Decentralization, Local Institutions, and Environmental Change: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Study of Forest Governance in Latin America

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Governments all over the world are turning to decentralization policies-the transfer of governance responsibilities from central to lower levels of government-to improve their performance as environmental managers. Yet few rigorous studies have examined the political and environmental consequences of these policies. Working with a large sample size, over-time data, and comparable measures of cause and consequence, we have designed a study to compare efforts of decentralized forest governance across as well as within the countries of Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru. To assess with precision the environmental outcomes of decentralization policies, we employ measures derived from remotely sensed, time-series images of forests. The overall purpose of this research is to provide important and robust findings to students, scholars, and policymakers concerned with public policies related to forest governance. Intellectual Merit: This study will provide new theoretical and empirical bases for understanding decentralized public policy. Our questions are of theoretical significance as they address how public policies affect societal outcomes through the intervention of human institutions at the local level. The study will simultaneously test a series of institutional hypotheses and alternative explanations related to the environmental effects of decentralized environmental policy. Because of the comparative research design, comparable data on local institutions and forest conditions across all three countries, as well as rigorous analytical methods, the project will contribute with robust findings on the effects of decentralization and the role of local politics. Broader Impact: This research is of immediate practical value as donors and governments around the world struggle to create policies that effectively govern their natural resources. It will help policymakers and policy analysts to gain a better understanding of the factors that are conducive to effective decentralized resource governance, and it will provide an innovative set of methods to monitor and evaluate the environmental impact of public policies and governance actions. We will cultivate our existing relationships with our colleagues at the governmental and academic organizations in each of the three countries and we will make it a priority to continue to share our policy-relevant findings with them. The impact of this study, however, is not limited to the governance of natural resources. Forests offer our project an accurate way to measure policy outcomes, but findings from this study will also inform scholars concerned with the governance institutions for other goods and services, such as public education and health programs.