This paper will explain and analyse how the Mexican state calls on private actors to ensure higher level of compliance with domestic environmental regulations and what are the outcomes of such dynamics in terms of environmental governance. The paper argues that it is in developing countries, where the state has little resources to ensure that business actors will comply with existing environmental regulations that voluntary regulations need to be assessed. In Mexico, the framework within which voluntary regulations take place is actually designed and shaped by the state but increasingly operated by private actors.
