Environmental planning, sustainability and development

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Environmental planning, sustainability and
development

• Lecture series Development and environment
• Sanna Mäki
• 25.11. 2004

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Connective viewpoints
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Natural resources, development and information
  about ecosystems
• Developing countries and tropics/Physical
  geographical overview of tropical regions
• Health and Development
• The distribution and defining characteristics of
  ecosystems in the tropics
• Deforestation and natural resource use in the
  tropics
• Global environmental issues from a tropical
  perspective
• Urban agriculture in developing countries
• Arid tropics
• The Sahel syndrome
• Water and Development
• Environmental planning, sustainability and
  development

INFORMATION ? UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES
ENVIRONMENT
MEANS FOR IMPROVED MANAGEMENT ? SUSTAINABILITY
RESOURCES
INFORMATION ? UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES
SOCIETY
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Sustainability in development

• Sustainable development
• development that meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs, the
  Brundtland Commission 1987
• Global Objectives
• Promoting equity (between generations, between
  poor and rich)
• Improving the quality of human life
  (environmental, socio-political and economic
  aspects)
• Sustaining natural resources (sustainable use and
  conservation)
• Protecting health of people and environment
  (biosafety and control of contamination)
• International obligations (interdependent and
  integrated world shared responsibilities)

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Sustainability assembly kit (1)

• International decision-making ? globalisation
  shared responsibility
• Agreements ? implementation of sustainable
  policies in different levels of decision-making
  structures

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Sustainability assembly kit (2)

• 2. Legislation policies ? guidelines for
  development
• To be effective, international decision-making
  needs to be supported by the national legislation
• National legislation ? local implementation ?
• Environmental legislation is commonly inchoate
  and relatively week in developing countries ?
  open to interpretations and loopholes
• Many instruments for building sustainable
  development need to have validity to operate

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Sustainability assembly kit (3)

• 3. Environmental Planning
• ? preventing stochastic use of resources

EXAMPLE Economic and Ecological Zoning - TCA

• Information understanding
• Physiography
• Fauna
• Forests forestry
• Geology
• Geomorfology
• Hydrobiology
• Hydrography
• Socio-economic potential
• Socioeconomy
• Soils and land use capacity
• Current land use
• Vegetation

Madre de Dios Region Peru 2001
PLANNED USE
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ZEE in Amazonian countries

• Common conceptual and metodological basis for
  land use planning in all Amazonian countries
• TCA Amazon Cooperation Treaty
• Different ways and traditions for implementation
  ? important to share experiences and develop the
  methodology
• No supportive legislation ? the objective of the
  planning process is to have an effect on land use
  practices and activities of different actors of
  society ? ILLEGAL plannig!!

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Sustainability assembly kit (4)

• 4. Education awareness
• Education in different levels
• environmental awareness ? understanding and use
  of knowledge in decision-making
• Role of information in decision-making
• Availability of information information
  services
• Technical achievements (SIAMAZONIA)
• Geographic information
• Spatial information for spatial problems
• Problems with spatial information

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Sustainability assembly kit (5)

• 5. Mechanisms for assessments follow-up
• EIA SIA
• Require supportive legislation to be executed and
  to have impact on actions
• Prone to conflicts inawareness of the reasons
  and justifications of these processes ? barriers
  against development
• Require both financial and human resources
• Follow-up
• Require supporitve legislation and resources
• Tool for improved management of environment and
  resources or a truism

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Sustainability assembly kit (6)

• 6. Responsible and democratic economic sector
• Green markets ? environmental, economic and
  socio-political dimensions
• Equitable sharing of benefits
• National/local rights to national/local resources
  
• Complicated marketing channels
• Access to markets
• Role of private sector in society
• free market economy

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Interdependency
Agreements
Legislation policies
Planning
Assessment tools
Economy
Education Awareness