Governance Responses to Illegal Natural Resource Activities: Developing an Analytical Framework

This presentation aims to develop an analytical framework for analysing governance responses to illegal natural resource activities. While ecological analysis of the consequences of diverse activities are rather common, analysis of governance responses are comprehensively addressed only in specific areas of illegal natural resource activities, in particular illegal logging and illegal fishery. Governance responses to other illegal activities are addressed only to a minor degree, e.g. illegal mining, illegal water use. Building on a literature review this presentation comprises three main steps: (i) comparing specific (governance relevant) characteristics of illegal activities across different sectors; (ii) describing and comparing governance responses to the illegal activities across different sectors and (iii) extracting major factors explaining governance responses. Results of this review show the similarities and differences between illegal natural resource activities. They provide an overview of governance responses and offers explanatory factors for these responses. The identified factors will be discussed as the basis of a robust analytical framework allowing analysing governance responses in diverse case of illegal activities.