Informational governance - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 102

arrangements (e.g., Krut and Gleckman, 1998 ). So a whole set of
new questions emerge. What are the environmental governance conse-
quences of the increasing global importance of environmental informa-
tion collection, processing and accessibility for those localities, regions
and practices that are disconnected from the informational highway?
Are the growing global demands on environmental information pro-
cesses putting developing countries again in a disadvantaged position
in global environmental governance? And what does this mean for the
action repertoires of international and bilateral donor agencies, of the
transnational companies that work in these informational peripheries,
and the global environmental movement organisations that are con-
nected to the global informational flows and networks?
Consequently, against the background of emerging systems of infor-
mational governance in an unequal world, we have to assess (i) to what
extent informational governance has already any relevance for environ-
mental governance outside the OECD countries; (ii) how international
and global informational governance arrangements and practices affect
domestic environmental governance systems in developing countries;
(iii) how the (power) positions of developing countries in international
and global governance systems are changing under the emergence of
informational governance (and not only vis- a-vis other states, but also
vis- a-vis international institutions, transnational companies and global
civil society organisations such as Conservation International and the
WWF).
8. Conclusion
This chapter has discussed the idea of an emerging practice of infor-
mational governance in the field of environmental protection. Informa-
tional governance as an ideal-typical model differs from conventional
environmental governance in that informational processes, resources
and struggles move to the centre of environmental governance and pol-
itics, increasingly replacing authoritative resources, nation-state power
and conventional bureaucratic processes. Informational governance
finds its origin in various - mutually dependent - developments that
have come together in embarking on a new millennium. The stronger
role of information and communications technologies enable infor-
mation to play a larger role in all kind of social, political and eco-
nomic processes. Globalisation has compressed time and space in social