Authority of Second-Tier Governments to Reduce Deforestation in 30 Tropical Countries

Busch, Jonah; Amarjargal, Oyut

doi:10.3389/ffgc.2020.00001

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Coordination between levels of government is the key to matching the scale associated with different challenges including environmental regularization and land tenure (Reydon et al, 2019). The authorities of subnational governments to address deforestation vary from country to country; Brazil is one of the countries where second-tier subnational governments (i.e., states) have the greatest authority to reduce deforestation (Busch and Amarjargal, 2020). Interestingly, the emergence of the local initiatives in PGM and SFX was in direct response to the absence of state-level action in reply to federal command-andcontrol actions.…”

Section: How Should Local Jurisdictional Approaches Be Aligned With Omentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lessons for Jurisdictional Approaches From Municipal-Level Initiatives to Halt Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Brandão

Piketty

Poccard-Chapuis³

et al. 2020

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Jurisdictional approaches have become popular in international forums as promising strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and to guarantee sustainable commodity supply. Yet, despite their growing popularity, up to now, there is little consensus on how such approaches should move forward in specific jurisdictions. In this paper we examine two contrasting municipal-level case studies in the eastern Amazonian state of Pará where jurisdiction-wide efforts are underway to reduce deforestation. By developing detailed forest governance intervention timelines since 2005, conducting semi-structured interviews with key informants, analyzing municipal deforestation trends, plus extensive examination of project reports, governmental documents and other secondary sources, this paper performs two main analyses. First, it characterizes the processes in each municipality by linking context and forest governance intervention timelines to deforestation trends. Second it provides a systematic comparison of processes based on (1) the role of the government, (2) multi-stakeholder participation and inclusiveness, (3) adaptive management, (4) horizontal and vertical coordination, and (5) alignment of public and private (supply-chain) initiatives. In so doing, this article answers some of the imperative questions on how to implement and improve jurisdictional approaches aimed at halting deforestation in the tropics.

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Section: How Should Local Jurisdictional Approaches Be Aligned With Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are multiple scales where jurisdictional approaches may occurnational, subnational, and local. A major recent focus has been on the subnational level, especially in countries where subnational jurisdictions have broad authority to reduce deforestation (Busch and Amarjargal, 2020). Jurisdictional approaches also have different foci.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons for Jurisdictional Approaches From Municipal-Level Initiatives to Halt Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Brandão

Piketty

Poccard-Chapuis³

et al. 2020

Front. For. Glob. Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…More likely, low levels of autonomy of subnational governments in the region and associated with limited local capacity, and resources for climate action reduce incentives for participation (Eckersley, 2017). A recent study suggests that, overall, Asian and Latin American 2 nd tier governments have higher levels of autonomy, and consequently more authority regarding REDD+, than African ones (Busch and Amarjargal, 2020). Further, at present, the GCF is missing an African regional leader able to facilitate recruitment through policy diffusion processes.…”

Section: Uneven Political Geography: Trade-offs Between Input and Outmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building authority and legitimacy in transnational climate change governance: Evidence from the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force

Gregorio

Massarella

Schroeder

et al. 2020

Global Environmental Change

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Transnational climate change initiatives have increased in number and relevance within the global climate change regime. Despite being largely welcomed, there are concerns about their ability to deliver ambitious climate action and about their democratic legitimacy. This paper disentangles the nature of both authority and legitimacy of a specific form of transnational networks, transgovernmental networks of subnational governments. It then investigates how a major transgovernmental initiative focusing on tropical forests, the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force, attempts to command authority and to build and maintain its legitimacy. The paper illustrates the particular challenges faced by initiatives formed primarily by jurisdictions from the Global South. Three major trade-offs related to authority and legitimacy dimensions are identified: first, the difficulty of balancing the need for increased representation with performance on ambitious climate goals; second, the need to deliver effectiveness while ensuring transparency of governance processes; and third, the limited ability to leverage formal authority of members to deliver climate action in local jurisdictions, while depending on external funds from the Global North.

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“…States in India are 'powerful actors' that are 'actively shaping policies and programs,' including through decisions related to development projects, encroachment on forest lands, India Forest Service personnel, and forest management (Chaturvedi 2016). States in India have more authority to reduce deforestation than secondtier governments in many other tropical countries (Busch and Amarjargal 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did India’s ecological fiscal transfers incentivize state governments to increase their forestry budgets?

Busch

Kapur

Mukherjee

2020

Environ. Res. Commun.

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Ecological fiscal transfers (EFTs) involve higher levels of government distributing funds to lower levels of government based on ecological indicators. In 2015 India established the world's largest system of EFTs when its 14th Finance Commission added forest cover to the formula that determines the amount of tax revenue the Union government distributes annually to each state. Here we gather stateby-state data on forestry budgets to assess whether India's EFTs incentivized states to protect and restore forests as evidenced by increases to their forestry budgets. We find that states increased their forestry budgets by 19% in absolute terms in the three years after the introduction of EFTs relative to the three years prior. However, forestry budgets as a share of overall state budgets shrank by 16% after the introduction of EFTs, from 0.99% to 0.83%. Furthermore, states that obtained a larger share of their budget from EFTs did not disproportionately increase their forestry budget. Taken together, this suggests the introduction of EFTs has not yet led states to increase their forestry budgets. We develop a causal chain that suggests two reasons this could be: (1) low expectations on the part of state government officials that EFTs would continue in such a way that increases in forest cover would be rewarded with increases in revenue; and/or (2) insufficient motivation to increase forestry budgets as an investment in future revenue from EFTs. The 15th Finance Commission has plausibly addressed low expectations by keeping forests in the tax revenue distribution formula for another period and updating the year for which forest cover is measured from 2013 to 2017. It has plausibly addressed insufficient motivation by increasing the weight on forests in the formula from 7.5% to 10%. Future research can show whether these modified EFTs incentivize states to increase forest protection and restoration.

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Authority of Second-Tier Governments to Reduce Deforestation in 30 Tropical Countries

Cited by 34 publications

References 33 publications

Lessons for Jurisdictional Approaches From Municipal-Level Initiatives to Halt Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Lessons for Jurisdictional Approaches From Municipal-Level Initiatives to Halt Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Building authority and legitimacy in transnational climate change governance: Evidence from the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force

Did India’s ecological fiscal transfers incentivize state governments to increase their forestry budgets?

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