ABSTRACT
Latin America is a key region for understanding environmental dynamics. On the one hand, the region is highly biodiverse, and natural resource-based economies are crucial for sustaining national development and rent distribution. On the other hand, Latin America is a scenario of significant levels of environmental participation and relevant innovations in environmental policy. Building upon our previous studies on environmental participation (Christel & Gutiérrez 2017, 2021, 2023), this chapter focuses on how environmental governance can tackle environmental demands in the region. While most governance arrangements focus on institutional participation, environmental participation in the region is mostly contentious and conflicting. We discuss this tension between governance and participation by analyzing two relevant areas in Argentina: forest protection and open-pit mining. We use both experiences to show that environmental governance approaches focused on institutional participation fail to grasp the complexity of environmental conflicts and the real impact of participation on decision-making. Therefore, we maintain a twofold argument. On the one hand, an expanded approach to environmental participation is more appropriate for understanding environmental governance in the region. On the other hand, the enforcement of the rule of law can act as a key tool in building more robust and transparent environmental governance, broader environmental participation, and higher levels of environmental protection.
