Page 46 - Governing Congo Basin Forests in a Changing Climate • Olufunso Somorin

Chapter 1
policy outcomes and/or set rules related to the interactions between humans and their natural environment. The state, through its agencies, remain the central actor in characterizing a policy response to the problem (Raustiala, 1997; Karkainen, 2004; Biermann and Dingwerth, 2004). Although the increased participation of non-state actors in environmental governance might question the centrality of the state (Cashore 2002; Pattberg, 2005), nevertheless, policy design and implementation in most countries, especially the developing ones, are still undertaken under the auspices of the centrality and leadership of the state. Non-state actors from market and civil society have been reported to shape governance outcomes through an exercise of their agency in the form of knowledge and expertise, especially at it regards defining the problem and proposing and implementing solutions as well.
With regards to the influence of actors to shape policy-making processes, scholars have argued that agents may contribute to the purposeful steering of constituents either indirectly (by influencing the decisions of other actors) or directly (by making steering decisions). Agents are thus a constituent part of the cumulative steering effort toward achieving environmental outcomes (Biermann et al., 2010; Schroeder, 2010). Additionally, Peters and Pierre (2001) suggest that, in effect,‘political power and institutional capability is less and less derived from formal constitutional powers accorded to the state but more from a capacity to wield and coordinate resources from public and private actors and interests’ (p.131).
1.3.4 Discourses and Environmental Governance
In this thesis, Hajer’s definition of discourse is used, which refers to discourse as “a specific ensemble of ideas, concepts, and categorizations that is produced, reproduced and transformed in a particular set of practices and through which meaning is given to physical and social realities” (1995, p.44). Through discourses, agencies express their ideas, frames and ideals, their conception of societal issues and the way in which these could or should be dealt with in politics and policies. The former are labelled as ‘substantial’, the latter as ‘governance’ discourses (Liefferink, 2006). Frame here refers to “broadly shared beliefs, values and perspectives.....on which individuals draw in order to give meaning, sense, and normative direction to their thinking and action in policy
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