Degrees of change toward polycentric transboundary water governance: exploring the Columbia River and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project

Abstract

Complex challenges emerging in transboundary river basins reveal a need to include a range of interests and actors in governance processes. Polycentric governance is one framework that can address this need and inform adaptive and resilient governance processes in transboundary basins as linked social and ecological systems. Here, we explore whether and how nonstate actors might be contributing to a shift in governance toward polycentric systems for the Columbia River (Canada/USA) and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (Lesotho/South Africa). Using data gathered from 60 in-depth interviews, our empirical results illustrate four governance themes relevant to the emergence of polycentricity in the case study basins: authority, flexibility, coordination activities, and information sharing. Although the emergence of polycentricity is limited by existing state-centric governance regimes, these regimes show evidence that polycentric traits are supplementing existing governance systems, influencing policy processes, and introducing a range of management values.

Polycentricity in Practice: Marine Governance Transitions in Southeast Asia

“…Increasing polycentricity may reinforce rather than challenge these inequities and entrenched power relations by increasing the autonomy of existing decision-making centres and creating connections through which powerful centres can influence less powerful centres. Thus, without attention to processes of inclusion and exclusion in polycentric arrangements, there is a risk that polycentricity, of any degree, can reproduce rather than challenge marginalisation (Baltutis and Moore, 2019). Furthermore, the study shows that in the context of low-to middle-income countries, the transaction costs of financing and maintaining coordinating mechanisms and carrying out responsibilities in polycentric systems may be prohibitive.…”

“…To date, most research has focused on defining governance as either polycentric or not, analysing the structural elements and how they facilitate cooperation, and identifying the advantages of polycentric regimes compared to other types of governance (Thiel and Moser, 2018). By contrast, we take the view that there can be various degrees of polycentricity on a spectrum, and governance systems can move towards higher or lower levels of polycentricity intentionally or unintentionally (see also Baltutis and Moore, 2019;Carlisle and Gruby, 2018;Heikkila et al, 2018). Yet little research has explored how various degrees of polycentric governance emerge and evolve in different contexts, and how this affects the functioning of the governance system.…”

In our (frozen) backyard: the Eurasian Union and regional environmental governance in the Arctic

“…It is in many ways superior to a top-down approach because "a polycentric order such as the market may be more effective at facilitating the spread of new ideas and values than a hierarchical or majoritarian system which can at most conduct consecutive experiments where there is only one, or very few, options to which all must subscribe" (Pennington 2008:435). While polycentrism is not necessarily a panacea for all environmental issues, especially in situations where one layer of governance (usually the federal or national level) dominates others (see da Silveira and Richards (2013)), even in the presence of transboundary issues such as climate change, it can allow for coordination and information sharing necessary for environmental management (Baltutis and Moore 2019). Creating an integrated regional space via organizations such as the EU allows for polycentrism to flourish, even though it may not necessarily be the goal or the explicit objective (Rayner and Jordan 2013).…”

Resilient rivers and connected marine systems: a review of mutual sustainability opportunities

“…For example, water abstraction from adjacent aquifers may also have multinational dimensions, issuing another series of challenges. Polycentric-governance is a potential opportunity that can supplement or even replace existing state-based governance systems to better accommodate transboundary issues in a flexible manner (Baltutis & Moore, 2019). Improving science-based management for these systems may be challenging for migratory species that cross political boundaries and ecosystems.…”