Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan

From a state-centric view, sub-national level of participation at the international level can be only feasible if it is an active part of national policy. In the case of Shiga prefectural government’s initiative for international lake-environmental cooperation, however, sub-national actors came to s...

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Main Author: Takao, Yasuo
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18077
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author Takao, Yasuo
author_facet Takao, Yasuo
author_sort Takao, Yasuo
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description From a state-centric view, sub-national level of participation at the international level can be only feasible if it is an active part of national policy. In the case of Shiga prefectural government’s initiative for international lake-environmental cooperation, however, sub-national actors came to see themselves as direct players in the absence of national policy. This study examines under what conditions and in what ways such sub-national level of participation takes place by conducting a case study of Shiga’s collaboration with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) over lake-environment risk reduction. It reveals the formation process of transnational governance networks involving the sub-national government that is not operating on behalf of the national government. The ultimate objective is to present a case study of working with information in the non-European Union (EU) settings toward building an analytical framework for the participation of sub-national governments in transnational environmental governance. The article finds that the process of Shiga’s participation in transnational governance will have the less chance of being duplicated effectively in other Japanese sub-national governments. Shiga’s cooperation with the UNEP was primarily driven by the ad hoc bottom-up political mobilization of the sub-national actors. In general, without institutionalized channels for sub-national governments to participate in the regional/international level, sub-national governments need to mobilize resources on such an ad hoc basis and only pioneering sub-national actors are capable of effectively engaged on unfamiliar territory with the formation process of transnational governance.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-180772017-09-13T15:44:53Z Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan Takao, Yasuo international environmental cooperation UNEP multi-level governance transnational governance sub-national government Japan From a state-centric view, sub-national level of participation at the international level can be only feasible if it is an active part of national policy. In the case of Shiga prefectural government’s initiative for international lake-environmental cooperation, however, sub-national actors came to see themselves as direct players in the absence of national policy. This study examines under what conditions and in what ways such sub-national level of participation takes place by conducting a case study of Shiga’s collaboration with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) over lake-environment risk reduction. It reveals the formation process of transnational governance networks involving the sub-national government that is not operating on behalf of the national government. The ultimate objective is to present a case study of working with information in the non-European Union (EU) settings toward building an analytical framework for the participation of sub-national governments in transnational environmental governance. The article finds that the process of Shiga’s participation in transnational governance will have the less chance of being duplicated effectively in other Japanese sub-national governments. Shiga’s cooperation with the UNEP was primarily driven by the ad hoc bottom-up political mobilization of the sub-national actors. In general, without institutionalized channels for sub-national governments to participate in the regional/international level, sub-national governments need to mobilize resources on such an ad hoc basis and only pioneering sub-national actors are capable of effectively engaged on unfamiliar territory with the formation process of transnational governance. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18077 10.1080/13549839.2012.716411 Routledge fulltext
spellingShingle international environmental cooperation
UNEP
multi-level governance
transnational governance
sub-national government
Japan
Takao, Yasuo
Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan
title Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan
title_full Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan
title_fullStr Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan
title_full_unstemmed Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan
title_short Sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of Shiga Prefecture for Lake Biwa environment in Japan
title_sort sub-national level of participation in international environmental cooperation: the role of shiga prefecture for lake biwa environment in japan
topic international environmental cooperation
UNEP
multi-level governance
transnational governance
sub-national government
Japan
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18077