Municipalities in Multi-Level Governance: Outcomes of Policy-Making on Land Cover Change in the Brazilian Amazon

Multi-level governance arrangements have played a key role in recent dramatic reductions in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, but why have they been more effective in some municipalities than others? In this study, we contribute to this understanding by analyzing the governance arrangements and the outcomes of environmental policy-making in six municipalities in the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon. We understand the municipal-level to be an essential scale for translating policy-making from higher levels to on-the-ground decision-makers. The six cases selected for this study include contiguous municipalities that had differing outcomes from responses to decentralization of anti-deforestation policies initiated in 2008. We employ satellite imagery analysis of deforestation dynamics at the property level between 2004 and 2014, and match these data with municipal policies carried out over the same time period, such as implementation of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR, from the Portuguese), realization of pacts between multiple stakeholders for stopping deforestation, and municipal organizational development for monitoring, verifying, and sanctioning illegal deforestation. We also map the different actors and organizations operating at multiple levels for promoting anti-deforestation policies in the selected municipalities in order to assess how their involvement affected municipal policies and capacities, and ultimately influence landowners' decision over their land use. By looking at how municipal policies differentially affect rural actors and how external actors and organizations influence municipal policies, we show the role played by municipal policies within multilevel governance arrangements and the conditions under which these arrangements are more likely to work.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Viana, Cecilia Fadigas, Coudel, Emilie, Toni, Fabiano
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	AAG
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/582378/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/582378/7/Municipalities%20to%20combat%20deforestation_abstract.pdf
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