Session 9
Session 9
Legal Frameworks to Support Community Based Natural Resource Management
Erika Techera
Centre for Environmental Law, Division of Law, Macquarie University NSW, Australia
In recent decades there has been a paradigm shift in approaches taken to natural resource management. Whereas positivist legal approaches have been taken in the past, increasingly attention is turning away from centralised regulation towards more participatory and community based practices. Initiatives that involve the participation of all stakeholders are clearly morally persuasive and socially responsible. From a practical perspective many projects provide evidence of positive social and environmental outcomes. However, in the longer term it has been recognised that State based legal support, in one form or another, is also needed.
There is a wealth of literature on legal theory generally and similarly much has been written on community based conservation practices. However, relatively little work has been devoted to identifying the legal theories and frameworks that could be used to support community based participatory natural resource management approaches. Therefore there is little material to assist law and policy makers charged with designing these new laws.
This paper seeks to fill that gap by providing an introduction to the legal theories, principles and concepts that may be used as a foundation for legal frameworks that support communities taking control of their own environment. In particular attention will be given to the concept of environmental justice as well as principles of international law including human rights and the emerging law of sustainable development. In addition legal pluralism will be considered in the context of post colonial societies. This paper does not seek to provide an in depth analysis of each of these theories and concepts but rather to provide an introductory overview for inter-disciplinary environmental scholars and practitioners.
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Environmental Information, Participation and Citizens’ Activity. Case Studies from Poland and the UK
Radoslaw Stech
The ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS), Cardiff University, United Kingdom
The Aarhus Convention is a United Nations Regional Convention signed by the European Union which rests upon three pillars, namely access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. It promotes environmental justice, transparency and citizenship. It sets minimum standards for the signatories and countries can provide a broader catalogue of rights within the framework of the Convention.
This paper is aimed at presenting results of two case studies based in Poland and the UK. Both cases involve sites of deposited waste that give rise to environmental problems. The paper uses material from the case studies to examine compliance with the first two pillars of the Aarhus Convention and citizens’ levels of satisfaction and expectations.
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