Institutional embedding

Guidance context

A normative assumption underlying this enabler is that we are dealing with institutions in democracies. Democracies operate under the ‘rule of law’ which means that rules are made collectively in a well-defined process, and every human being is subject to the agreed laws. This principle makes a democratic regulative system predictable. BwN may also take place in non-democratic states. In a non-democratic state, any rule can pop up at any moment, if a person with power wants it. Because of this unpredictability, we cannot provide any useful guidelines for operating in non-democracies.

The enabler guidance is divided in three parts:

1. International enabling policy environment. In this part we address a few international frameworks and agreements that are relevant for Building with Nature. BwN is a worldwide practice and while local contexts can be extremely diverse, these international frameworks can provide common ground for negotiations. We also provide some ideas how regulative systems might become more supportive for BwN technology.

2. General structure of regulatory frameworks. From the international level we go to the national level. Our assumption is that studying regulative systems is not a daily practice of BwN developers. From the outside, such systems may seem an impenetrable jungle of arbitrary rules, but there actually is structure in it. With a basic explanation we will provide help in navigating this world of regulations. We will pay special attention to biodiversity regulations in the European Union.

3. Innovative contracting for BwN. From state law we switch to private law. For BwN projects, a different kind of contract is needed compared to traditional engineering projects. Each new BwN project needs a tailor-made agreement, based on the (unusual) combination of partners and the problem at hand. This is still under development, but some first guidelines are available.