Jamie Benidickson

Regulatory and Nonregulatory Strategies for Improving Children's Environmental Health in Canada

Epidemiological and toxicological studies established positive associations between environmental hazards and adverse child health outcomes, including cancer, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, developmental effects, low birth weight, and birth defects. The economic and societal costs associated with childrens environmental health disorders were estimated to be substantial. The existence of knowledge gaps, lack of capacity, and the jurisdictional overlap of childrens environmental health issues are some of the barriers that impede effective policy decision making. To improve childrens environmental health and reduce economic and societal costs, current legislative frameworks could implement a series of amendments. The main federal, provincial, and municipal legislation used to protect children in Canada, either explicitly or implicitly, is reviewed. Recommendations for improving the existing framework for protecting and strengthening childrens environmental health are proposed.

The Ontario and Quebec Experiments in Forest Reserves 1883–1930

During the late nineteenth century, there was a concern in Ontario and Quebec that central Canadas pine stands were limited and threatened. Amid claims that the lucrative forestry industry was unsustainable, the Ontario and Quebec governments established a network of forest reserves. The reserves were a politically palatable prospect: the network was attractive to business interests in a dependable industry over the long term, and served as a convenient way to settle regional forestry/agriculture land disputes. The reserve network ultimately failed to provide the basis of sustained-yield production. Policy-makers hoped to bring principles of scientific forestry into the management of public woodlands, but were not prepared for the tremendous political commitment and expense required to maintain the reserves. Without an adequate policy for maintaining the reserves, the Ontario government often gave forestry licenses on an ad-hoc basis. The result was the belated mass cutting of large quantities of pine that were considered overdue for harvesting. Quebec forest reserves were small enough to accommodate the forestry industrys status quo, and did not limit exploitation to a sustainable level.

Introduction: Environmental Law and Sustainability after Rio

The fields of environmental and sustainability law, despite strong historical roots and antecedents, are by no means fully elaborated and mature fields of scholarship and professional practice. It is possible, nonetheless, to identify landmarks or milestones in their development and to reflect upon the significance of what has been put in place. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, commonly referred to as the Earth Summit, and the adoption of Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development clearly represent one such landmark. It is appropriate, particularly in the field of environmental law, both to commemorate past achievements as well as to take a realistic view of their shortcomings. In recognising achievements, we are able to celebrate and express appreciation for the very significant accomplishments of an earlier generation of researchers, advocates, negotiators and practitioners. The success of their efforts to safeguard the environment gives us hope, an outlook that is not always in good supply. On the other hand, the process of assessment necessarily invites reflection on the shortcomings and limitations of our current situation and encourages a salutary reminder that much remains to be done to secure the foundations of environmental protection and sustainability on a global, national and local basis. The fifteenth anniversary in 2007 of the Rio conference provided a sufficient temporal perspective to attempt the undertaking of an assessment of progress in environmental law in the realm of sustainability. The Brazilian organisers of the Fifth Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law thus invited participants from the Academy’s member institutions as well as the broader global university community to convene in Rio de Janeiro and in the heritage town of Parati for presentations and debates under the general theme ‘Rio + 15: A Legal Critique of Ecologically Sustainable Development’. This book contains selected papers from that