Gestión conjunta del medio ambiente fronterizo y TLC: cambio institucional, actores locales y redes transfronterizas

Abstract

Until recently it was considered that transborder environmental management along the US-Mexico border was practically and politically unfeasible. This type of management implies cooperation and joint planning among local organizations that co-exist like mutually independent entities, but decide to establish collaborative links across the border. In this study it is argued that the new environmental institutions derived from NAFTA have contributed to the elimination of barriers and to the creation of incentives for transborder relationships and cooperation. As a result, the border region has experienced an increase in the formation of interorganizational networks that function as channels for information and resources exchange, and contribute to the development of a milieu which is favorable to transborder environmental management. Using the environmental organizations of the cities of San Diego and Tijuana as a case study, this article utilizes the methods of social networks analysis to explore the extension and configuration of collaboration networks in which these organizations get involved, to analyze the nature of its relations, as well as to characterize dominant interaction patterns.