Creating public value through collaborative environmental governance
Date
2010-11
Authors
Muller, Kobus
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Administratio Publica
Abstract
That collaborative management has become the central reality of
public problem solving is nowhere better illustrated than in the field of
environmental governance. Institutional innovations like collaborative
environmental management or co-management have flourished and
have the leading paradigm for addressing complex environmental issues
throughout the world. South Africa has followed international trends with
new collaboratives emerging at regional or local level over the last decade.
These innovations are necessitated by the need for governments to find
alternative ways to add to public value and adopt new roles to cope with
‘the limits to governance’ which threaten to overwhelm public action. It
is in this context that the trend towards decentralised units that are selfregulated
and diverse, which can act locally and are freed from many of the
standardising constraints characteristic of hierarchical government, must
be viewed and in which public leaders act as brokers leveraging resources
held by third parties instead of controlling in-house resources. It is generally
accepted that co-management entails a process and ultimately consensus building
among all stakeholders as partners to develop relationships and
knowledge which will enable them to generate sustainable solutions to new
challenges. This article reflects on the question of whether the involvement
of new actors in public decision-making improves the outcomes by
creating shared responsibility, improving transparency, better targeting
collaborative resource management to community needs and ultimately
adding to the creation of public value. The challenges of public leadership
in these processes will be highlighted as one of the critical key success
factors in achieving these desired outcomes.
Description
Keywords
Environmental management, Environmental policy, Natural resources -- Co-management
Citation
Muller, K. 2010. Creating public value through collaborative environmental governance. Administratio Publica, 18(4), 141-152