoning among equal citizens. Citizens in such an order share a commitment to the resolution of problems of collective choice through public reasoning, and regard their basic institutions as legitimate in so far as they establish the framework for free public deliberation.(Cohen, 1989) Hence deliberative institutional designs are participatory in that the values and needs of all groups in society form the basis of political deliberation and the legitimacy of actions and institutions is rooted in reasoned agreement. Only when citizens are able to see that their political and ethical commitments to environmental issues are genuinely taken into account will they begin to regain trust and interest in political debate and action. Deliberative democracy does not necessarily require complete decentralisation, although clearly more locally based decision-making procedures would allow a higher degree of participation. However, as has already been noted, larger-scale institutions are also necessary to tackle transboundary and global environmental problems. But these too can be deliberative, and as Dryzek argues, deliberative structures are likely to be the most effective in dealing with the 'high degrees of complexity and uncertainty, and substantial collective action problems' arising from our relations with the natural world. The contemporary world is characterised by the dispersed nature of information and knowledge and the plurality of values and commitments. Deliberative institutions are designed to respond to this. Deliberative democracy can also be seen as 'ecological' in so far as it is characterised by the notion of appropriate scale. The idea of deliberation cuts across existing political and economic boundaries because, as Dryzek argues, 'the size and scope of institutions should match the size and scope of problems' **INSTITUTIONS AND COMMON PROPERTY/POOL RESOURCES** - This section compares the effectiveness of informal and formal institutions for sustainable common property/pool resources (CPRs) management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and investigates the social, political and demographic conditions that influence the institutions' effectiveness. - In Africa, common pool resources (CPRs) management plays a crucial role in livelihood security and conservation of natural resources. Recent estimates indicated that 98 per cent of the forests, and almost all the pastures in Africa (that account for 28 per cent of the global pastures) are owned by the public. When managed in a sustainable manner, CPRs can be a key factor in poverty reduction and livelihood improvements of the rural poor. - However, degradation of CPRs is among the major threats to sustainable rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Reports indicate that degradation of agricultural land, degradation of permanent pastures and degradation of the area covered by forests and woodland was estimated to be 38 per cent, 21 per cent, and 18 per cent for the world and 65 per cent, 31 per cent, and 19 per cent for SSA. - The main causes of CPR degradation in SSA include high population growth on limited CPRs, heavy dependence of communities on CPRs for their living, frequent droughts, insecurity of land tenure, lack of conducive land use policies and armed conflicts. - According to Esenjoraf (2004), most governments and development agencies have underrated the capacity of local communities to participate effectively in CPR management programmes for decades. Some observers noted that even those projects that relied on community participation have not been particularly effective in targeting the poor. - Recently, efforts have been made in different SSA countries towards achieving sustainable CPR management, based on a much more active involvement of the CPR users. The evidence so far suggested that there is a need to better understand the roles that institutions could take part in for successful CPR management interventions. The term institution is conceptualised by different authors in different ways. Most defi nitions, however, translate the term by referring to structures, mechanisms and processes as well as rules and norms that govern human behaviour and social order. - The definition by Douglas North (1990) is used as the main point of reference, because it emphasises the differences between the informal and formal natures that institutions could have. Informal institutions are systems of rules and decision-making procedures which have evolved from endogenous sociocultural codes and give rise to social practises, assign roles to participants and guide interactions among CPR users. - According to North (1990), Formal institutions refer to the rules that guide access, control and management of CPRs, and which are backed up and enforced by the state. It is believed that both informal and formal institutions, with their remarkable differences (Table 1), could have distinct influences on human behaviour towards sustainable CPR management. **TABLE 1:** ***Overview of differences between informal and formal institutions*** **ASPECT** **INFORMAL INSTITUTION** **FORMAL INSTITUTION** --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- -------------------------------------- Nature of evolution Endogenous Exogenous Functional and structural arrangements Site specific Common at district or national level External input and material support Low High Consideration of social and cultural embeddedness High Low Ownership Local community State Enforcement and monitoring Based on agreement of community Legally by state - Scholars from different disciplines, including development studies, anthropology, political science, environmental science, rural sociology, and economics have contributed to the development of literature on institutions and their roles in sustainable CPR management. - Studying institutions that govern CPR management in SSA is important, as CPRs are vital assets for the rural poor. Moreover, most of the biodiversity in SSA resides in the CPRs. Among other CPRs, forests and grazing lands are means of livelihoods for many rural households and rural poverty reduction in SSA requires the sustainable management of these CPRs. **Informal Institutions** - There is a general consensus among studies that successful informal institutions served as mechanisms to achieve outcomes of sustainability by regulating access to and control over CPRs, managing CPRs use conflicts, sharing benefits equally among CPR users and mobilising social capital for sustainable CPR management - Informal institutions are embedded in communal structures, they allow the incorporation of the communities' mechanisms and knowledge about the sustainable management and utilisation of CPRs into the CPRs management - Informal institutions have evolved internally from the society and acted in the interest of the community, which has created a sense of commitment, ownership and responsiveness among the CPR users. This in turn contributes to the achievement of sustainability outcomes, particularly prevention of CPR degradation and improvement of the CPR conditions, in terms of quantity and quality - In many cases, rural communities in SSA have respected the institutions that are attached to their historical and cultural lives more than those introduced by external bodies, such as governments. - An informal institution based on a generation-grade system, there are traditionally selected elders who formulate rules of access and control over communal grazing lands, administer rule enforcements and ensure implementation of sanctions. Therefore, in the presence of well-established village structures, prevention of CPR degradation, exclusion of non- CPR users, and equal benefit sharing among CPR users can be achieved by informal institutions. - Additionally, religious and traditional spiritual values in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe played an important role in preventing forest loss by protecting trees around religious places. Based on religious beliefs and supernatural sanctions to their protection, rural communities in Mozambique have also managed sacred forests that were found on burial grounds, places where spirits could reside, and places for rituals (Virtanen 2002). - Likewise, a study by Alemayehu (2002) in the northern highlands of Ethiopia found that rural communities were highly committed to managing forests in and around the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches. Such commitment came from theological and biblical thoughts that churches were holy places and houses of God, where cutting of trees is considered an immoral deed. As a result, churches have a remarkable impact in protecting the remaining patches of natural forests in SSA. - In summary, the literature analysis implied that informal institutions contribute to sustainable CPR management by regulating access to CPRs at a low cost for CPR users, developing and mobilising social capital, acknowledging incorporation of local knowledge and mechanisms of the community in CPRs management and enhancing collective action among CPR users at low transaction costs. These contributions are enhanced mainly under conditions of active community participation in CPRs management, high social capital and shared beliefs among CPR users and the presence of well-established village structures. On the contrary, conflicts in the use of CPR, high population growth on limited CPRs and the growing scarcity of CPRs due to land use change, hindered the effectiveness of informal institutions in sustainable CPR management. **Formal Institutions** - In SSA, governments were criticised for establishing highly centralised and bureaucratised formal institutions instead of building upon local and decentralised decision-making mechanisms for sustainable CPR management. - Recent literature, however, underlined that decentralisation of formal institutions, that is, the deliberate and planned transfer of the responsibilities of CPR management away from the central state institutions to peripheral institutions, has acquired considerable popularity since the 1990s. According to the World Resource Institute, at least 60 developing countries have undertaken measures to decentralise CPR management. - Moreover, interest in decentralised CPR management has arisen among many bilateral and multilateral donors in SSA due to their increased belief that donor interventions in sustainable CPR management at the local government level could empower CPR users and be more effective and efficient than at the centralised state level. - Accordingly, with devolution of power, governments allow CPR users to participate more fully in shaping the rules of access, maintenance and allocation of CPRs. Furthermore, formal institutions are suitable for the implementation of new CPR management strategies, because of their ability to build on the existing bureaucratic structures and because of the authority often vested in state organisations. - Thus, local governments can reach the community at the grass root level. For instance, there is a general consensus between studies that in the northern highlands of Ethiopia, a local government structure at the community level, partly built on informal institutions was successful in mobilising users through collective action arrangements, rule-making and conflict resolution over communal forests and grazing land. - Successful decentralised formal institutions contributed to sustainable CPR management mainly by restricting access to CPRs, enforcing sanctions based on state laws and enforcing land tenure policies. At this point, the willingness and motivation of governments to devolve power at the grass root level was a requirement for effective decentralisation of formal institutions. - The meaning of power transfers in one place could be completely different in another place depending on the nature of local authority and the central state. If the authorities are democratic, then powers transferred can support democratic relations along lower government structures; if they are despotic, then despotic authorities will be strengthened'. - In summary, the literature analysis highlighted that formal institutions play an important role in implementing technologies in sustainable CPR management, although CPR scarcity caused by land use change, high population growth on limited CPRs and inadequate human and financial capacities reduced their effectiveness to achieve sustainable CPR management. - The institutional arrangements in rural SSA have determined the success or failure of efforts towards sustainable CPR management. There are six main sustainability outcomes in CPR management in SSA, namely, enforcement of rules with mutual agreement among CPR users, regulated use of CPRs, equal benefit sharing among CPR users, improved CPR conditions in terms of quantity and quality, meeting the economic needs of CPR users and prevention of CPR degradation. **Conclusions** - CPRs have been important productive resources in the livelihoods of rural communities in SSA. This makes improving the livelihoods of CPR-dependent communities with sustainable CPR management an essential component in the intervention of rural poverty reduction. In such efforts, the need for effective institutions to mobilise the community at the grass root level has been highlighted by various donors and development agencies. At this point, the need for synthesised empirical evidence which compares the effectiveness of informal and formal institutions to achieve sustainable CPR management in rural SSA becomes an important research task. - The argument of this article is that informal and formal institutions in SSA have different rates of effectiveness to achieve sustainable CPR management under the specified social, political and demographic conditions. The qualitative meta-analysis reveals that informal and formal institutions are targeted to achieve six sustainability outcomes, including enforcement of rules with a mutual agreement among CPR users, regulated use of CPRs and equal benefit sharing among CPR users. The informal institutions have contributed towards achieving most of the sustainability outcomes because they acknowledge the local knowledge of the community in the CPR management and they can be enforced at a low cost for CPR users. - Thus, informal institutions can be key mechanisms to achieve sustainable CPR management under conditions of high acceptance of informal institutions by the community, reinforcement of CPR users to manage CPRs and the presence of high social capital among CPR users. In relation to formal institutions in SSA, the decentralisation of power and responsibilities from the state to the lower government levels was a remarkable change since the 1990s. The formal institutions in most situations contributed less to sustainable CPR management due to several factors, including unclear responsibility and power sharing in the decentralisation reforms, and their low endurance to change with political conditions. Thus, they had been less effective in achieving the sustainability outcomes in CPR management than the informal institutions. However, they could make important contributions in the implementation of strategies and technologies to sustainable CPR management, if they were equipped with appropriate power and legitimacy. - Likewise, the growing heterogeneity in beliefs among users influenced formal institutions less than the informal institutions, because the formal institutions had the ability to build up on the already established bureaucratic systems and had less linkage with the local values and norms in CPR management. In conclusion, high population growth on limited CPRs and insufficient human and financial capacities are among the many conditions that affected the well-functioning of both types of institutions, to achieve sustainable CPR management. In the future, emphasis should be on enhancing the effectiveness of both types of institutions, by improving the conditions which hinder their contributions to sustainable CPR management. Moreover, policies and development interventions should strengthen the involvement of well-functioning informal institutions in decision-making so that sustainable CPR management can be achieved. **REFERENCE** Yami, M. Vogl C. and Hausera, M. (2009). **Comparing the Effectiveness of Informal and Formal Institutions in Sustainable Common Pool Resources Management in Sub-Saharan Africa.** *Conservation & Society , 2009, Vol*. 7, No. 3 (2009), pp. 153-164. Published by: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment and Wolters Kluwer: India Pvt. Ltd. **THEORY OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE** - The New Institutional Economics (NIE) assumes that it is not the supra-individual level which is important but that the level of analysis needs to be at the individual level: So for NIE and as well for other New Institutionalists the basic assumption is that the individual is rational, sometimes rationally bounded and a self-interested actor who attempts to secure his/her outcome. What is of interest in the action-choice framework of the NIE is the idea that individuals seek the best possible outcome and institutional change comes about by the aggregation of decisions taken by bounded rational actors - In her book "Making a Market", Ensminger gives analytical tools for discussing patterns of overuse of resources and of conflicts from a NIE perspective. Ensminger has worked among the Orma, a semi-sedentarized pastoralist group in Kenya (Ensminger 1992). She looks at changes which were (and still are) taking place among the Orma as a group and deals with the incentives of the different families and individuals due to market economy and the change of the political, economic and social institutions. When analysing change, Ensminger states that one has to look at the individual motivations of different actors, and to go into the social constraints and incentives, which influence what people are striving for. - There is, for Ensminger, an interaction between the *endogenous aspects* of a society in which the individuals are living, composed of *institutions, ideology, organisation and* *bargaining power* (see Diagram 1). Ideology is the way people explain the world and how they value things. Institutions, as North (1990) sees it, are the "rules of the game" in a society, the formal and informal rules, values, norms and constraints, which give incentives for individual action and reliability. Institutions enable co-operation. - Organisation refers to a body in which people organise themselves and act collectively. Bargaining power means the ability of an actor to get something they want from someone. But this is a bargaining process. The bargaining power of individuals can come from social status, wealth or the ability to manipulate ideology (Ensminger 1992). - These four endogenous spheres (ideology, institutions, organisation and bargaining power) influence one another and are themselves influenced by external factors. These *external factors* are the *social and physical environment* (changes in the socio-political structure and natural environment), *population* (demographic changes) *and technology* (technological changes), which together influence so called *"relative* *prices".* By this term Ensminger means external influenced changes of prices for goods in relation to other goods (for example rise in cattle or fish prices compared to other goods). In the case of the Orma, lowered transportation and communication costs have increased the possibilities to trade cattle due to closer markets and slaughter-houses, as well as higher prices for cattle. Ensminger speaks of relative prices because the decision taken by an individual depends on the value of a good in relation to another good. - But as well, on a bigger scale, one would incorporate in this notion changes in the political and economic environment (pacification, new urban centres and new markets, monetarisation), in state control (laws, police, administrators), in infrastructure and transport systems (lowering costs for marketing or access by other groups) etc.). Diagram 1: Modelling change (Ensminger 1992). - The demographic-environmental-technological variables influence the relative prices, which change the endogenous variables. These variables influence aspects of distribution and the individual socio-economical behaviour, which leads back to the exogenous variables by way of a feedback loop. One needs to see where the individual stands and which structures influence his/her motivation, and his/her relative bargaining power from case to case. Ensminger shows in her work, that those individuals which gain more bargaining power in a changed situation, also change the institutions, eradicate them or create new ones. In agreement with North, she does not argue that the best institutions are always selected, but rather that those that survive, are those which usually serve the people with the most bargaining power. - Ensminger shows how pastures held in common property among the Orma are being transformed into private property. Before this process of "dismantling a pastoral commons\" happened, the council of elders and the sedentary local population were unable to restrict the pastures from being used by nomadic pastoralists. It is this last aspect which is very important for research on resource management issues using New Institutionalism. - The questions to ask includes: How is bargaining power changed or newly distributed by changes in relative prices in a specific area of resource use such as in CPR situations? Is it true that users with more bargaining power stemming from their political or financial power (locally or through the governmental institutions) are able to privatise former CPRs or manipulate the institutions governing access to CPRs? Additionally, it will be interesting to see what kind of strategies those former users who lost their CPRs will pursue. According to our hypothesis, they will either go after scarcer resources, overuse, or act violently against the outsiders in order to gain more bargaining power. REFERENCE **Haller T. (2002). The Understanding of Institutions and their Link to Resource Management from a New Institutionalism Perspective. IP6 Institutional Change and Livelihood Strategies** **Working Paper No. 1.** **GOVERNANCE OF NATURAL RESOURCES** - Natural resources can bring considerable wealth to a country, contributing to livelihoods, food security and the green economy, as well as generating trade and enterprise at local, national and international levels. But with large volumes of revenue at stake, the extractives sector is also often associated with poor governance and corruption. - The large amount of rents generated by natural resource revenues provide incentives for rent-seeking, corruption and patronage, and can lead to poor and inequitable investment and spending practices. Corruption risks can occur at every step of the extractive value chain, from awarding of mineral, oil and gas rights, regulation and management of operations, revenue collection and management, to commodity trading and public spending. The governance of extractive industries is therefore critical in determining whether natural resources can benefit or harm the country. - Natural resource governance refers to "the norms, institutions and processes that determine how power and responsibilities over natural resources are exercised, how decisions are taken and how citizens -- men, women, indigenous people and local communities -- participate in and benefit from the management of natural resources" (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN website). - Several dimensions of governance are instrumental to ensure sustainable exploitation and fair distribution and to maximise the contribution of natural resources to development outcomes. Revenue and contract transparency through initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) have been promoted as a means to increase accountability in the context of natural resource revenue management. - However, transparency alone is unlikely to attain sustainable development outcomes from extractive industries. Transparency must be supported by strong regulatory frameworks, competent and strong institutions, flexible, collaborative and adaptive management practices, a solid understanding of the political economy at the local level, sound and sustainable fiscal regimes and a leadership commitment to using the revenue to promote sustainable development outcomes. **Mitigating corruption risks and improving the governance of natural resource management** - Corruption risks can arise at any point in the extractive value chain -- from the awarding of mining, oil and gas rights, extraction operations and regulation phases to revenue collection and distribution phases -- and take many forms, such as bribery of foreign officials, embezzlement, misappropriation and diversion of public funds, abuse of office, trading in influence, favouritism and extortion, bribery of domestic officials and facilitation payments. - A number of emerging trends are likely to exacerbate those risks and create new ones, including the proliferation of actors involved in resource extraction, the shift towards renewables, and the rapid growth in the number of climate change projects in contexts where corruption prevalence is high. - At the host country level, transparency initiatives are not enough to address these risks. Institutional quality and governance are important factors for mediating the negative impacts of resource abundance including a strong legal and institutional environment, an effective judiciary, functioning systems of political accountability and anti-corruption. - In particular, the laws, regulations and institutional practices need to enable the criminalisation of bribery, comprehensive disclosure of information, open competition and accountability (Natural Resource Governance Institute 2013). As the awarding of contracts and licences is an area particularly vulnerable to corruption, the regulatory framework needs to provide for fair, clear and transparent awarding procedures, access to information and contract transparency. Disclosure of information and transparent reporting practices by government agencies also contribute to building accountable systems for collecting, managing, investing and spending revenues, and translating revenue transparency into more accountability in natural resource management. - Finally, adequate safeguards, checks and quality controls need to be in place to guard against conflicts of interest and undue discretion, with oversight mechanisms such as audits, parliamentary oversight, civil society and media monitoring, as well as corporate transparency and monitoring (Natural Resource Governance Institute 2013). - Although not a panacea, multi-stakeholder processes -- involving representatives from civil society, government and the private sector -- are increasingly viewed by donors as a means to promote accountability and address corruption- related challenges in natural resource management. - Mitigating measures need to address both the supply and the demand sides of corruption, domestically and internationally, and target the incentives of both private and public actors. **REFERENCE** Chêne M. (2017). **Natural resource management transparency and governance** A literature review focusing on extractive industries. Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI). **COLLECTIVE ACTION, POWER AND DECISION MAKING** Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in (Hardin, 1968) In this section, theoretical and practical considerations will overlap in the discussion of three related issues affecting the making of environmental policy. The first is a body of issues arising from the fact that the solution to environmental problems is necessarily a collective one. As we shall see, there are a number of obstacles standing in the way of achieving collective action and it is important to understand their nature prior to considering the forms that any solution might take. Second is the issue of power. Individuals, parties and pressure groups have different access to the means of making or influencing policies and decisions. Being right about an issue is not sufficient if there is little or no opportunity to ensure that one's viewpoint will be heard. Third, even assuming that the problems of collective action and power can be solved, there still remain issues concerning the timing of any action. Is it better, in conditions of uncertainty, to act now, or to delay action until more knowledge or a better or cheaper solution is available? These issues, dealt with in this chapter in a theoretical manner, emerge out of the discussions in the preceding chapters and point forward to subsequent chapters in which questions concerning the suitability of different policy instruments and the attempts made at different political levels to solve environmental problems will be discussed. **COLLECTIVE ACTION PROBLEMS** Even where we recognise that something ought to be done, there still remain the everyday political problems of agreeing on what is to be done and how best to implement the solution. It may be hard or even impossible to get agreement on what course of action should be taken; and it is also very common to find that all those involved want something to happen but that none the less nothing happens. Why is this? Very often it is because none of us individually is prepared or able to make something happen. Either we do not want to bear the burden ourselves or we take the view that it cannot be done by just one or two people, but only by a concerted effort. We may conclude that it is not worth trying to do anything unless others are involved. Thus, recognising the existence of an environmental problem and its possible solutions constitutes only the first step towards a satisfactory resolution of the problem. A common underlying feature of the political difficulty in achieving a workable solution is the problem of collective action. In many cases, for example over-fishing in the world's oceans, we can see that although there is a general recognition of the problem it is still extremely difficult in practice to prevent it. It remains in the interest of individual countries to continue present practices even though they are aware that this will lead to a diminution of fish stocks. However, they know that if they do not take the fish someone else will. Why, then, should they be the ones to lose out? The same applies to carbon dioxide emissions. Scientific evidence concerning the danger of global warming does not automatically entail that nations or individuals will reduce their own emissions. They might recognise the problem and consider that something should be done, but they are reluctant to contribute to a solution. Thus, paradoxically, it often seems that cooperation is least likely where those involved stand to lose most. This is particularly the case at the global level. There is open access to the atmosphere and stratosphere -- they are common property, priced at zero, and are therefore likely to be overused. We all get the benefits or the disbenefits; that is, no one can be excluded from the benefits of clean air or the disbenefits of increased ultraviolet-B radiation. However, we are reluctant to assume the individual cost of ensuring the benefits or avoiding the disbenefits. Public goods of this type can only exist through cooperative action and yet cooperation in such a case is extraordinarily hard to attain and still harder to enforce. Where there is a public good which can be secured only through the cooperation of a vast number of individual actors, there is always an incentive for individuals to 'free ride' -- to benefit from the public good without contributing towards it. It might be argued that so long as the public goods concerned are provided then it does not matter whether or not there is free riding -- after all, the future of the planet is at stake. But the problem lies in the fact that where free riding is possible, the provision of the public good itself may be endangered. Our focus here is not the moral one about the ethics of free riding, but the practical one of securing sufficient agreement to act where the threat of free riding undermines the conditions for securing agreement. Collective action problems arise where an individual's contribution to the problem or to its solution is at most a tiny part of a much larger whole, and where their actions one way or another seem to make little or no difference. So, every car driver blames every other driver for the traffic jam in which they sit on the way to work; and as they sit immobile in their cars reflecting on the fact that the carbon dioxide they are emitting from their exhausts contributes to global warming, each driver sees little point in reducing their car use unless everyone else does the same. Everyone is waiting for everyone else to act first, the result being that no one acts at all. We recognise this as an everyday occurrence: the discipline known as rational choice theory extends the analysis by generalising from the assumption that individuals are self-interested, egoistic, rational, utility maximisers, to the conclusion that achieving voluntary collective action is necessarily fraught with difficulty. People are assumed to be, in general, self-interested; they are assumed to be largely concerned with themselves and their immediate family; they are assumed to be rational in the sense that they can act consistently, given the preferences they happen to have; and they are assumed to be interested in maximising welfare rather than in operating according to abstract moral principles. Rationality, then, is defined in terms of the choice of means, not the choice of ends. To be rational is to be able to choose the most effective, most efficient and most economical means of achieving what one wants, whatever that happens to be.