Donna Craig

A journey towards shared governance: status and prospects for collaborative management in the protected areas of Bangladesh

Establishment of Protected Areas (PAs), in the face of rapid deforestation, forest degradation and climate change has been one of the key efforts in conservation of biodiversity worldwide in recent times. While Bangladesh has gained a degree of prominence in the world for its successful social forestry programs, the concept of collaborative protected area management is rather new in the country, initiated in 2004 by the Bangladesh Forest Department in five PAs with financial assistance from USAID. Based on empirical evidence from three of the pilot PAs, we examined the achievements and associated challenges and prospects for co-management. Our fieldwork revealed a number of challenges faced by co-management institutions: (1) institutions were dominated by the elite group, overshadowing the voice of the community people; (2) mutual trust and collective performance are key to good governance but had not taken root in the PAs; (3) encroachment onto forest land and subsequent conversion to agriculture remained a serious problem that discouraged forest-dependent people from participating actively in co-management initiatives; (4) legal provisions (including acts, rules and policies) were not clearly and adequately disseminated and understood at the community level; (5) there remained a degree of ambiguity regarding the roles and responsibilities of forest department (FD) and co-management committees (CMC) in field operations, and this was not enhancing transparency and accountability of the overall initiative; (6) the long-term sustainability of co-management institutions was another major concern, as the local intuitional structure was still in a nascent stage, and provisioning of resources (either internally or externally) remained somewhat uncertain. We offer recommendations for improvement.

Forest protected area governance in Bangladesh: a focus on the legal and policy framework

In the context of renewed interest in collaboration in natural resource management, the collaborative governance approach has lately been introduced to the forest Protected Areas (PAs) in Bangladesh. The adoption of this co-management approach is seen as an attempt to influence the governance process towards a transformation from the conventional custodian system to a more participatory management regime. Recognition of rights and responsibilities, effective participation, and equitable distribution of benefits amongst the key stakeholders working under a facilitative policy and legal framework are believed to address the broader goals of sustainable development. Notwithstanding the resurgence of interest in governance of forest PAs through the co-management approach, academic research on the subject remains limited. This article attempts to review selected key information and milestones on the forest PAs governance with special reference to the major policies and legal documents. With a brief introductory section, this article focuses on the genesis and selected major features of the Forest PAs in the country. The discussion then dwells on the policy and legal framework and provides a critique on its relevance for promoting community participation. The existing institutional arrangements for community engagement in protected area governance are also analyzed in light of the national and international commitment and policy obligations on the part of the country. The salient observations and key findings of the study include the following: (1) despite its limitations, co-management as concept and practice has gradually taken roots in Bangladesh; (2) the degree and level of active community participation remain low and limited, and there is also clear weakness in conscientizing and orientating the local community on the key legal and policy issues related to PA governance in the country; and (3) policy makers, practitioners, and other local stakeholders related to PA governance need to be oriented on international commitment and national development strategies. The study calls for systematic focus on regular research on the performance of co-management in the country, and efforts towards improving the implementation mechanisms in the field.

Lost in translation : threatened species law in Australia

This chapter will explore the current trends in biodiversity in Australia, the mining boom underway and the evolution of environmental law in Australia since the ‘Rio Declaration on Environment and Development’ (commonly known as the Rio Declaration). The discussion will use a case study focusing on threatened species legislation as the lens to explore the issues. It will concentrate on an IUCN red listed endangered species, the Giant Barred Frog (Mixophyes iterates) whose habitat is potentially threatened by mining activities in the state of NSW, Australia. Institutional issues surrounding the protection of threatened species and their habitats will be examined by comparing legal intent and actual practice. The chapter concludes that the intent of species protection law is currently ‘lost in translation’. New policy initiatives currently underway in Australia will be critiqued and recommendations proposed for law and governance reforms required to adequately protect threatened species.

Integrating Sustainable Development into Global Institutions: Reforming the United Nations

Abstract This article will briefly outline the origins, structure and functions of United Nations Environment Program and the Commission on Sustainable Development in the context of the goals of ecologically sustainable development (ESD). Economic development, social development and environmental protection form the three interconnected parts of ESD. The achievements of the key UN environmental institutions and programs in opening up the global system to civil society, the private sector and a diversity of actors and interests, promoting the role of poverty alleviation as part of ESD through the Millennium Development Goals, and facilitating important Multilateral Environmental Agreements should be recognized. However, with these notable exceptions, organizations such as United Nations Environment Program and the Commission on Sustainable Development have become weak in scientific and technical leadership, global policy, co-ordination (inside and outside the UN) and has few achievements in the international and national implementation of obligations and standards in Global Environmental Governance – including enforcement, compliance and effectiveness. This article will outline the key reasons for this inadequacy. Attention will also be focused on the way forward through of a new United Nations Environment Organization. This will require a clarification of purpose and function (within the UN system and as part of global governance structures) as well as consideration of whether it depends on system-wide UN reform. It is recommended that medium and long term strategies for reform are necessary.

Accelerating the evolution of environmental law through continuous learning from applied experience

Objective understanding of whether a legal instrument is effective involves consideration of the purposes of the instrument and its realworld effects. This is at least partly an empirical enquiry, similar to policy evaluation. It requires factual evidence of outcomes and data to underpin hypotheses about the causes of outcomes. These empirical enquiries must go beyond instrument design and the actions of legal agencies. Practical outcomes will often reflect context issues like social and cultural receptivity to legal arrangements, politics, economic capacity and impacts, and the dynamics of socio-ecological systems. As well, the resources invested to support a legal instrument, and the implementation strategy, are often determinants of success. The question that this raises is whether our legal scholarship is suited to addressing implementation questions beyond doctrinal, procedural and philosophic/jurisprudential concerns. If legal scholarship is indeed concerned with improving the effectiveness of the environmental law system, this suggests the need for methodologies and knowledge that can illuminate the empirical questions: what works, when, and why? In this chapter we consider arguments for and against a more empirical environmental law scholarship. We discuss a scholarship that grafts onto our discipline’s concern for improving legal instruments (such as statutes, judgments) and values (rights, responsibilities and justice), a focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of the environmental governance system, and the role of empirical analysis as a basis for cumulative learning. We also consider the use and limits of the scientific method for driving improvement in the effectiveness of environmental law.

Selected dynamics of collaborative protected area management in the global North and South : experiences from Australia and Nepal

Collaborative protected area management has of late gained growing recognition and attention in both developing and developed nations as an avenue of sustainable development that ensures biodiversity conservation as well as community development. This article sheds lights on selected dynamics of the collaborative approach to PA management in Australia and Nepal, representing North and South nations respectively with a view to eliciting experiences and lessons that may have wider relevance for developing and planning sustainable co-management systems for effective PA management. The focus of the review has been on the history and operational features, existing legal and policy framework, and the status of the community participation in the governance of PAs of these two countries. Both these countries are amongst the pioneer nations that made systematic attempts to involve local communities in forest and protected area management. Although the scope and experiences of collaborative protected area management in these countries vary significantly due to their distinct socio-economic and political contexts, they both exhibit many common features that may provide valuable clues while devising management prescriptions of PAs in other parts of the world. Some such factors that may facilitate constructing a shared vision of governing protected areas through collaborative efforts include the following: proactive community engagement, promoting private-public partnership governance approaches; valuing local and social culture, and devising a meaningful dialogue and communication channel between amongst the key stakeholders.

Adaptive Governance for Extreme Events in Peri-urban Areas: A Case Study of the Greater Western Sydney

The sustainable future of peri-urban regions in the face of increased extreme events is dependent upon the development and implementation of adaptive governance models. The case of the Greater Western Sydney region of New South Wales is used here to illustrate the need to improve legal and institutional frameworks for peri-urban governance. This is needed to ensure that decision-making at the regional level is based on science and to effectively address the issues arising in a situation of extreme events that threaten food and water security in the region. Environmental law is relatively well developed in terms of the requirements of “good governance” that should integrate participation in decision-making by stakeholders. Increasingly, the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) are also being elaborated as part of governance systems. The focus of this paper is to elaborate the challenges posed by climate change and variability, and the need to fundamentally re-think the approaches on adaptive governance for food and water security in peri-urban areas. Long term trends may be relatively well understood, but strategic planning and responses must be undertaken in the face of considerable uncertainty about exactly when, and how, extreme events will occur.

Implementing sustainable development in the Arctic : what principles should guide environmental governance in traditional areas of Indigenous peoples facing the impacts of climate change

AbstractThe social and human rights implications of climate change, adaptation and mitigation have received relatively little attention. Yet the human costs of climate change directly threaten fundamental human rights. Equity issues also arise in the climate change context because of its disproportionate impact on already vulnerable people, Indigenous peoples and communities. This article commences with a review of human rights and sustainable development in the specific context of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It does not undertake a comprehensive study of all aspects of Indigenous environmental governance in the Arctic. Rather, it seeks to explore the wider principles and international standards that are potentially applicable to the social and human rights dimensions of sustainable development in the Arctic in the context of the impacts of climate change.