Partners and International Organizations
(English)
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AT, BE, BG, CH,CZ, DE, FI, FR, GR, IE, IL, LT, NL, NO; PT, SE, SK, UK
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Abstract
(English)
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Although recent work on the transformation of global environmental governance has noted the emergence of new spaces of mobilization and regulation, transboundary 'environmental regionalism' - cooperation at the scale of bioregions such as mountain ranges or river basins - has attracted little scholarly attention compared to the amount of work on international regimes for climate change, biodiversity loss and degradation, and other environmental problems. Yet, cross-border cooperation, especially in Europe, is a widespread phenomenon that is both actively encouraged by the European Union (eg Water Framework Directive, Interreg) and pursued by a range of international state and non-state actors (eg United Nations Environment Programme). Some of these initiatives focus purely on environmental issues, others adopt a broader sustainable development mandate. The EcoTREG project addresses the scholarly neglect through an interdisciplinary analysis of the drivers and implications of environmental regionalism. Using a research design that builds on a new analysis and synthesis of empirical data from new and previously examined case studies of European environmental regionalism, the project's specific objectives are to examine (1) What kinds of knowledge and representations ground ecoregional initiatives promoted by national, supranational, and transnational state and non-state actors; (2) How such knowledge and representations have contributed to the development of ecoregional salience; and (3) What influence resulting transboundary practices have had on the integration of environmental goals in the broader context of sustainable development. To address these questions, the project develops a synthesis of previously disparate perspectives originating in political geography, political science, and sociology. In line with the mandate of COST Action IS0802, the project's expected results are of a theory-building nature, contributing new insights into the transnationalisation, supranationalisation and transgovernmentalisation, as well as to the segmentation and interlinking of global environmental governance.
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