Patterns of institutional change for sustainability in Central and Eastern European agriculture

"In this paper, the author discusses two different beliefs of how institutional change towards sustainability in agriculture and environment works: the institutional view and the evolutionary view. Both perspectives are studied in the context of restructuring the agricultural sectors and rural environments in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). The specific nature of the 'agri-environmental problem' calls for specific institutions and may require a specific building process. Case study results are presented showing the effect of EU accession on institutional change towards sustainability in several CEECs. The results provide evidence that the quality of institutional change required for sustainability goes beyond the building of legislative frameworks and requires more time than was envisaged by the roadmap to accession. Finally, the paper explores the role of social and human capital stocks in rural areas of CEECs outlining a number of differences in environmental governance in the agricultural sectors between various CEECs." (author's abstract

Patterns of institutional change for sustainability in Central and Eastern European agriculture

In this paper, the author discusses two different beliefs of how institutional change towards sustainability in agriculture and environment works: the institutional view and the evolutionary view. Both perspectives are studied in the context of restructuring the agricultural sectors and rural environments in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). The specific nature of the agri-environmental problem calls for specific institutions and may require a specific building process. Case study results are presented showing the effect of EU accession on institutional change towards sustainability in several CEECs. The results provide evidence that the quality of institutional change required for sustainability goes beyond the building of legislative frameworks and requires more time than was envisaged by the roadmap to accession. Finally, the paper explores the role of social and human capital stocks in rural areas of CEECs outlining a number of differences in environmental governance in the agricultural sectors between various CEECs

The evolution of institutions in transition

"This paper aims at explaining the role and importance of the evolution of institutions for sustainable agri-environments during the transition process by referring to examples of agri-environmental problems faced in Central and Eastern European countries. It is often stated that the replacement of institutional structures in post socialist countries would bring a unique opportunity to implement new policies and institutions needed to ensure that economic growth is environmentally sustainable. This idea stems from the assumption that the breakdown of the socialist system resembles that (of the Schumpeterian type) of creative destruction - a process that incessantly revolutionizes economic structures from within. However, not all kinds of institutions, especially at local level, can simply be implemented, and even more, not incessantly. Instead, they evolve as a response to ecosystem and social system characteristics, and this is a rather slow process. A central question therefore is whether the required institutional arrangements for achieving sustainability in the area of agri-environmental resource management can be built more easily in periods of transition as they fill institutional gaps, or whether processes of transition make institution building a more difficult and far more time consuming task than previously thought. Above all, we want to find out, how these two processes of institution building at different scales affect the sustainable management of resources such as water and biodiversity in agriculture? It will become clear that the agri-environmental problem areas faced during transition are complex and dynamic and require adequate institutions both by political design and from the grassroots, to be developed by the respective actors involved. Transition from centrally planned to pluralistic systems has to be considered as a particular and in some respect non-typical process of institutional change. Popular theories of institutional change do not necessarily apply. The privatisation experience from many CEE countries will serve as an example. Finally, we will provide some examples of missing or insufficient interaction between political actors or agencies and people in CEE countries. Substantial investments into social and human capital, particularly regarding informal institutions are needed for institutions of sustainability to evolve." (author's abstract)Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Rolle und Bedeutung von Institutionen zur Unterstützung nachhaltiger umweltschonender Landwirtschaft während des Transformationsprozess in den zentral- und osteuropäischen Ländern unter Einbeziehung beispielhafter Probleme aus dem landwirtschaftlichen umweltbezogenen Bereich. Es wird häufig behauptet, dass die Ersetzung institutioneller Strukturen in den ehemaligen sozialistischen Ländern eine einzigartige Gelegenheit bieten würde, eine neue Politik und neue Institutionen zu implementieren, die benötigt werden, um das Wirtschaftswachstum umweltgerecht abzusichern. Diese Idee basiert auf der Annahme, dass der Zusammenbruch des sozialistischen Systems einer kreativen Zerstörung ähnelt, einem Prozess, der unaufhörlich Wirtschaftsstrukturen von innen revolutioniert. Tatsache ist jedoch, dass nicht alle Arten von Institutionen implementiert werden können, vor allem nicht auf lokaler Ebene. Stattdessen entwickeln sie sich als Antwort auf das Ökosystem und das soziale System, und zwar ziemlich langsam. Eine zentrale Frage ist folglich, ob die Herausbildung von Institutionen zur Erreichung von Nachhaltigkeit im landwirtschaftlich-umweltbezogenen Bereich in Zeiten der Transformation leichter vonstatten gehen kann, oder ob es sich dabei um einen Prozess handelt, der viel schwieriger und zeitraubender ist, als bisher angenommen. Die Autoren gehen der Frage nach, wie diese beiden Prozesse des 'institution building' das nachhaltige Ressourcenmanagement beeinflussen. Es wird deutlich, dass die landwirtschaftlich-umweltbezogenen Probleme während der Transformation komplex und dynamisch sind und adäquate Institutionen erfordern. (ICDÜbers

Irrigation and Water Regulation Systems in Transition: The Case of Bulgaria in Comparison with Latvia, East Germany and Romania

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The evolution of institutions in transition

This paper aims at explaining the role and importance of the evolution of institutions for sustainable agri-environments during the transition process by referring to examples of agri-environmental problems faced in Central and Eastern European countries. It is often stated that the replacement of institutional structures in post socialist countries would bring a unique opportunity to implement new policies and institutions needed to ensure that economic growth is environmentally sustainable. This idea stems from the assumption that the breakdown of the socialist system resembles that (of the Schumpeterian1 type) of creative destruction - a process that incessantly revolutionizes economic structures from within. However, not all kinds of institutions, especially at local level, can simply be implemented, and even more, not incessantly. Instead, they evolve as a response to ecosystem and social system characteristics, and this is a rather slow process. A central question therefore is whether the required institutional arrangements for achieving sustainability in the area of agrienvironmental resource management can be built more easily in periods of transition as they fill institutional gaps, or whether processes of transition make institution building a more difficult and far more time consuming task than previously thought. Above all, we want to find out, how these two processes of institution building at different scales affect the sustainable management of resources such as water and biodiversity in agriculture? It will become clear that the agrienvironmental problem areas faced during transition are complex and dynamic and require adequate institutions both by political design and from the grassroots, to be developed by the respective actors involved. Transition from centrally planned to pluralistic systems has to be considered as a particular and in some respect non-typical process of institutional change. Popular theories of institutional change do not necessarily apply. The privatisation experience from many CEE countries will serve as an example. Finally, we will provide some examples of missing or insufficient interaction between political actors or agencies and people in CEE countries. Substantial investments into social and human capital, particularly regarding informal institutions are needed for institutions of sustainability to evolve

Beyond economic efficiency in biodiversity conservation

This paper aims at explaining the importance of the democracy stance as compared to the efficiency stance in order to deal with complexity in biodiversity conservation. While the efficiency stance refers to the realm of relatively simple systems, individual rationality, and instrumental values, the complexity stance transcends these boundaries into the realm of complex systems, social rationality and intrinsic values. We argue that the task of biodiversity conservation is impossible to achieve in economically efficient ways, because (a) it is impossible to come to a (fully informed) complete account of all values, not only because it is costly but also because (b) moral values are involved which (by their nature) exclude themselves from being accounted for, and (c) biodiversity conservation can be regarded as an end in itself instead of only a means towards an end. The point we raise is, that in order to cope with biodiversity conservation we need to apply valuation methods which are from the complexity stance, take better account of intrinsic values and feelings, as well as consider social rationality. Economic valuation methods are themselves 'value articulating institutions' and as biodiversity conservation confronts us with the complexity of social-ecological systems, the choice of the 'value articulating institutions' needs to consider their ability to capture instrumental and intrinsic values of biodiversity. We demonstrate a method, based on cybernetics, which is able to take into account the issues raised

Ex-ante technology assessment for inclusive poverty reduction and sustainable productivity growth in agriculture (TIGA) : A manual

The manual presented here is based on the experience and draw out the collected lessons learnt with regard to the design and implementation of the Ex-ante technology assessment and farm household segmentation for inclusive poverty reduction and sustainable productivity growth in agriculture (TIGA) project in the South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. As such, this builds on and expands existing guidelines and documentation for agricultural technology assessment. It adds the perspective of technology assessment of including the cross section of segments of the rural poor characterized by varying degrees of overlapping human capabilities and agro-ecological potentials rather than the technology-driven approaches that tend to favor those with better adoption capabilities. The manual also gives the reader a well-documented experience of bottom-up approach for technology assessment. The ultimate goal of the manual is to contribute to the inclusion of all poor small farming communities in agricultural technology innovations by presenting the improved way of understanding of the interactions between technology needs, farming systems, ecological resources and poverty characteristics in the different segments of the poor, and to link these insights with productivity enhancing technologies in order to guide action to overcome current barriers to technology access and adoption

Marginality: Addressing the Nexus of Poverty, Exclusion and Ecology

Environment, general; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Environmental Economics; Social Polic

Addressing the nexus challenge of climate change, human health, and urban sustainability

This meeting report summarises the core discussion points and essential outcomes of the Lisbon Expert Meeting, which took place at the Portuguese Academy of Sciences during 19-20 September 2018. The Lisbon Expert Meeting was an in-depth inquiry of 15 internationally-known scientists and policy experts on the complex interconnection of uncertain climate change impacts, urban health, and well-being problems and sustainable development, as well as on adaptation strategies and challenges. The meeting report contains three parts: 1) general framing of contexts, 2) review of climate change-health policies, and 3) systems sciences unraveling the nexus between climate change and health, and proposed sciencepolicy pathways. Among these parts, we further organised Part 3 according to the four thematic components discussed at the meeting by the form of panel presentations and Q&A. The first thematic part presents the nexus challenge of climate change impacts on health and the implications on urban sustainability. The second thematic part introduces integrated approaches to urban health provision and management. The third thematic part proposes a “health-centered” science-policy interface. Lastly, the fourth thematic part explores ways to better coordinate the implementation of health policies within the context of global climate change impacts. In this report, we also propose policy recommendations following each thematic discussion.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio