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Publication year : 0
Thematic : Policies
Language : English
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Although the concept of sustainable development is gaining increasing political
acknowledgement, despite the implementation of environmental policies specifically
intended to solve problems in this area, environmental degradation resulting from the
recurrent problems associated with the over-exploitation of natural resources remains an
important concern for most countries. How can this situation be explained? This article
postulates that a combination of approaches from the political sciences (in particular policy
analysis) and institutional economics would enable the identification of the most relevant
regulatory dimensions which can explain the (un)sustainable uses of resources. Based on
this starting point, it develops an innovative theoretical framework, i.e. that of the
Institutional Resource Regime (IRR).
The adopted approach facilitates the analysis of the regulatory measures and resource
management practices associated with complex and competitive heterogeneous use
situations from a perspective of sustainability. Indeed, the two dimensions of “extentâ€
and “coherence†enable the definition and categorization of the IRR of a given resource. The
extent of an IRR refers to the total number of goods and services in use that are actually
regulated by the regime at a given time, while the coherence measures the degree of
coordination of the various user-actors within the regime. One of the major contributions of
the IRR framework is its ability to describe the different configurations of regimes, both
theoretically and empirically, and to predict their effect on the sustainability of a resource
based on the hypothesis that high levels of regime extent and coherence are necessary
preconditions for sustainability.
By doing this, the IRR framework also enables the analysis of the actual use rights to the
goods and services provided by resources as the result of the political strategies of actors
who mobilize different legal provisions, which stem either from formal property rights to
resources or from policies that regulate the use and protection of these resources.
Having developed the central research hypotheses and the empirical research procedure,
we present the lessons drawn from the first campaign of field research which was mainly conducted in Switzerland from 1999. Based on the evidence from these initial findings, it is
suggested that the scope of the IRR framework could be far broader than evidenced by its
application in the case of Switzerland where it was initially developed.
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Keywords : Hesperoptenus gaskelli
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
