Abstract
In this article, the attempt is made to address regime interaction in environmental governance by emphasising human livelihood action as a causal factor in this interaction. The paper elucidates how governing human behaviour on environmental resources is a process of interaction between different environmental governance regimes. With a qualitative case study of sand winning in the Dormaa Municipality and Dormaa East district in midwestern Ghana, the article shows strategic ways landowners and sand vendors pursue and legitimise their livelihood, and in the process bring about interaction between a tax regime on sand winning and the customary property rights regime of the area. It notes therefore that regime interaction is not only caused by differences in the structure of institutions, but also through the ways humans act to pursue their livelihoods. Based on this, the paper highlights the need for consciousness towards livelihoods of people and how such livelihoods are pursued as important contexts within which regimes function and interact. In this way, environmental governance can be more responsive to the well-being of people.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Sand boys are young men who scoop sand from a piece of land onto trucks used for transporting off the sand.
My emphasis.
References
Acheson, J. M. (2006). Institutional failure in resource management. Anthropology, 35, 117–134.
Amedjoe, C. G., & Gawu, S. K. Y. (2013). A survey of mining and tailings disposal practices of selected artisanal and small scale mining companies in Ghana. Research Journal of Environmental and Earth Sciences, 5(12), 744–750.
Aromolaran, A. K. (2012). Effects of sand winning activities on land in agraian communities of Ogun State, Nigeria. Continental Journal of Agricultural Science, 6(1), 41–49.
Aryee, B. N. A., Ntibery, B. K., & Atorkui, E. (2003). Trends in the small-scale mining of precious minerals in Ghana: A perspective on its environmental impact. Journal of Cleaner Production, 11, 131–140.
Bevir, M. (2009). Key concepts in governance. London: SAGE.
Brown, K., & Westaway, E. (2011). Agency, capacity, and resilience to environmental change: Lessons from human development, well-being, and disasters. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 36, 321–342.
Busch, M. L. (2007). Overlapping institutions, forum shopping, and dispute settlement in international trade. International Organization, 61(4), 735–761.
Chambers, R. & Conway, G. R. (1991). Sustainable rural livelihoods. Practical concepts for the 21st century. IDS discussion paper 296. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
Dobson, A. (2007). Green political thought. London: Routledge.
Dolfsma, W., & Verburg, R. (2008). Structure, agency and the role of values in processes of institutional change. Journal of Economic Issues, 42(4), 1031–1054.
Donnelly, J. (1986). International human rights: A institution analysis. International Organization, 40, 599–642.
Dormaa East district assembly. (2012). Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) report. Wamfie: Dormaa East district Assembly (DEDA).
Dormaa Municipal assembly. (2012). Report on municipal medium-term development plan sustainability assessment report. Dormaa Ahenkro: Dormaa Municipal assembly.
Farole, T., Rodriguez-Pose, A., & Storper, M. (2010). Human geography and the institutions that underlie economic growth. Progress in Human Geography, 1, 58–80.
Fuchs, S. (2001). Beyond agency. Sociological Theory, 19(1), 24–40.
GebreMichael, Y., & Waters-Bayer, A. (2007). ‘Trees are our backbone: Integrating environment and local development in Tigray Region of Ethiopia’, IIED issue paper 145. London: Institute of Environment and Development.
Gehring, T. (2011). The institutional complex of trade and environment. Towards an interlocking governance structure and a division of labor. In S. Oberthür & O. S. Stokke (Eds.), Managing institutional complexity. Regime interplay and global environmental change (pp. 227–254). Massachussets: MIT Press.
Gehring, T., & Oberthür, S. (2006). Conceptual foundations of institutional interaction. In T. Gehring & S. Oberthür (Eds.), Institutional interaction in global environmental governance (pp. 19–51). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Gehring, T., & Oberthür, S. (2008). Interplay: Exploring institutional interaction. In O. Young, R. King, A. Leslie, & H. Schroeder (Eds.), Institutions and environmental change: Principal findings, applications, and research frontiers (pp. 187–224). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Guillet, D. (1998). Rethinking legal pluralism: Local law and state law in the evolution of water property rights in northwestern Spain. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(1), 42–70.
Haggard, S., & Simmons, B. (1987). Theories of international regimes. International Organization, 41, 491–517.
Higgs, P. (2010). Towards an indigenous African epistemology of community in education research. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 2414–2421.
Hilson, G. (2002). The environmental impact of small-scale gold mining in Ghana: Identifying problems and possible solutions. The Geographical Journal, 168(1), 57–72.
Hirons, M. (2011). Managing artisanal and small-scale mining in forest areas: Perspectives from a poststructural political ecology. The Geographical Journal, 177(4), 347–356.
Hodgson, G. M. (2007). Institutions and individuals: Interaction and evolution. Organization Studies, 28(1), 95–116.
Holmes, T. & Scoones, I. (2000). Participatory environmental policy processes: Experiences from North and South. IDS working paper 113. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
Jackson, W. A. (2005). Capabilities, culture and social structure. Review of Social Economy, 63(1), 101–124.
Jungcurt, S. (2008). Institutional interplay in international environmental governance. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.
Kabele, J. (2010). The agency/structure dilemma: A coordination solution. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 40(3), 314–338.
Keeley, J. & Scoones, I. (1999). Understanding environmental policy processes: A review. IDS working paper 8, 9. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
Krasner, S. D. (1982). Structural causes and regime consequences: Regimes as intervening variables. International Organization, 36, 185–205.
Laube, W. (2007). Changing natural resource regimes in northern Ghana: Actors, structures, and institutions. Berlin: LIT.
Loyal, S., & Barnes, B. (2001). Agency as a red herring in social theory. Philosophy of the Social Science, 32(4), 507–524.
McLaughlin, P., & Dietz, T. (2008). Structure, agency and environment: Toward an integrated perspective on vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 18, 99–111.
Millar, D. (2005). Reconstructing epistemologies of African sciences. In B. Haverkort & C. Reijntjes (Eds.), Moving worldviews (pp. 290–301). Leusden: Compas.
Najam, A., Mihaela, P., & Nadaa, T. (2006). Global environmental governance: A reform agenda. Manitoba: International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Nyame, F. K., & Grant, J. A. (2014). The political economy of transitory mining in Ghana: Understanding the trajectories, triumphs, and tribulations of artisanal and small-scale operators. The Extractive Industries and Society, 1, 75–85.
Oberthür, S., Dupont, C., & Matsumoto, Y. (2011). Managing policy contradictions between the Montreal and Kyoto protocols. The case of fluorinated greenhouse gases. In S. Oberthür & O. S. Stokke (Eds.), Managing institutional complexity. Regime interplay and global environmental change (pp. 115–141). Massachussets: MIT Press.
Paavola, J. (2009). From market failure paradigm to an institutional theory of environmental governance. Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment, 53(1), 87–101.
Peprah, K. (2013). Sand winning and land degradation: Perspective of indigenous sand winners of Wa, Ghana. Journal of Environment and Earth Science, 3(14), 185–195.
Pradhan, R. & Meinzen-Dick, R. S. (2002). Legal pluralism and dynamic property rights. CAPRi working paper 22. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.
Robbins, P. (2000). The practical politics of knowing: State environmental knowledge and local political economy. Economic Geography, 92(2), 126–144.
Rochester, J. M. (1986). The rise and fall of international-organization as a field of study. International Organization, 40(4), 777–813.
Sarfo-Mensah, P., & Oduro, W. (2010). Changes in beliefs and perceptions about the natural environment in the forest-savanna transitional zone of Ghana: The influence of religion. Milan: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
Scharpf, F. W. (1997). Games real actors play: Actor-centered institutionalism in policy research. London: Westview Press.
Scoones, I. (2009). Livelihoods perspectives and rural development. Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(1), 171–196.
Siegel, S. (2013). The missing ethics of mining. Ethics and International Affairs, 27(1), 3–17.
Strange, S. (1982). Cave! hic dragones: A critique of regime analysis. International Organization, 36(2), 479–496.
Swallow, B. M., & Bromley, D. W. (1995). Institutions, governance and incentives in common property regimes for African rangelands. Environmental & Resource Economics, 6, 99–118.
Underdal, A. (2008). Determining the causal significance of institutions: Accomplishment and challenges. In O. R. Young, A. K. Leslie, & H. Schroeder (Eds.), Institutions and environmental change: Principal findings, applications, and research frontiers (pp. 49–78). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
van Asselt, H. (2011). Legal and political approaches in interplay management. Dealing with the fragmentation of global climate governance. In S. Oberthür & O. S. Stokke (Eds.), Managing institutional complexity. Regime interplay and global environmental change (pp. 59–85). Massachussets: MIT Press.
van Asselt, H. (2014). The fragmentation of global climate governance: Consequences and management of regime interactions (New Horizons in Environmental and Energy Law series). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
von Benda-Beckmann, K. (1981). Forum shopping and shopping forums: Dispute pro-cessing in a Minangkabau village in West Sumatra. Journal of Legal Pluralism, 19, 117–159.
Young, O. (1989). International cooperation: Building institutions for natural resources and the environment. New York: Cornell University Press.
Young, O. R. (1996). Institutional linkages in International society: Polar perspectives. Global Governance, 2(1), 1–24.
Young, O. R. (2005). Why there is no unified theory of environmental governance? In Peter Dauvergne (Ed.), Handbook of global environmental politics (pp. 170–184). Cheltenham, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Young, O. R., King, A. L., & Schroeder, H. (2008). Institutions and environmental change: Principal findings, applications, and research frontiers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Zelli, F. (2011). Regime conflicts and their management in global environmental governance. In S. Oberthür & O. S. Stokke (Eds.), Managing institutional complexity. Regime interplay and global environmental change (pp. 199–226). Massachussets: MIT Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Narh, P. Sand winning in Dormaa as an interlocking of livelihood strategies with environmental governance regimes. Environ Dev Sustain 18, 467–480 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-015-9657-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-015-9657-7