THE DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

THE DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

1. The definition of environmental management
2. Problems and opportunities regarding EM
3. Criticism of environmental management

Environmental management

Some authors consider present-day Environmental Management - Environmental MANAGERIALISM which pays insufficient attention to human-environment interaction,

EMhas become institutionalized, and is essentially a state-centered process concerned with formulating and implementing laws, policies and regulations which relate to the environment(Barrow).

Environmental management is currently evolving and is far from being fixed in form.

Environmental management

Whatever its approach, EM is related to, and has to work with ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING.

The focus of environmental management is on :

1. IMPLEMENTATION
2. MONITORING (Pollution and Waste Management parameters)

and

3. AUDITING (conformity with plans and laws, details in ISO 14001 course)

I. The definition of environmental management

There is not an universal definition of environmental management. This is understandable, given the very large scope and the diversity of domains involved.

Environmental management displays the following characteristics:

Ø      it is often used as a generic term;

Ø      it supports sustainable development:

Ø      it deals with a world affected by humans;

Ø      it demands a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach:

Ø      it has to integrate different development viewpoints;

Ø      it seeks to integrate science, social science, policy making and planning:

Ø      it recognizes the desirability of meeting, and if possible exceeding basic human needs;

Ø      the time scale involved extends beyond the short term, and concern ranges from local to global;

Ø      IT SHOULD SHOW OPPORTUNITIES AS WELL AS ADDRESS THREATS AND PROBLEMS;

Ø      it recommend stewardship, rather than exploitation.

The definition of environmental management

Environmental management must do three things:

Ø      (1) identify goals;

Ø      (2) establish whether these can be achieve;

Ø      (3) develop and implement the goals.

(1) IS RARELY EASY: a society may have no clear idea of what it needs. Indeed, some people may want things damaging to themselves, others, and the environment.

Environmental managers may have to identify goals, and then win over the public and special-interest groups.

(2) AND (3) REQUIRE THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGER TO INTERFACE WITH ECOLOGY, ECONOMICS, LAW, POLITICS, PEOPLE, ETC.. TO CO-ORDINATE DEVELOPMENT.

To co-ordinate a diversity of things is difficult because development profits have a short-term basis- the manner and scale at which most humans operate.

What is done at a given point in time and space has WIDER AND LONGER-TERM IMPACTS and development has to be managed and co-ordinate at all levels:

Ø      regional, national and international.

The definition of environmental management

Some definitions of environmental management

An approach which goes further than natural resources management to include the political and social as well as the natural environment..it is concerned with questions of value and distribution, with the nature of regulatory mechanisms and with interpersonal, geographic and intergenerational equity (R.Clarke, Birkbeck College, University of London).

Formulation of environmentally sound development strategies.

An interface between scientific effort and policy development and implementation (S.Macgill, Leeds University. UK).

The process of allocating natural and artificial resources so as to make optimum use of the environment in satisfying basic human needs at the minimum, and more if possible, on a sustainable basis (Jolly, 1978).

The definition of environmental management

An approach which goes further than natural resources management to include the political and social as well as the natural environment..it is concerned with questions of value and distribution, with the nature of regulatory mechanisms and with interpersonal, geographic and intergenerational equity (R.Clarke, Birkbeck College, University of London).

Formulation of environmentally sound development strategies.

An interface between scientific effort and policy development and implementation (S.Macgill, Leeds University. UK).

The process of allocating natural and artificial resources so as to make optimum use of the environment in satisfying basic human needs at the minimum, and more if possible, on a sustainable basis (Jolly, 1978).

The definition of environmental management

Seeking the best possible environmental option to promote sustainable development (paraphrased from several 1990s sustainable development sources).

Seeking the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) generally using the Best Available Techniques Not Entailing (causing) Excessive Cost (BATNEEC) (based on two generally used environmental management acronyms).

The control of all human activities which have a significant impact on the environment.

Management of the environmental performance of ORGANIZATIONS BODIES AND COMPANIES (Sharratt, 1995).

A typical representation of environmental management
process

Stages 1, 2 and 3 are influenced by wide strategic policies, and are predisposed to public examination (scrutiny).

At stage 1 the public may not have a clear idea of needs or goals, so the environmental manager may need to establish these.

Managers must somehow 'THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLYand adopt a long-term outlook.

Ideally, lessons learnt at every stage should improve the future environmental managementthe evaluation of stages 4 and 5 is especially precious for future management.

II Problems and opportunities in EM

Often considerable effort and much money are expended treating symptoms of a problem but not the causes, which may be difficult to identify and lie well away (in space or time), along a chain of causation.

The risk of making this sort of mistake should be reduced by the adoption of a careful approach.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT WILL NEED TO MODIFY THE ETHICS OF INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS AND SOCIETIES

Problems and opportunities

1. Advisory

through education;

through demonstration (e.g. model farms or factories);

through the media (messages incorporated in entertainment);

through advice (leaflets, drop-in shops, help lines, etc.).

Problems and opportunities

2. Economic or fiscal

through taxation ('green' taxes-Green tax reforms imply not only the introduction of specific eco taxes, but also the removal or modification of a number of existing taxes and tax provisions having detrimental effects on the environment (e.g. lower taxation of polluting fuels) 'Taxa auto'

through grants, loans, aid;

through trade agreements.

Problems and opportunities

3. Regulatory

through standards;

through restrictions and monitoring;

through licensing;

through zoning (restricting activities to a given area).

E.g. Daffodils Glade Buffer zone

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

One problem faced by ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGERS is that the goal of sustainable development is not fully formed and its fundamental concepts are still debated.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, like environmental management, is not easily defined.

Some definitions of sustainable development

Ø      Environmental care married' to development.

Ø      Improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems.

Ø      Development based on the principle of inter-generational (improve the inherited resource endowment), inter-species and inter-group equity.

Ø      DEVELOPMENT THAT MEETS THE NEEDS OF THE PRESENT WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE ABILITY OF FUTURE GENERATIONS TO MEET THEIR OWN NEEDS.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The concept, although it had appeared in the 1970s, was widely disseminated in the early 1980s by the World Conservation Strategy (WWF,1980), which called for the:

Ø      maintenance of essential ecological processes;

Ø      the preservation of biodiversity;

Ø      and

Ø      sustainable use of species and ecosystems.

Ø      The Brundtland Report: Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), placed it on the world's political agenda and helped renew public interest in the environment.

Ø      It also spread the messages that global environmental management was needed; and that without a reduction of poverty ecosystem damage would be difficult to counter.

Ø      ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IS THUS CLEARLY INTERRELATED WITH SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

Environmental problems

Environmental problems often do not have a single simple solution

Environmental management faces numerous dilemmas:

(I) ETHICAL DILEMMAS e.g. what to conserve landscapes or community?

(2) EFFICIENCY DILEMMASe.g. how much environmental damage is acceptable?

(3) EQUITY DILEMMASe.g. who benefits from environmental management decisions, and who pays?

(4) LIBERTY DILEMMASe.g. to what degree must people be restricted to protect the environment?

(5) UNCERTAINTY DILEMMASe.g. how to choose a course of action without adequate knowledge or data?

(6) EVALUATION (ASSESMENT)DILEMMAS e.g. how to compare different effects of various options or actions?

THE PREVENTIVE (PRECAUTIONARY )PRINCIPLE

Human beings often respond to apparent crisis, rather than carefully assessing the situation and acting to prevent problems.

With sustainable development as a central goal, crisis management is a dangerous practice, for, once manifest, problems may not be easily solved and could jeopardize sustainability.

AThe solution is to adopt THE PREVENTIVE PRINCIPLE

Environmental management often deals with inadequate data, may have to rely on modeling that is deficient, and has to cope with issues that are complex and not fully understood.

Environmental managers

Environmental managers have to deal with uncertainly and complex problems which often cannot afford to wait long enough for proof to be obtained.

Environmental managers

The last few decades have seen the recognition of more and more trans boundary or global threats.

However, there have been helpful developments: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT can now draw on improved knowledge of the structure and function of the environment, and of human institution-building, group interaction and perceptions, and new tools are available which improve monitoring, data gathering, impact assessment, information processing, decision making and communication.

Environmental managers

Though ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGERS face growing problems, they have more powerful aids to draw upon.

These developments mean it is possible for environmental management to move away from corrective to anticipatory approaches (ADOPTING THE PREVENTIVE PRINCIPLE).

Environmental managers

WHO ARE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGERS?

A wide range of bodys professionals are involved in environmental management:

government agencies (e.g. the European Environmental Agency),

international bodies and aid organizations (like the, World Bank, etc.)

research institutes (e.g. the World Watch Institute, IIED-The International Institute for Environment and Development, etc.)

NGOs (e.g. WWF, IUCN- The World Conservation Union or International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN, Friends of the Earth, etc.);

the public

Identifying a single environmental manager in a given situation may be like trying to identify who built a Boeing 747 aircraft.(Barrow)

WHAT MOTIVATES ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?

Ø      Pragmatic reasonsfear or common sense makes people or administrators seek to avoid a problem.

Ø      Desire to save costsit may be cheaper to avoid problems or counter them than suffer the consequences (pollution, litigation, etc.). There may also be advantages in waste recovery, energy conservation, and maintaining environmental quality.

Ø      Compliance individuals, local government, companies, states, etc., may be required by laws, national or international agreement to care for the environment.

WHAT MOTIVATES ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?

Shift in ethicsresearch, the media, individuals or groups of activists may generate new attitudes, agreements or laws.

Macro-economicspromotion of environmental management may lead to economic expansion; a market for pollution control equipment, use of recovered waste, more secure and efficient energy and rare materials supply;

III. Criticism of environmental managementI

With something as broad and ambitious as environmental management, criticism is inevitable.

Ø      The problem of its definition has been discussed; another frequently voiced worry is that it is prescriptive and insufficiently analytical.

Ø      It also attracts criticism because it involves subjective judgment as well as scientific enquiry, and is as much an art as a science.

Ø      Sometimes it is the approach to environmental management that causes offencesome over-zealous efforts have been equal to eco-fascism.