ABSTRACT
In recent decades, we have witnessed an increased role of the local level in environmental policy in the Western world. It is both a response to the decreased support for the coordinative model of governance and its related central guidance, and to the emergence of new governance ambitions such as the pursuit of proactive and integrated approaches to the environment. Consequently, decentralization has become one of the strategies for renewing environmental policies in many western European states (e.g. Bergström & Dobers 2000, de Roo 2004, Gibbs & Jonas 1999, Hovik & Reitan 2004, Lemos & Agrawal 2006, Van Tatenhove et al. 2000 and Wätli 2004).
