Governance and Environmental Politics in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia showcases a complex tapestry of political structures and environmental challenges whereby states, regional bodies and local communities vie to shape resource management and conservation. National governments with varying degrees of centralisation implement policies to support economic growth, often prioritising hydropower, plantation agriculture and urbanisation while seeking to address deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provides a platform for regional cooperation on transboundary crises such as haze pollution, yet its normative commitment to non-interference and consensus impedes robust collective action. Environmental discourses—ranging from ecological modernisation and green neoliberalism to environmental justice and radical incrementalism—frame debates on sustainable development and illustrate tensions between market-based solutions and more transformative social movements. Civil society actors, indigenous peoples and international donors form diverse coalitions that contest top-down governance models, advocating participatory approaches, community-based conservation and secure land tenure. Cross-scale interactions between global norms, national policies and local practices have produced both innovative governance arrangements, such as adaptive water management in the Mekong Basin, and persistent policy gaps, including weak enforcement and inequitable benefit-sharing. As states navigate competing pressures for economic development and environmental protection, the region offers instructive insights into the politics of scale, the role of expert knowledge and the contested nature of sustainability transitions.

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Governance and Environmental Politics in Southeast Asia publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in governance and environmental politics in southeast asia across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Environmental governance: The ensemble of laws, institutions and processes through which societies manage environmental resources and address ecological challenges.

Hydropolitics: The political interactions and power dynamics surrounding the management of transboundary and national water resources.

Transboundary haze: Air pollution that crosses national borders, primarily resulting from land and forest fires, with widespread health and economic impacts.

Land concession: A legal grant of land by a state to private entities for agricultural, commercial or industrial development, often associated with large-scale plantations.

References

1. Radical incrementalism: hydropolitics and environmental discourses in Laos. Environmental Politics (2024).
2. The Politics of Scale, Position, and Place in the Governance of Water Resources in the Mekong Region. Ecology and Society (2005).
3. Resistance and Contingent Contestations to Large-Scale Land Concessions in Southern Laos and Northeastern Cambodia. Land (2017).
4. Addressing Transboundary Haze Through Asean: Singapore’s Normative Constraints. Journal of International Studies (2020).