Corporate Leadership, Multilevel Enforcement and Biodiversity Regulation

Abstract

Globalization incentives the rise of non-state actors in unprecedented ways along with the creation of transnational arenas which are neither international (intergovernmental) nor national (domestic), but transborder political processes where firms, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), states and social communities set up rules and provide governance mechanisms to enforce those at local level. The article is anchored in the idea that public-private governance matters where the primary driver is the market incentive. We test the hypotheses that public-private cooperation at local level is based on shared knowledge and expertise among firms, civil society and state authority dealing with a natural resource which comes from the Brazilian biodiversity. NGOs and companies have developed the ability to act as enforcers as they interpret the public international/national regulation and develop an expertise through ‘best practices’ that are applied to enforce biodiversity regulation at the local level through a multilevel system that operates transnationally.