Transnational Advocacy and the Politics of Sustainable Development in a Small Island Developing State: An Uncertain Future for the Grenada Dove

• Published date: 01 June 2018
• Author: Jonathan Rosenberg
• Date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/1070496518756163
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Transnational Advocacy

and the Politics of

Sustainable Development

in a Small Island

Developing State: An

Uncertain Future for

the Grenada Dove

Jonathan Rosenberg

1

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative case study of a transnational activist network

(TAN) to protect the endangered Grenada Dove that achieved measurable success

in the 1990s and then reformed in the 2000s when a planned resort complex and

new law allowing the privatization of public lands renewed threats to the dove

habitat. Unlike many of the success stories of TAN influence, this case questions

the long-term efficacy of TANs engaged in political contestation over biodiversity

conservation in small, economically dependent democracies. Findings suggest that

when TANs participate directly in political contestation over national development

policy, they do amplify the voices of local activists but lose influence and cohesion

when engaged in domestic-level political contestation against alliances of elected

officials and transnational corporations, especially when powerful and popular polit-

icians, responding to exogenous economic shocks, link their ‘‘sustainable’’ develop-

ment priorities to foreign direct investment and competitiveness in global markets.

Keywords

transnational advocacy networks, small island developing states, sustainable

development, Eastern Caribbean, political contestation, conservation policy

Journal of Environment &

Development

2018, Vol. 27(2) 236–261

!The Author(s) 2018

Reprints and permissions:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/1070496518756163

journals.sagepub.com/home/jed

1

Department of Social Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jonathan Rosenberg, Illinois Institute of Technology, 116E Siegel Hall, 3301S. Dearborn St., Chicago,

IL 60616, USA.

Email: jrosenb5@iit.edu

The national bird of Grenada is a dove of unremarkable appearance that is

endemic to the island and found only in small patches of dry scrub forest.

It is also one of the world’s most endangered species and the focus of political

struggles lasting more than a quarter of a century.

1

In 1996, international ef‌forts to preserve the dove’s shrinking habitat culmi-

nated in the establishment of a new national park at Mount Hartman Estate and

a dove preserve at Perseverance Estate, supported by World Bank loans and a

Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant (see Figure 1). The park’s visitor

center, staf‌fed by the Department of Forestry and National Parks (hereafter,

Forestry Department or FD), of‌fers guided walks along designated trails.

It appeals principally to ‘‘birders’’ and nature tourists, and ‘‘[w]ithout question,

the ‘bird to see’ is the endemic Grenada Dove’’ (Caribbean Birding Trail, n.d.).

But the protection af‌forded the dove through statute was ephemeral. In 2006,

the Government of Grenada announced that Four Seasons Hotels and

Resorts—a Canada-based transnational corporation (TNC)—would build a

luxury hotel, condominium, and golf course complex abutting the park, and

1 year later, parliament gave the Governor General authority to privatize

public lands by decree. A transnational network of Grenadian civil society

organizations, public of‌f‌icials, and business associations and their international

allies received the government’s claim that dove habitat would not be disturbed

with deep skepticism, and members feared that the project and new law marked

a new development strategy based on privatization of public lands and all-

inclusive resorts. This network was a new version of one that inf‌luenced the

creation of the park and preserve. But its second iteration confronted

a Grenadian economy under stress from the ef‌fects of a devastating hurricane

in 2004, followed by the Great Recession of 2007–2008 and a government

focused on growth and recovery.

For the government, these were exogenous shocks that created f‌inancial exi-

gency and justif‌ied retreat from the preservationist approach to sustainable

development represented by the park and preserve. For the network, the

shocks revived its ef‌forts, expanded its membership to include a larger role for

international environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and gave

it internationally salient issues to address. The ensuing contestation played out

in domestic political arenas as an argument between two coalitions, both rhet-

orically committed to dove conservation and sustainable development: one

arguing that nature tourism in the contested area was the best solution and

the other arguing that the dove and a large-scale tourism venture could coexist.

In policy terms, the latter won. Policies allowing commercial development in the

contested area and new resort-style tourism projects throughout the island were

upheld, even though the Four Seasons project was never built.

This article traces the declining inf‌luence of the network by describing mem-

bers’ roles in the politics of contestation over public lands policy and the design

of the Four Seasons project. The analysis applies concepts from the literature on

Rosenberg 237