Institution Building across Borders

 

When Transnational Governance Hits the Ground: Conflicts between the European Natura 2000 Regulation and Community-based Institutions for Managing Natural Resources

Liviu Mantescu (Doctoral Project)

The case of transnational natural conservation governance and community-based institutions for managing jointly owned natural resources is the point of departure for an ethnographic study of contemporary institution-building processes spanning local, regional and national borders. The interests of various societal groups gravitate around the use and management of natural resources. For some of these groups (such as local rural people) natural resources are literally vital, for others (such as companies and environmentalists) they are important for financial, political or symbolic reasons. Local rural people usually have property rights (to access and manage the land, and sometimes to alienate their use rights) ensuring their use of local natural resources which, in turn, are often based on a pluralist legal system comprising customary law as well as national, regional and local statutes. Companies or environmental organizations usually call upon national or supranational entities to obtain rights for using natural resources. Considering the influence of European governance on nature conservation reflected in the EU’s Natura 2000 legislation, the project asks: which conflicts arise and what strategies underlie actors’ efforts to define and redefine their legitimacy regarding the use and management of natural resources? Project duration: October 2008 to September 2011.