Effective environmental governance is deemed essential in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. However, environmental dimensions have no specific reference across the SDG 16 targets and indicators. In achieving SDG 16—the realization of peace, justice, and strong institution, polycentric environmental governance involving multiple actors across scales deserves thoughtful consideration. This study illustrates the potential of a polycentric approach to environmental governance in achieving SDG 16, using case studies of forest, watershed, and transboundary bushland and seascape management in Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa, namely Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Kenya–Somalia cross-border. By highlighting four key elements of polycentric governance namely, political will, legal framework, support from higher-level governance and capacity building, the case studies demonstrate that polycentric governance play a significant role in achieving three environment-relevant SDG 16 targets, yet these targets are silent about environmental governance dimensions. Since many conflicts arise from the environment and natural resources sector, we suggest that (i) polycentric environmental governance be strongly pursued to achieve SDG 16, and (ii) SDG 16 includes indicators specifically directed on polycentric environment and natural resource governance.

Soil erosion is one of the global challenges noticed as a cause for unsustainable socio-economic and environmental conditions. Over the last half-century, various soil and water conservation (SWC) practices were introduced in Ethiopia, but the conservation work could not be fully achieved in many areas. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect and constraints of physical SWC on selected soil biophysical and chemical properties of the Ethiopian rift valley. The primary and secondary data sources were used to answer the intended objectives. The statistical analysis of variance showed that the soil texture of the study area was affected by the type of conservation technologies than agroecology and slope characteristics. However, soil bulk density was not significantly affected at all. The study also showed that the soil biophysical and chemical properties were significantly affected by the variation of agroecology and SWC technologies. The overall result of the study depicted that about 40% of the conservation work failed to maintain soil fertility because the farmers have constraints to adopt and adapt the SWC work. The constraints include small land size, shortage of fuel wood, dependency on food aid, less productivity of the soil, youth migration, and long lasted effect of conservation works. These constraints were seen as causes for inferior agricultural product, food insecurity, famine, migration and frequent drought of the area. The study concluded that the SWC work of the area should focus on variation of agroecology, SWC technologies, and local constraints. Also, the policy of natural resource conservation should consider local constraints to implement the national SWC guideline.