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This paper expands the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) by employing an exploratory case study approach to examine the construction of narratives temporally. A large‐N Twitter dataset concerning the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase‐Escalante monuments controversy is utilized to examine the question: how does the use of narrative strategies change over time? Through the application of change‐point analysis, we determine time points of significant shifts towards use of the devil‐angel shift, scope of the conflict, and causal mechanism strategies. Overall, we find that organizations do not vary their use of narrative strategies over the course of a policy conflict but instead demonstrate discrete changes in response to certain policy events. Based on our findings, we conclude with suggestions for refining and expanding NPF hypotheses. Specifically, we recommend a more contextual analysis of shifts in narrative strategy use in response to specific events over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy scholars have increasingly focused on collaborative and competitive relationships between stakeholder coalitions. The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) in particular has directed scholarly attention toward such relationships. The ACF defines advocacy coalitions as groups of actors who share beliefs and coordinate their action. However, previous research has been inconsistent in defining and measuring coalitions, which has hampered comparative research and theory building. We present a method called the Advocacy Coalition Index, which measures belief similarity and the coordination of action in a manner that makes it possible to assess the extent to which advocacy coalitions are found in policy subsystems, whether subgroups resemble coalitions, and how individual actors contribute to coalition formation. The index provides a standardized method for identifying coalitions that can be applied to comparative research. To illustrate the effectiveness of the index, we analyze two climate change policy subsystems, namely Finland and Sweden, which have been shown to differ in terms of the association of belief similarity with coordination. We demonstrate that the index performs well in identifying the different types of subsystems, coalitions, and actors that contribute the most to coalition formation, as well as those involved in cross‐coalition brokerage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ideas about how narratives focus attention, this paper develops a "narrative policy image" using the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and Narrative Policy Framework explanations of the policy process. The concept of a narrative policy image is applied to test partisan expectations about presidential environmental policy stories in State of the Union Addresses over 73 years. This research finds that Democratic stories focus on problems like climate change and victims and Republican stories emphasize solutions like new programs and upholding the status quo. These trends point to potential story types and suggest a narrative policy image, including both narrative components and valence, may be a useful concept for understanding narrative attention in macropolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure development/industrialization in an area without proper environmental assessment is well known. Governments have implemented environmental impact assessment (EIA) policies to avoid harming the environment. Implementing EIA policy in coordination with local government agencies requires an understanding of environmental information flow. Before and after data sets on environmental change are critical for pro‐environment industry operation. Is it possible to synchronies EIA and Environmental information Centre (EIC) in a way that reduces environmental pollution while increasing entropy at all levels of communication? How does EIC affect EIA regimes? How to close environmental data? How should environmental data be used in EIA? A robust environment information policy (EIP) must address these issues in pro‐environmental development projects and industrial operations (EIP). However, access to information is still limited in India. Lack of quality and complete information makes it difficult for regulators to evaluate large‐scale infrastructure/industry development data submitted by proponents. Proposers and consultants should be given specific instructions on how to communicate with all stakeholders in the project impact zone. Additional information within the broad category of "Information" is sought. As a result, the researchers sought to gather data for the Environment Information System (EIS). Climate change and grassroots communication are two areas being studied. Information is critical in environmental matters. Despite public opinion, authorities ignore environmental planning. The policy decision cycle should priorities data. To better communicate about the environment, the author proposes a proper chain and system of information (Information Modeling). The reporting agencies strictly adhere to the EIA's policy. After their purpose is served, these reports are useless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As climate change continues to increase both the frequency and intensity of environmental hazards and disasters, the need for a cohesive national mitigation policy grows. As the environmental federalism scholarship indicates, the inherent tension in federal, state, and local policy implementation highlights that despite a national need, environmental quality is a local public good. To complicate matters, there is disagreement about the optimal level of decision‐making regarding the adoption and implementation of environmental policy. This study addresses this gap by considering the role of policy ambiguity and conflict in policy implementation. The analysis relies on primary qualitative data collected from open‐ended interviews with 22 local government officials in 12 municipalities following Hurricane Harvey. Through the lens of policy ambiguity and conflict, we find confirmatory support for the idea that policies with less ambiguous goals are more likely to be implemented. Furthermore, we find that policy conflict arises when local governments perceive there is little for the community to gain by implementing the federal program. Thus, the level of protection afforded to citizens varies greatly between communities and is influenced heavily by politics. This research supports the Ambiguity‐Conflict Model of policy implementation, an oft‐cited but rarely tested theoretical framework for assessing the intergovernmental politics of policy implementation. It also demonstrates the barriers to local implementation of federal environmental policy in a nested system of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's national environmental legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) has been criticized for failing to mitigate the national extinction crisis. Under the EPBC Act, projects anticipated to have a significant impact on protected matters must be referred to the Australian Government for assessment. Actions deemed unlikely to have a significant impact are granted permission to proceed, while actions expected to have a significant impact must undergo further assessment. We spatially analyzed potential habitat loss deemed either significant or non‐significant in Queensland and New South Wales for threatened species, migratory species, and threatened ecological communities between 2000 and 2015. Impact scores were developed to quantify and compare the value of woody vegetation cleared under each referral determination. We found no statistically significant difference between median impact scores for vegetation removed under significant and non‐significant determinations. Over half (63%) of all scored losses occurred under actions deemed non‐significant, with certain species disproportionately impacted. The tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus) and grey‐headed flying‐fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) lost 82% and 72% of their total referred potential habitat under non‐significant actions, respectively. Our results indicate that the application of the EPBC Act is failing to adequately conserve the protected matters of this investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest for answers to global policy changes has engaged many a policy researcher's agenda. This has led to the adoption and application of various theoretical perspectives in a bid to explain the complex policy change process for better understanding. However, the highly contested reasons for policy change underpinned by context‐specific variables in the extant literature demand more empirically supported studies. This article responds by adopting the multiple streams framework (MSF) to explain and deepen understanding of why policies change in a developing African country, specifically Ghana, with the forest and wildlife policy (FWP) as a case study. Adopting a qualitative case study design, the study empirically supports the MSF assumption that the effective coupling of the three streams of problem, policy, and politics through a window of opportunity was crucial in Ghana's FWP change in 2012. This study attempts to balance practice and theory. Related Articles: Brant, Hanna K., Nathan Myers, and Katherine L. Runge. 2017. "Promotion, Protection, and Entrepreneurship: Stakeholder Participation and Policy Change in the 21st Century Cures Initiative." Politics & Policy 45(3): 372–404. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12201. Dunning, Kelly Heber. 2021. "Unlikely Conservation Policy Making in a Polarized Congress: A Multiple Streams Analysis of 'America's Most Successful Conservation Program.'" Politics & Policy 50: 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12448. Tanaka, Yugo, Andrew Chapman, Tetsuo Tezuka, and Shigeki Sakurai. 2020. "Multiple Streams and Power Sector Policy Change: Evidence from the Feed‐in Tariff Policy Process in Japan." Politics & Policy 48(3): 464–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12357. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy forums bring individual actors together to deliberate on specific policy issues. The literature found that actors' perceptions of forum performance depend on both their individual characteristics (goals, expertise, resources) and forum processes (trust, learning, beliefs). However, we do not know how different combinations of actors, embodying different types of knowledge or expertise, relate to forum performance. We distinguish between policy and institutional specialization. Forum participants can be policy specialists, who are experts on the policy issue, and/or institutional specialists, who are expert of the policy process in the governance system. The former excel at problem definition and facilitation; the latter enable inclusivity. We surmise that higher proportions of specialized actors positively affect the group's perceptions of forum performance in terms of both process and outcomes, particularly in high conflict forums. We test this claim using survey data on 55 policy forums working on adaptation to sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area, collected in summer 2018. The empirical findings lend support to our hypothesis as concerns policy specialists but not as concerns institutional specialists. Further research should devote more effort to study how actor composition affects forum performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on insights from studies of environmental politics, the policy process, and the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), this study examines the Trump administration's influence on how the United States is characterized by Chinese environmental policy scholars. Using an NPF approach and policy narratives on the topic of global environmental governance, our empirical results suggest that the Trump administration has shifted Chinese environmental policy scholars' constructed role of the US but not China's relationship with the US in these narratives. Specifically, there was a widening polarization of the US being portrayed as hero and villain over the sampled time frame (2010–2020) yet the portrayal of the US as an ally remained stable. These portrayals of the US also do not vary across narrators' knowledge and professional backgrounds. Our findings help confirm previous arguments that the Trump Administration's influence on environmental policy and politics in China is more rhetorical than substantive, and indicate that, despite the escalating rivalry between the two countries, Chinese environmental policy scholars continue viewing the US as an ally in global environmental governance. The findings likewise provide insights for rebuilding international climate cooperation and global climate governance leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Brazil publicly committed to reduce deforestation in Amazonia at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), the Brazilian parliament is moving toward weakening environmental laws. Deforestation rates continue ascending, reaching in 2021 the highest value since 2006 (13,235 km2). To overcome this paradox, strategies to curb deforestation are mandatory. The current strategy, "Plano Amazônia 21/22," prioritizes law enforcement actions to curb illegal deforestation in only 11 Amazonian municipalities. Here, we show that this prioritization is likely to be insufficient since these municipalities account for just 37% of the current deforestation rate. This strategy may also be undermined by the leakage of deforestation actions to unmonitored municipalities. Using a set of spatially explicit datasets integrated into a deforestation‐prediction modeling approach, we propose a science‐based alternative method for ranking deforestation hotspots to be prioritized by law enforcement actions. Our prioritization method accounts for more than 60% of the deforestation, detecting larger deforested areas in both private and public lands, while covering 27% less territory than "Plano Amazônia 21/22." Optimizing the detection of priority areas for curbing deforestation, as proposed here, is the first step to reducing deforestation rates and comply with the Brazilian legal commitment of 3925 km2 year−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, wildfires in the Amazon renewed international concern about Brazilian environmental policy, led by Jair Bolsonaro. As one of the biggest repositories of the world's biodiversity, the Amazon Rainforest has been a source of concern in global environmental governance. Given this salience, one would expect that domestic governance would be highly permeated by professionals with international circulation and that transnational ties would be a central target of Bolsonaro's populist nationalistic perspective. In this article, I seek to understand whether and how professionals involved in policymaking in the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment are connected to national and international organizations, by analyzing the networks of career paths of high‐ranking staff in the Rousseff, Temer and Bolsonaro administrations. The data show a consistently low percentage of ties between professionals and international organizations. However, the types of international experience and knowledge that are deemed important shifted significantly under Bolsonaro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of unprecedented ecological crises, a consensus has been consolidated in the global community to fundamentally alter current modes of economic growth and patterns of resource allocation, in pursuit of a low‐carbon transition. Environmental governance plays an important instrumental role in this global agenda. The policy mix framework has emerged as a holistic approach to the design and analysis of environmental policies. A policy mix encompasses different dimensions, featuring not only the horizontality but also the verticality and temporality of interactions. Nevertheless, existing literature on environmental policy mixes focuses on the horizontal interactions, and very few studies have systematically explored the vertical and temporal interactions of policy mixes. Drawing upon the case of agricultural residue recycling in China, this study captures the evolution of both the narrative temporality and the verticality of environmental policy mixes. More importantly, the changing political narratives around residue recycling exert an intangible but significant influence on the vertical interactions between multilevel governments in both policy making and policy implementation, in which institutional and organizational arrangements constitute a key operational and mediating mechanism to manage vertical coordination. The study finally proposes three avenues for future research on environmental policy mixes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring the progress parties have made toward meeting global biodiversity targets requires appropriate indicators. The recognition of invasive alien species (IAS) as a biodiversity threat has led to the development of specific targets aiming at reducing their prevalence and impact. However, indicators for adequately monitoring and reporting on the status of biological invasions have been slow to emerge, with those that exist being arguably insufficient. We performed a systematic review of the peer‐reviewed literature to assess the adequacy of existing IAS indicators against a range of policy‐relevant and scientifically valid properties. We found that very few indicators have most of the desirable properties and that existing indicators are unevenly spread across the components of the Driver‐Pressure‐State‐Response and Theory of Change frameworks. We provide three possible reasons for this: (i) inadequate attention paid to the requirements of an effective IAS indicator, (ii) insufficient data required to populate and inform policy‐relevant, scientifically robust indicators, or (iii) deficient investment in the development and maintenance of IAS indicators. This review includes an analysis of where current inadequacies in IAS indicators exist and provides a roadmap for the future development of indicators capable of measuring progress made toward mitigating and halting biological invasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation and environmental policies are increasingly criticized for marginalizing peoples, entities and practices. Typically overlooked, yet critical in their potential for marginalization and exclusion, are the assumptions that underlie a policy's classifications, categorizations and descriptions of reality. These ontological assumptions come to define which interventions are appropriate, or even possible, and for whom. We seek to illuminate the importance of ontology to policy‐making and implementation processes. We do so via an ontological analysis of selected elements of an international policy, the Convention on Biological Diversity, to show how language, logic, rights and responsibilities expressed and inferred within the policy could marginalize different entities and practices. The analysis demonstrates how a policy represents reality and thereby intervenes in the world, with consequences for alternative ontologies, peoples, and knowledges. To support ontological accountability, we offer a three‐stage conceptual framework to: deconstruct the language used in describing reality; make sense of how language and logic entangle rights and responsibilities; and enable transformation by becoming accountable to diverse practices of reality. Enabling the coexistence and practice of multiple ontologies is not easy or simple, but it is fundamental for transforming to inclusive policy‐making, implementation, and self‐determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that citizens' support for environmental policies depends on their economic interest and the community that one lives in, has been debated extensively in the environmental attitudes literature. However, this literature has not differentiated between separate policy dimensions that concern measures that affect specific groups in different ways. This paper differentiates between a nature/agriculture dimension that divides those who prioritize the agrarian interest from those who prioritize the protection of nature and a climate/energy dimension that divides those who prioritize industrial interest from those who prioritize fighting climate change, using a new survey in the Netherlands (N = 11,327). This two‐dimensional model meets three criteria: scalability, validity, and utility. Scalability is shown by factor analysis and Mokken scaling. Validity is shown by regression analyses that show that whether one lives in a rural or an urban community predicts one's position on the nature/agriculture dimension and that one's financial security predicts one's position on the climate/energy dimension. The utility is shown by regression analyses where the two dimensions are used to predict voting behavior. The Green Party voters favor nature and climate protection, the Liberal Party voters have the opposite views, the Christian‐Democrats favor agricultural interests and the Freedom Party favor industrial interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have used the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to explain public opinion on a variety of policy issues and across venues. Recent work in the NPF has expanded the application of the framework beyond textual formats to accommodate policy narratives that are visual in nature. This article asks whether individuals respond differently to visual versus text‐based narratives. The research argues that visuals are more easily understood, dramatic, and memorable than text, suggesting that visual narratives may have a greater influence on policy attitudes. I explore these possibilities using Twitter narratives related to the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States. Exposure to visual narratives significantly increased perception of issue importance, but contrary to expectations, visual narratives were no more effective at enhancing information recall, shifting attitudes, and encouraging activism than textual narratives. The article discusses possible reasons for these findings, the implications for narrative persuasion, and suggestions for future avenues of research. Related Articles: Chang, Katherine T., and Elizabeth A. Koebele. 2020. "What Drives Coalitions' Narrative Strategy? Exploring Policy Narratives around School Choice." Politics & Policy 48(4): 618–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12367. Crow, Deserai A., Lydia A. Lawhon, John Berggren, Juhi Huda, Elizabeth Koebele, and Adrianne Kroepsch. 2017. "A Narrative Policy Framework Analysis of Wildfire Policy Discussions in Two Colorado Communities." Politics & Policy 45(4): 626–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12207. Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Mark K. McBeth, and Paul L. Hathaway. 2011. "Narrative Policy Framework: The Influence of Media Policy Narrative on Public Opinion." Politics & Policy 39(3): 373–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00295.x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author furthers research on the multiple streams framework (MSF) by testing hypotheses related to the conditional nature of politics, policy, and problems streams in affecting policy outputs from both policymaking and policy implementation. The author articulates a theoretical model of the policy process where policymaking and policy implementation are separate, but interdependent processes, and generates three hypotheses related to policymaking, policy implementation, and the interdependence of those processes. Then, the author tests hypotheses with state‐level implementation of federal environmental policy over a 20 year period. Using seemingly unrelated regression (SUR), the author makes joint estimations of policymaking and policy implementation as separate, correlated processes. Findings indicate how politics affects policymaking and policy implementation is conditional on existing policies and problems, and that these two processes are not independent from each other. Conclusions connect this MSF to the broader literature and how it may address current criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity underlies ecosystem resilience, ecosystem function, sustainable economies, and human well‐being. Understanding how biodiversity sustains ecosystems under anthropogenic stressors and global environmental change will require new ways of deriving and applying biodiversity data. A major challenge is that biodiversity data and knowledge are scattered, biased, collected with numerous methods, and stored in inconsistent ways. The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has developed the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) as fundamental metrics to help aggregate, harmonize, and interpret biodiversity observation data from diverse sources. Mapping and analyzing EBVs can help to evaluate how aspects of biodiversity are distributed geographically and how they change over time. EBVs are also intended to serve as inputs and validation to forecast the status and trends of biodiversity, and to support policy and decision making. Here, we assess the feasibility of implementing Genetic Composition EBVs (Genetic EBVs), which are metrics of within‐species genetic variation. We review and bring together numerous areas of the field of genetics and evaluate how each contributes to global and regional genetic biodiversity monitoring with respect to theory, sampling logistics, metadata, archiving, data aggregation, modeling, and technological advances. We propose four Genetic EBVs: (i) Genetic Diversity; (ii) Genetic Differentiation; (iii) Inbreeding; and (iv) Effective Population Size (Ne). We rank Genetic EBVs according to their relevance, sensitivity to change, generalizability, scalability, feasibility and data availability. We outline the workflow for generating genetic data underlying the Genetic EBVs, and review advances and needs in archiving genetic composition data and metadata. We discuss how Genetic EBVs can be operationalized by visualizing EBVs in space and time across species and by forecasting Genetic EBVs beyond current observations using various modeling approaches. Our review then explores challenges of aggregation, standardization, and costs of operationalizing the Genetic EBVs, as well as future directions and opportunities to maximize their uptake globally in research and policy. The collection, annotation, and availability of genetic data has made major advances in the past decade, each of which contributes to the practical and standardized framework for large‐scale genetic observation reporting. Rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology present new opportunities, but also challenges for operationalizing Genetic EBVs for biodiversity monitoring regionally and globally. With these advances, genetic composition monitoring is starting to be integrated into global conservation policy, which can help support the foundation of all biodiversity and species' long‐term persistence in the face of environmental change. We conclude with a summary of concrete steps for researchers and policy makers for advancing operationalization of Genetic EBVs. The technical and analytical foundations of Genetic EBVs are well developed, and conservation practitioners should anticipate their increasing application as efforts emerge to scale up genetic biodiversity monitoring regionally and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mega‐infrastructural development project provides easy access to remarkable tourism destinations and keeps attracting tourists. Tourist data from the tourism department of Gilgit‐Baltistan (GB), Pakistan, show that the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project's impact positively relates to tourism demand. GB is at the early stage of tourism development, and residents show a willingness to support tourism even though tourism costs outweigh benefits. Besides, the existing tourism policy of Gilgit‐Baltistan focuses explicitly on economic sustainability but overlooks the socio‐cultural and environmental concerns. Therefore, the present study based on the stakeholder theory provides policy implications to minimize adverse effects on socio‐cultural and ecological resources and achieve sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses what causes American states to assume the authority to administer federal environmental programs within their borders, rather than leave implementation to the Environmental Protection Agency. Some observers have argued that interstate competition for mobile capital may motivate states to seek this authority so that they may reduce the regulatory burdens imposed on industrial polluters. Other scholars highlight the importance of intrastate political and economic factors or vertical influences emanating from federal officials. I argue that the relative importance of each of these classes of explanations will vary across environmental policy arenas, depending on the amount of implementation discretion that federal programs provide to state agencies. Results from event history analyses of two major environmental programs are generally, though not entirely, consistent with this theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political‐ideological assumption postulates that different political parties have different preferences toward the urgency of environmental sustainability. This article examines the relationship between political ideology and environmental policy stringency. I employ robust econometric specification on 23 OECD countries over 23 years. Results show a significant relationship between political ideology and environmental policy stringency. However, contrary to expectation, I find that environmental policies are less stringent in leftist governments. The findings suggest that leftist governments have not successfully incorporated their perceived environmentalism ideology into stringent environmental policies due to their lesser preference for law and order. I also find that the electoral politics view theory does not hold in the relationship between political ideology and environmental policy stringency. The findings, which are robust to various econometric identifications and alternative measurement of variables, add new insights on partisan politics and environmental sustainability. Related Articles: Murray, Gregg R., and Matthew K. Mulvaney. 2012. "Parenting Styles, Socialization, and the Transmission of Political Ideology and Partisanship." Politics & Policy 40(6): 1106–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00395.x Winburn, Jonathan, and Amanda Winburn. 2020. "The Role of Political Ideology in Public Opinion toward Enumerated Antibullying Policies in Public Schools." Politics & Policy 48(3): 442–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12355 Zang, Xiaowei. 2021. "Environmental Accidents and Environmental Legislation in China: Evidence from Provincial Panel Data (1997–2014)." Politics & Policy 50(1): 77–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12446 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interconnected global environmental and societal risks threaten the health of human and ecological communities. Institutions are avenues through which people can mobilize to respond, but institutional landscapes are fragmented. We focus on the need for institutional change in environmental management and water services to better connect land and water in the United States. Using a historical institutionalist approach and insights from sustainability transitions research, we analyze four diverse examples of connecting land and water occurring across public and private institutions where people are putting innovative perspectives and principles into practice: National Environmental Policy Act, Engineering with Nature®; Water Utilities as Anchor Institutions, and Growing Water Smart. Comparative analysis of these examples focuses on the particular risks these institutions are responding to, how each connects land and water to promote healthy communities, the institutional transformations that are occurring, how problems are being reframed, how leadership and mobilization are driving change, what tools help bridge multiple boundaries, and what new ways of knowing and action strategies are emerging. Our examples focus on transformations within and between institutions in recognition of their importance for driving larger system change. Findings reinforce previous research on the critical role of human agency and boundary spanning in facilitating and steering sustainability transitions. Research Impact Statement: Four U.S. examples of institutional land–water integration reveal the significance of gradual yet transformative change to promote healthy communities and contribute to sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines relationships between stormwater control measure (SCM) priorities and environmental value orientations among stormwater managers in Cleveland, Ohio and Denver, Colorado, metro regions with contrasting environmental conditions and policy contexts. While studies show that governance explains differences in broad SCM priorities, less is known about what motivates individual "street level bureaucrats" who influence decisions at the project level. Drawing from cognitive social science perspectives, this study surveyed stormwater professionals (n = 185) about primary and co‐benefit SCM priorities and environmental value orientation. Results revealed different primary SCM priorities by region: Cleveland and Denver respondents prioritized quantity and quality goals, respectively, reflecting regional context. Co‐benefit priorities correlated to two environmental value orientation clusters — "Traditional Technocrats" with relatively anthropocentric orientations and "Champions" with relatively ecocentric orientations — who were equally abundant in both regions. Findings suggest that environmental value orientation influences co‐benefit priorities, which may have implications for project level articulation of policy. Research Impact Statement: Pro‐environment stormwater managers prioritize environmental co‐benefits in projects more than traditional technocrats, with implications for the use of stormwater policy for greening urban land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article encourages a closer dialogue between contemporary anthropological reflections on nature and the environment and environmental justice (EJ). We can revise the environment concept by adopting a more nuanced view of the ontological relations between humans and non‐humans. The idea of 'assemblage' as reworked in the Anthropocene debate enriches EJ with a multispecies perspective and a new 'temporal awareness'. Ethnography grounded in the confluence of human/geophysical agency and temporality can help us understand past eco‐social dynamics and possible futures and overcome environmental inequalities and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of environmentally sustainable development (ESD) has its origins in 1987, with the publication of the World Commission on Environment and Development's (WCED) landmark report, Our Common Future. Drawing on earlier research I have done, I re‐evaluate the ongoing challenges ESD faces as a theory of development given fractious debates about development from opposing interests. My original research identified a substantial divide in support for a WCED‐styled theory of sustainable development and, alternatively, for that promulgated by business‐as‐usual economic growth advocates. I showed that the developmental changes advocated by the WCED would be vigorously opposed or resisted by vested interests. Some 30 years later, opposition and resistance continue. The purpose of this commentary is to examine aspects of this divide with regard to prospects for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. I aim to discuss prospects for implementing the SDGs by that year because the goals provide a context and potential measure of how sustainable development will fare as a theory. Three questions are posed to examine different attitudes to economic, social, and environmental policy fields. Thereafter, I conclude that environmental foundations of development address the agency of polluter pays, resource user pays, precautionary principle, and environmental standards regulation; economic foundations address economic growth, productivity, and competitiveness; and social foundations address social inclusion via human rights. I argue that all need to be systematically integrated into policy making for development to be sustainable; this means making the environmental foundations of sustainable development operational by incorporating them in the decision centres of business strategy and public policy. Measuring performance to address SDGs provides a sound place to start operationalising this integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural monitoring of the environment has emerged in Aotearoa New Zealand as a mechanism to revitalise Indigenous knowledge and support Treaty‐based governance. While cultural monitoring is increasingly salient in environmental policy, there is a need to proceed with awareness about how institutionalisation of cultural monitoring can modify or constrain its intent. Here, we dissect the genealogies and principles of cultural monitoring, identifying how cultural monitoring has been folded into the logic of 'state of the environment' reporting. By investigating three examples of cultural monitoring, we analyse how different institutional mechanisms enable and constrain the realisation of cultural monitoring's decolonising intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, the establishment of large‐scale marine protected areas (LSMPA) in the Pacific Ocean has profoundly transformed the region's political geography. Pacific LSMPAs have played a striking role in converting Small Island Developing States (SIDS) into Large Ocean Island States (LOIS), generating a significant shift in regional and international politics. This paper is a new exploration of the ongoing political construction of the Ocean, at multiple scales and through different forms. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, an anthropological approach is used to investigate governance processes involving multiple actors shaping marine environmental policies in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, two French overseas territories. This research interrogates how territorial dynamics and sovereignty issues in the francophone Pacific are being driven and reshaped by the emergence of LSMPAs and offers an overview of current structural changes in Oceania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration promises to educate society on the many ways ecological restoration projects can benefit humankind. One avenue of possibilities for restoration ecology lies with concerns of environmental justice. The concept of futuristic restoration, which posits a paradigm of ecological restoration that is future‐oriented, aligns well with calls for policymakers to address the circumstances, processes, and systems within which environmental inequalities are typically produced. This article offers three policy arenas where futuristic restoration can be employed in order to further environmental justice goals: (1) Land conservation prioritization; (2) Urban development plans; and (3) Mine remediation projects. The temporal dimension of sustainability and how it pertains to restoration projects will also be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a systematic review of case studies of mangrove governance, we addressed the following research question: What is the role of the eight governance principles defined by Lockwood et al. (2010) across top-down, bottom-up, and comanagement governance structures in mangrove socioecological systems? Historically, top-down governance (i.e., governance by the state) has been most common, illustrated by the fact that mangrove conservation commonly occurs on local to international policy agendas (Friess et al., 2018). We explored only mangrove governance examples that have been published in the peer-reviewed literature, which is of course a small subset of all mangrove governance worldwide. Keywords: comanagement; community-based natural resource management (CBNRM); decentralized governance; environmental policy; social-ecological systems; wetland; co-manejo; gestión descentralizada; humedal; manejo comunitario de los recursos naturales (MCRN); políticas ambientales; sistemas socio-ecológicos; ; ; (CBNRM); ; ; EN comanagement community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) decentralized governance environmental policy social-ecological systems wetland co-manejo gestión descentralizada humedal manejo comunitario de los recursos naturales (MCRN) políticas ambientales sistemas socio-ecológicos (CBNRM) 1 15 15 03/02/22 20220201 NES 220201 INTRODUCTION Mangrove forests inhabit tropical and subtropical coastlines and are globally important yet threatened ecosystems. [Extracted from the article]

Knowledge on environmental disasters and legislation is limited. I narrow this knowledge gap by examining the relationship between environmental accidents and climate legislation in the People's Republic of China. I offer an account of local environmental accidents and local environmental legislation and focus on political centralization to understand bill submission and bill enactment in local climate legislation in China. I built a unique provincial panel dataset for the period of 1997–2014 (N = 527) for the data analysis and found that environmental accidents are correlated with local climate legislation. I also discuss how local government leaders make rational choices under the incentive system in the Chinese bureaucracy in the wake of environmental accidents. Related Articles: Brogan, Michael James. 2017. "Evaluating Risk and Natural Gas Pipeline Safety." Politics & Policy 45(4): 657–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12211 Liu, Zezhao, and Zhengwei Zhu. 2021. "China's Pathway to Domestic Emergency Management: Unpacking the Characteristics in System Evolution." Politics & Policy 49(3): 619–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12407 Neill, Katharine A., and John C. Morris. 2012. "A Tangled Web of Principals and Agents: Examining the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill through a Principal–Agent Lens." Politics & Policy 40(4): 629–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00371.x [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), nicknamed "America's most successful conservation program," was permanently reauthorized during the polarized Trump administration period in 2019. This victory for conservation came during an unlikely moment. How did bipartisan conservation policy pass despite the polarization of Congress during the Trump years? In this article, I use the Multiple Streams Framework to provide insights into the LWCF's reauthorization. Focusing on the problem stream, this research identifies messaging that transcends the partisan divide and appeals to broad American values. Analysis of the messages of policy entrepreneurs found that, regardless of political party, shared messages focus on the enduring legacy of the LWCF, its economic impacts, its symbolic weight, and its use of private dollars. The wider significance of this research is better understanding decision‐making contexts with surprising common messaging in the problem stream between otherwise opposing sides of the partisan divide. Related Articles: Angervil, Gilvert. 2021. "A Comprehensive Application of Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework: An Analysis of the Obama Administration's No Child Left Behind Waiver Policy." Politics & Policy 49(5): 980–1020. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12432 Gershtenson, Joseph, Brian W. Smith, and William R. Mangun. 2006. "Friends of the Earth? Partisanship, Party Control of Congress, and Environmental Legislation in Congress." Politics & Policy 34(1): 66–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2006.00004.x Rawat, Pragati, and John Charles Morris. 2016. "Kingdon's 'Streams' Model at Thirty: Still Relevant in the 21st Century?" Politics & Policy 44(4): 608–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12168 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy infrastructure is the foundation of any modern society, yet decisions on where and how to site this infrastructure can be contentious. This article argues that energy infrastructure siting is illustrative of policy scenarios involving instigators of a proposed policy and defenders of the status quo. Through analyzing natural gas pipelines, electricity transmission lines, solar power plants, and wind power plants, and leveraging a unique dataset of over 1000 newspaper articles on 16 selected cases, we extract discourse over the project life cycle across infrastructure types and conflict intensities. This article delineates policy scenarios involving two primary sets of actors—the proposal instigator (e.g., an energy corporation) and the defender of the status quo (e.g., a community). When higher levels of conflict exist, defenders represent more actors than instigators, as defenders have the advantage of mobilizing and recruiting around the status quo. The frames used by defenders are also more diverse than those used by instigators. Additionally, the balance of discourse is associated with the characteristics of the proposal and conflict intensity, as well as who wins or loses. Related Articles: Ash, John. 2010. "New Nuclear Energy, Risk, and Justice: Regulatory Strategies for an Era of Limited Trust." Politics & Policy 38(2): 255–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00237.x Khodr, Hiba, and Isabella Ruble. 2013. "Energy Policies and Domestic Politics in the MENA Region in the Aftermath of the Arab Upheavals: The Cases of Lebanon, Libya, and KSA." Politics & Policy 41(5): 656–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12033 Kilinç‐Pala, Pinar Buket. 2021. "Approaches in Energy Exclusive Security: Theories of Energy Security and the Dominance of Realism." Politics & Policy 49(3): 771–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12411 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanisms that reliably and efficiently guide practitioners to find relevant evidence are urgent for conservation decision‐making in Chilean Patagonia. The objective of this study was to systematically collect, characterize, and synthesize the extensive evidence about conservation knowledge in Chilean Patagonia focusing on the impacts of global change drivers on ecosystems and human–nature relationships, identifying knowledge gaps, and providing policy recommendations. The quality of the evidence was assessed through a predefined level‐of‐evidence hierarchy scale, applied to a sample of the studies reviewed. We compiled ~1000 studies documenting that evidence focusing on terrestrial and marine ecosystems has grown exponentially. For terrestrial ecosystems, most studies have addressed climate change, habitat change, and invasive species; while for marine ecosystems, studies have focused on pollution, invasive species, and habitat change. We identified that an important gap is the study of the social dimensions of conservation, and future efforts should focus on incorporating traditional and local knowledge as this can help point the way to ecosystem conservation. The appraisal of the quality of the evidence showed that ~80% of the sample represented reliable evidence with underlying data and an experimental design. Enhanced efforts to deliver this evidence to decision‐makers in a user‐friendly format for evidence uptake in conservation policy are urgent. In this review, we provide a tool that can help practitioners to find evidence reliably to improve decision‐making for the conservation of ecosystems in Chilean Patagonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

River flows are commonly altered by water resource development, with changes to the natural flow regime potentially impacting riparian vegetation. Increasingly, water resource managers seek to design policy to maintain healthy riparian ecosystems. Models that make explicit the relationship between hydrological variables and vegetation can be used by managers to assess vegetation response under different water management scenarios.We determined the potential impact of water‐takeon the spatial distribution of woody riparian plant species in the lower Fitzroy River, in north‐western Australia, an area under pressure to increase water resource development. We undertook a plant survey and developed and applied a joint species distribution model to determine the likelihood of occurrence for 26 woody riparian plant species, mapped species occurrence and assessed the change in species distribution under two water‐take scenarios.We found that the duration of inundation from flood flows was a strong predictor of species occurrence in our joint species distribution model. We identified species associated with wetter environments, as indicated by their effect size for the inundation metric. Under the 300‐Gl water‐take scenario we found little change (<2%) in species occurrence, but under the 600‐Gl scenario a decline between 5% and 7.4% was predicted for eight species associated with wetter habitats. This decline was generally confined to a localised area.Our approach highlights the usefulness of predictive modelling to identify species most likely to be impacted by water‐take, and the benefit of linking modelling to spatial mapping because it can highlight areas where change is likely to occur. This information can assist management to protect ecologically and culturally important species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision makers often cite data quality as a limitation in environmental management. Value of information approaches evaluate the benefit of new data collection for management outcomes. Pesticide exposure risk assessment for endangered species is one context where data limitations may affect decisions and a value of information type approach could be useful for identifying optimal data quality and resolution. Under the U.S. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for registering pesticides before they can be sold and regularly reviewing pesticides. Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act requires that the EPA consider potential impacts of pesticides to listed endangered species and critical habitats in this process, and for the Services—U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service—to complete a formal Section 7 consultation if the EPA deems it necessary. The current process is time‐intensive, lacks transparency and confidence among stakeholders, and leaves hundreds of unreviewed pesticides on the market. Increasing the resolution of pesticide usage data could address these concerns by improving estimated overlaps between species ranges and pesticide usage. Thus, we evaluated the relative importance of different resolutions of pesticide usage data for assessing expected carbaryl exposure to endangered plant species endemic to California. We found that spatially explicit, township resolution usage data (~36 mile2) excluded 33% of terrestrial plants (55/168) and 51% their critical habitats (27/53) from requiring a Section 7 consultation, while coarser resolution data excluded none. In contrast, the EPA's biological evaluation for carbaryl only excludes 4% of terrestrial plants (nationally) from requiring formal Section 7 consultation. This suggests high‐resolution data could increase pesticide review efficiency and decrease the amount of time pesticides remain on the market without a formal evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work was to analyse the effects of environmental quality and environmental regulations on the exports of sub‐Saharan African countries. Adopting the pollution haven hypothesis as a theoretical framework, we use a gravity model enriched by environmental variables. Our main results indicate that it is the environmental quality of sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries, as measured by the Environmental Performance Index, and the differences in environmental quality between a country and its partner that constitute a barrier to SSA exports. It therefore appears important for SSA countries to integrate the environmental factor into their policies to improve the competitiveness of their exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is often characterized as separate from climate change mitigation. Discussion of CDR governance – despite enjoying growing interest – tends to overlook how key provisions on mitigation apply. Similarly, many climate policy processes have ignored CDR. CDR may have been discursively held separate from 'mitigation' due to a partial conceptual overlap with 'geoengineering'. We unpack how the 'mitigation of climate change' – as defined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement – includes CDR as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We point to important implications and opportunities for strengthening governance by enhanced clarity regarding parties' obligations, principled equitable distribution of removal efforts, prioritization of rapid emissions reductions and careful paths to long‐term removals, and a need for considering sustainability and human rights issues in the pursuit of CDR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Net outcome‐type biodiversity policies are proliferating globally as perceived mechanisms to reconcile economic development and conservation objectives. The UK government's Environment Bill will mandate that most new developments in England demonstrate that they deliver a biodiversity net gain (BNG) to receive planning permission, representing the most wide‐ranging net outcome type policy globally. However, as with many nascent net‐outcome policies, the likely outcomes of mandatory BNG have not been explored empirically. We assemble all BNG assessments (accounting for ∼6% of England's annual housebuilding and other infrastructure) submitted from January 2020 to February 2021 in six early‐adopter councils who are implementing mandatory no net loss or BNG requirements in advance of the national adoption of mandatory BNG, and analyze the aggregate habitat changes proposed. Our sample is associated with a 34% reduction in the area of nonurban habitats, generally compensated by commitments to deliver smaller areas of higher quality habitat years later in the development project cycle. Ninety‐five percent of biodiversity units delivered in our sample come from habitats within or directly‐adjacent to the development footprint managed by the developers. However, we find that these gains fall within a governance gap whereby they risk being unenforceable, a challenge that is shared with other net outcome type policies implemented internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Recent research on mosquito vector‐borne diseases points to the possibility for a re‐emergence of yellow fever. This study investigated attempts at utilising environmental methods and their efficacy for the control of yellow fever and its main vector, Aedes aegypti. Methods: Potentially eligible studies were searched in Cochrane Library (Reviews and Trials), the Global Index Medicus (encompassing thus the African Index Medicus, the Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, the Index Medicus for the South‐East Asia Region, the Latin America and the Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences and the Western Pacific Region Index Medicus), Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct. Results: Of a total number of 172 eligible studies, 20 met the pre‐defined inclusion criteria. Two of them provided quantitative assessment on the efficacy of the described water management and house screening methods with a reduction of cases of 98%, and of a reduction of larvae of 100%, respectively. The remaining 18 studies described or recommended the elimination of breeding sites (through water or waste management, unspecified, or house destruction), the use of screens for houses and the improvement of air circulation without providing any data to evidence control effectiveness. Conclusion: This systematic review provides evidence on the historical use and the perceived effectiveness of environmental management methods for combatting yellow fever. However, these methods would benefit from further investigation via controlled trials to provide data for efficacy, costs, acceptability and feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. The environmental benefits and lower implementation costs of (assisted) natural forest regrowth (NFR) compared to tree planting qualify it as a viable strategy to scale up forest restoration. However, NFR is not suitable in all places, because the potential for forest regeneration depends on the socio-environmental context and differs greatly over space and time. Therefore, it is critical to quantify the potential contribution of NFR for reaching forest restoration targets and complying with environmental policies. 2. Here, we quantify the socio-environmental consequences of NFR by considering four targets differing in restored area in the Atlantic Forest (6, 8, 15 and 22 Mha). We quantified the compliance with environmental policies, expected distribution of natural and restored vegetation within the biome and social fairness (distribution of restoration efforts and costs within small, medium and large-sized properties) of two hypothetical forest restoration scenarios. 3. We show that large-scale forest restoration prioritizing the areas with the highest potential for NFR (Scenario I) allows us to comply with one-third of the current environmental debt in the Atlantic Forest. Furthermore, this scenario disproportionately burdens specific types of land use, increases socioeconomic inequalities and concentrates restoration activities in regions in which the natural vegetation cover is already high. 4. By contrast, Scenario II--eradicating the environmental debt that results from environmental policies, then prioritizing areas with the lowest overall restoration costs until reaching the restoration targets--is socially fairer and maximizes compliance with environmental policies. Its outcomes are more homogeneously distributed among counties and small, medium and large-sized properties from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Despite doubling the implementation costs, the lower overall restoration costs in Scenario II result from significantly lower opportunity costs than in Scenario I. 5. Synthesis and application. The environmental, social and economic outputs of largescale forest restoration in the Atlantic Forest can be maximized when NFR and tree planting are balanced (Scenario II). To achieve compliance with forest restoration commitments, we thus advocate for the site-specific selection of the best forest restoration strategy to guarantee social fairness and compliance with environmental policies at minimum overall restoration costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological community and ecosystem "red lists" have been developed in several jurisdictions to improve ecosystem‐level biodiversity protection. However, a challenge for the conservation and management of listed ecosystems is consistent identification in the field or from plot records. Ecosystem descriptions must have enough detail for positive identification but be broad enough that most instances are included. In many jurisdictions, descriptions are not supported by dichotomous keys or thresholds of ecosystem collapse and identification relies on the interpretation of trained individuals, with potential for opposing opinions. Using a structured process, we assessed the ability of experts to identify a critically endangered ecological community from vegetation plot samples. We compared the allocations made by experts with a numeric classification that underpinned the legal definition of the community. Overall, experts correctly identified the presence or absence of the community in 81% of samples although individual classification rates ranged from 63% to 94%. False positive rates varied among experts (7–50%) and experienced botanists did not necessarily perform better. Disturbance increased uncertainty and experts differed in their opinion about when the community had collapsed and was no longer recoverable. Inconsistent interpretation, in the absence of diagnostic keys and consensus models of collapse, will have implications for recovery and conservation of listed communities and ecosystems, and could impact the effectiveness of laws and policies designed to protect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the articles presented so far have focused on policy instruments and/or the cooperation between communities or vertical units of government, the final article in this RPR issue turns to the international level. A network analysis investigates the interconnectedness and cohesion of policy subsystems to explain different policy formulation styles in the field of biodiesel policy in Indonesia. [Extracted from the article]

Macroscale studies of aquatic ecosystems are needed to address many contemporary broad‐scale problems related to global change, particularly to inform national‐scale environmental policies. In this data paper, we fill two important gaps in data availability for lakes at the scale of the conterminous U.S., the lack of: (1) high‐resolution geographic representations of lakes and their watersheds and (2) an open data platform to connect disparate U.S. national‐scale lake datasets. We describe the LAGOS‐US LOCUS v1.0 data module that includes a detailed User Guide, which is part of the LAGOS‐US extensible research‐ready open data platform. This platform can be used to study the 479,950 lakes and reservoirs larger than or equal to 1 ha across the entire conterminous U.S. at multiple scales of space and time. The LOCUS module includes spatially‐explicit information on lakes and their watersheds, including location information, physical characteristics, and identifiers of other important national‐scale datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do social identities contribute to the formation of coalitions in a policy subsystem? Social identities help to understand the bundling of resources and common strategies for action. Thus, we argue that identification with a group and across groups discursively results in the formulation of shared and competing storylines. As coalitions are characterized by some kind of sameness of their actors which results in shared storylines, we thereby postulate that the link between storylines and social identities provides added value to the explanation of coalition formation. We test whether shared storylines can be traced back to social identities in the different discursive periods of traffic development on a local level in Germany. A media analysis of 110 articles and 14 interviews shows that the assignment of certain group characteristics is discursively confirmed, renegotiated, or rejected. Social identities, therefore, matter for coalition formation. Related Articles: Chang, Katherine T., and Elizabeth A. Koebele. 2020. "What Drives Coalitions' Narrative Strategy? Exploring Policy Narratives around School Choice." Politics & Policy 48 (4): 618‐657. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12367 Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Mark K. McBeth, and Paul L. Hathaway. 2011. "Narrative Policy Framework: The Influence of Media Policy Narrative on Public Opinion." Politics & Policy 39 (3): 373‐400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00295.x Vercesi, Michelangelo. 2016. "Coalition Politics and Inter‐Party Conflict Management: A Theoretical Framework." Politics & Policy 44 (2): 168‐219. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12154 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many scholars have studied policy success and failure, the relationship of these phenomena to the policy process—essential for an explanatory or anticipatory analysis—remains unclear. I address this gap by linking the policy success heuristic with the multiple streams framework (MSF) and developing hypotheses to explain outcomes. I apply this conceptualization to the case of the solar energy policy in Gujarat, India by combining a qualitative policy assessment with a process trace of policy making. The findings show that the conflicted process success and the programmatic failure resulted largely from a top‐down push for a policy without a problem. This push, nevertheless, led to political success that was sustained by recoupling problems and politics through agenda denial, blame avoidance, and credit claiming. I conclude with implications for the research on policy evaluation, the MSF, and policy studies, as well as the governance of a sustainable energy transition. Related Articles: Huda, Juhi. 2020. "Sources of Evidence for Risks and Benefits in Agricultural Biotechnology Policy in India: Exploring Links to Setting and Plot in Policy Narratives." Politics & Policy 49 (1): 205‐247. https://doi.org.10.1111/polp.12391 Peterson, Holly L., Mark K. McBeth, and Michael D. Jones. 2020. "Policy Process Theory for Rural Studies: Navigating Context and Generalization in Rural Policy." Politics & Policy 48 (4): 576‐617. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12366 Rawat, Pragati, and John Charles Morris. 2016. "Kingdon's 'Streams' Model at Thirty: Still Relevant in the 21st Century? Politics & Policy 44 (4): 608‐638. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12168 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector is of special interest within the Spanish economy, given its large economic dimension and environmental impact, particularly during the real estate boom prior to the last economic crisis that started in 2008. We study the CO2 emissions of construction activities in 2007, at the height of the construction boom, in the context of the productive structure of Spain. For this, we use an input–output subsystem method, which allows us to study the productive structure of the subsystem's activities, taking into account its links with the rest of the sectors. The decomposition of total emissions in four explanatory components allows us to make a classification of the different sectors according to the type of relationships that are established between the subsystem and the rest of the economy. Besides providing a better understanding of the environmental consequences of real state booms, we derive some implications for environmental policy from the analysis of these interrelations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest restoration is currently a primary objective in environmental management policies at a global scale, to the extent that impressive initiatives and commitments have been launched to plant billions of trees. However, resources are limited and the success of any restoration effort should be maximized. Thus, restoration programs should seek to guarantee that what is planted today will become an adult tree in the future, a simple fact that, however, usually receives little attention. Here, we advocate for the need to focus restoration efforts on an individual plant level to increase establishment success while reducing negative side effects by using an approach that we term "precision forest restoration" (PFR). The objective of PFR will be to ensure that planted seedlings or sowed seeds will become adult trees with the appropriate landscape configuration to create functional and self‐regulating forest ecosystems while reducing the negative impacts of traditional massive reforestation actions. PFR can take advantage of ecological knowledge together with technologies and methodologies from the landscape scale to the individual‐plant scale, and from the more traditional, low‐tech approaches to the latest high‐tech ones. PFR may be more expensive at the level of individual plants, but will be more cost‐effective in the long term if it allows for the creation of resilient forests able to provide multiple ecosystem services. PFR was not feasible a few years ago due to the high cost and low precision of the available technologies, but it is currently an alternative that might reformulate a wide spectrum of ecosystem restoration activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has high levels of biodiversity and has received strong criticism for the increasing country‐wide deforestation that threatens it. Although a significant percentage of land area in Brazil is protected, the areas are insufficient and unevenly distributed. Many studies have contributed to the biogeographical knowledge of Brazilian flora, but no endemicity analysis (EA) has been conducted including all endemic angiosperms. We investigated the spatial component, drawing on a huge and taxonomically diverse dataset based on 827 016 records collected over the last two centuries. We conducted an EA for 15 034 species from 173 families using an optimality criterion with 2° and 3° grid sizes, in order to search for distributional concordance, to identify the biogeographical units and discuss the implications for conservation. Six analyses were run for basal angiosperms, monocots and eudicots. The EA recovered 66 consensus areas (CAs). The concordance of CAs enabled the identification of five best‐supported areas of endemism––three in the Atlantic and Parana Forest and two areas in the Cerrado province––supported by species of 120 families. The age of divergence for some genera that contributed significantly to the identification of areas recovered in the Cerrado coincides with the recent, <10 Ma, estimated age of that province. By contrast, the areas in the Atlantic and Parana Forest are supported by genera with earlier diversification >30 Ma, supporting an ancient origin. Most areas in the Atlantic Forest are partially superimposed with the limits of the protected areas, however, big gaps were identified in the Cerrado. Protecting Brazilian biomes was at the heart of Brazil's environmental policy. Regrettably, this scenario has radically changed based on misleading divergences in conservation policy. Areas of endemism are pivotal for biodiversity conservation due to the common evolutionary history shared by their endemic taxa. Thus, we hope that these congruent patterns of endemism support the establishment of biodiversity priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Networks are an important part of the environmental policy process as they influence the ability of actors to synthesize information and learn to manage complex risks. According to the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the dynamics of policy network formation lead to structures exhibiting belief‐oriented segregation—that is, a high correspondence between shared beliefs and policy‐relevant interactions. These structures may be produced through at least two pathways: belief homophily, where actors actively seek out connections with others sharing their belief system, and policy‐oriented learning, where connected actors become more similar in their beliefs. The cross‐sectional design of much policy research does not allow an examination of these potentially complementary forces that shape belief systems and networks. These dynamics are studied using data on policy beliefs and networking in the U.S. environmental risk policy subsystem across two time periods, 1985 and 2000 (N = 223). Results indicate strong homophily effects, but relatively weak learning effects in the evolution of this policy network. This study helps pave the way for additional research on the dynamics shaping policy networks and beliefs, and helps to clarify the differences between individual versus organizational contributions to policy network evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]