Margulies, Massé, and VandeBerg (2023) emphasize that environmental governance often leads to what?

• A. It eliminates illegality.
• B. It often produces illegal or informal practices and resistance.
• C. It has no unintended consequences.
• D. It consistently supports compliance and legitimacy.

Answer: (B)

Environmental governance often produces illegal or informal practices and resistance. When rules are set to manage resources, people respond to the design and enforcement of those rules in ways that can bypass them or challenge them. Strict or opaque regulations, high enforcement pressure, or policies that ignore local livelihoods can push activities underground, spark informal networks, or give rise to corruption and noncompliance. At the same time, communities or actors may resist rules they view as unfair, misaligned with local needs, or difficult to meet, leading to pushback, protests, or deliberate noncompliance. These unintended effects show that governance can create incentives and tensions that undermine formal legitimacy, rather than simply achieving compliance.