Democratic decentralization of environmental governance: insights from catchment management in Australia

Abstract

Decentralization involves the formal transfer of powers from a central government to actors and institutions at lower levels in a political-administrative and territory hierarchy (e.g., Agrawal and Ribot, 1999; Ribot, 2002; Larson and Ribot, 2004). It includes different types of policy reforms aiming to shift powers from centralized to more localized institutions, such as sub-national units of administration, local government, the civil society and/or local user groups (Meinzen-Dick and Knox, 2001).

In Australia, approaches to environmental governance emphasizing participatory and decentralized forms of decision-making have been experienced over the last 15 years or so. Currently, such approaches provide the basis for considerable investment in natural resource management across the country (CoA, 2002). These governance “experiments” have been taking place in an institutional context that has been changing frequently and rapidly, as many states have, particularly in recent years, reviewed legislative and administrative arrangements for natural resource management (Pannell et al., 2004).