Earth Summit Research Articles

The need to disentangle key concepts from ecosystem-approach jargon.

The ecosystem approach—as endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) in 2000—is a strategy for holistic, sustainable, and equitable natural resource management, to be implemented via the 12 Malawi Principles. These principles describe the need to manage nature in terms of dynamic ecosystems, while fully engaging with local peoples. It is an ambitious concept. Today, the term is common throughout the research and policy literature on environmental management. However, multiple meanings have been attached to the term, resulting in confusion. We reviewed references to the ecosystem approach from 1957 to 2012 and identified 3 primary uses: as an alternative to ecosystem management or ecosystem-based management; in reference to an integrated and equitable approach to resource management as per the CBD; and as a term signifying a focus on understanding and valuing ecosystem services. Although uses of this term and its variants may overlap in meaning, typically, they do not entirely reflect the ethos of the ecosystem approach as defined by the CBD. For example, there is presently an increasing emphasis on ecosystem services, but focusing on these alone does not promote decentralization of management or use of all forms of knowledge, both of which are integral to the CBD’s concept. We highlight that the Malawi Principles are at risk of being forgotten. To better understand these principles, more effort to implement them is required. Such efforts should be evaluated, ideally with comparative approaches, before allowing the CBD’s concept of holistic and socially engaged management to be abandoned or superseded. It is possible that attempts to implement all 12 principles together will face many challenges, but they may also offer a unique way to promote holistic and equitable governance of natural resources. Therefore, we believe that the CBD’s concept of the ecosystem approach demands more attention.La Necesidad de Desenredar Conceptos Clave del Argot Ambiente-EstrategiaResumenLa estrategia ambiental – como es promocionada por la Convención Biológica sobre Diversidad en 2000 – es una estrategia para un manejo holístico, sustentable y equitativo de recursos naturales, que habrá de implementarse por vía de los 12 Principios de Malawi. Estos principios describen la necesidad de manejar la naturaleza en términos de ecosistemas dinámicos, mientras se compromete totalmente con las personas locales. Es un concepto ambicioso. Hoy en día, el término es común en la investigación y la literatura de políticas sobre el manejo ambiente. Sin embargo, se han relacionado múltiples significados con el término, lo que resulta en confusión. Revisamos referencias a la estrategia ambiental de 1957 a 2012 e identificamos tres usos principales: como una alternativa para manejo ambiental o basado en ecosistemas; en referencia a una estrategia integrada y equitativa para el manejo de recursos según la CBD; y como un término que indica un enfoque en el entendimiento y la valuación de los servicios ambientales. Aunque los usos de este término y sus variantes pueden traslaparse en su significado, típicamente no reflejan en su totalidad los valores de la estrategia ambiental como fue definida por la CBD. Por ejemplo, actualmente hay un énfasis creciente en los servicios ambientales, pero enfocarse solamente en estos no promueve la descentralización del manejo o el uso de todas las formas de conocimiento, siendo ambas integrales para el concepto de la CBD. Resaltamos que los Principios de Malawi están en riesgo de ser olvidados. Para entender mejor estos principios, se requiere de más esfuerzo para implementarlos. Dichos esfuerzos deben ser evaluados, idóneamente con estrategias comparativas, antes de permitir que el concepto de la CBD de manejo holístico y comprometido socialmente sea abandonado o reemplazado. Es posible que los intentos por implementar los 12 principios juntos enfrentarán muchos obstáculos, pero también pueden ofrecer una forma única de promover el gobierno holístico y equitativo de los recursos naturales. Así, creemos que el concepto de estrategia ambiental de la CBD exige mayor atención.

Strategies and measures for implementing eco-labelling schemes in Singapore's construction industry

The issue of sustainability in the construction industry is very prominent, as the industry often causes adverse impacts on the environment through its use of large amounts of natural resources and by clearing large areas of their natural habitats. After the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro proposed the use of eco-labels to attain sustainable development, the growth and use of eco-labelling schemes have increased significantly. This study focuses on eco-labelling schemes, particularly the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme (SGLS) and the Singapore Green Building Product Certification Scheme (SGBPCS), and their contributions to the Singapore construction industry. The effectiveness of the schemes and of their drivers is determined through the analysis of survey results from two groups of samples (suppliers and architects) and interviews with some of the key stakeholders involved. It can be observed that the both the supplier and architect groups have some knowledge and awareness of eco-labelling schemes in the Singapore context. However, in terms of implementation, both schemes are only moderately effective in advocating the use and production of eco-labelled building products. It was also found that, out of several factors, “environmental rating” appears to be the only one that significantly influences the decision to use eco-labelled schemes. Furthermore, the results show that SGBPCS was not as heavily promoted in the architect group as in the supplier group. The architects perceived the SGBC advertisements to be less convincing than did the suppliers, and therefore they considered the SGBC's measures to promote the use of eco-labelled materials to be less effective. From the empirical results, strategies and measures are proposed for industry stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness of the eco-labelling schemes in the construction industry.

A Review on Sustainability Principles of Building: Formulation of a Theoretical Framework

Sustainable development has received encouraging attention since the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was signed in 1992 Earth Summit. In Malaysia, the focus on sustainability in building, especially in devising policies has been spelled out in the government policies at national, state and local level. It can be considered that many efforts relating to sustainability in building project have been implemented in the country, however till now sustainability in Malaysian building projects are still remain without proven. It was revealed that most of the current frameworks of sustainability in the country are not equipped to handle sustainable building project. It is often encouraged environmental measure in most cases, yet the rest of measures are less promoted. To response to the issues, this study therefore aims to explore the sustainability principles of building through the review of relevant literatures. Content analysis is used to identify the principles in the sustainability literature relevant to building projects. A theoretical framework of sustainability principles of building was then formulated to be the main outcome of the study. The framework consists of a list of 29 sustainability principles of building to be taken into account throughout the project development process. The findings is very important to be a useful starting point for future study, especially for formulating a clear guide for the development of upcoming sustainable building projects to its actual meaning.

Rio+20: A Missed Opportunity

The Rio + 20 were a landmark event in addressing serious environment & economic crisis affecting the world. The Earth summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came together to chart a road map for sustainable development and poverty eradication. But the developed and developing countries could not wipe out their differences and reach consensus on the definition of green economy. The new draft was in favour of developed countries .The current draft agreement is bereft of necessary vision and commitment for eradicating poverty and tackling environmental degradation to deliver sustainable development. The document is still empty and very weak in addressing daunting and grave concerns of women, youth and children, farmers, indigenous people and workers. It has failed in addressing the reproductive and sexual rights of women. There are no strong commitments to women’s rights to land, property and inheritance. The main objective of this paper is to explore that how Rio +20 has become a victim of reduced commitments by developed countries to support the developing countries in the quest of their development. This paper is an academic endeavor to reflect that how the summit is a missed opportunity to tackle the most important environmental issues. There is an increasing rift between fashionable environmental issues focused on by rich countries and the prosaic needs of the rest of the world. The document is an offense to the future generation since the governments have agreed to maintain the status quo on so many issues that will severally effect the future generation. The document is a far cry from the ambitious response to world’s mounting social, economic and environmental crisis. It has missed the opportunity to shift global agriculture onto a path towards ecological sustainability and justice for the hungry. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n3p0139

Regulatory challenges for GM crops in developing economies: the African experience.

Globally, transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops are considered regulated products that are subject to regulatory oversight during trans-boundary movement, testing and environmental release. In Africa, regulations for transgenic crops are based on the outcomes of the historic Earth Summit Conference held in Rio, Brazil two decades ago, namely, the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the subsequent adoption of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. To exploit the potential benefits of transgenic crops while safeguarding the potential risks on human health and environment, most African countries have signed and ratified the CBD and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Consequently, these countries are required to take appropriate legal, administrative and other measures to ensure that the handling and utilization of living modified organisms are undertaken in a manner that reduces the risks to humans and the environment. These countries are also expected to provide regulatory oversight on transgenic crops through functional national biosafety frameworks (NBFs). While in principle this approach is ideal, NBFs in most African countries are steeped in a host of policy, legal and operational challenges that appear to be at cross-purposes with the noble efforts of seeking to access, test and deliver promising GM crops for use by resource-limited farmers in Africa. In this paper we discuss the regulatory challenges faced during the development and commercialization of GM crops based on experiences from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Greening growth in the South: practice, policies and new frontiers

Today's development model promotes the exploitation of natural resources regardless of the consequences for the environment or the impact that the quality of the environment has on people's lives and livelihoods. Without a shift in current consumption and production patterns, a sustainable model of development is out of reach. The 1992 Earth Summit acknowledged the need to marry growth and environmental sustainability, but more than 20 years later the world still lacks concrete goals, commitments, benchmarks of progress and frameworks to secure benefits across social, economic and environmental dimensions. The global South is emerging as a green growth laboratory, with innovation and creativity to tackle these concerns. This article analyses these efforts in the context of public policy, and shows that both positive and negative patterns in practice and policy are emerging, which should be considered as broader global green growth efforts are further consolidated and the post-2015 development agenda is being defined.

Tracing sustainability: Education for Sustainable Development in the lower secondary geography curricula of Germany, Romania, and Mexico

Over the last two decades Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has received increasing attention. Due to the close affinity that geography as a school subject shares with both theoretical constructs and methodologies of ESD, geography has assumed a key position in the implementation of ESD in formal education. Still, little attention has so far been paid to the specific geographical understanding of (E)SD as implemented in geography curricula as the official frameworks of formal education. Twenty years after the Earth Summit and five years after the Lucerne Declaration, this paper now takes a closer look at three approaches of conceptualizing sustainable development (SD) and implementing ESD in lower secondary geography curricula by means of mixed methods. The sample consisted of lower secondary geography curricula from Bavaria (Germany), Romania, and Mexico. The results show that despite the existence of both the Agenda 21 as a general guideline and various subject-specific ESD frameworks such as the Lucerne Declaration, national geography curricula construct different SD concepts. Elements of ESD are subject to neoliberal, Marxist-materialistic, or post-colonial ideological interpretation. In spite of geography's close affinity to theoretical constructs of (E)SD, lower secondary geography curricula not always foster ESD.

INTEGRATED PRODUCT POLICY IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING THE PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL CONSUMER ATTITUDE IN THE GIVEN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

This article offers possibilities to reduce the negative affect industrial products have on the environment, for which products’ life span has significantly shortened within the last twenty years. The influence tools designed by the European Commission within the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) are very effective on institutional entities. They were evaluated through their impact on the consumer attitudes of the Polish, German and Belgian citizens. It was concluded, based on empirical research, that the main criteria in the process of purchase decision-making are quality, price and functionality, but there were also communities identified, for which the social proof criteria is the priority. The pro ecology changes in the educational system for children and youth, as well as the social campaigns promoting the sustainable consumption among the citizens of the European Union will increase the implementation of the IPP. The correlation between the quality, price and environment would be most favorable. The thesis consist of two chapters and a subchapter. The first chapter describes the reasons for creating the IPP, as well as its tools and the level of their implementation. The second chapter brings up the concept of the sustainable consumption, the meaning of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro which was about the environment and the development, and it includes the reference to the documents of the Union. It analyses the role of business and the consumers in the implementation of the sustainable development. The subchapter consists of research on the sustainable consumption conducted on individual consumers.

Following Gandhi: Social Entrepreneurship as A Non-Violent Way of Communicating Sustainability Challenges

In the context of the Rio Earth Summit numerous international regimes, national policies and organizational guidelines have appeared that help translate the normative demands of sustainable development into political reality. The implementation of these instruments, however, often runs into difficulties or fails entirely. An example is the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), a progressive approach for the conservation of freshwater that is very unlikely to be implemented by 2015, the target year. We examine in this paper how a recent variation of Gandhian non-violent communication within social entrepreneurship suggests one way to deal with this challenge. Non-violent communication, rooted in Gandhian social action, has long been part of environmental politics. It has undergone a new variation as a mode of communication in the hands of social entrepreneurship initiatives that address urgent social and environmental issues with new, practical ideas. In the conceptual part of this paper, we outline our approach to sustainability, non-violent communication and social entrepreneurship. In a further part, we present data from a trans-disciplinary experiment to illustrate and critically discuss social entrepreneurship as a mode of sustainability communication. The experiment looked at, which is based on French social entrepreneur Roberto Epple’s idea of a Big Jump, is a collaborative campaign that invites young people to take action for water conservation in the context of the WFD.

Africa in the global climate change negotiations

The African Group of Negotiators (AGN) has become a much more significant bargaining coalition in the global climate change negotiations. It has been participating more proactively and on a much more significant scale, and, as a result, it has had a greater impact on bargaining outcomes, notably in Nairobi, Copenhagen and Durban. Yet, at present, the group remains poorly understood by both scholars and policymakers. Compared to other groups in the climate negotiations, such as the Group of 77 and Alliance of Small Island States, it has received relatively little attention. This paper fills this gap by tracking the evolution of the AGN over the course of the climate change negotiations. In the early years after the Earth Summit, it shows that the AGN faced tremendous difficulties pursing regional objectives effectively, largely due to a number of “internal” barriers to participation, which compounded the structural barriers that the continent faced by making it difficult to use “low-power” negotiating strategies such as coalition building, agenda-setting and persuasion. However, in recent years, the group has become much more proactive as a result of greater access to material, ideational and institutional resources. These have relieved, somewhat, the internal barriers that the group faced, making it possible for the AGN to negotiate much more confidently and effectively than before.

Identifying the main actors and their positions on international forest policy issues in Argentina

Resumen en: Since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, forest management and conservation have become important issues in international forest- related politics and poli...

Energy Policy in the Context of Sustainable Development: Case of Morocco and Algeria

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, one of the major problems of mankind is to combine the energy, the respect for environment. A problem of sustainable development has been clearly demonstrated in the Earth Summit in RIO (2012). Among the major battles to be fought in this century for the survival of the planet is to include energy efficiency as an international political priority, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Renewable energy, inexhaustible, clean, are needed in these conditions as a priority.As part of its energy strategy, Morocco gives priority to the development of renewable energy and to the sustainable development.The Moroccan Law on Renewable Energy aims to promote energy production from renewable sources, its marketing and its export by public or private entities.The Law of Energy Efficiency aims to integrate energy efficiency techniques in a sustainable manner.It is created under Law No. 57-09 “a Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy” aimed to achieve a developmentprogram of integrated projects for generating electricity from solar energy, with a minimum total capacity of 2000 MW.

Let's Bargain! Setting Standards for Sustainable Biofuels

This paper studies the contested nature of new modes of governance two decades after the “participatory paradigm” was announced at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. With a focus on private multi-stakeholder initiatives, it conducts an in-depth analysis of business-civil society interaction in the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, a scheme created to define an internationally accepted standard for biofuel production. Through its highly inclusive and transparent design, the roundtable provides what could be called ideal institutional scope conditions for participatory governance. However, falling far short of the participatory ideal of open-minded and consensus-oriented deliberation, the analysis uncovers how stakeholder interaction in the roundtable frequently collapsed into power struggles and interest group bargaining. Inquiring into the causes of this deliberation failure, the article identifies the high level of politicization in the biofuels arena as well as the background role of the state as the main explanatory factors.

Agenda 21: Pathway to a Better Tomorrow or Global Conspiracy to Subjugate Individual Rights?

Agenda 21 is a United Nations (UN) action plan designed to provide a practical framework for implementing the sustainable development model, which has been defined by the UN as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). Although it is not a legally binding treaty, the 178 countries (includ- ing the United States) that participated in the 1992 Earth Summit unanimously adopted Agenda 21. In doing so, they signaled their commitment to promoting consideration of the environmental and social impacts of development decisions at the national, regional, and local levels.

Assessing Progress Made on the Ocean and Coastal Commitments of the 1992 Earth Summit and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development for the 2012 Rio+20 Conference

Assessing Progress Made on the Ocean and Coastal Commitments of the 1992 Earth Summit and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development for the 2012 Rio+20 Conference

Unsustainable Development in the Mekong: The Price of Hydropower

What is sustainable development? Since its inception at the 1992 Earth Summit, “sustainable development” has been woven into the language of development and global change. Recognising that past development paradigms have been fixated on economic growth, marginalising social and environmental dimensions of progress, the concept of “sustainable development” has attempted to reconcile all three developmental dimensions (Moldan et al, 2012). Broadly understood, “Sustainable development” not only integrates these societal goals, but also ensures that the health of human and natural systems are not compromised for the benefit of future generations. However, this concept has remained the holy grail for development, implementation falling short of theoretical ideals (UNEP, 2012). Furthermore, its broad and open nature has resulted in many interpretations, each fiercely contested on multiple scales (Zaccai, 2012). In the following sections, I illustrate some challenges for sustainable development through examining hydropower development in the Mekong Basin. Using the successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), I highlight the unsustainable trajectory of hydropower development in the Mekong river basin and lay down several policy imperatives for sustainability.

Sustainable Energy Development (SED) — New Path for Pakistan (The Allama Iqbal Lecture)

Following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, and the 2012 Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, sustainable development has become a widely accepted concept. World decision makers are seeking a more sustainable development path through the ongoing UN Post-2105 Agenda discussions, which includes key themes like the Green Economy (GE) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). They are hoping to find integrated solutions to many critical problems, including traditional development issues (such as energy scarcity, economic stagnation, poverty, hunger, and illness), as well as newer challenges (like climate change and globalisation). Energy is critical for sustainable development. Sustainable energy development (SED) is an operational framework involving the harnessing of energy resources for human use, in a manner that supports lasting development [Munasinghe (1995)]. We begin with a review of sustainable development itself, before describing the key role of energy. The World Commission on Environment and Development originally defined it as “development which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, and there have been many subsequent redefinitions.

Professional discourse in winning images: objectivity and professional boundaries in environmental news images in the World Press Photo contest, 1992–2011

This article applies the ecological theory of professions to analyze professional discourse in the World Press Photo (WPP) contest, an international photojournalism contest held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The article analyzes the content of 148 photojournalism works that received environmental awards in the period 1992 to 2011, the two decades after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The article seeks to understand the representation and negotiation of objectivity and the claims of professional boundaries by the media of both developed and developing countries as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It also seeks to interpret the professional discourse of the WPP in relation to ideologies and power dynamics in both journalism and global environmental politics. The results suggested that the media of developed countries dominated the discourse, and the conventional notion of journalistic objectivity remained intact. However, the results also showed that global environmental politics and the situation of journalism created openings for the media of developing countries and NGOs to enlarge jurisdictional claims in the area of natural disaster reporting and to challenge the conventional notion of objectivity. The results also showed that the conventional notion of objectivity did not necessarily hinder explanations of the complexity of environmental issues, which was made possible by choosing unique angles of storytelling, planning multiple shots, and using richly suggestive, naturalistic images.

SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT IN LOWER KINABATANGAN, SABAH: ISSUES AND CURRENT PRACTICES

Since 1992, when the first United Nations’ Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, sustainable forest management (SFM) has been increasingly used to maintain a balance between social, economic and environmental development. In line with this, the successful implementation of SFM depends in large measure on the involvement of all the stakeholders. However, in the Lower Kinabatangan area, not all the stakeholders, especially the local community, are involved in the decision making process when it comes to forest management. The primary objective of this research is to explore the views of the three major stakeholders (Government, Private Sector and Local Community) with regard to issues concerning the environment, the current methods of forest management and the factors that are having an impact on SFM in Lower Kinabatangan. The quantitative method was used in this research and the data was obtained through questionnaires which were distributed to a stratified sample of the target population of stakeholders. Of the 160 questionnaires that were distributed, 115 or 56% of them were returned. The data analysis revealed some similarities and differences in the viewpoints of the stakeholders. It was found from this research that the majority of the respondents were in favour of improving forest management as a way to solve the environmental issues that have arisen in Lower Kinabatangan.

SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT IN LOWER KINABATANGAN, SABAH: ISSUES AND CURRENT PRACTICES

Since 1992, when the first United Nations’ Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, sustainable forest management (SFM) has been increasingly used to maintain a balance between social, economic and environmental development. In line with this, the successful implementation of SFM depends in large measure on the involvement of all the stakeholders. However, in the Lower Kinabatangan area, not all the stakeholders, especially the local community, are involved in the decision making process when it comes to forest management. The primary objective of this research is to explore the views of the three major stakeholders (Government, Private Sector and Local Community) with regard to issues concerning the environment, the current methods of forest management and the factors that are having an impact on SFM in Lower Kinabatangan. The quantitative method was used in this research and the data was obtained through questionnaires which were distributed to a stratified sample of the target population of stakeholders. Of the 160 questionnaires that were distributed, 115 or 56% of them were returned. The data analysis revealed some similarities and differences in the viewpoints of the stakeholders. It was found from this research that the majority of the respondents were in favour of improving forest management as a way to solve the environmental issues that have arisen in Lower Kinabatangan.