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This paper explores the creation of cross-scale linkages between local governance institutions and national and international organizations. It does so in the context of the decentralization of decision-making for protected area management and biodiversity conservation in the Central American country of Costa Rica, where the issue is a matter of high national interest. Costa Rica stands out among all developing tropical countries for its commitment towards environmental and natural resources issues, especially those regarding biodiversity conservation. For instance, the central government has developed a protected area system that has given some kind of protected status to 25% of its national territory. In the mid-nineties the Costa Rican government started to decentralize management and decision-making of all protected areas in the country to promote locally-based biodiversity conservation governance. All protected areas were grouped in eleven regionally-based administrative units and were labeled as conservation areas. The central government gave each conservation area the authority to exercise significant degrees of autonomy to design and implement policy for the management of the protected areas under their jurisdiction. Through a comparative and longitudinal analysis, this paper explores the different ways in which each conservation area created cross-scale linkages and attempts to explain the variation in their performance achieving local autonomy from the central government. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enduring challenge for the policy and political sciences is valid and reliable depiction of policy designs. One emerging approach for dissecting policy designs is the application of Elinor Ostrom and Sue Crawford's institutional grammar tool (1995; 2005). The grammar tool offers a method to identify systematically the core elements that comprise policies, including target audiences, expected patterns of behavior, and formal modes of sanctioning for noncompliance. This paper provides three contributions to the study of policy designs by developing and applying the institutional grammar tool. First, we provide revised guidelines for applying the institutional grammar tool to the study of policy design. Second, an additional component to the grammar, called the object, is introduced. Third, we apply the modified grammar tool to four policies that shape Colorado State Aquaculture to demonstrate its effectiveness and utility in uncovering practical and theoretical patterns within policies. The conclusion summarizes the contributions of the paper as well as points to future research and applications of the institutional grammar tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]