ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY (BPP 2613)

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (EM)

DEFINITION: Management and control of the environment and natural resources systems To ensure the sustainability of development efforts over a long-term basis (Science and Technology Dictionaries & Glossaries) Process of allocating natural and artificial resources To make optimum use of the environment in satisfying basic human needs at the minimum, and more if possible, on a sustainable basis.

 Control of all humans activities which have a significant impacts on the environment
Seeking the best practicable environmental opinion to promote sustainable development Generic description of a process undertaken by system oriented professionals with natural science, social science, or less commonly, an engineering, law, or design background, tackling problems of the human altered environment on an interdisciplinary basis from quantitative and/or futuristic viewpoint Optimum balance of natural resources uses, and decide where that lies, using planning and administrative skills to reach it

SCOPE:
(1) Identify goals: have no clear idea of what it needs (2) Establish whether these can be met (3) Develop and implement the means to do what it seems possible. (2) (3): to coordinate development; interface with ecology, laws, politics, people etc. - Desirable for development to be managed - Co-ordinate at all level; regional, national & international.

SCHEME OF PRACTISE ADOPTED FOR EM

Identify needs/goals, determine problems Determine appropriate action Draw up plan Implementation (evaluate success) Develop on going management

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Evaluate and adjust management Future environmental management

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EVOLUTION OF EM
1750s : civilization 1840s 1980s : reduction of poverty, environmentalism Early 1930s : comprehensive regional planning and management; establishment of river basin Late 1960s and early 1970s : limited efforts to ensure natural resources exploitation was integrated with social and economic development 1987: development needed the effective EM

MOTIVATION OF EM
There are a wide range of bodies and professionals involved in environmental management: government agencies, international bodies and aid organisations (e.g. the UNEP, FAO, World Bank, USAID), research institutes (e.g. the Worldwatch Institute, IIED), NGOs (e.g. WWF, IUCN, Friends of the Earth; the public). Pragmatic reasons Desire to save cost Compliance Shift in ethics Macroeconomics

EVOLUTIONARY TREE OF EM
Environmental law
Green business Impact, risk and hazard management Total quality management Management Environmental standards Eco-auditing Environmental management system

PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF EM

PROBLEMS: an unproven threat transboundary or global challenges problems demanding rapid decisions increasing exchange of information with NGOs

OPPORTUNITIES:

Pragmatic reasons Desire to save costs Compliance Shift in ethics Macro-economics

NATURE OF EM
Approach to environmental stewardship which integrates ecology, policy making, planning and social development. Prevention and resolution of environmental problems; Establishing limits; Establishing and nurturing institutions that effectively support environmental Research, monitoring and management; Warning of threats and identifying opportunities; Sustaining and, if possible improving, existing resources; Where possible improving quality of life; Identifying new technology or policies that are useful.

EM CHALLENGES
The need to be adaptable and to seek to reduce human vulnerability rapidly increasing human population. The need to be multidisciplinary and integrative deal with humans and natural processes.

Two temporal challenges:

Problems need attention and allow little time for solution

Desirability that planning horizons stretch further into the future than has been usual practice.

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
Technocratic environmental ethics = resource-exploitative, growth-oriented
Managerial environmental ethics = resource-conservationist, oriented to sustainable growth Communalist environmental ethics = resource-preservationist, oriented to limited or zero growth Bioethicist or deep ecology environmental ethics = extreme preservationist, antigrowth.

CLASS ACTIVITY (Discuss in group)

Identify the five functions of environmental manager Explain your interest toward environment