Shifting Governance Modes in Wetland Management: A Case Study of Two Wetlands in Bogotá,Colombia

The concept of governance increasingly dominates the discourse on environmental management. The traditional hierarchical mode of governance has, in many locations, been replaced by other modes of governance in which the market, network, or community are dominant (without substituting the role of the state). In this paper we examine the shifts in the relative prominence of governance modes for the management of two wetlands in the city of Bogotá. In both cases the hierarchical mode of governance was prominent until the 1990s, when nonstate actors became involved in the management of the two wetlands. One wetland is characterized by a mix in which the community mode of governance is prominent, whilst in the other wetland the network mode of governance appears prominent. With the shift in predominant governance mode, the sources of legitimacy on which the predominant mode is based also change. In the case of community governance, legitimacy is linked to identity and shared values, whilst in the network mode aspects such as technical expertise and credentials form the basis for legitimacy. We suggest that the difference in the governance trajectories of the two wetlands can be linked to the different characteristics of the neighborhoods surrounding the wetland and the initial nature of their involvement in wetland management. The cases also highlight the importance of the relative power of the actors, which underlie the shift from one predominant mode of governance to another mode, as it impacts their ability to influence decision making. The cases illustrate the changing nature of this relative power in wetland management in Bogotá.