Transboundary Issues Research Articles

Challenges to cooperation on water utilisation in the Southern Africa region

Transboundary water relations in Southern Africa are governed by an elaborate and intricate policy framework. In spite of this framework, the future of sustained cooperation on water utilisation in the region is still precarious and uncertain. Some subtle and unresolved dilemmas that may constrain future cooperation need to be dealt with. Two of these underlying dilemmas, namely the importance attached to national sovereignty and the strategic nature of water in the region, are explored in this article. These dilemmas form critical undercurrents that steer nations away from cooperation, cause stagnation in policy implementation and hamper progress in facilitating sustained solutions in transboundary water issues. Stemming from this background, this article argues for (a) the importance of a stronger regional perspective on water to steer countries away from the need to protect sovereign interests and (b) addressing the nature of current power relations in the region where water is concerned.

Specific features of human rights guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention

The Aarhus Convention legally articulates basic human needs to live in the environment adequate for human health and well-being and to engage in protection and improvement of the environment. It recognized and protected a general human right to adequate environment and three particular rights in environmental matters - to information, to public participation in decision-making and to justice. The Aarhus Convention introduced innovative approach to human rights protection in relation to transboundary issues and legal standing.

Transboundary nature management problems within the Irtysh basin

Analysis of the indicators of economic exploitation of the territory of the Irtysh river basin identified five types of nature management systems. An assessment is made of anthropogenic load on water bodies and catchment. A detailed account is given of the transboundary issues relating to an equitable division of water and to the river water quality. A schematic map of ecologo-economic regionalization of the catchment has been compiled to be used as a tool for settling disputes.

Palestinian Water: Resources, Use, Conservation, Climate Change, and Land Use

This article addresses the future of freshwater resources in the Palestinian West Bank through a discussion of contemporary issues that each plays a vital role in determining the long-term sustainability of freshwater reserves, such as water resource availability, trans-boundary water issues, water reuse and conservation, changes in land use, and the potential impact of climate change on long-term water management. Climate change and changing land use patterns are already altering this region's water resources. Future predictions regarding the long-term effects of these changes are complex and therefore inherently uncertain. However, the consensus among most studies on this subject indicates that currently water-poor regions such as the Middle East will experience even greater water stress in the future. Nearly all of the freshwater consumed in the West Bank is obtained from local groundwater supplies that are suffering overdraft as well as decreasing water quality. Climate change will exacerbate water stress by increasing overall temperatures, decreasing and fluctuating precipitation, and reducing overall aquifer replenishment. Expanding urbanization will continue to strain freshwater supplies by negatively impacting the quality and quantity of available freshwater. Water management in the West Bank is further complicated by total Israeli control over water resources, which often causes water delivery to Palestinians in this region to be marginalized. This article finds that Palestinian and Israeli water managers must plan for future water crises, which will likely be a result of the combined effects of increasing urbanization and climate change coupled with exponential population growth.

Enhancing capacities of riparian professionals to address and resolve transboundary issues in international river basins: experiences from the Lower Mekong River Basin

Abstract. This paper analyses the design and impact of capacity building programmes aimed at enhancing capacities of riparian professionals to address and resolve transboundary issues in international river basins. The case study is a programme developed by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). A post-training evaluation was applied to assess its impact in terms of individual capacity enhancement and change (use and application of knowledge, factors hampering application, and change in function and opportunities within the organisation). The design of the Capacity Building Programme of the MRC Flood Management and Mitigation Programme required a well balanced range of subjects (such as IWRM (integrated water resources management), model and decision support systems, and international water law). The post-training evaluation, 6 months after the last training workshop, showed an increase in familiarity with the topics for all 37 respondents, with the highest increase for the respondents with few years of working experience and from training and education institutions. The relevance of the subjects taught was highlighted by 95% of the respondents, and 78% of the participants had already used some of the acquired knowledge in their job. The respondents indicated that they did not have sufficient opportunities to apply all knowledge. The phased implementation and training of lecturers during the training workshops had a good impact, directly through increasing involvement in facilitation and delivery of the capacity building programme and through the use of the knowledge gained in short courses and development of curricula at their institute. For these types of capacity building programmes, a few recommendations can be made. The selection of participants is crucial for the application of the learned knowledge in their work. The integrative nature of transboundary water issues calls for a capacity building programme addressing a wide range of subjects, which can be understood by a wide range of professionals from different sectors. Training methods should also address this integrative nature through, e.g. roleplays and case studies. A successful capacity building programme needs to address the three levels of capacity building (enabling environment, organisations, and individual staff) and involve national and regional training and education institutes.

An integrative case study approach between game theory and Pareto frontier concepts for the transboundary water resources allocations

Summary In the context of transboundary issues, this paper introduces a composite water resources allocation approach that integrates both game theory and Pareto frontier concepts over the case of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. The proposed approach searches for an acceptable and viable solution set over the Pareto Frontier Surface via game theory based rationality constraints. For this purpose, the used base model is the Euphrates and Tigris River Basin Model, which is a linear programming model maximizing net economic benefits while optimally allocating scarce water resources in the basin. Results indicate that game theory based strategies and associated constraints provide a determinative backbone for an efficient and effective use of generated Pareto Frontier Surfaces. Additionally, estimated marginal values imply that the upstream countries have upper hand positions regarding their geographic and climatic contexts. After all the generation schemes, it appears that Turkey is the critical partner for inclusion into any form of coalition in the Euphrates and Tigris River Basin.

Carbon Capture and Storage and the UNFCCC: Recommendations to Address Trans-Boundary Issues

This paper is mainly focused on the eligibility of trans-boundary Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project activity and it aims to explore a broad range of CCS transboundary issues whereby the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and national governments could take into consideration. Much work is still to be done by the CCS community (including the Institute) to ensure that the implementation of CCS under the CDM is both environmentally effective and commercially attractive. The recommendations focus on technical issues, with the aim of helping Parties evaluate a robust strategy for CCS as part of international negotiations and establish CCS best practice criteria for governments and the international process, thereby enhancing transparency and ensuring that CCS deployment is safe and effective. When considering CDM projects activities with a transboundary component, it is recommend that the rules of the main international treaties related to CCS be considered by the UNFCCC, especially the London Protocol guidelines for risk assessment and management and the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. Additionally, national governments should apply the rules and guidelines as delineated under the relevant existing international treaties and CCS national regulations.

Ganges basin: an example of social conflicts regarding water resources especially in developing countries

There are the issues of conflicts regarding water resources among the riparian countries. In this context, the Ganges River basin has been taken as a case study. Because of the unilateral withdrawal of Ganges water by India, Bangladesh is facing negatively induced socio-economic and environmental impacts. On the other hand, people from the affected area of Bangladesh crossing the porous border of India pose an issue of not less important than the problems caused in Bangladesh by the water diversion of Farakka barrage. This trans-boundary issue must be dealt with at the international forum or at the bilateral forum. Therefore, some recommendations have been presented at the end in order to resolve the conflict over this river basin.

The Surprising Role of Local Governments in International Environmental Cooperation

This study shows that some Japanese local governments, at both the prefecture and city levels, have engaged in international cooperation with local governments in developing countries in Asia to improve environmental management and explains their motivations to do so even if international cooperation is not usually considered part of local governments’ mandate, and despite fiscal constraints. Forms of cooperation include training officials from developing countries in Japan, dispatch of Japanese local government expert officials to developing countries, partnering with and providing assistance to international organizations, establishing organizations for international environmental cooperation, and hosting international intercity network programs. This cooperation can be explained by a combination of environment-related factors and degree of local area’s international orientation. Environment-related factors include desire to make a contribution based on local experience and human capital, promotion of international environmental business, response to trans-boundary pollution issues, and conservation of natural assets. Collaboration with the national government is an important facilitating though not determining factor since local governments respond differently to national policies. Other facilitating factors include local governments’ fiscal capacity. The cases in this study can promote consideration of the potential motivations and ways that local governments in industrialized countries can contribute to international environmental development.

Of transboundary basins, integrated water resources management (IWRM) and second best solutions: the case of groundwater banking in Central Asia

This paper tells the story of trade-off between hydropower and irrigation and its implications for groundwater use in Syrdarya basin in Central Asia. With the independence of the central Asian republics, this trade-off has become a transboundary issue. Efforts to coordinate bilateral action using integrated water resources management (IWRM) principles of basin-wide cooperation have not yet yielded the hoped for results. This paper shows that there could be a ‘second best’ option of solving at least part of this transboundary problem by ‘banking’ winter flows released for hydropower production in Kyrgyzstan in the underground aquifers of Uzbekistan's Fergana Valley and extracting it for irrigation in the summer months.

A decision support system for assessing and managing environment risk cross borders

Risk assessment and management, are increasingly established as key procedures in dealing with the range of environmental issues at different scales and of different nature. Although at the EU and international policy level requirements for the use of risk assessment and management are being established through emerging policy and legislation, this demand has not been followed with common guidance on how to do so. This has proven to hinder the effective adoption of such processes, and posed a barrier more so in its implementation for large transboundary issues. In this paper is presented a Decision Support System (DSS) designed to provide a common framework and procedure for environmental risk assessment and management. The DSS is web-based and was developed to enable the formalized and more systematic utilization of risk assessment and management procedures in environmental decision making processes, in particular for users such as public authority officials charged with the responsibility of implementing risk management legal and policy obligations, yet which have limited know how in the field of risk. The DSS presented herein enables environmental administrators and decision makers to undertake generic risk assessment and management identifying areas where detailed risk assessment is required, proposing as well as appropriate risk management options. The web DSS was developed and piloted as part of the STRiM project funded by the European Union. Herein are shown results from the web application which has been trailed successfully in four pilot trials addressing risks of forest damage from storms, water pollution from olive mill waste discharges, wetland loss from water abstraction, and damage from flooding.

TRANSBOUNDARY ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION: UNDERSTANDING THE INTRICACIES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Faced with the enormity and urgency of international environmental problems the world has experienced a political awakening. Although environmental issues are not new for international relations, world leaders have increasingly brought environmental issues from the sidelines to the centre of their negotiation agendas. International conferences and treaties regarding global warming and ozone depletion are but few signs that the world has entered a new age of environmental diplomacy in which environmental issues will share centre-stage with more traditional economic and military concerns. In response to this concern governments, legislatures, and the courts have produced a labyrinth of draft bills, amendments to existing legislation, regulations, drafts of international treaties, and judicial decisions, all creating legal controls of pollution. In order to ascertain scientific information and technological data royal commissions, presidential enquiries, governmental departments, and international agencies have undertaken extensive research programs. Paralleling these developments, international environmental law has started to become a new and an emerging academic discipline. A growing number of commentators, diplomats, and practitioners are concentrating on transboundary and global environmental issues. There has also been a significant increase in the number of law schools all over the world that have started focussing towards this subject. The regime of international environmental law is mainly composed of treaties, customs; general principles of international law and opinio juris. In an attempt to use customary international law to protect the environment, commentators have spent the last two decades in elaborating the rules of state responsibility and liability specifically to address the issues related to transboundary pollution. States have begun to build on this liability regime towards the development of international agreements designed to prevent harmful environmental activity.

Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Forests: The Significance of Participation of Stakeholders and Communities

Participation of local communities and transboundary conservation issues should be shared by governments and institutions. The knowledge of forest ecology provides the essential ecological basis for the successful management and conservation of forests and biodiversity. Government can play an important role in re-introducing or restoring the local and regional management practices that successfully integrate sound management of biological resources. The practices and beliefs of forestdwelling tribes, nomadic communities and farmers remain closely intertwined with the biological diversity they live amidst. Ethnobotany has an important role to play in conservation of nature and culture, particularly, biodiversity and diversity of traditional human cultures. There is need to further revise the forest policies and ensure wider participation of stakeholders in forest and other resource planning and decision making processes so that the constraints on the implementation of management programs could be resolved through the increased financial resources, conflict management, institutional strengthening and capacity building of human society and other related measures.

Transboundary Risk Governance Rolf Lidskog, Linda Soneryd, and Ylva Uggla . Sterling, VA:Earthscan, 2010. 155 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84407-791-5, $96

Transboundary Risk Governance <i>Rolf Lidskog, Linda Soneryd, and Ylva Uggla</i> . Sterling, VA:Earthscan, 2010. 155 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84407-791-5, $96

China and India: Think Outside the Borders

In their Policy Forum “China, India, and the environment” (19 March, p. [1457][1]), K. S. Bawa and colleagues argue that a bilateral engagement between China and India “will be vital for mitigating biodiversity loss, global warming, and deforestation.” Nobody doubts that bilateral cooperation between these two key nations is crucial for resolving such transboundary issues. However, there is considerable doubt as to whether Sino-Indian cooperation is best developed by concentrating on these two nations alone. China's impact on the environment extends much farther than India's; Beijing's interest in gaining access to Africa's raw materials presents a far more urgent cause for concern ([ 1 ][2]). Therefore, China and India must cooperate beyond the regional level in order to give their efforts a broader, global perspective. For example, if the two join forces with Brazil and Russia—two other nations now rising from underdevelopment—their joint efforts will affect 42% of the world's population. Their plans could encompass environmental security strategy as well as cooperation on green technologies and innovation. Bawa et al. proceed from the assumption that the military presence of China and India along their disputed border is damaging the Himalayan ecosystems. However, the authors have overlooked the possibility that, as perverse as it may seem, the fact that the Himalayan region is heavily militarized may actually protect its key habitats and rich biodiversity, because the area is not available for economic exploitation ([ 2 ][3]). The militaries of the two nations have a negligible environmental footprint in the Himalayas. Both countries use special fuel which must be airlifted to the location, and both are careful to cover the tracks of their deployments, for a variety of strategic reasons. To mix a sensitive territorial dispute with environmental efforts is a recipe for paralysis. At least for the moment, the Himalayas can wait; the world cannot. 1. [↵][4] 1. K. S.-H. Peh, 2. J. Eyal , Energy Pol. 38, 4729 (2010). [OpenUrl][5][CrossRef][6] 2. [↵][7] 1. G. E. Machlis, 2. T. Hanson , BioScience 58, 729 (2008). [OpenUrl][8][CrossRef][9][Web of Science][10] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1185164 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [5]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DEnergy%2BPol.%26rft.volume%253D38%26rft.spage%253D4729%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1016%252Fj.enpol.2010.02.028%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [6]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1016/j.enpol.2010.02.028&link_type=DOI [7]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [8]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DBioScience%26rft.volume%253D58%26rft.spage%253D729%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1641%252FB580809%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [9]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1641/B580809&link_type=DOI [10]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000259058100011&link_type=ISI

A survey of national sustainable development indicators

We surveyed sustainable development indicators (SDIs) adopted by 28 national governments, regions, and international organisations and compiled them into a database. The aims of this study were to understand the elements of sustainable development (SD), examine SDIs developed in certain fields and countries, and determine future tasks to improve SDI development. A total of 1,790 indicators were surveyed and classified into 77 subcategories in four categories. Most of the indicators measured various SD elements, and the indicators reflected each country's developmental stage and specific concerns. Several advanced or unique indicators were also identified. Five major tasks in the future development of SDIs were identified: 1) creating time-conscious indicators; 2) measuring interactions between elements of a system; 3) dealing with transboundary issues in a national SDI system; 4) measuring SD quality (including subjective elements); 5) including ordinary citizens by showing the relationships between SDI and everyday life.

Focusing on Living Marine Resource Governance: The Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem and Adjacent Areas Project

This article provides an overview of living marine resource governance in the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) and discusses how this relates to ecosystem-based management at the geographical scale of the LME. It also provides an overview of the approach to governance reform that will be taken by the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem and Adjacent Areas Project. The geopolitical complexity of the Caribbean region is such that regional governance appears to be more challenging there than in most other regions. The proximity of states leads to a high incidence of transboundary issues regarding living marine resources. The high proportion of small island developing states (SIDS), defined at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development as countries facing specific social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities, and high incidence of coastal use for industry, tourism, fisheries, and urban development leads to heavy impacts on coastal and marine resources. Regarding institutional arrangements, there are many organizations at regional and subregional levels already engaged in most aspects of marine resource management, sometimes in collaboration, sometimes in competition, and often in relative isolation. Likewise, at national and local levels there is a host of government and nongovernmental organizations with diverse aspirations and perspectives. The challenge then is to develop a regional approach that recognizes the existence of this diversity and works with it. The development of the Caribbean LME and Adjacent Areas Project has forced regional partners to reflect on the Caribbean living marine resource governance situation. It has led to the formulation and adoption of the LME Governance Framework. This framework, which departs somewhat from the conventional LME approach, appears to have the potential to meet the aforementioned challenge. It defines the relative roles of scientists, decision makers, and implementers at various levels and provides a basis for incremental implementation of improvements in governance.

RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE WEST AFRICAN REGION ∼ A NEW PARADIGM?

ABSTRACT West Africa is one of the fastest growing oil industry regions in the world at present. The operations range from Floating production and storage units in the newly developing provinces, whilst mature oil production facilities in places such as Angola, Cameroon and Nigeria are being further developed by the introduction of offshore facilities in the previously unexplored deepwater areas, vastly increasing oil outputs and bringing with it attendant risks. The new challenge is how to provide oil spill response to these operations in the event of an incident. Limited personnel numbers in each operation, poor infrastructure and difficult logistics, coupled with security political and transboundary issues makes response operations complicated. There is a significant amount of equipment in the region but its response readiness is often poor. In the newly developed oil provinces, the level of equipment is generally suited to respond to the operational type of incident and is generally stored in a manner where it is ready for immediate deployment, but not stored in a manner that makes it ready to transport, as a result the combined use of tier 1 equipment does not provide for an adequate regional tier 2 resource. Even if the equipment was transportable, transboundary and political difficulties make this approach response less effective. Industry Tier 2 resources co-operatives do exist in some countries in the region, but in the main these resources are not new and have not been updated to reflect the expanded risk profile and the move of industry to the deep offshore. Tier 3 response in the region is reliant on gaining access into country, the issues of visas, security, landing, overflight rights and customs are all obstacles to providing an effective response. Recent history has shown that whilst tier 3 incidents remain the exception, spills that are consistent with a tier 2 categorisation are proving challenging for the industry to deal with. The author, using evidence gained from extensive experience in the region and practical lessons learned from case histories will look at the issues and propose some solutions to the problems.

Incorporating uncertainty into adaptive, transboundary water challenges: a conceptual design for the Okavango River basin

In this paper, we present a review and conceptual design to integrate hydrological/ecological models, global uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, integrative modelling and decision analysis for complex and adaptive transboundary challenges. The research uses the transboundary issues within the Okavango River basin, a shared water resource among the nations of Angola, Namibia and Botswana, as an example for constructing

Transboundary eco-security and its regulation system in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region

This paper discussed the transboundary eco-security issues, their distribution patterns, characteristics and driving forces, and regulation system in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (LRGR). Major transboundary eco-security issues, except for sand-dust storm, can be found along the terrestrial border regions of China in the LRGR. The direct driving forces included constructions of cascade hydropower dams, highways and international navigation development, slope land cultivation and mineral exploration. Transboundary eco-security issues affect the neighboring areas in the terrestrial region, and the downstream countries along the international watercourses. The ecological changes in the neighboring countries had effects on the domestic side in the LRGR, such as species invasion. The integrated measures should be taken into consideration, including the construction of border eco-protection projects and transboundary nature reserves, ecological threshold set-up, species invasion control, the establishment of eco-security monitoring platform, the constituting of ecological compensation mechanism and laws (rules) and institutions, and capacity building. The most important tasks to deal with the transboundary issues in the LRGR are to form internationally participative cooperation mechanism, establish fund for transboundary eco-security, implement ecological compensation strategy, and develop information exchange platform and warning system.