| dc.description.abstract | The presence of zombie environmental institutions, as institutions that persist beyond their usefulness, poses a novel area of interest and concern within global environmental governance. This thesis applied the concept to Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) Secretariats, specifically to those that are species-specific. The research objective centres on how zombie institutions can be systematically identified and assessed, addressing the gap in understanding their prevalence and impact within global environmental governance. Zombie IOs were conceptualised along three interrelated dimensions: persistence despite irrelevance, adaptation driven by a (primary) motivation to survive, and causing a negative impact on the wider governance landscape. This thesis adopts a pragmatic research approach, utilising a systematic case study analysis adopting a systematic mixed methods approach. The analysis integrates qualitative document analysis of treaty texts, secretarial reports, and other institutional documents, with quantitative institutions measures around three criteria building from the conceptual model: treaty lineage and mandate change, relevance to contemporary challenges, and patterns of performance. This research examined 28 species-specific MEA secretariats, representing the complete population as identified in the International Environmental Agreements Database. The findings show a significant degree of variation in institutional health with substantial evidence of zombie characteristics across the population. The results represent the first large-N empirical examination of zombie institutions within the global governance landscape, demonstrating their prevalence, with half of the species-specific MEA secretariats (n=14) within the sample categorised as either mid or high concern. 5 Secretariats were assessed as of High Concern: the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, the International Whaling Commission, the Pelagos Secretariat, and the Polar Bear Range States. This research operationalises the zombie institution concept from an evocative metaphor into an analytical framework. The thesis adds mandate obsolescence as a third existential threat facing MEA IOs, contributing to both scholarly literature and practical efforts to reform and revitalise global environmental governance. At a time of increasing pressure on global environmental governance, tackling zombies would set a positive precedent for reform within the landscape. | |
