Intermediary organisations in collaborative environmental governance: evidence of the EU-funded LIFE sub-programme for the environment (LIFE-ENV)

Abstract

In the framework of the collaborative environmental governance and specifically of network concepts, this study makes an exploratory analysis of the EU-funded LIFE sub-programme for the Environment (LIFE-ENV) and its priority area Environment and Resource Efficiency focused on the role of networks and in particular of intermediary organizations by using Social Network Analysis (SNA). More specifically, by investigating the evolving pattern of key statistics (density, clustering coefficient, betweenness and degree centrality) related to bipartite (organisations and projects) and dynamic (eleven years) networks, we identified 3003 organisations and 1006 projects and studied how they operate by forming new relations and reorganising existing connections. Results evidence that the LIFE-ENV attests a structural coherence and a stable structure over time and it is characterised by four different structures of network components, namely isolated coordinating beneficiary, isolated components, small components and giant components. Moreover, the LIFE-ENV is not a cohesive network, due to low values of both density and clustering coefficient. Based on betweenness centrality and degree centrality measures, the LIFE-ENV sub-programme has facilitated the emergence of 4855 intermediary organisations, which equals 29.5% of the total number of coordinating and associate beneficiaries involved in the programme in the eleven years considered. Transnational cooperation in the LIFE-ENV sub-programme is characterised by a different intensity of relations: some countries (i.e. Italy, Spain and Belgium) implement transnational cooperation with multiple European countries in both the North and South of Europe, while others tend to cluster with countries in the same geographical area, and lastly East European countries have limited participation in transnational cooperation. Our analysis supports the hypothesis of a declining collective action in the LIFE-ENV sub-programme.

Intermediary Organizations in Nature Conservation Initiatives: The Case of the EU-Funded LIFE Programme

“…Although no core-periphery analysis was conducted, graphic representation has allowed us to highlight a core and a marginal area in the network's structure. Similar network structures have also been found in other cases documented in the scientific literature [71,129,147].…”

“…Based on our results, it is possible to highlight how, within the LIFE-NAT network, the number of actors transmitting information between groups while simultaneously having a high probability of receiving new information and knowledge is somewhat limited. The same results were reported for the LIFE sub-programme for the environment (LIFE-ENV) [129].…”

“…Although the trend in network density over time did not constitute the subject of our investigation, we hypothesize that the LIFE-NAT network could suffer from a lack of joint collective action if the bridging relations do not increase in the coming years. The same hypothesis was raised for the LIFE-ENV sub-programme by Pisani et al (2020) [129].…”

A social network analysis of mangrove management stakeholders in Sri Lanka's Northern Province

“…Social networks highlight the relations between actors in a network (Scott, 1988). The behavior of actors can be analyzed by observing how different actors exert power, access information, and form links (Pisani et al, 2020). The relevance of network analysis in environmental governance has been highlighted in many studies related to the management of water resources, protected areas, and forests (Bodin and Tengö, 2012;Kleinschmit et al, 2018;Manolache et al, 2018;Narayan et al, 2020).…”

Collaborations in Environmental Initiatives for an Effective “Adaptive Governance” of Social–Ecological Systems: What Existing Literature Suggests

“…Equally, multiple evaluations selected by the review adopt the same approach, involving stakeholders from different spatial scales, e.g., [99,107]. A quantitative analysis of relationships constituting networks through the Social Network Analysis (SNA) could be helpful in the assessment of connectivity between actors of adaptive governance initiatives, e.g., [69,107,143].…”