23. Institutions for Environmental Governance: Issues of Community Participation and Sustainable Development

Lead Papers

Dr. Grigori Abramia, Dr. Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, Shawkat Ali and Ayesha Akhter and Md. Hasibur Rahman, Keith Archer and Richard Roberts, Dr. Jyotsna Bapat, Dr. Allan Barsky and Karen Hanna and Bill Diepeveen and Maureen Wilson, Ayalneh Bogale, Milan Chrenko and Kamil Vilinovic, Ludmila Ignatenko and Victoria Churikova, Dr. John C. Dernbach, Nurgul Djanaeva, Valery Drouziaka, Ian G. Gilchrist, Min Guo, Xiaohui Hao, Mikylas Huba, Vladimír Hudek, Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy, Kun H. JOHN and Yeo C. Youn and Jae W. Park, Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey, Vladimir Victorovich Lagutov, Laszlo Miklos,James Mwami, Dr. B. Sudhakara Reddy, Dr. A.S.R.A.S. Sastri and V.P. Singh, Usha Sekhar and Anil Agarwal, Pavel Toma, Professor Madireddi Venkata Subba Rao,Kamil Vilinovic and Milan Chrenko

Bapat described the 'new social movements' are social movements in the sense of having a broad organisational structure and an ideology, aimed at social change. They define their exploitation and oppression in new terms - related to conflict school, but having clear differences with it. These groups are exploited in ways which are related to the new processes of contemporary capitalism but which are left unconceptualised by 'traditional' conflict theorists. The environmental movements within the new social movements express the concerns of groups of people regarding depletion of water, degradation of land and other changes in ecosystems affecting traditional patterns of natural resource exploitation. These movements generally take place in rural areas, and the leadership for the movement generally comes from outside the community that is adversely affected.

Bogale explained that even with a multitude of conservation intervention introduced worldwide over the last 50 years, it could be expected that agricultural soil erosion would no longer be excessive. Yet, it is clear that land degradation resulting from excessive soil loss in agricultural area remains a major environmental problem through out the world (Lewis et al., 1996). With soil conservation practiced widely in many developing countries, accelerated soil erosion continues to threaten these nations’ food security and economic development. In Africa, area expansion of agriculture has been a norm for a number of decades, and today there is increasing expansion in to the fragile lands. This increasing utilization of marginal lands, especially in the highlands, is the result of growing population and its uneven distribution, limited arable land and restricted employment opportunities in the non-agrarian sectors. The rate of forest exploitation for fuel, construction and other needs by far exceeds that of supply (sustainably harvested from the resource). An increased reliance on dung and agricultural residue for fuel has reduced the organic matter content of the soil and increased erosion. The loss in nutrients and reduced water retention capacity led to the collapse of peasant farming usually triggered by drought that could have been previously tolerated.

Vilinovic,  Chrenko, Hudek,  Toma and  Miklos claimed that the overall aim of the project is to contribute to creating an understanding of sustainable development as an ongoing, cumulative process owned by the society as a whole. It consists of a formulation and the implementation of a National Strategy for Sustainable Development (NSSD) as a governmental policy document with the broad participation of the civil society.

Min Guo explained that the Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) has not been successfully adopted nationwide in China because of fierce inter-agency rivalries, especially between land management authorities and marine management authorities. Consequently, marine management authorities, which are most enthusiastic in ICAM, have promoted marine area use management (MSUM) instead. In January 1991, the first county level MSUM program was established in Chengmai County, Hainan Province. By the end of 1992, all counties and cities in Hainan Province had established similar programs. In May 1993, the Ministry of Treasury and State Oceanic Administration (SOA) jointly promulgated "Interim National Marine Area Use Management Regulation," which marked the beginning of China's national MSUM program. The national regulation established two systems: permitting system and levying system: all economic uses of coastal seas need a permit from the government; all users of marine space are required to pay the government license fees. The national MSUM program is the first major systematic effort of the Chinese government to regulate marine area use. It marked the end of the largely unregulated use of "common" marine space. It marked the end of the largely unregulated use of "common" marine space. It has been conducive to reducing marine use conflicts. This program has the potential to be the most important regulatory program of SOA's. The SOA has been working hard to expand and improve this program. The following issues are of highest priority.

Abramia explained that the legislation of Georgia corresponds with universally recognized norms and principles of international law. International treaties or agreements concluded with and by Georgia and they are not in contradiction to the Constitution of Georgia have prior legal force internal normative acts. Georgia has signed several International Conventions on environmental protection among them: · The Convention on the Biological Diversity signed in Rio-de-Janeiro in 1992 - April 21, · Convention of Climate Change signed on May 9, 1992 in New York - May 16, 1994; etc.