Beyond Policy Partnership: Nonprofits in Advancing Environmental Justice

• In Event: Renovating Democracy through Addressing Environmental Justice

Abstract

This study aims to answer two research questions. First, can nonprofits lead policy collaborations to enhance natural resource management through their advocacy for participant diversity? Second, can these policy collaborations contribute to improving environmental justice? Existing literature primarily uses supplementary or complementary models to describe government-nonprofit relationships, usually positioning the government as the leader in both. Contrary to this, I propose a novel theoretical approach wherein nonprofits act as leaders in policy process, coordinating cross-sector collaborations. Furthermore, I argue that nonprofits play a pivotal role in fostering participant diversity in policy collaboration process, thereby enhancing environmental performance and justice.

I explore these arguments in Oregon watersheds using multiple data sources, including: (1) water quality index data from 160 water monitoring stations; (2) establishment data for 82 nonprofit watershed councils; (3) details of 22,920 collaborative restoration projects from the Oregon Watershed Restoration Inventory; and (4) block-level demographic data from the Census Bureau. I have aggregated these data sources to construct a watershed-year panel dataset spanning from 1980 to 2021. I analyze the data in three stages, starting with the staggered difference-in-differences method to identify the impact of watershed council establishments on water quality improvement. Second, I perform a mediation analysis to explore how participant diversity influences the link between watershed councils and water quality improvement. Finally, I perform subgroup analyses to compare the effects of water quality improvement in both high- and low-income areas, as well as in areas with white-majority and nonwhite-majority populations.

Through these analyses, this study is the first research endeavor to investigate the influence of nonprofit leadership on environmental policy and justice.

Author

• Yixin Liu, Northern Arizona University