TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementing bottom-up governance through granting legal rights to rivers: a case study of the Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand
AU - Talbot-Jones, Julia
AU - Bennett, Jeff
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - In the context of water management, designing and implementing bottom-up governance regimes that are more sensitive to local knowledge and provide for the direct participation of local actors is of growing interest. Mechanisms that facilitate the successful devolution of authority to local actors remain a challenge, however. This article seeks to understand whether the ‘Rights of Nature’ approach could be a used as a mechanism for transferring decision-making responsibility to local actors. A case study of the Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand, suggests that granting legal rights to nature does help foster more bottom-up governance by using the social norms, customs, traditions, beliefs, and values of individuals within the community to shape the decision-making framework. The analysis highlights the role that local beliefs and customs play in enabling the transfer of decision-making responsibility to lower levels of an institutional arrangement when implementing the ‘Rights of Nature’ approach.
AB - In the context of water management, designing and implementing bottom-up governance regimes that are more sensitive to local knowledge and provide for the direct participation of local actors is of growing interest. Mechanisms that facilitate the successful devolution of authority to local actors remain a challenge, however. This article seeks to understand whether the ‘Rights of Nature’ approach could be a used as a mechanism for transferring decision-making responsibility to local actors. A case study of the Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand, suggests that granting legal rights to nature does help foster more bottom-up governance by using the social norms, customs, traditions, beliefs, and values of individuals within the community to shape the decision-making framework. The analysis highlights the role that local beliefs and customs play in enabling the transfer of decision-making responsibility to lower levels of an institutional arrangement when implementing the ‘Rights of Nature’ approach.
U2 - 10.1080/14486563.2022.2029775
DO - 10.1080/14486563.2022.2029775
M3 - Article
SN - 1448-6563
VL - 29
SP - 64
EP - 80
JO - Australasian Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Australasian Journal of Environmental Management
IS - 1
ER -