Explain the role of community in conservation of environment
Answers
Answer:
The general public is involved in environmental law and decision making through a number of different ways. There can be direct participation in the form of local consultations on individual planning or pollution control applications, or through seeking judicial review remedies. Besides this an indirect method of participation is through the mechanism of democracy, wherein local communities elect politicians who make environmental policy and decisions.
The importance of public participation is recognised in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration:
Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities…and the opportunity to participate in decision making process. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy shall be provided.
One of the major reasons there needs to be greater role of community in making environmental decisions, is to protect the rights of indigenous people.
The rights of the indigenous people can be seen in two basic lights:
- The right to protect and manage natural resources located on traditional indigenous lands
- The right of citizens to live in a healthy environment.
With respect to the protection of indigenous people as a means to conserve biodiversity, international environmental law can play an important role. Many native and indigenous people have opposed government policies that permit resource exploitation on traditional lands. Because this exploitation threatens to undermine the economic and spiritual fabric of their cultures, and often results in forced migration and resettlement, the struggle to protect the environment is often a part of the struggle to protect the cultures of indigenous people.
There is a long history of public involvement in environmental decision making. Typically, participation in the planning system through local consultation on planning applications and more general participation in development planning provided plenty of opportunities for the public to comment on development proposals and more strategic issues. Somewhat paradoxically, however, it has been argued that notwithstanding this long history of public involvement in the planning system, environmental regulation has been ‘closed to public influence.’ This is because, in stark contrast to the planning system, most pollution control regimes had rudimentary notification and consultation process and nature conservation decisions were almost entirely determined by experts without recourse to the general public. The reasons for this are largely concerned with the technical nature of decisions. Other factors include the close relationship between industry and the regulators, the lack of transparency in decision making and the large degree of discretion to set environmental standards. This process of change has been relatively swift with the increased participation in pollution control regimes and planning through the introduction of formal environmental impact assessment.
Thus it is clear that the importance of community participation in matters of environmental policy is extremely great.
Hope you like the answer................