Environmental governance through information: China and Vietnam Arthur P.J. Mol Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands Correspondence: Arthur P.J. Mol (email: arthur.mol@wur.nl) In the field of environmental governance information is starting to become increasingly important, not least because of globalization and the information and communication technologies revolution. The notion of informational governance is a recent coinage that acknowledges the (partial) switch from regulatory-based forms of governance to information-based modes. In the information-rich centres and nodes of the network society, where information is widely produced, disseminated and accessible, this might prove analytically useful. But what are the contours of informational gov- ernance in information-poor environments? This paper looks into the (limited) emergence of informational governance arrangements in environmental protection in two cases characterizing the informational periphery: China and Vietnam. Keywords: informational governance, environmental protection, monitoring, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), information and communication technologies (ICT), transitional economies Informational governance Although the current era, routinely dubbed the information age, has witnessed the growing centrality of informational processes in economic, political, social and cultural institutions and developments, not much attention has focussed on the role of infor- mation in environmental protection and governance. Recently, with the increasing opening up of countries and regions to new modes of ICT and the changing role of information in environmental governance, this field encompassing issues of information regulation, has received more scrutiny (Esty, 2004; Mol, 2006). Perspectives on informational governance build upon and share the core concerns of the wider literature on new modes of governance, notably the growing involvements of nongovernmental actors in governing arrangements, the diversification of modes of governing from a monopoly of law-based regulatory intervention, and the complex interdependencies of different levels of governance, ranging from local to truly global (e.g. Kooiman, 2003; Treib et al., 2007). Within the broader governance framework, the concept of informational governance emphasizes the key importance of informa- tion (together with informational processes and resources) in fundamentally restruc- turing the processes, institutions and practices of (environmental) governance. Information is increasingly regarded as a (re)source with transformative potential, not just an enabling condition for environmental policy formulation. Consequently, con- temporary environmental struggles and movements that since the 1960s were ori- ented toward shaping state laws, policies and measures, are increasingly defining their agenda through the rights of access to, production and verification of, and control over information. The field of environmental governance has come to be marked by a whole new set of informational dynamics and innovations, most conspicuously those related to new (and ICT-based) disclosure systems (e.g. following the Aarhus convention adopted in 1998), the mushrooming ecolabelling and other certification systems, the growing importance of verification and auditing environmental compliance, tracking and tracing doi:10.1111/j.1467-9493.2008.00358.x Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30 (2009) 114–129 © 2009 The Author Journal compilation © 2009 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd