In this thesis I examine the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in addressing environmental risks within the Spanish-Swiss strawberry value chain, focusing on Huelva's intensive berry production adjacent to the Doñana wetlands. Through a critical constructivist approach combining global value chain analysis with the Multi-Level Perspective framework, I investigate how power relationships and market dynamics influence environmental governance in horticultural value chains. Through semi-structured expert interviews with value chain actors in Switzerland and Spain, as well as site visits to production facilities across Huelva's berry-growing region I collected qualitative data to analyze these relationships and dynamics within the MSI of a Swiss supermarket retailer. In analyzing the data produced by these interviews and site visits, I discovered that while MSIs facilitate the adoption of efficiency enhancing technologies and environmental upgrading practices, their effectiveness in contributing to a sustainable transformation in Huelva’s berry sector is constrained by market and political institutions that incentivize expanding intensive production. Three key dynamics emerged from the dialogue with stakeholders: Firstly, environmental innovations primarily focus on input efficiency rather than transformative agroecological change in production. Secondly, power asymmetries between retailers, traders, and producers characterize the implementation and outcomes of environmental governance mechanisms within the MSI. Lastly, the current misalignment between economic and environmental policies at the landscape level critically undermines the potential for a fundamental sustainable transition in the sector to promote both responsible natural resource use and the conservation of biodiversity in Huelva’s intensive berry sector. With this thesis, I contribute to the literature on environmental governance in global value chains by demonstrating how market-based initiatives interact with institutional frameworks to shape sustainability outcomes. I contend that effective environmental risk management in fresh fruit and vegetable value chains requires harmonizing market and political instruments while addressing power imbalances between value chain actors. My findings have implications for the development of environmental strategies for value chain and food system actors and indicate the need for more integrated and agroecological approaches to sustainable intensification in horticultural production.
Isabelle Katharine Ann Bürger (Fri,) studied this question.