Environmental Challenges Inspiring Global Citizenship

Beyond the Global Village. Environmental Challenges inspiring Global Citizenship edited by Rafaela C. Hillerbrand and...

Author: Rafaela C. Hillerbrand and Rasmus Karlsson

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Beyond the Global Village. Environmental Challenges inspiring Global Citizenship

edited by

Rafaela C. Hillerbrand and Rasmus Karlsson

i

Series Editors Robert Fisher Nancy Mardas

Advisory Board Martin McGoldrick Revd Stephen Morris John Parry Peter Twohig S Ram Vemuri Bernie Warren Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E

Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Margaret Chatterjee Wayne Cristaudo Mira Crouch Phil Fitzsimmons Jones Irwin Asa Kasher

Volume 51 A volume in the Probing the Boundaries series ‘Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship’

ii

Published by the Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

First Edition 2008

c Inter-Disciplinary Press 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

ISBN: 978-1-904710-50-9

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The cover page shows a photo, taken by Christian Pietsch, of a stack in an abandoned mine at the so-called ‘Zeche Zollverein’, Essen, Germany. ‘Zeche Zollverein’ was known for its inhumane working conditions. It is located in the Ruhr District, an industrial area that used to be infamous for its environmental problems. The structural change following the decline in the coal and steal industries has fundamentally transformed the ‘Zeche Vollverein’ and the whole area. Today, it is not only a place to commemorate the inhumane working conditions of the past but also a venue for different forms of contemporary art. The city of Essen — representing the whole Ruhr District — will be the European Capital of Culture in 2010.

iv

Contents

1 Introduction

1

R. Hillerbrand and R. Karlsson

First Part Environmetal Dilemmas or How to Avoid Buridan’s Donkey

I

Environmental versus Economic Values

2 Environmental Policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina

15 17

V. Castán Broto, C. Carter and L. Elghali 3 Understanding Rural Community Conflict

27

S. E. Dawson, G. E. Madsen, J. C. Allen and C.-Y. Chang 4 The Market of GM

41

N. Dospinescu 5 Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Ethics V. S. Malik and R. Santhalia v

53

Contents

vi

II

Tensions within Environmental Values

6 Cape Wind: A Case Study

65 67

J. C. Berg 7 Exacerbation of Childhood Asthma

77

M. E. Richmond

III

How to Resolve these Tensions

93

8 Adaptations to Environmental Sustainability

95

E. Anderson 9 Customary Law and Community Based Conservation in Fiji

107

E. Techera 10 The Legacy of Land Tenure in Queensland

123

J. Kehoe 11 Compensation, Climate Change and Duties between States

133

J. Burch Brown 12 Advanced Technology Paths to Intergenerational Justice R. Karlsson

143

Contents

vii

Second Part Towards an Informed Citizenship

I

Foundations

13 Ecocomposition Pedagogy

153 155

M. Stroud 14 Authentic Places, Local Identity and Environmental Discourses165 C. Certomà 15 Environmental Ethics: Core Concepts and Values

179

M. H. Dixon 16 Dianoetic Virtues in Addressing Genetic Engineering

191

Rafaela C. Hillerbrand

II

Merits and Drawbacks of Top-Down Approaches

17 Sustainability in Higher Education

203 205

S. Woolpert 18 The role of Psychology in the Response to Global Warming

215

J. Thakker 19 Building Citizenship on Environmental Local Problems

227

F. Medardo Tapia Uribe 20 Environmental Awareness Education

235

Contents

viii S. Shanmuganathan, M. Cassim and K. Ukita 21 Reporting Sustainable Development

251

F. Mauleon and M. McKinley 22 Can the Peasantry Decide?

261

A. Kumbamu

III

Merits and Drawbacks of Bottom-Up Approaches 277

23 Fundamental Environmental Rights in EU Law

279

S. de Abreu Ferreira 24 Valuating Traditional Knowledge

293

M. L. Middleton 25 Community for Sustainability

305

L. Middlemiss 26 Science Versus Society?

315

L. Hadfield List of Figures

324

Chapter 1

Introduction Rafaela Hillerbrand and Rasmus Karlsson 1

Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship

While technological and scientific thinking are directed towards future progress, ethics sometimes seem to lag behind: moral considerations quite often have difficulties in keeping abreast with the accelerated rate of technological and scientific developments and the environmental problems they pose. Take, as an example, the current debate on climate change. Only after the public debate expounded the problems of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, did professional ethicists enter the discussion.1 The moral discourse too often contents itself with an ex post justification of established public opinion. Although a certain tendency of ethical reasoning to lag behind real life problems seems common, for environmental issues this problem is particularly pronounced. This seems to hold for various problems arising within moral philosophy: Although not unique to environmental ethics, problems like the ones raised by moral dilemmas — i.e. situation in which several moral obligations cannot be met simultaneously — become particulary pronounced once we bring in an environmental perspective. The wide view of environmental ethics implies, for example, that quite frequently we have to choose between actions, all of which lead to morally undesirable outcomes, either for us and our children or for people living in the long term future. But how can the potential harms associated with nuclear power be weight against potential harms from climate change that nuclear power might help us to mitigate? Within ethics of technology such conflicts are often associated with necessary trade-offs between various values that cannot be realized simultaneously. The diagram in Figure 1 illustrates this very lucidly.2 Taken from an ethical codex for engineers, it sketches the most common conflicts between values that are important in the work life of scientists and engineers when not only a technical, but an environmental or societal perspective is incorporated. There is a plethora of discussions of the conflicts raised above within the philosophical literature. However, the discussions within theoretical philosophy as regards moral dilemmas do not seem to solve the practical problems. Rather

2

Introduction

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Instrumental relations Rival relations

#

#

Personality develCommunityopment quality " " ! ! * 6 Y H 6BM H H H B HH # # B B Environmen- B Prosperity tal quality HH B " ! " ! B @ HH 6 H B @ H HH B * @ H j B Y H H @ B HH @ HH # B ? # @ R HH I @ Cost effec- Health @ tiveness PP @ PP "H " ! @ PP * YH ! qP i P PP @ H HH P P@ # # Functional capability "

-

Security

! "

!

Figure 1.1: Values in engineering practices as they are given by the Ethical Codex for Engineers, formulated by the German Association of Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, VDI). Rival relations indicate values that are in tension when implemented, and instrumental relations indicate values that support one another when realized in scientific or technical practice.


3

it seems that context-independent solutions to moral dilemmas as regards environmental issues are doomed to fail.3 An examination of case studies that may provide solutions to certain type of problems seems necessary. The aim of the first part of this edited volume, entitled Environmental Dilemmas or how to avoid Buridan’s Donkey, is thus to bridge the gap between ethical theory and real life situations by bringing together theoretical approaches and practical solutions to resolve these conflicts. The case studies and analyses, which form this first part, address both the problems of environmental decision-making and conflicts between competing values and the challenges of finding paths toward environmental justice. Apart from unresolved dilemmas, it is mainly two other facts that hamper environmentally sound action. Firstly, future generations are often the ones most likely to be harmed by long-term environmental problems, while those presently living might have to make major sacrifices in order to prevent or mitigate this future harm. Obligations to future generations tend to prompt relatively little motivation for action,4 and the fact that the effects are distant in time decreases our confidence that our sacrifices which environmentally sound actions might require will yield the desired results. Secondly, individuals as such seem often powerless in the face of environmental problems. This seems to apply even when we consider states as individual actors: Many of the ecological problems we face today transcend national boundaries and call for global or at least transnational actions. The concept of collective responsibility is frequently discussed in the context both ethics of nature and ethics of technology. However moral responsibility in the end always has to be broken down into the responsibility of an individual.5 The tensions arising from the necessity to consider posterity and the need for global efforts, imply an obligation to rethink the duties as well as the rights of citizens. The question of how to achieve environmentally aware and informed citizenship is the common theme of the contributions to the second major part of this book, entitled Towards an Informed Citizenship.

2

Outline

In the following we provide a thematic overview of the individual contributions. First Part: Environmental Dilemmas or How to Avoid Buridan’s Donkey Though the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan actually talked about dogs, it is for a particular donkey that his imprint has remained in the history of philosophy. Working on impetus theory, Buridan advanced a moral determinism by which a human, faced with alternative courses of action, must always choose the greater good. It is this idea that has been satirised in the example of Buridan’s

4

Introduction

donkey who finds itself exactly in the middle between two equally tasty stacks of hay. Unable to rationally decide which stack to start eating from, the poor donkey starves to death. Applying this illustration to the modern world, we frequently find ourselves in a similar situation to Buridan’s donkey. However, when dealing with the environment, our situation is quite often even worse — the choice we have may only be between two rotten or even two poisonous haystacks: Neither sacrificing our natural environment as the living condition of future generations, nor major sacrifices from present generations seem to be a bullet anyone would want to bite. We are faced with a genuine moral dilemma as it was characterised in section 1 of this introduction. However political decision-making just cannot remain in the middle of these two haystacks: Delaying actions in many cases simply worsens existing environmental problems. Once again, anthropogenic climate change is a paradigm case. The possible conflict, as well as the intimate connection, between current human welfare and environmental responsibility forms the backdrop for the first part of the volume, dedicated as it is to environmental dilemmas. I Environmental versus economic values We know that environmental sustainability and human welfare are two areas that are intricately related, particularly when we take a global and intergenerational perspective. Human welfare, however, is a multi-facetted feature, economic aspects being only one part of it. It is thus no wonder that a one-dimensional focus on economic growth often conflicts with the environmental perspective. Ulrich Beck has famously questioned whether letting the welfare cake grow from year to year, will remain possible in a finite world.6 The central conflict we encounter in environmental issues is the one between economic growth and environmental sustainability. With this in mind, the book opens in chapter 2 with a dramatized interpretation of the tension between citizens’ concerns about the environment and the logic of economic growth as played out in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this contribution by Vanesa Castán Broto, Claudia Carter and Lucia Elghali, the local community is given a voice as it struggles for increased transparency and accountability in development decisions. As often in environmental issues, benefits and burdens are distributed unequally. In this particular case, a coalfired power station provides electricity for the whole country; the environmental price, both in terms of air pollution and the dumping of coal ashes, however, is primarily paid by a few communities around the city of Tuzla. Also chapter 3 addresses coal-fired power. Though the case study is carried out on the far side of the globe from Tuzla, it reflects similar asymmetries between those carrying the ecological burden and those profiting economically. There, in


5

the rural south western United States, Susan E. Dawson, Gary E. Madsen, John C. Allen, and Chih-Yao Chang have studied local attitudes towards the construction of a new plant site. They examine how community conflicts are focused around the location of the plant and how the locals not only find themselves divided in subgroups being pro or contra the use of fossil energy resources, but also in groups that simply oppose specific locations for the future power plant. Returning to the core environmental dilemma of how to balance economic and ecological concerns, chapter 4 by Nicoleta Dospinescu draws on an argumentative analysis on the use of Genetic Modified Organism (GMO) in Romania. Now a member of the European Union (EU), the country has been seen as a vehicle through which the United States, that is largely pro-GMO, tries to convince the EU, which traditionally has been more skeptical as regards use of GMO, about the benefits of transgenic plants. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility as one possible way of balancing economic growth with social and ecological accountability. In chapter 5 Vikramaditya Singh Malik and Roshan Santhalia, take this concept of Corporate Social Responsibility to the Indian context and, more specifically, to the case of carbon trading. II Tensions within environmental values Clearly, the tension between economic and ecological values should not come as a surprise to any reader familiar with the literature on sustainable development. Figure 1 moreover depicts tensions that arise within and between different environmental values. This is also what chapter 6 provides us with. John Berg takes us along to the Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts where plans of building 130 wind turbines have pitted the possibility of producing clean sustainable energy against the preservation of a unique environment and its natural beauty. In chapter 7, Martha Richmond presents a case in which diesel engines with particle-filtration devices succeed in reducing the mass of particles released into the atmosphere, but actually does not decrease the amount of ultra-fine particles. These small particles then exacerbate asthma for people living close to heavily trafficked roadways — people who mostly belong to the lower economic classes. Richmond’s paper thus brings an environmental justice perspective to what otherwise may seem as a purely technical matter. III Resolving these tensions The complex issues voiced in the different contributions in the sections I and II of the first part of this book, emphasize the lack of a silver bullet capable of resolving the tensions between various (environmental and non-environmental) values. A focus on specific conflicts and context-dependent solutions seems to be needed. In chapter 8 Elaine Anderson presents us with a practical solution to a

6

Introduction

specific conflict taking place in the Delta farmland close to Vancouver, Canada. Anderson’s paper analyses how the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust deals with the competing interests involved. The findings of her study may be able to be carried forward to other cases where the use of land for agricultural purposes clashes with wildlife preservation. Similarly, the case study by Erika Techera on the conservation of marine areas in Fiji, presented in chapter 9, adds to the growing body of literature that documents the failure of top-down approaches in resolving such tensions within environmental governance. Her paper exemplifies general problems and points to bottom-up solutions which, like many other contributions to this volume, are of broader applicability and go well beyond the sphere of environmental issues. In chapter 10 Jo Kehoe situates the wider struggle between preservation and exploitation in the context of land tenure in Queensland, Australia. Kehoe’s work shows how the legacy of old statutes may reward unsustainable practices such as land clearing. She argues that sustainable land management requires longterm solutions and a partnership approach between landowners and the state regulators. Moving on to the global level, Joanna Burch Brown points out in chapter 11 that most work on climate change in environmental ethics has grappled with the question of who is to pay the costs for mitigation. Far less attention has been paid to how the costs of adaptation are to be distributed between countries. Here again, the problem of uneven spatial distributions recurs as we know that the countries that are likely to be most affected by climate change tend to be among the poorest in the world, while it is the rich countries that have benefitted the most from past emissions. The paper proposes a heuristic device through which we might explore what it would mean for states to fully compensate one another on the basis of percentage contribution to cumulative CO2 emissions. Staying on the global level, chapter 12 finally challenges many long-held notions regarding sustainable development: Rasmus Karlsson suggests that the tension between human welfare and ecological responsibility may in fact be solvable by a radicalization of modernity rather than by a retreat from it. Outlining the possibility of advanced technological paths to intergenerational justice, Karlsson also highlights the intimate relation between world peace and long-term environmental sustainability. Second Part: Towards an Informed Citizenship I Foundations Frequently the Baconian-Cartesian duality is viewed as intricately related to scientific and technological advances:7 Only a dichotomy between human beings and non-human nature enables and furthers, according to some authors, the human exploitation of the environment that started with the modern sciences and, to


7

a large extend, with industrialization. Reasoning along these lines, one way of overcoming the problems raised by the dilemmas sketched in the first part of this book is a holistic approach: Denying a relevant distinction between humans and non-human nature, talking about a conflict between various values loses its sense. Moral philosophers and novelists alike have suggested overcoming the ecological problems of our time by adopting such a holistic view. The writings of the French feminist Cixous can be interpreted along that line also: In chapter 13 Mary Stroud applies Cixous’ reasoning to environmental issues, thereby basing the intuitive unity of human beings and nature on what ecofeminists refer to as female reasoning. By putting special emphasis on relationships and physical corporeality, Stroud strives to develop practical pedagogical tools which help to administer this unity. Chapter 14 by Chiara Certomà critically examines holistic approaches and more specifically the language of authenticity as found, amongst others, in the writings of Mary Douglas, Charles Taylor and Anthony Giddens. In the literature, modernity is commonly held to be responsible for the loss of authentic place. Certomà challenges this view that is paradigmatic for many holistic approaches. In particular she challenges the essentialistic nostalgia which surrounds much thinking on the loss of place. Instead she advances a view that allows to be seen places as hybrid entities defined by overlapping relations and not by romanticized images of a primeval organic society. Such a view not only seems more adequate today, but may even prove more suitable for understanding many pre-modern settings. By being modest in the number of metaphysical claims regarding the interconnectedness between humans and nature, Certomà may also provide a suitable starting point for political decision-making. Another attempt for a metaphysical modest defence of holism can be found in chapter 15 of Mark Dixon. Outlining core concepts and values of environmental ethics, Dixon tries to bring these concepts down to earth and in relation to the moral task of building our own character. Arguing that ethics should not be reduced to abstract theories or decision rules, Dixon explores the fundamental relation between ethical principles and the operative human will. Starting with place as in Certomà’s work, Dixon puts it alongside interdependence, enough, reverence, and compassion as a set of core concepts capable of transforming our moral relation to nature. In contrast to the other papers in this section, Dixon does not consider these values to be external to the individual, but rather locates them in the character of the moral subject. Dixon shows how such values can motivate environmentally responsible behaviour when conceived as virtues, partly drawing on Buddhist thinking. Dixon’s rehabilitation of a virtue ethical approach which was almost completely abandoned in moral philosophy after Kant, is motivated by the aim to bridge the chasm between ethical theory and moral practices. Also chapter 16 by Rafaela Hillerbrand is inspired by this aim. In contrast to the approach by Dixon

8

Introduction

who stresses the need for moral virtues, Hillerbrand points out the necessity of dianoetic, i.e. intellectual, virtues, in particular the antique phronesis which provides a judgement based on moral grounds. It is argued that such a judgment becomes indispensable when we have to balance risks arising from the use of modern technologies. This argument is illustrated by means of the present debate on genetically modified organisms. We know that the use of transgenic seeds could have the potential of alleviating world hunger, but also that those seeds may endanger the natural environment. For the present however, science cannot give us clear answers regarding how we are to assess the risks nor estimate the possible benefits. The paper argues that given such circumstances, traditional cost-benefit analysis, inspired as it is by classical utilitarian thinking, breaks down and should be supplemented with a virtue-ethical approach. II Merits and drawbacks of top-down approaches The shortcomings of many top-down approaches to environmental sustainability have long been acknowledged; they are illustrated in this volume not least by the work of Techera. However in many cases, top-down approaches are indispensable in achieving environmental sustainability and will remain so at least for a long time. Moreover bottom-up approaches still have to deliver: It is not yet clear whether they are at all able to replace the top-down approaches in all relevant practical cases. Therefore we do not associate a negative connotation to the term ‘top-down’ as can be sometimes found in the environmental literature. Note in particular that top-down strategies do not coincide with command-and-control approaches as advocated by early eco-authoritarians. They are thus not subject to the critique that is raised against eco-authoritarians. In the following, we will present a range of case studies that provide some insights about when and where different approaches may work or fail and that give some alternative view on rational implications of top-down approaches. The papers by Dixon, Hillerbrand and Stroud explicitly aim to bridge the gap between ethical theory and moral practices by arguing for certain virtues as character traits or ecosystem pedagogy. All three authors approach this issue from a theoretical perspective. In contrast to this, chapter 17 by Stephen Woolpert addresses this very gap by starting with a specific practical problem, namely how to encourage sustainability among students in higher education. Woolpert opts for incorporating elements from system thinking and Biophilia into campus environmental audits in order to overcome the human versus nature dichotomy which he, just like Stroud, Certomà and Dixon considers the root cause of many of our present environmental problems. Like these authors, Stephen Woolpert offers a metaphysical modest holism which distinguishes his approach from more outspokenly holistic views that are common in the literature.


9

In chapter 18 Jo Thakker poses a question that needs to be answered before top-down approaches can be implemented successfully, namely: What does it take for individuals to change their behaviour and act in a more environmentally responsible way? In particular, she analyses what role psychology has to play in furthering ecological sustainability. Focusing on the threat of global warming, she asks what, in the light of current knowledge, are the best ways of promoting behavioural change. F. Medardo Tapia Uribe examines in chapter 19 the public sphere as the main source of civic education today. In this case study from Morelos, Mexico, Uribe asks how schooling, media and active citizenship contribute to citizens’ engagement in the preservation of their local environment. While Uribe focuses on local environmental problems, the case-study of Subana Shanmuganathan, Monte Cassim and Kyoko Ukita report in chapter 20 investigates how schooling can improve the awareness of both local and global ecological issues. The paper looks at how regulations laid down by the Japanese ministry since the 1990s have been implemented at Ritsumeikan. In chapter 21, Fabrice Mauleon and Mary McKinley change the scene to France where they demonstrate how a business school can educate their students and foster environmental responsibility by increasing the transparency of the organization and also publish a formal annual report on the environmental impact of the school. Concluding the contributions on top-down approaches, Ashok Kumbamu shows in chapter 22 how centrally conceived knowledge-based farming systems of GMO are translated into local practice. Drawing on field research in the Warangal district in India, Kumbamu argues that strong economic incentives have made it difficult for individual farmers to resist the introduction of genetically modified seeds. This is the more worrying as the farmers lack much of the knowledge infrastructure necessary to use the transgenic seeds in an environmentally safe manner. III Merits and drawbacks of bottom-up approaches Bottom-up approaches require access to information as well as the ability to independently make sense of that information. The first two papers in this section thus focus on information about environmental issues. Instead of ‘educating’ the public, here the focus is shifted to how individuals can gain access to crucial information so that they can successfully formulate responses to the environmental problems they are facing. Chapter 23 by Abreu Ferreira argues that the protection of the environment is treated as a fundamental value within the European Union. This applies to the national level as well as to the European level. Both the European Commission and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) accept this value.

10

Introduction

Abreu Ferreira stresses that this implies a right of the citizen, namely the right to environmental information. The importance of not only information, but also of traditional or indigenous knowledge is stressed by Melisande Middleton in chapter 24. This knowledge is crucial as it provides relevant insight into local issues needed for a solution to many ecological problems. The importance of traditional knowledge leads the author to suggest putting a market value on traditional knowledge through legislation. There is now an ongoing discussion at the Word Trade Organization regarding precisely this possibility. However, legal instruments are still lacking. Basing her case study on traditional irrigation practices in Puno, Peru, Middleton points towards the possibilities of integrating traditional knowledge in local economic development processes. Chapter 25 by Lucie Midlemiss investigates a hope often expressed by academics and policy-makers alike, namely that community-based organisations, ranging from schools and churches to community gardens and sports clubs, are capable of mobilising citizens to act in a more environmentally friendly manner. The paper reviews a case study of a sustainable consumption project run by the Christian Ecology Group at Holy Trinity church in the United Kingdom. Finally, Linda Hadfield enquires in chapter 26 into public attitudes regarding science itself and, more specifically, regarding the use of genetically modified organisms. Her paper shows how a public consultation exercise can be used to ‘educate’ the scientists with regard to how to communicate their research or what risks they should take into account.

Notes 1

Exceptions are, for example, the cost-benefit analysis by C Lumer, The Greenhouse. A Welfare Assessment and Some Morals, University Press of America, Lanham, New York,Oxford, 2002, and by SO Hanson and M Johannesson, ‘Decision-Theoretic Approaches to Global Climate Change’, pp. 153–178 in G Fermann (ed.) International Politics of Climate Change, Scandinavian University Press, Oslo, 1997. The analysis of both authors go well beyond the economic evaluations which date back to the work of RO Mendelsohn, WN Morrison, ME Schlesinger and NG Andronova, ‘Country-specific market impacts of climate change’, Climatic Change 45(3-4), pp. 553–569, 1998. See chapter 6 of the Stern-report for an overview of the various economic models of the impacts of climate change. 2

The diagram is taken from the VDI-Richtlinie 3780 as it is reprinted in H Lenk and G Ropohl Technik und Ethik, Reklam, Stuttgart, 1991, pp. 334–363. 3

The literature on moral dilemmas is copious. Good starting points to gain some insight into the more theoretical aspects of this problem, are provided in


11

an edited volume by HE Mason, Moral Dilemmas and Moral Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996. 4

C Andreou, ‘Environmental Preservation and Second-Order Procrastination’, Philosophy & Public Affairs 35 (3), pp. 233—248, 2007. 5

See for example WD Ruckleshaus, ‘Science, Risk, and Public Policy’, Science 221, 1026–1028. Also the paper by Joanna Burch Brown in this volume touches on issues of collective responsibility when she talks about liabilities of states. 6 7

U Beck, Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995.

This generally well known version of dualism is attributed to René Descartes (1641): R Descartes, R. Meditations on First Philosophy, in The Philosophical Writings of René Descartes, trans. by J Cottingham, R Stoothoff and D Murdoch, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984, vol. 2, pp. 1–62; F Bacon, Novum Organum, http://www.constitution.org/bacon/nov_org.htm; also compare J Passmore, Man’s Responsibility For Nature, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1974, pp. 20–24.

Environmental Dilemmas or how to avoid Buridan’s Donkey

Part I Environmental versus Economic Values

15

Chapter 2

Environmental Policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Post-socialism Development and Local Governance Vanesa Castán Broto, Claudia Carter and Lucia Elghali The development of new environmental policies in transition countries is commonly regarded as one of the positive results of the democratisation process in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). Former Marxistinspired regimes in CEECs are often portrayed as having had a detrimental influence on environmental conservation. Multiple opinions resonate with such assumptions when describing the industrial pollution affecting several cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina such as Zenica, Srnica and Tuzla. However, despite new legislation, environmental pollution has improved little in recent years and local discontent is evident. This contribution relates to a case study in Tuzla, affected by pollution from an industrial complex including TEP, a coal-fired power plant that provides 58% of the total electricity supply in the country. Qualitative research has been carried out to understand the local and institutional perspectives on the environment. Local residents have voiced the violation of their rights by the industrial pollution, and local and regional governments continue facing many difficulties to implement and enforce environmental policies. Inadequate governance structures, lack of control and resources and rampant corruption affect the implementation of environmental policies. We attend to how local citizens’ concerns about environmental governance are voiced in their discourses on the environment, and their demand for effective policies that increase transparency, information and accountability for assessing technological and industrial development. Key Words: Environmental policy, Central and Eastern European Countries, environmental governance, citizenship.

1

Disclaimer

The following text recalls an imaginary conversation between a researcher and a local in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the conversation is informed by research among the local communities in Tuzla, this conversation never occurred.

18

Environmental Policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Fragments have been added in order to explain the wider context in which the interview is supposed to occur.

2

Dramatised Interpretation in One Act

RESEARCHER ‘R’ (Talking to the audience): This was my first time in Tuzla! I was so full of expectations . . . all the way I could not stop thinking about my research, and about how we should help all those people living with coal ash pollution in that city in Northern Bosnia. As soon as I dropped my luggage in the hotel I jumped into a taxi and asked the driver to bring me to the infamous disposal sites, where the local thermo-electric plant, known as TEP, was dumping the coal ashes. Coal ash pollution, you know: leaching of heavy metals, dust dispersion, and transfer to the food chain . . . all these issues were on my mind. I got totally immersed in the project and subject area. The taxi driver looked at me with a funny expression, as if he was puzzled that anyone wanted to visit those sites for any reason. Yet, as the taxi drove through small villages and narrow roads towards the disposal sites, my excitement grew. We turned behind a mosque, and then, suddenly, out of nowhere, there it was, that fabulous extension of black sand, that sci-fi desert surrounded by green valleys where life was thriving against the orderly flat black ashes. It was late afternoon and the place looked somehow charming; enchanted under the soft light which seemed to blur the borders and reduced the contrasts to mere deformations in the landscape. The taxi driver stopped beside the dike. I climbed up to see the sand from the top. A little stream crossed the site, tinted in blue, over a bed of white residues, probably caused by the precipitation of carbonates. The coal used here is really alkaline so the wet disposal of the ashes means that the pH value of water can be above 10. On the top of the dike there was a woman, her hands on her hips, looking to the horizon, as if trying to separate the ashes from the valley. Even though she looked lost in her own thoughts, I approached her in the hope I could get some first-hand information about how the life was like in that setting. R: Doberdan. LOCAL ‘L’: (Uninterested) Doberdan. (Two seconds pause) R: So . . . ! Well, this is big, isn’t it? L: Yep. Certainly not what it used to be. R: Have you been living here long? L: Well, yes. 1979, that was the year my family moved here. My father worked in the power plant. He was an engineer. R: Let me ask you something. I am working for this European-funded project;

V. Castán Broto, C. Carter and L. Elghali

19

its name is RECOAL. And we work with people from different countries, from Germany and Austria and the UK, developing remediation measures for the disposal sites. We want to know how to safely use and live next to the disposal sites. But it is difficult to do this without knowing what the local people think about the disposal sites and their environment. I have come to Tuzla to do some interviews, among the local people, so we know what their opinion is about the sites. And I would like to interview you, if it is possible . . . L: And you say this is a European project? R: Well, yes, but there are also Bosnians working on it. Some project members are based in Sarajevo, others are from the University at Banja Luka, and there is also a Croatian team from Zagreb University; and of course TEP. L: That is strange, so you have some Croatians from Zagreb, some Serbs from Banja Luka, and some Muslims from Sarajevo. Is that how the project was set up, to represent all the ethnic groups, ehm, how do they call them after Dayton? – Ah yes, all the ‘constituent peoples’, so that’s it, you have all the constituent peoples, haven’t you? R: Yes, I suppose so. I think it is a good opportunity to foster communication between the different ethnic groups, I mean, they all care about the environment, don’t they? L: Yes, but you cannot select people for a European project according to their ethnic group. How does that guarantee that they are going to do a good job? It is just to fill the quota, and to keep the separations alive. R: Well, I suppose so. They are all experts; and still, it is well intended... L: Here in Tuzla the nationalists have never won the elections. And we are very proud of that. Before the war nobody asked me whether I was Serb or Croat or Muslim. We all celebrated our parties together. My Father was going to the mosque, but we all celebrated Christmas, and Labour Day, there, down the hill, where the ashes are now, that is where we celebrated Labour Day. Then, nobody cared which God you prayed to. But now, if you are not nationalist, who can you vote for? That is, we have three presidents, and they are all from the nationalist party, that is the Government after Dayton, a multi-party system where only nationalist parties have any success. Look at these ashes: they are of no ethnic origin. They are just ashes. If at least they were useful for something . . . R: But they may well be; that is what we are trying to study in this project. That is why the European Union has funded the RECOAL project, to test different ways to remediate these sites and do something with them. L: Oh, I know, some people will be happy to hear that. I know the Municipality has big plans for the sites. I heard that they are going to build an airport. Perhaps that would be good, if there was something that young people could use, something that could bring some jobs, some opportunities. Because now

20


most young people are leaving the area, and these communities are forgotten by everyone . . . R: Do you think an airport would help to stop that? L: Well, an airport, what do I know? At least an airport could attract some people, some tourists that would eat in our restaurants. Because if they build a graveyard, and I know the Municipality do not have land, and a graveyard is something that would benefit everyone, but it would not be the same, because a graveyard would not provide any jobs, new opportunities, nothing. Maybe they could build another factory . . . I do not know, they should know better, but they should do something that benefits us, because we suffer all this . . . R: So, do you know who will decide what is finally to be done with the sites? L: I’ve heard my husband talking, because he went to a local meeting, some girls came to the town to ask the people here about the Spatial Plan. They also talked about the sites; some people say that the law says that the sites will be recultivated and after that they will be used for something, something that can benefit the community.1 But this plan will say little about what the coal energy plant can do or not: the Municipality can say little about decisions taken in Sarajevo! R: Do you mean that the government of the Federation takes the decisions about the thermo-electric plant? L: Well, it is Elektroprivreda, the national electric company, all politicians living in Sarajevo, worried about having cheap electricity . . . but who in Sarajevo cares about the misery we live in here? R: But there are liabilities associated with the disposal sites and the slag. Surely somebody can be brought to court being responsible for the pollution . . . L: Ah, but you know what now, nobody really knows where or who these sites belong to. No. Now, the Municipality has big plans for the sites, even I heard that some want to have greenhouses! But the power plant is still using several sites and may even want more land. Nobody knows who owns these sites and should look after them. Before, we expected that the land would be returned to the original owners, those who were expropriated when the plant started to burn coal. Then the war came and now: who is the owner? Nobody knows. But what can I do with this land? I know some people, they have small gardens there on top of the ashes and grow potatoes and things, but I heard my sister, and she lives in the city, and she told me that that would kill me and kill my children, because there is a lot of poison in this land, look at it, it is all black: nothing grows in there, everything dies on the ashes. R: But you all live there . . . you will be able to say something, to change this situation . . . ? L: Well, sometimes we go to the local community and discuss things, this


21

and that. Now, when the Spatial Plan was being developed some people went there, to talk about things that matter to us, small things. But there is little we can do, I can say this and that, but who will come and do something about it? R: And in the thermo electric plant? Can’t you go there and tell them what you think? L: Surely you can, but why would they listen? They have their own interests. They came to ask us for approval, they wanted this loan from, how do you call it, the International Economic Fund . . . R: The International Monetary Fund? L: Yes, that’s it. Well they were going to give them some money, but they asked them whether they had the approval, and we said: ‘yes, you have our approval, but to build new filters so we do not have to breathe the poison from your chimneys’; and they went, but they said that the filter was to be finished by Christmas, and look at them, they have not yet started... R: And . . . L: No, no, they have not started, but also some Hungarians came, they sold them the filters and then they said it was not good enough, it was second rate filters, that was . . . R: So they did not install the state of the art ones? L: Oh, you know these companies, they only think about profit, about their own pockets. They do not care about people any longer . . . And then they said that they produce less pollution than the cars in the city centre, in Tuzla. Can you imagine? ... The Canton and the Municipality, they put up some measuring station; there (pointing eastward) behind the trees, and now they say that the air quality is better here than in the centre of Tuzla . . . But they do not suffer as we do . . . They don’t live here. I’ll tell you what, they do not give us the right results. R: What do you mean ’they don’t give you the right results’ ? L: If they were to give the correct results, they would have to close TEP . . . Before, in the old system orders were given and there was no discussion about it. Now we have entered the multi-party system and everything that is done is supposed to be transparent. However, if they were to tell us in a transparent fashion how many of those emissions, pollutants in the air, particles, wind blowing and other nasty things were here, then TEP would have to be closed, because it is altogether unacceptable. R: But if the decisions in the former regime were taken behind closed doors, focusing more or less exclusively on what was good for industrial development, how could that be better? L: Well, then you knew what to expect from them. I could go home and tell my husband: ‘look what these idiots are doing’; but you would know clearly what

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was happening. Now, they come saying that this party or another party opposed this and that. And Tuzla does not support the nationalists, so nothing is returned to this area, this area is the most forgotten area of all Bosnia and Herzegovina ... R: I see . . . L: And let me tell you more, these guys, these nationalists, they want you to agree, they want you to be convinced, to go and vote, but they do nothing other than filling and filling their pockets, and in the meantime we suffer this pollution. R: But let me ask you, because I know that there are many NGOs in Tuzla and the region, many groups that work on different projects to preserve the environment . . . L: No, but here in the community, we have other groups . . . there is a group for the protection of the environment, ECO-Green. They worked to stop the plant from building another slag site . . . R: And what about women, do you have opportunities to participate in Municipality decisions or issues elsewhere . . . L: Oh, women here are very active. We have a group, the Women’s Association. We are very active, we help other people. During the war we helped those who were injured. And in the association there are no differences, we treat everyone the same. And now we make a lot of trips, here and there, we go to drink tea, to think how we can improve things . . . we do it for our children, so they do not need to go to Germany or elsewhere; they can stay here, in Tuzla. Because about the environment, we, as individuals, cannot make a difference ... but we can in a group. R: So, now you have more space to act as a democratic society, to express your needs through NGOs like ECO-Green and influence the existing authorities to change their opinions regarding the responsibilities towards citizens . . . Under socialism anything could be imposed, anything; for example, anything that came from the top of the country as a law, and nobody worried about the environment ... L: Yes, you are right. Sometimes, in the former Yugoslavia, you could not talk about the environment, because that could have been anti-revolutionary . . . no, perhaps you could not talk. But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t express our needs as citizens. Remediation measures were more temporary, palliative and forced, they weren’t done based on a plan, a programme to protect the environment. The term ‘environment’ wasn’t really used at that time, but we knew that we had to protect ourselves from these dangers. R: But back then, there was no specific action to protect the environment ... L: Well, let me tell you something: This notion of ecology didn’t appear


23

from this government and multi-party elections. We were aware of the environmental problem much earlier. We were aware of the pollution, and that is why we protested to the power plant, and then they had to come and cover the disposal sites with soil to stop the dust spreading everywhere. Because that dust, it was a crime, it came into our houses, and it didn’t matter if I closed the windows, or shut the curtains, the dust . . . R: But what do you mean, that this notion of ecology is not new? L: I mean, we may not have talked about ecology back then, or about sustainability . . . but we knew that all this, all these valleys, our trees, we knew that all of it was very important, and we tried to preserve it as much as we could. For our children, and for our future as well . . . But listen, back then things were different, but perhaps they were better as well . . . R: But surely, your life has improved in the past few years. L: Well, what do you mean ‘improved’ ? There are fewer and fewer jobs, less industry and all the other things that are necessary for a normal life, for having a normal job, for simply communicating, so that’s that. R: What job did you have then? L: Before the war I had my store, my shop. And my husband and I lived a normal life, worked. Everything was more normal than now. R: What do you mean, ‘more normal than now’ ? L: Well, you see, work, security, pensions, all those things, you knew there was a future . . . For instance, look at that plant, look this horrible slag . . . this brought us some harm, but also it brought us so much good that we were a local community where people had jobs, we made money and we could live here. R: So what do you think? Did the socialist system work better than this one? L: It was better in the system before the war. Because you didn’t have to... at least because you didn’t have to agree on everything. These days it’s enough that one political party of a hundred of them isn’t satisfied and everything gets complicated. This system now is complete chaos. If certain politicians, who have no idea of what ecology is, have to agree upon the issue of ecology, God help us! I respect all things, but air pollution is not a matter of elections or pre-election activities. And now, someone from a political party shouldn’t state in their preelection activities, ‘We will clean the air.’ No, that should be done by the industry or other services for ecology, without asking any party what is their opinion about it. R: So, who in your opinion should agree about those things? L: Well, now there are scientists, there are methods, they should know; but you know, I already told you, they can not give us the results . . . because then they will have to close the power plant, and all the benefits will go with it, away. I

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don’t know what would we do then? The plant is very important for us as well; we want to work together with them. I only complain because of this horrible stuff, these ashes, this pollution. Somebody should do something about it. But then, when all those interests, all that politics comes into it, nobody worries about whether we are suffering this pollution or not. R: Perhaps the authorities, the Municipality could do something . . . L: I know that the Municipality can do nothing. Let me tell you what happened. The EU helped to draft all these regulations, and also one that I really supported, to establish an Environmental Fund.2 So that is what we thought: those polluters, those who bring this dirt will have to pay to the Municipality, paying as much as they pollute. And then, we can get that money and plant some healthy trees, here and there, that will protect us, and make this place more beautiful. Or we could improve the infrastructure, we could improve our sewage system, which is outdated, or clean the wells. It would be such a good idea. R: But they passed the law already, right? L: Yes, so they say. But then nobody paid. Then they stop. Now if you have a car you have to pay to the Environmental Fund. But if you have a factory, which pollutes 1,000 or 10,000 times more than a small car, then you do not have to pay. They refuse to pay, them, the polluters. The socialist times were better, they were better. Communists, they say, stole, but we had things. And now, now they steal and we’re getting poorer and poorer. R: But then, you could not talk, or you could not vote . . . L: I don’t know, maybe I could not. But let me tell you this: In this multiparty system, especially these nationalist parties, they hunt for votes. Where nationalistic parties have less support you will see that these municipalities practically got the least from this cake of social gross budget for their needs. So I can vote as much as I want, but nobody will do anything with that. Because it is only their pockets they are interested in, and what happens to this community or their environment is not on the agenda. R: Listening to you, it seems to me that even democracy can come into question if it is unable to deliver its promises to the citizens that bring it about. I think this is very interesting. You know what I think? I think that I could interview you, and then I could bring your words to other people . . . L: Interview me? Again? But I have already told you what I think. Interview me? What for? R: Well, you know, I am doing my doctorate, and I need to do and record many interviews, so I can analyse them . . . L: A doctorate? And what does that have to do with me? Well, I have already told you everything I know . . . I don’t think I want to do any interview . . . Just


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look there, you see that? That is all you need for your doctorate. That is what kills people over here . . . Take that back to England, show it there, they can do something. But I don’t know about interviews . . . And I am busy now . . . (R looks desolate as L walks away.)

Notes 1

Based on the Environmental Protection Law (Official Gazette, No. 6/98; 15/00), Canton Tuzla developed a Spatial Plan specifying that the CAD sites have to be ‘comprehensively recultivated’ (Official Gazette, Vol 13 (9); Tuzla, 23 September 2006; pp.765-1035). In addition the Plan explains that recultivated CAD sites would be divided into ‘small production units’ without specifying the potential uses of the sites. 2

Establishment of an ‘Environmental Fund’ (Official Gazette of F B&H, No. 33/03).

Biographical Note Vanesa Castán Broto is a Research Engineer in the Social and Economic Research Group of the Environmental and Human Sciences Division at Forest Research and EngD student at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, Surrey University. Her current work looks at how the construction of alternative descriptions of physical phenomena can be addressed in sustainable land use management projects. Claudia Carter is a Researcher in the Social and Economic Research Group at Forest Research leading the social science research on the EC project RECOAL (INCO-WBC-1-509173) addressing coal ash disposal and pollution in the West Balkan area. Other research interests focus on offender rehabilitation through forest management and conservation work; trans-disciplinary approaches to environmental research and environmental governance issues. Lucia Elghali is a Lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey and Programme Director for the Surrey Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Environmental Technology. Her main research and teaching activities are related to providing support for environmental decisions, environmental management and practical applications of industrial ecology and life cycle approaches.

Chapter 3

Understanding Rural Community Conflict using Network Analysis: A Case Study of a Proposed Coal-Fired Power Plant in the Southwestern United States Susan E. Dawson, Gary E. Madsen, John C. Allen, and Chih-Yao Chang China, India, and the United States by 2012 are expected to emit 2.7 billion additional tons of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. The U.S. is considering building about 150 plants that are controversial because of greenhouse-gas emissions and environmental toxins. This paper is based upon a case study of a rural Southwestern U.S. homogeneous community in which a proposed coal-fired power plant is creating community conflict over economic, health, environmental, and quality of life issues. The study was initiated because of a recent oil strike in the community; however, it soon became apparent that the plant siting was the major focus of controversy rather than the oil strike. We conducted 31 interviews using network mapping, analyzing network structures that were focused on the power plant controversy. In the interviews, the respondents discussed their perceptions of economic development. Two fairly distinct social network cliques were identified with little interaction taking place between them. One was largely supportive of the plant, while the other was largely opposed. Within each clique, there were some who were opposed mainly to the plant location. We present qualitative data that identify the different types of reasoning behind the respondents’ support or non-support of the power plant. In addition, an indication of public positions on the issue is presented. Theoretical issues involving NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) are discussed in light of the complexity of the responses identified in this case study. Important environmental justice implications are discussed regarding groups and decision-making. Unlike many environmental justice studies, the major players in this conflict are represented by powerful individuals within the community. Mapping these network structures and identifying the major reasons for support or nonsupport of the coal-fired power plant may point to an emerging pattern of community responses to such environmental issues. Key words: Coal-fired power plant, community conflict, mapping, network analysis, NIMBY.

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1

Understanding Rural Community Conflict

Background

Globally, research suggests that energy consumption will likely double by 2050 with an extensive amount involving the burning of fossil fuels. Much of this growth is projected to be in China and India, which taken together, are constructing 650 coal-fired power plants.1 In the United States there are also proposals to create about 150 new power plants.2 These plants are controversial because they contribute to acid rain, air pollution, and global warming. For example, it is estimated that by 2012 these three countries will likely generate an additional 2.7 billion tons of CO2 . In doing so, they will exceed the 35-nation Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, the European Union (EU) has agreed recently to combat global warming by giving greater emphasis to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.3 Of the approximate 150 proposed coal-fired power plants in the U.S., a majority of them will not incorporate new gasification technology which can capture and store thousands of tons of CO2 so that it will not go into the atmosphere.4 About 40 plants are planned for the western states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.5 This region has long been recognized for its energy development of coal, natural gas, oil, and uranium. Historically, many rural communities have been impacted significantly by these developments. In this paper we will focus on our study of a small rural county located in the Intermountain West in which a coal-fired power plant is being proposed currently.

2

NIMBYs and LULUs

The siting of hazardous facilities, such as power plants, nuclear waste repositories, and waste incinerators, has always been controversial given the inherent benefits and losses to the populations involved. Farmer and Albrecht, in their summary of environmental hazard studies, point out that race and class are the most important variables related to hazardous and toxic facilities siting in the United States. They state, ‘Each of these [studies] provides evidence of environmental injustice in which particular ethnic and economically disadvantaged groups incur an undue health burden associated with the hazardous exposure.’67 Because of the relationship between social class and race/ethnicity in hazardous waste siting, the concepts of NIMBY, not in my backyard, and LULU, locally undesirable land use, have been developed to describe opposition to toxic facilities. As Morris points out: Everyone is a NIMBY and no one wants a LULU. One might oversimplify a little and say that there are only two kinds of people: public NIMBYs and stealth NIMBYs. Stealth NIMBYs are generally the affluent, the influential, and the well-placed who can keep LULUs out

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of their neighbourhoods by quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes during the decision making process. Usually, their turf is not even considered as a site. Public NIMBYs, lacking such political clout and effectively excluded from most of the decision making process, have to fight it out in the public domain.

3

Present Controversy Over a Proposed Coal-fired Power Plant

The focus of our research was to identify and map social networks of residents in order to establish the flow of information about issues associated with a particular county’s economic development. This study was designed initially to examine the impacts of rapid energy development within the county because it had experienced a major oil strike. While this was important to residents, an overriding concern was a proposed coal-fired power plant in the county which has resulted in considerable community conflict. This paper will address the following: 1) how a sample of respondents involved in economic development describe their county, 2) how they network with each other over the proposed coal-fired power plant issue, 3) how these network alignments are related to rationales for support or non-support of the plant, and 4) how the general public has responded to the plant issue. The relationship of NIMBY/LULU factors with positions on the power plant will also be presented.

4

Sample and Method

The study population was a rural county in the western United States containing less than 20,000 residents. The county contains several small communities, ranging from approximately 300 to 7,000 residents, and is situated in a fertile river valley enclosed by mountainous national forest. Farming, ranching, manufacturing, mining, and tourism comprise major segments of the economy. Because of our interest in economic development, the sample of respondents was initiated by contacting a person, who was known to be involved in such activities. Using a snowball sampling technique, this person provided a list of several names of people in that person’s economic development network. When these persons were interviewed, they were asked, “With whom do you work or interact with when it comes to economic development in the county?” Thus, we were able to establish a sample and conduct a network analysis of 31 respondents. The sample was composed primarily of government, business, and professional people. They were 97 percent non-Hispanic white. With respect to family incomes, half the sample made $50,000 or more, and 71 percent had a bachelor’s degree or greater. Ages ranged from 34 to 75 with a mean of 54, and five respon-

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dents were female and 26 male. Religiously, 90 percent were affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Data were gathered in 2006 from confidential in-person interviews which lasted one to two hours. The interview schedule contained primarily open-ended questions in which respondents were able to compose their own responses. In the first part of the interview schedule, we asked three questions. The first question asked, “If a new person were to come into the [county] area, how would you describe it to that person?” The second was, “Have you noted any major changes in the county that have occurred over the last five years?” “If yes, what positive changes, if any, have occurred?’ ‘What negative changes, if any, have occurred?” Next, we asked, “What changes do you envision occurring in the future, if any?” “What positive changes do you foresee?” “What negative changes do you foresee?” The first question was devised to provide the respondents’ overall perceptions of their county. The second and third questions addressed any changes in the county perceived by the respondents. Out of the responses to the second and third questions, the issue of the proposed coal-fired power plant was raised by the majority of respondents. When we constructed the interview schedule, we were unaware of the proposed plant and the controversy surrounding it. Out of the 31 respondents, four did not comment about the power plant. We later contacted them to ascertain their perceptions of the proposed plant. UCINET 6.0 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis (UCINET/NETDRAW) was utilized to map the social networks that revolved around economic development and STATA 8.0 was used for data analysis.89 In addition, secondary date such as voting records were included in the analysis to provide an indication of public alignments regarding coal-fired power plant.

5

Findings

A

Description of the County

We felt it important to identify how the 31 respondents viewed their county. This open-ended question yielded data which we categorized into a number of domains, given that respondents could provide as many descriptors as needed. While more than 30 categories of responses were identified, we will focus on six that stood out clearly since they were identified by 6-15 respondents each. The categories include: positive quality of life (N=15), recreational opportunities (N=15), rural environment (N=13), valley aesthetics (N=13), growth of population and economy (N=12), and family incomes (N=6). The following are a number of quotations identifying county perceptions: “It’s a county that is pretty much tied to one valley, geographically speaking, with a lot of majestic mountains around it. The culture here is one that is very friendly, easy to get to know.” “In terms of quality of life, very positive. So the education experience of our children and for recreational opportunities, it’s fantastic.” “I think it’s a beautiful valley. There

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are a lot of amenities here. It’s small and rural. I think that’s why a lot of people live in these areas because they’re small and rural. As far as jobs and that, I know that from our statistics we’re below the national average, below the state, in average per capita income.” “A lot of different things to do outdoors, ATV-ing (all-terrain vehicle), fishing, hunting. Just a nice rural climate.” “There’s growth that I think we’re getting from both the north and the south of the valley. It’s making what I think is a really dynamic, changing area here due to both natural growth and in-migration.” “We have wonderful soils and growing conditions here that are the mainstay of our economy.” These quotes are indicative of the generally positive attitudes expressed by these residents of the county.

B

The Power Plant Controversy

Despite the generally positive comments, the recently proposed coal-fired power plant project has resulted in considerable conflict among these respondents. Approximately four years before we gathered these data, an energy company proposed building a coal-fired power plant in the valley which would produce 270megawatts of electricity. This proposal was supported by the county’s economic development committee and county commissioners. It also led to the development of grassroots activism in opposition to the plant. As the regulatory process for approval began, some opponents of the plant founded a formally-constituted opposition group. Our sample of 31 respondents included those who were actively engaged in the public debate over the plant and others who were not. Fourteen (45%) respondents were in support of the plant, eight (26%) were opposed, and nine (29%) were opposed to the proposed location of the plant. This latter subgroup was comprised of people who opposed, supported, or were ambivalent about the power plant per se, but emphasized their opposition to the plant siting. Since these statistics were derived from a non-representative sample of the population, they do not necessarily represent the county population. The proponents of the plant justified their position by emphasizing the contributions it would make to the county primarily in terms of job creation, increased tax revenues, and the use of locally-mined coal. One proponent said, “In terms of industrial base, the power plant will just strengthen it because it gives the coal mine a customer. They can possibly use it to support the trucking industry...We’d like to see this kind of activity take place with oil and gas and the power plant because those are higher paying jobs. They are family sustaining wages.” Another stated, “I’m excited about the power plant because I think that’s progress...That little power plant doesn’t bother me at all. The other thing about the power plant that I think is positive is that they can burn the coal that they’re shipping out - the non-compliance coal.” Furthermore, another proponent said, “I hope we get the power plant. I think you’ll see the schools go through a major

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change there as far as renovations, offering better education to local people. I think once the power plant does come, there will be a lot of spin-off companies come from it.” Also one stated, “The coal-fired power plant would end up being our largest taxpayer. They would double our property tax. Double it right now.” And finally one explained, “Personally, I’m for the power plant. I think it’s a very clean technology.” The opposition group included those who were opposed outright and those who were opposed to the plant location. The majority stressed the negative impacts on aesthetics, environmental pollution, health concerns, and tourism. The following comments are indicative of the opposition group’s justification for their position: “I feel like we should maintain some sanctity in this state whereby we can breathe clean air and have somewhere where we can recreate without a smokestack that’s 462 feet tall. The [power plant] is one and three-quarter miles from 183 homes as planned in the heart of our farms.” “The Air Quality Board was overly generous in allowing the number of tons of pollutants that could be expelled [by the power plant].” “There is a 30-mile radius of impact [of the plant] that is going to affect all of these small towns. Not only visually, but you know all of that heavy pollution is going to be falling on your front step too, not just mine. There are inversions year round.” (An inversion occurs when air is trapped in a valley during periods of high atmospheric pressure.) “The power plant I see as a negative. I think it’s a bad thing. I don’t want it. I prefer other types of development here. First of all, from what I understand, it will increase the air pollution in the valley. I have [relative] with heart problems.” “My personal feelings are that I’m not opposed to the power plant. I do not like the proposed location. I’m speaking here about the beautiful valley, but I don’t like the idea of a smokestack sitting right in the middle of the valley. In fact, it makes me nervous that maybe they didn’t take other sites more seriously.” “There’s never been a poll or vote as to the numbers, those who support it or don’t support it. A lot of people that I’ve talked to who support it would like it in a different location rather than where it’s going to be located.” “Well, there’s still plenty of desert out there that would be a better situation for a power plant than to be in the middle of a beautiful little valley.” In addition to identifying how the respondents aligned themselves for or against the plant, we wanted to see if their network ties were related to their position alignments to the plant. In other words, are network ties randomly associated with one’s position or not? An advantage of a network analysis is that it shows social structure, the patterning of relationships among social entities. These entities, or units, can be individuals, positions, actors in groups, or any social unit connected to another unit. There are many types of patterns which have been identified by social network analysts.10 We will focus on whether the respondents form a single network or whether there are distinct cliques. If cliques are identified, to what extent are they related to respondents’ positions on the

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Figure 3.1: Network Map of 31 Respondents’ Positions Concerning the Proposed Coal-fired Power Plant. Squares equal opposition; upward triangles equal support, downward triangles equal location opposition

power plant issue? And if so, are there respondents who are involved in links, or bridges, between cliques? In Figure 3.1, we identify networking among the respondents and also their positions, pro and con, about the proposed plant. The numbers attached to each do not represent the order in which respondents were interviewed. Three things are apparent. First, there are two distinct cliques. In one, a majority favour the power plant (indicated by triangles) with a few who oppose the location (indicated by an upside down triangle). In the other group, a majority are opposed (indicated by a square) along with some who are also against the location. There are also only three respondents (numbers 12, 13, 14) who represent bridges, or connections, between the two cliques, two of whom are nonsupportive and one supportive. This provides few opportunities for information to be passed from one clique to another. Since most respondents held strong views concerning the power plant issue, this structuring of relationships is not conducive to a free flow of information which could lead to a reduction of conflict. Another factor to consider is the power company’s position with respect to the siting of the plant. According to several respondents, company personnel conducted a siting feasibility study early on and determined that the present location was situated ideally given its proximity to a highway, a power substation, and a water supply. After making the siting decision, the company let it be known that they would be strongly opposed to an alternative location. One respondent said: I’m hearing reports from [the company] that they’ve already gone through this lengthy, expensive process to get state approval. And if

34


Table 3.1: Comparison of those taking different positions concerning proposed coal-fired power plant they should be forced to change locations now, it would be so expensive, so prohibitive, that they may not even do it. So it almost comes across as a threat: ‘If you want us to bring jobs into this county, back off, and let us move forward with our proposal to go in that location or else we’ll go to some other county where they love and want us and give us what we want.’ This position of the company concerning location has likely fostered rigidity in the community on both sides. On the one hand, the supporters may fear that they will lose the project if the siting is changed, while those in opposition appear to be quite steadfast in their position. C

NIMBY/LULUs and the Power Plant

The NIMBY/LULU research literature documents environmental justice grassroots movements in which working class and minority groups in general try to keep undesirable energy projects out of their neighbourhoods and communities. With limited resources, these groups often challenge powerful corporations and government officials who support the corporations. This is not the case in this power plant controversy. In Table3.1 we present select demographic characteristics of the pro, anti, and anti-location subgroups. Taken together, the respondents are middle-aged, with an average age of 54 years ranging from 34 to 75, and have resided in the county for an average of 28.5 years. Half of those in the sample have household

S. E. Dawson et al.

35

incomes of $50,000 or more, and 71 percent of the sample were college graduates or had advanced degrees. With respect to income and education, figures for the county show the median household income was $37,536, and the educational level was only 15.2 percent of people 25 years and older who had a college degree or higher.11 Comparisons of the three subgroups indicated only small differences among them. Level of education was statistically significant for those opposed to the location compared to the other two subgroups; however, even this difference was not substantial. These subgroup demographic characteristics indicate that the proponents and the opposition are relatively similar with reference to social class characteristics. Given the high similar income and education levels, our sample is uncharacteristic of many NIMBY/LULU opponents of environmental sitings who are usually working class and minority. Another important question about the respondents’ positions on the power plant is the location in which each lives. NIMBY/LULU studies generally find that those closest to the siting that are considered undesirable are most likely to oppose the installation and to become grassroots activists. We asked each of the 31 respondents their addresses in the county, which allowed us then to plot the relationship of their residences to the proposed power plant. The county has almost 2,000 square miles of land and 16 communities, all of which are small except for one central commercial hub of approximately 7,000 residents. The 31 respondents resided in ten of the 16 communities. The plant site as proposed is closest to two of the small communities. Of those who support the power plant, none of the 14 respondents were residents of these two communities, but instead live in five other communities. Out of the 17 who are anti-power plant or antilocation, four respondents reside within the two towns, while the rest live in seven of the other communities. Therefore, it is only among the opposition groups that there are any in the samples who live in the two communities closest to the proposed plant. The rest are distributed throughout other communities in the county. Our sample was a very limited segment of the county population. Many respondents indicated that there had been public meetings and letters to the editor in the local newspaper in which the proposed plant was discussed, but there had not been a countywide representative study published of public attitudes toward the proposed plant or a countywide referendum. We were able to acquire data which did give an indication of public support or non-support. Some of those who opposed the plant suggested that a candidate be identified for one of the three county commission positions that would be available for the 2006 Republican primary. Politically, this county is identified as predominately conservative Republican. The seated county commissioner, who supported the plant, decided to run for re-election. During the debates prior to the primary, both candidates

36


stressed their divergent views, with the opposition candidate focusing especially on the plant location. The opposition candidate won the Republican primary election by a margin of five percentage points and was unopposed in the general election. There were 5,867 registered voters of whom 3,933 (67%) actually voted. There were 23 voting precincts in the county, two of which comprised the two closest communities to the power plant.12 If NIMBY is operative in this case, then the two communities would likely support the opposition candidate at higher levels than other communities. This was found to be the case. The candidate won with a 60 percent vote margin in the one community and 31 percent in the other. The difference between the two candidates in the other 21 precincts ranged from one to 27 percent, with the opposition candidate winning in 14 of the remaining 21 precincts. These data support the NIMBY principle but also demonstrate a large number of people throughout the county supporting the views of the opposition candidate.

6

Discussion

Social theorists continue to struggle over linking individual behaviour to that of community or societal behaviour. Some theorists have focused on “linking the development of institutions and norms to the exchange-based links between individuals and with the underlying structure of contacts in and between social groups.” 13 Such theorists have examined social networks suggested by what Simmel referred to as webs of group affiliations.14 Researchers suggest that network analysis is potentially “most helpful in explaining what is going on in large-scale social situations.” 15 The linking of individual and community levels of social organization is important if we are to continue to develop a theoretical basis for predicting how communities react to stressors and change. This is especially important as the push for energy continues at a rapid pace. In this study of a community coping with economic development changes, we wanted to focus on both individuals and group structures. The use of network analysis proved to be very important in understanding some of the dynamics in community conflict over an environmental controversy. It signifies how the flow of information is related to different positions of those involved in economic development. Since a power plant opponent was recently elected to the county commission, it will be possible to see how much this will change the dynamics of the network. By adding qualitative interviews to the mapping, we were able to understand the complex reasoning underpinning the respondents’ positions regarding the power plant. As research techniques, these could be applied to studies examining other community domains, such as education or health care, in which possible conflicts could develop. The literature concerning the siting of hazardous facilities demonstrates the primacy of jobs versus the environment. According to Morris:

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At some time during the course of almost every NIMBY battle, you will be hit with the Jobs-versus-Environment argument. Project supporters will claim that the jobs which the Project will provide outweigh any minor adverse environmental effects that it might have.16 Our study does show how the proponents stressed the importance of job creation and other economic benefits of the power plant, such as increased tax revenues, while the opposition group emphasized environmental and health concerns. One unifying theme that did appear among the respondents was their description of the importance of the pristine nature of the valley. Positive comments were made about aesthetic, recreational, and rural aspects. This might help to explain why there were those who indicated support for the power plant but also opposed the location in the valley. At this writing, both the opposition and supporters of the power plant appear to be unwilling to compromise their positions and have not pursued mediation. What makes this NIMBY/LULU controversy different from many in the past is the strength of the opposition group. This is not an example of lower income residents fighting the well-heeled power structure. In this instance, the respondents are quite evenly matched on important socio-economic variables, such as education, income, and occupational status. Furthermore, in this case study we found that NIMBY opposition was widely dispersed throughout the county. This may indicate a shift in NIMBY/LULUs in which residents are expanding their concerns about hazardous sitings well beyond their own neighbourhoods or communities to wider geographic areas. Future research could help us to understand whether the geographic parameters of NIMBY/LULUs are expanding or if this phenomenon is unique to this case study and how social networks emerge and change during a localized conflict.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Betsy H. Newman for her formatting of the manuscript and the Social Work macro practice students for their comments on an earlier draft.

Notes 1

F Zakaria, ‘Global Warming: Get Used To It’, Newsweek, February 19, 2007, p. 43. 2

M Wald, ‘Skeptics Emerge on Technologies for Cleaner Coal’, New York Times, February 21, 2007, p. C1. 3

M Clayton, ‘New Coal Plants Bury ‘Kyoto’, Christian Science Monitor, December 20, 2004, viewed on 14 February 2007,

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1223/p01s04-sten.html. 4

US Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), ‘Tracking New Coal-Fired Power Plants’, January 24, 2007, viewed on 10 February 2007, http://www.netl.doe.gov/coal/refshelf/ncp.pdf. 5

M Wald, ‘Skeptics Emerge on Technologies for Cleaner Coal’, New York Times, February 21, 2007, p. C1. 6

F L Farmer & S L Albrecht, ‘The Biophysical Environment and Human Health: Toward Understanding the Reciprocal Effects’, Society & Natural Resources: An International Journal, vol. 11, no. 8, December 1998, p.710. 7

J A Morris, Not In My Back Yard: The Handbook, Silvercat Publications, San Diego, California, 1994, pp. 13-14. 8

S Borgatti, M Everett, & L Freeman, UCINET 6 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis, Analytic Technologies, Harvard, 2002. In addition, secondary data such as voting records were included in the analysis to provide an indication of public alignments regarding the coal-fired power plant. 9

U Kohler & F Kreuter, Data Analysis Using Stata, Taylor and Francis, London, 2005. 10

J H Turner, The Structure of Sociological Theory, 6th ed, Wadsworth, Riverside, California, 1998, pp. 520-530. 11

US Census Bureau, ‘Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000’, January 12, 2007, viewed on 23 March 2007, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=050...,2000. 12

Utah County Clerk. ‘Sevier County June 06 - Primary Election Commissioner Results - CANVASS’, 20 November 2006. 13

R A Wallace & A Wolf, Contemporary Sociological Theory: Expanding the Classical Tradition, 6th ed., Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006, p. 358. 14

G Simmel, ‘The Web of Group Affiliations, trans. R Bendix’ in K H Wolff, et al. (eds), Simmel: Translations of Chapters from “Soziologies”, New York Free Press, New York, 1964. 15

J C Mitchell, ‘Social Networks’, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 3, 1974, p. 280. 16

Morris, op. cit., p. 141.

Bibliography Borgatti, S., Everett, M., & Freeman, L., UCINET 6 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis. Analytic Technologies, Harvard, 2002. Casert, R., ‘E.U. Agrees on Energy Plan to Combat Global Warming’. The

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Salt Lake Tribune, March 10, 2007, p.A11. Clayton, M., ‘New Coal Plants Bury ‘Kyoto’. Christian Science Monitor, December 20, 2004, viewed on 14 February 2007, . Farmer, F. L. & Albrecht, S. L., ‘The Biophysical Environment and Human Health: Toward Understanding the Reciprocal Effects’. Society & Natural Resources: An International Journal, vol. 11, no. 8, December 1998, pp.710-717. Kohler, U. & Kreuter, F., Data Analysis Using Stata. Taylor and Francis, London, 2005. Mitchell, J. C., ‘Social Networks’. Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 3, 1974, pp. 279-299. Morris, J. A., Not In My Back Yard: The Handbook. Silvercat Publications, San Diego, California, 1994. Rogers, G. O., ‘Siting Potentially Hazardous Facilities: What Factors Impact Perceived and Acceptable Risk?’. Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 39, 1998, pp. 265-281. Simmel, G., ‘The Web of Group Affiliations, trans. R Bendix’ in K H Wolff, et al. (eds). Simmel: Translations of Chapters from “Soziologies”. New York Free Press, New York, 1964. Turner, J. H., The Structure of Sociological Theory, 6th ed. Wadsworth, Riverside, California, 1998. U.S. Census Bureau, ‘Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000’, January 12, 2007, viewed on 23 March 2007. U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), ‘Tracking New Coal-Fired Power Plants’, January 24, 2007, viewed on 10 February 2007, . Utah County Clerk, ‘Sevier County June 06 - Primary Election Commissioner Results - CANVASS’, 20 November 2006. Wald, M., ‘Skeptics Emerge on Technologies for Cleaner Coal’. New York Times, February 21, 2007, p. C1. Wallace, R. A. & Wolf, A., Contemporary Sociological Theory: Expanding the Classical Tradition, 6th ed. Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006. Zakaria, F., ‘Global Warming: Get Used To It’. Newsweek, February 19, 2007, p. 43.

Biographical Note Susan E. Dawson, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work; Gary E. Madsen, Ph.D.,

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Emeritus Professor of Sociology; John C. Allen, Ph.D., Director of the Western Rural Development Center and Professor of Sociology; and Chih-Yao Chang, M.A., Sociology Doctoral Student, are in the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States.

Chapter 4

The Market of GM between Economic Growth and Ecological Development Nicoleta Dospinescu The use of genetic modified products have caused some highly polemic debates where the idea of economic progress is set against ecological responsibility. At the world level it is recorded a spectacular evolution of the GMO’s (Genetic Modified Organism) market, the cultivated areas with such plants increasingly developing, a fact that leads to obtaining larger and larger productions. On the other hand, the specialists consider that, through a long-term alimentation with unnatural products, the human health will suffer and the future generations can be put in danger. The aim of this paper is to take in consideration the problem of developing the GM market. We put face to face the economic growth sparked by GMO use versus the ecological future of our planet. We choose the method of argumentative analysis to point out the benefit and disadvantage of using GMO. The case study on the Romanian country shows the imperfection of implementing it and the risks that was generated. Key words: GM, biodiversity, economic growth, ecological development.

1

Introduction

Under the conditions of the development of life sciences, of the apparition of Genetic Modified Organisms and of Biotechnologies, we raise the question if we wish to use or if we can intervene when we disagree we their application. The accomplished progresses from the last years in science and technology had a strong impact over the agricultural and alimentary branch from all around the world. The “innovative” methods of production have “reformed” and even eliminated many traditional systems, affecting the capacity of food production for a population in continuous expansion. These events have generated numerous changes in economy and social organization and also in the administration of planets’ resources. The natural environment was affected by the technological “progresses”, that allowed not only the genetic “amelioration” through selection,

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The Market of GM

but also the creation of new genetic combinations for obtaining vegetal products, animals and fish with an increased resistance and productivity. The development and application of genetic modified organisms is today, without any doubt, a subject that raises a numerous ethical problems, regarding the agricultural and nourishment field. Many experts are afraid, and not without reason, that the genetic engineering will generate the loss of biodiversity, removing the boundaries that have protected the species’ integrity during all this time. The studies performed by these demonstrate that the massive and irresponsible introduction in the agricultural circuit of genetic modified or trans-genetic plants, resistant to herbicides, will gradually lead to the disappearance of some beings that are feeding with seeds coming from herbages and weeds.

2

The main producers of genetic modified organisms. The world’s cultivated areas with GMO in 2006

The growth of the milieu food consumption per person at the world level in an yearly rate of 0,56% and the almost constant size of the food available per inhabitant created concerned in the world organizations. Even though the milieu yearly rate of population growth diminished from 2,03% in period 1961-1970, at 1,81% in period 1961-1970 and prognoses show for 2000-2050 a rate decresase of 0,87%, however the earth population is in growing, and this thing it hapends in the poor areas or in developing areas (like in Africa, South America and Asia). Here the rate of demographic growth is over the world average1 . The release of GMO was salutary in these areas because of increasing yields in unfavourable local conditions. In Europe, the tendency of the population decrease, prognosed for the period 2000-2050, in a yearly milieu rate of -0,37%, makes that authotities to be more conservatory regarding of adopting GMO, because the food resources cover successfully the necessary in decrease of aliments2 . The American companies: Pioneer, Mosanto and Syngenta are the biggest producers of GMO. These have filed in documents in the EU territory, including Romania, requesting tests for cultures of genetic modified plants. If these notifications are to be applied, the companies will be able to cultivate for testing genetic modified maize, soya and prunes. The statistics demonstrate that the world’s cultivated area in the year 2006 was 80 million hectares that belong to 7 million farmers from 18 countries. The largest area cultivated with GMO is in the USA, approximately 42,8 million hectares, representing 63% from the entire world area cultivated with GMO. The annual rate of the areas with GMO is estimated to increase with 10%. The world’s four largest cultures of genetic modified plants, cultivated in 2006 are: soya (61%),

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cotton (11%) and rape (5%).3 It must be noted that the countries with a large population have rapidly adopted the GMO, because of the need of covering the food need in the most efficient and rapid way. It imposes oneself some questions which looking for answers: • In conditions when in this moment there is agrifood overproduction at world level, why there is tendency to increase it on the future? The problem is the distribution of it. • Knowing that there are cantitative barriers in trading of the agrifood products on the world market, how could we administrate the overflow of the yield obtained by GMO? • Acording to the market law, when the offer grow, the prices are getting down. So, does the yield obtained by GMO is profitable?

3

Advantages and risks

It is worth analyzing which are the advantages and disadvantages of the introduction of GMOs on the world market. The supporters of the genetic modification techniques, as a top genetic engineering success, state that using these techniques bring about numerous advantages 4: • 15-30% higher average agricultural productions • the elimination of 4 hirbiciding processes from the production process • the reduction of the chemical pollution of plants and soil • the absence of any type of toxicity • the significant increase in the profit obtained by farmers • the prices of aliments which contain GMO are much lower • species resistant to diseases, pests, environmental factors (draught, salinity, extreme temperatures) which grow much more rapidly • species with nutritional qualities superior to the classical ones due to the content rich in mineral substances • the extension of the term of validity of products, thanks to the enhancement of the resistance to conservation • improving the organoleptic characteristics of products (taste, colour, form)

44

The Market of GM • the production of useful substances such as: starch, noncaloric edulcorants, vitamins, sweet proteins • the vaccine anti-hepatitis B

On the other hand the genetic modifications produce numerous negative effects on human health and on the environment. The disadvantages marked out by different international ecological organizations, such as Greenpeace, may be the following5 : • potential risks related to the toxicity on people • the risk of diseases • the resistance of the inserted genes to antibiotics • the risk of losing biodiversity • the risk of contaminating ecological cultures • removing barriers that have been protecting the integrity of species • the disorder of the reproduction functions • the allergic and poisonous effects on plants and animals

4

Dilemmas. Romania’s Present Situation

The Romanian policy in the field of GMOs is one of the disputed topics between USA and EU. The United States of America makes pressures regarding the fact that Romania should cultivate genetically modified plants in order to be an open market after its integration into EU. Moreover, the USA sees our country as a means to convince the EU, by inviting it to plead for the continuation of cultivating genetically modified plants at Brussels6 . Though EU used to militate vehemently against the GMO, accepting only the cultivation of MON810 maize, it seems that it will accept other genetically modified cultures, as well. The balance tends to favour more and more the authorization of GMO. The immense temptation of profits determines the placement of risks on a second plan. The question that rises is: with whom will our country keep going? The conservators sustaining the idea that we should preserve the huge ecological potential. So, Ro should going on the EU trend. The supporters of GMOs emphasize the idea that stopping the promotion of these accomplishments on the Romanian territory means exiting the major programs of scientific research in the biological field. So, we should use the American invention.

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The genetic modified varieties, tested and registered in the Official Catalog of Romania are7 : potato (the purpose of the genetic modification is the resistance to the Colorado bug), soya (tolerance to glyphosate), sugar beet (tolerance to glyphosate), maize (tolerance to ammonium gluphosate and resistance to Ostrinia nubilalis). In 2006, in our country has been cultivated an area of 140.000 hectares with genetic modified soya (soya variety Roundup Ready), representing 70% of the country’s soya grains culture8 . According to the NewsIn data, delivered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 1100 authorized cultivators accomplished last year 248.000 tones of genetic modified soya. By comparison, from the EU countries, only Spain has cultivated around 6.000 hectares with soya and BT maize, France and Germany making also small steps towards their introduction in agriculture. The official information from The Ministry of Agriculture highlights the fact that in the last 2 years, Romania was the biggest producer of GMO cultures from Europe (genetic modified soya – 14 varieties). There have been discovered cultures of genetic modified potatoes at Research – Development Station from Târgu Secuiesc, that cover an area of 3.340 sqm9 . The cultivation of GMO in Romania has gotten of hand, a fact illustrated by a recent report of the international organization Greenpeace. Experts’ conclusions, because of the tests performed in our country on the GMO last year, demonstrates clearly the massive cultivation of genetic modified soya, regardless of the legal provisions, in at least 10 counties. This confirms our greatest fear that is that GMO cannot be controlled in Romania. A prosperous business of the farmers is to keep the MG soya crops as seeds for the next year and to sell or plant again semi-illegally. With such practices, they can obtain a profit of 100 Euros for each hectare, only from the reduction of costs simply because they are no longer forced to buy the seeds from authorized companies10 . The only GM product that could be legally cultivated in 2006 was the MON810 maize, produced by the American company Monsanto. The Romanian legislation in force obliges the company to notify the government if he wants to obtain an authorization. At the beginning of the agricultural year 2007 has not been published any such notification. Consequently, legally speaking, it is impossible for the GM maize to be imported, cultivated and testes in Romania. However the production of genetic modified plants continues.

5

Romania and the Necessity of Economic Development

Romania is a country in course of development and needs an economic growth. This could be accomplished through the production and commercialization of GMO. If, in the year 2006, in Romania, the gross inner product per inhabitant for the standard purchasing power (PCS) was of 8800 PCS, representing approx-

46

The Market of GM

Figure 4.1: The rate of work force employment. Source: National Statistics Institute, Bucureşti, Romania, 2006 imately 36% from the UE25 average, one may expect that in 2013 this will be with almost 65% bigger. For the moment, the balance of Gross Inner Product of Romania, totally UE27 is 0.5%. The agriculture, sylviculture, pesciculture and forest exploitation will record in this year a drastic decrease of the contribution to the economic growth, from 2.4% in 2004 to 0.3% in 2006 and 2007. The rate of work force employment is one of the fundamental criteria, depending on which the level of economic development of a country and its capacity to create / insure working places is measured. One of these main objectives established at EU level aims the accomplishment until 2010 of an employment rate of 70% for men and 60% for women through the creation qualitative work places for a qualitative man power11 . Becoming an EU member county from January, the 1st 2007, Romania is frequently included in the inquests for the working force performed at the EU’s level. The obtained results of this kind of inquiry allow us a detailed analysis of the man power’s situation, comparing it with the European level. The distribution of working population on activity fields highlights the fact that the Romanian society is still a pre-industrial society. Although the balance of working population in agriculture is diminishing over the last years, Romania continues to have the highest rate of population working in this branch of economy, 32.3%, through comparison with the UE25 average of 4.9% and with the other new member of the EU, Bulgaria with only 8.9% of the population working in agricultural field. One of the explanations for this type of distribution is the fact that the reorganization of Romanian economy was insufficiently accompanied by prevention measure on the manpower market. This type of measures would have played the role to encourage, facilitate the development of new activity or consolidation sectors of the most viable ones from an economic point of view. This would have allowed the absorption of dismissed population has migrated towards the rural environment having as result not the development in this field, but the professionalism and depletion of an important part of the population.

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In the present moment the Romanian agriculture tends towards modernization, appearing new Small and Middle Companies and new working places. The practiced agriculture is mainly a subsistence and ecologic agriculture. The agricultural field parceled as a result of re-appropriating and technical sporadic means of production lead to a reduced productivity and to the visible inefficiency of the activities. In the present moment, exist few profitable farms. The lack of irrigation systems and territorial arrangements, the lack of protection against the environment factors increase the degree if incertitude regarding the final production. In the Romanian agriculture there is invested much money and very little is taken back. From here appear the frustrations. This explains why the GMOs have been adopted so easily and on such a large area (20 counties). The desire of financial profit, through the economization of obtained production, makes the Romanians scarify the special natural potential from the Carpathian area for the practice of a much valuable ecologic agriculture. The high performance ratings of the farmers are an excellent reason for the GMO cultivation. The genetic modified soya (RR) is sold in Romania together with the Roundup herbicide, at a cost per “package” of $130. The average impact over the production was +31%, in 2006, under a possible interval of 16-50% (at a basic production of 2-2.5 tones / hectare). The cultivators have profited also from an improvement with 2-3% of the price obtained for soya because of the crop’s improved quality. The gross profit has risen with an average of +84%. Evaluating the total impact at the level of a farm over the production and profit in the case of soya, the adoption of RR seeds, has increased the value of the Romanian soya production with approximately 8.23 – 8.62 million Euros only for the period 2002 – 200312

6

Romania – Leader on the Market of the European Ecological Products

We must take into account the fact that Romania, with the 3.2 million of hectares cultivated with genetically unmodified maize has the opportunity to be a leader on the European market where there is a major demand of ecological products. In 2005 there was an increase of 54% in the total production of the Romanian ecological products. This sums up an amount of 131,898 tons and most of the amount is exported on the markets of the European countries such as Holland, Germany, Italy. The sales reach approximately 30-40 million euros. In Romania, the ecological products cover 0.1% of the food market, while in the developed states the market quota reaches 5%. The pedoclimatic conditions in Romania are very favourable for the ecological cultures, and producers are stimulated precisely due to the existence of the increasing demand of eco-products, the opening of the European markets and the profitable earnings. In Romania there are around 260 farms that practice ecological agriculture, and the cultivated surface has

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The Market of GM

73,000 hectares and the number of attested animals indicates the existence of 7,000 cattle, 20,000 sheep and approximately 5,000 chickens bred in an ecological system. The aspect most difficult to deal with in this field is the lack of the internal market. Thus 70% of these products is exported. Biological milk is 100% exported 90% of the honey and fruit is exported. The trade trend shows that in the near future the rarity of these products on international markets will make them more desired and more expensive. Biological agriculture means the conservation of the natural habitat and a support for biodiversity, and it means much more than that: durable development13 .

7

The Legislative Frame of Production and Sale of Genetically Modified Organisms

The European legislation is based on ethical aspects regarding the issue of genetic mutations and is related to the most important principles of the human rights: the right to a sufficient and appropriate nutrition, the right to choose wittingly, the right to a democratic participation. The European legislation does not forbid the using of GMOs, but it establishes the legislative frame which “ensures the maximum security for human health and environmental health”. All the elaborated regulations place first the principle of precaution and include detailed procedures regarding the risk evaluation and management. The consumer’s right to know the content of any aliment and to chose wittingly imposes that the labeling of genetically modified food that contains 0.9% GMO should become obligatory in all the countries that produce or sell such products. Presently the labeling of products that contain GMO is mandatory only in the states of the European Union. The USA Government considers the policy of EU regarding the labeling of genetically modified products as a tariff-free barrier in the way of the exports of raw materials and food. In Japan measures are taken towards the imposition of mandatory labeling of the genetically modified organisms. The Romanian legislative frame includes essential normative acts that serve as a fundament of the policy of our country concerning the GMO: • Governmental Ordinance 49/2000 regarding the regime of obtaining, testing, using and selling GMOs through the modern biotechnology techniques and the products deriving from these – the first normative act that regulates the activities referring to the import of genetically modified plant seeds and their cultivation on the Romanian territory; • Law no. 214/2002 for the approval of the Governmental Ordinance 49/2000 regarding the regime of obtaining, testing, using and selling genetically modified organisms through the modern biotechnology techniques and the

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products deriving from these – it includes the new communitarian dispositions appeared in this field, as well as other juridical documents of some international conventions in which Romania takes part (The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety); • Governmental Decision 106/2002 concerning the labeling of food obtained from genetically modified nutriments or that contains additives and genetically modified flavours or flavours obtained from genetically modified organisms; • Law no. 266/2002 referring to quality production, processing, control and certification, the commercialization of seeds and seeding material, as well as the registration of the varieties of plants; • Order no. 462/2003 referring to the records of economic agents and their obligation of reporting the areas cultivated with genetically modified plants and the obtained crops to the agricultural and rural development directorates.

The problem of Romania country is the difficulty of applying the legislation in force. In 2007, our country aligned itself to the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union regarding the regime of the genetically modified organisms, and the observance of arrangements in this field implies the prohibition of cultivating genetically modified soya. This measure came into force on January 1st 2007, but up to the present there is no normative act sustaining this decision. In addition there is a black GMO market that cannot be easily controlled. Romania does not dispose of monitoring and control systems that include testing and labeling genetically modified cultures. Food is not labeled, in spite of the European legislation 91830/2003 and 1829/2003. According to EU all the transgenetic components, including the additives with a high level of contamination of +0.9% should be mentioned on the label. For this reason, the harmonization of the local legislation with the European one is difficult and the Romanian agricultural exports should be forbidden on the EU markets. As a consequence to the high pressure, the European Union reevaluated its position and restarted the GMO-approving procedures but imposed strict rules regarding the labeling and identification of products subject to genetic modifications. The great challenge of the countries of the Union is to find an acceptable compromise between the pressures made by the economic partners across the ocean on the one side, and the vehement protests of the European consumers who consider to a great extent that genetically modified food is dangerous, on the other side.

50

8

The Market of GM

Conclusions

As there is no consensus between the EU states and the population’s opinion trends, the citizen will simply decide whether or not to consume GMO-containing food. People will be informed regarding the content of the products by the label. Still this mean is not very reliable as there already were cases in which the man’s right to free choice and the right to information were not observed. Though it has not been proven that food containing genetically modified organisms is the optimum solution for the nutritional problem, this kind of products occupies an increasing area on the market of many countries, such as USA, and the developing and underdeveloped countries. Nevertheless, taking into account the declared toxicity and allergological risks, the natural rising question is: why do they not state out loud the seriousness of the disorders produced to the human body by the long-term consume of genetically modified food?14 We should not take into consideration only short-term interests: the increase in profits due to the GMOs masked by the concern for the provision of food for the continuously increasing world population. The studies carried out at the world level show that the rhythm of the demographical increase is inferior to the rhythm of food production through classical means. Some specialists even defined – joking or not – the genetically modified organisms as a dangerous solution to a non-existent problem . . . We should think about the fact that maybe what we are doing now will negatively affect our life and planet irreversibly. The future means maintaining the ecologic and human balance. From the economic point of view GMOs can be accepted easily, but from the ecological point of view they represent a threat. The conclusion of this article is that the scientific progress cannot be inhibited nor should it be, but the new technologies must be used very cautiously with a view to preserving the biodiversity that ensures a durable future development.

N. Dospinescu

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Notes 1

www.faostat.fao.ogr; www.europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat - accesed on 8th june 2007 2

Tofan Alexandru, Economie şi Politică Agrară, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, România, 2004, p.253-261 3

http://www.sfin.ro/articol_455/romania_enclava_europeana_pentru_ organismele_modificate_genetic.html?id=455&vo=84, accessed on June 6th 2007 4

Swanson Timothy, Biotechnology, Agriculture and the Developing World, Edgar Elgar Publishing Limited, UK, 2002, p. 3-67 5

http://www.ngo.ro/pipermail/mediu_ngo.ro-December/003820.html, accessed on 7th June 2007 6

http://www.sfin.ro/articol_455/romania__enclava_europeana_pentru_ organismele_modificate_genetic.html?id=455&vo=84, accesed on 5th march 2007 7

Sin C. – Organisme modificate genetic (Genetic modified organisms), Seminar “Rolul instituţiilor europene în monitorizarea eliberării deliberate în mediu a organismelor modificate genetic” (The role of the European institution in supervision of deliberate discharge in the environment of the genetic modified organisms), Ministry of European Integration, 2004 8

http://www.postamedicala.ro/stiri-medicale/sanatate-publica/organismele modificate-genetic-esti-ceea-ce-mananci.html, accessed on June 6th 2007 9

http://www.hotnews.ro/articol_31674-Razboi-deschis-intre-Greenpeace-si -MAPDR.htm, accessed on March, the 5th 2007 10

http://www.gardianul.ro/2006/06/05/actualitate-c24/codul_lui_pioneer_ s79957.html, accessed on May 6th 2007 11

Institutul National de Statistică (National Statistics Institute), Bucureşti, Romania, 2006 12

http://www.hotnews.ro/articol_14583-Semintele-modificate-genetic-la-manaUE.htm, accessed on June 4th 2007. 13

Massimo Montanari, Foamea şi abundenţa – o istorie a alimentaţiei în Europa (Hunger and abundance – a history of alimentation in Europe), Polirom Publishing House , Iaşi, Romania, 2003, p. 98-119 14

Norton George, Alwang Jefferey, Masters William, The Economics of Agricultural Development – World Food Systems and Resource Use, Routledge Imprint, New York, USA, 2006, p. 42-61, p. 81-102.

Bibliography Goodman David, Watts Michael, Globalising Food. Agrarian Questions and Global Restructuring, Routledge Imprint, London, UK,1997

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The Market of GM Institutul National de Statistica, Bucuresti, România, 2006

Montanari Massimo, Foamea şi abundenţa-o istorie a alimentaţiei în Europa, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, Romania, 2003 Norton George, Alwang Jeffrey, Masters William, The Economics of Agricultural Development – World Food Systems and Resource Use, Routledge Imprint, New York, USA, 2006 Sin C. – Organisme modificate genetic, Seminarul „Rolul instituţiilor europene în monitorizarea eliberării deliberate în mediu a organismelor modificate genetic“, Ministerul Integrării Europene, Romania, 2004 Swanson Timothy, Biotechnology, Agriculture and the Developing World, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, UK, 2002 Tofan Alexandru, Economie şi Politică Agrară, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, Romania, 2004 Wilhelm Abel, Agricultural Fluctuations in Europe, Routledge Imprint, London, UK, 2006.

Web Sources http://www.gardianul.ro/2006/06/05/actualitate-c24/codul_lui_ pioneer_s79957.html, accesed on 6th May 2007 http://www.hotnews.ro/articol_14583-Semintele-modificate-genetic- la-manaUE.htm, accesed on 4th June 2007 http://www.hotnews.ro/articol_31674-Razboi-deschis-intre-Greenpeace- siMAPDR.htm, accesed on 5th March 2007 http://www.postamedicala.ro/stiri-medicale/sanatate-publica/organisme -modificate-genetic-esti-ceea-ce-mananci.html, accesed on 6th June 2007 , accesed on 6th June 2007 http://www.ngo.ro/pipermail/mediu_ngo.ro/2005-ecember/003820.html accesed on 7th June 2007 www.faostat.fao.ogr www.europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat

Biographical Note Nicoleta Dospinescu is Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania

Chapter 5

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Ethics: The Indian Context Vikramaditya Singh Malik and Roshan Santhalia Corporates are traditionally known as engines of economic growth, their success being measured in terms of high returns on equity at an individual level and their contribution to the nation’s economic growth on a collective plane. But do they have any social or environmental responsibility? This paper begins with an attempt to define the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with relation to the newer concept of environmental ethics and extending to the boundaries of corporates involving themselves in the international carbon trading market. The paper gives reasons as to how exactly Carbon trading is an excellent answer to the prevailing disrespect shown by the Corporates against the Environment. Having defined the concept as it is commonly understood or as propounded by the theoreticians of CSR as an applied concept in the context of the environment, the paper seeks to examine the position in the Indian context, with some historical background, and the current practices, including the setting up of the National Authority, under the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol, laid down by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and its compliance. The sustenance of these expanding environmental operations does not hold a future promise without adherence to the OECD principles, UN millennium development goals and the concept of CSR, which repeatedly are laying stress on realisation of the losses caused to the environment and the responsibility of corporates towards these losses. The generally accepted principle is that if a company has caused some damage to the environment, be it in the form of air or water pollution, it owes a debt to the society to make up for it. The issue is as to whether the march towards becoming environment conscious and socially responsible is how to chalk out a peaceful way of harmonizing the corporate world with ecology and environment. Key words: Carbon trading, Corporate Social Responsibility, Kyoto Protocol.

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1

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Ethics

Introduction

The Indian economy has been on a growth trajectory and recorded an annual growth rate of about 8% for the third year in succession. Post-liberalisation policies of 1991 have a significant visible impact. Further, the corporate sector accounts for a major part of this growth story by way of its contribution to the secondary and the tertiary sectors of the economy. Indian markets offer vast business opportunities for the international business and this interest is visible from the investment coming from overseas corporate world. The Indian corporates are also increasingly acquiring an important role in international operations as can be seen from the acquisitions of overseas businesses by the Indian companies and their role with respect to their environmental responsibilities. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in June 1992 by over 180 countries at the .Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and came into force on 21 March 1994.1 The UNFCCC provides a legal framework that enables Parties to the Convention to start the process of stabilising Greenhouse Gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol adopted under the UNFCCC in December 1997, came into force on 16 February 2005.2 The Kyoto Protocol commits industrialised signatory countries (.Annex I. countries) to reduce their GHG emissions by an average of 5.2%, compared with 1990 emissions during the period 2008-2012 (often referred to as the first commitment period).3 Under the Kyoto Protocol, Annex I countries may achieve these emission reductions either domestically or by supplementing their domestic efforts through three international market-based or flexible mechanisms which will be discussed later. The Kyoto Protocol sets targets for industrialised countries to cut their GHG emissions like carbon dioxide, methane, hydroflurocarbons, perflurocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride, nitrous oxide. These gases are mainly responsible for global warming, the rise in global temperature, which may have catastrophic consequences for life on earth. The targets for reducing emissions then become binding on all the Annex 1 countries, which have ratified the Protocol. The two main industrialized countries, which have not ratified the protocol, are Australia and United States.4 The agreement acknowledges that developing countries contribute least to climate change but will quite likely suffer most from its ill-effects. These countries do not have to commit to specific targets, but have to report their emissions levels and develop national climate mitigation programmes. China and India, potential major polluters with huge populations and growing economies, have both ratified the Protocol. As of now, 165 countries have ratified the Protocol.5 The paper attempts to combine the concepts of CSR and environmental degradation, with special emphasis on carbon trading and the role of corporates to comply with their CSR y involving themselves in the carbon trading market and in this way, have a profitable business and a reputation of being socially

V. S. Malik and R. Santhalia

55

responsible at the same time. The first section of the paper defines the concept of CSR, with special emphasis on CSR in the Indian Context. The second section describes the environmental degradation and the role of corporates to counter the same.

2

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

There is no universally accepted definition of CSR. There are varied views on what CSR is and what it is not. Having become a buzzword in boardrooms and the media, CSR is more often misunderstood as giving back to the society and considered to be synonymous with philanthropy. The dominant school of thought is that CSR is no philanthropic activity and a business must earn for what it invests. The company does it for its own long term good. Drawing a parallel with ‘Publicity’ and ‘Public Relations’, it is argued that philanthropy could earn ‘publicity’ but CSR, like ‘Public Relations’ is a long term investment with assured returns. It advocates that CSR constitutes a series of initiatives taken by a company in its enlightened self-interest. A

Definition of CSR

It would be interesting to derive a meaning of the concept with the dissection of each of the words. CSR is not a difficult concept and can be explained as6 : • Corporate – means organised business; • Social – means everything dealing with people, the society at large; • Responsibility – means accountability between the two. From the above, CSR could be defined as the process of business operations carried out while ensuring compliance with legal requirements, as also linked to ethical values, to an extent. ‘CSR means open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and respect for employees, communities and the environment. It is designed to deliver sustainable value to the society at large as well as to the shareholders’7 . Now, there is no single, commonly accepted definition of CSR, even across global corporate bodies. It refers to business decision making linked to ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities and their environments.8 CSR is seen as more than a collection of discrete practices and occasional gestures or initiatives motivated by marketing, public relations or other business benefits. Rather, it is viewed as a comprehensive set of policies, practices and programmes that are integrated throughout business operations and decision-making processes.9

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The concept of CSR is based on the idea that besides public authorities, companies also should take on responsibilities of social issues. According to more recent approaches, CSR is seen as a concept whereby on a voluntary basis social and environmental concerns are integrated in the companies’ business operations and in the interaction with their stakeholders.10 The idea of being a socially responsible company means to go beyond legal compliance and to invest in human resources and the environment. An external programme of good deeds will not protect a firm whose actual operations harm its surrounding society.11 Thus, being purely philanthropic externally is not enough. Also, at the same time, complying with the law is the minimum behaviour to legally stay in business and has nothing to do with the society’s expectations, which are essential for the word ‘social’ to have any meaning in CSR.

3

The Indian perspective

Broadly speaking, there are two views with regard to the CSR in India. The first view, considered to be more conservative, is that if a company is legally compliant and has been equitable in terms of (i) distribution of income and surplus, (ii) truthful and transparent in its disclosures, (iii) provision of a safe and healthy environment for its workers, (iv) payment of timely dividend to shareholders, (v) takes care of the qualitative and service aspects of its business with regard to their customers, and (vi) prompt in after-sale services, it is compliant with the principles and tenets of CSR, which it owes to all its stakeholders in some way or the other. However, the other school of thought takes its operations beyond the narrow confines and believes that this is not CSR, but this is the point where CSR begins. According to this view, a company simply becomes a good corporate citizen by doing all this but it still has a long way to comply with its CSR. Here, CSR is loosely referred to what a company does, apart from its obligations, for example, development of surrounding areas like parks, roads, hospitals, day-today services; taking care of the interests of people who are connected with the company, e.g. shareholders, people living in surrounding areas who suffer because of the company’s day-to-day activities like degradation of environment in terms of pollution, deforestation, etc. In all such cases, the company owes a duty to the society to make up for the damage caused by them and also to provide them better conditions for living, as they have been an important part of the growth of the company. CSR does not mean that the company has to indulge in philanthropic activities. There is a thin line of distinction between CSR and Philanthropy. What we are talking about here is CSR, and certainly not philanthropy, a concept which does not entail any legal obligation or pressure.


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A further insight into the concept of CSR takes us to the two broad approaches to CSR. The first approach is the Traditional Approach. The basic theme of this approach is “doing good to look good”. Basically, this approach was followed for a long time, till recently, and the companies following this approach undertook to perform their CSR only for the sake of it, only because it would fetch them recognition in the market. It did not practice these activities because it was genuinely interested in the well being of the society. The mere reason behind it was to build its corporate image. Commitments were short term, allowing the organization to spread the wealth over a variety of organizations and issues through the years.12 The new approach or the Modern Approach has its underlying objective, “doing all that we can to do the most good, not just some good”. It supports corporate objectives as well. This is a win-win situation for all because when a particular company does well to the society genuinely and for a cause, it has to be good, and along with this process, it succeeds in building a name for itself. The million-dollar question as of now is whether CSR has been or should be mandated or not. As of now, there is no law that recognizes or enforces the concept of CSR, but still companies do comply with their responsibilities, which may be for their personal gains to their reputation, name or even profits. The debate as to whether there should be a law to enforce the concept of CSR has recently arisen and with the passing of various judgements by various courts in India, including the Supreme Court of India, precedents have been set which go in favour of CSR acquiring the statutory backing and are in specific reference to the environment. Following cases deserve a mention: A

National Textile Worker’s Union Vs. P.R. Ramakrishnan

It was held by the Apex Court in the case National Textile Worker’s Union Vs. P.R. Ramakrishnan13 that the traditional view that a company is the property of the shareholders is an exploded myth. According to the new socio-economic thinking, a company is a social institution having duties and responsibilities towards the community in which it functions. Obviously the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India is referring to CSR, when it talks of ‘duties and responsibilities’ towards the community. The generally accepted view is that if a company has the resources and has come a long way in its progress, it owes a debt to the society and the community in which it has progressed. Also, it is agreed that if a company has caused some loss to its surrounding areas, it is its obligation to make up for that loss, whether technical or environmental, as a part of its CSR. B

Panchmahals Steel Ltd. Vs. Universal Steel Traders

In this case, the Gujarat High Court has pointed out that a company has threefold reality:

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Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Ethics • Economic reality • Human reality, and • Public reality

It also noted that keeping the environment clean is a sentiment gaining momentum after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984. C

Birla Zauri Agro Chemical Ltd., Goa Case (April 1975)

In this case, the Goa High Court ordered the closure of the company’s operations because the effluents of the company were polluting the sea causing large-scale deaths of fish and also polluting the wells of villagers and damaging the crops. Here the company was obviously violating the environment laws. The company has a statutory duty in such cases to take care of the pollutants and maintain the environmental balance. It follows the principle that the polluter pays. As a responsible corporate citizen, the company should have set up an effluent treatment plant not only as a part of its statutory obligations but also in fulfillment of its CSR objectives. Now, since this paper discusses the role of corporates towards their CSR and especially towards the environment, further emphasis is being laid on CSR and the novice concept of carbon trading, in the wake of the recent problems arising out of global warming and the awareness in this respect, especially in India.

4

Environmental degradation by Corporates in India

One of the major provisions of Indian State Policy is to maintain environmental standards along with promoting economic growth. However, the same becomes difficult, as it has to be implemented through the archaic bureaucratic lines that still haunt the country’s basic political and civil system. Indian Corporates in the contemporary times have taken full advantage of this ‘not so strict’ environmental control by the government and have been successful in maximizing profits for themselves. However, over the last few years the Indian Corporates are realizing that it is in their favour that they adhere to their social responsibility and grow in a manner that is more sustainable. Indian Industries have opened up post 1991 reforms that took place in the country allowing freedom from strict rules and regulations that had made working of Indian Industries very difficult. In this post reform scenario, Indian industries have widely increased the production capacities and basic infrastructure leading to increasing amount of pollution.” With the increasing liberalization and globalization of the Indian Economy it seemed almost axiomatic to assume that the greening of India


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would only be successful if it was made into a paying proposition in commercial terms”.14 Indian Companies like Reliance group of Industies, Tata Steel Group and other big corporations have created a lot of hassle and trouble in the environment over the post 1991 scenario. Therefore, it is imperative for such corporations to pay back to the community as a whole in order to compensate for there activities. E.g. The Indian Oil Corporation refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat has been a cause for huge marine pollution over the past years.15 The refinery has polluted the Western Coast of Indian through Oil spillages, oily wastage etc.

5

Carbon Trading at the Indian Level

Carbon trading is an umbrella term that includes the trading of GHG reduction credits that were defined in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol of the Climate Change Convention, first drawn up in 1992. The key idea behind carbon trading is that, from a global point of view, where carbon dioxide comes from is far less important than total amounts. The carbon market which enables emissions to be cut with the minimum price tag creates a choice: either spend the money to cover the costs of cutting pollution (emissions), or else continue polluting (emitting), and pay someone else to cut their pollution. There are two main ways to exchange carbon. The first is the cap-and-trade scheme whereby emissions are limited and can then be traded. Under Kyoto Protocol Annex I countries can trade between each other. The European Trading Scheme is a cap-and-trade scheme and the largest companies-based scheme around. It is mandatory and includes 12,000 sites across the 25 European Union member states. The compliance is critical and under Kyoto obligations, industrialised countries have 100 days after final annual assessments to pay for any shortfall- by buying credits or more allowances via emissions trading. Failure to do so leads to further penalties.16 There are also some voluntary cap and- trade schemes. The Chicago Climate Exchange is such a scheme. Interest in carbon trading at regional level is increasing in America, even though the US Government has decided not to ratify Kyoto Protocol. In voluntary schemes, there is no provision of a penalty.17 The Kyoto Protocol laid down the excellent idea of Carbon Trading at the Global level with various countries having specified amount of Carbon Emissions Limit.18 Presently, various Indian Companies are practicing carbon trading, but the same is being done at the international level. Although India has no commitments to fulfill as it is a part of the Non annex – I countries in the Kyoto Protocol but a system which can actually replicate the international system of carbon trading at the domestic level would give India the first mover advantage. Due to the same, India would solve, in advance, the problem of fulfilling the commitments raised by Environmental protocols in the future and at the same

60


time; the Indian Industries would be able to sell off the surplus carbon credits to countries outside. It is obvious and definite that with India coming up as an international hub for trade and commerce, the pollution levels of the country would rise. In that case, there would be protocols on the international level that would restrict Indian activities to curb emission outburst. Therefore, if India can actually learn something from the contemporary system of carbon trading then India would not have to face the issue and its implications in the future. The concept of Carbon Trading can be used at the domestic level within India where the large corporates can be given a certain amount of carbon credits and whoever exceeds the same can be penalized. This plan should be restricted only to the bigger corporates in the first phase and the smaller corporates in the second phase. The Indian corporates shall be divided on the basis of their production levels calculated in terms of the net worth of production in Indian Rupees. Further, the Corporates shall be assigned with carbon credits based on their net worth production. This is imperative because there is a direct relation between their Corporate Social Responsibility and their contribution to the economy of the country. The amount of credits shall be revised after every five years through a survey conducted by the national authority setup under this plan. It is obvious that the bigger players would be in the need of larger amount of carbon credits as compared to the smaller players within this large industry group. Therefore it is imperative that sale and purchase of carbon credits is also allowed at the national level. The same is again a reiteration of the concept as mentioned under the Kyoto Protocol. The benefits of such a plan on the domestic level would be immense, if and only if the plan is executed at the grass root level through a very efficient and able national authority, to be setup under this plan. The industries would now refrain from exceeding their carbon-emitting limit, as it would act as an automatic deterrent on their profits. The plan would benefit the smaller players and would encourage them to reduce their carbon emissions so that they can sell off their excessive carbon credits. It is imperative that the carbon trading being done at the domestic level has a completely different and separate system so that the national carbon units and the international carbon units are not combined and confused, which would otherwise lead to a mockery of the trading system. The fundamental thought behind this is that trading would take place at two parallel levels that do not intersect or interfere with each other. It can be reasonably approximated that a system of sale and purchase of carbon credits would actually incite the Indian Corporates to reduce pollution and start taking up jobs that would further help the environment. Companies all over the world are doing the same but the important thing is that at this stage and for the Indian companies, it is not mandatory, as India is a non-Annexure 1 country.


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Two Indian refrigerant companies, one from Gujarat and the other from Haryana are leaders in global carbon trading. Vadodra-based Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd (GFL) is likely to see its bottomlines grow more by selling carbon credits, a waste product, than their main business, refrigerants. In the last quarter, Gurgaon-based SRF made Rs 149 Crore from the transfer of CERs; its net profit stood at Rs 89 crore. GFL was the first Indian company to get registered for a CDM project in March 2005 for 3 million CERs. Out of the total CERs issued by the National CDM Authority, SRF and GFL have close to 40 percent between them. India alone has 59 % of the world total.19 It is a reflection of the preparedness Indian enterprises have shown in exploiting a new opportunity. The Energy and Resources Institute, or TERI, a nonprofit group in India has partnered with the Chicago Climate Exchange to help South Asian Countries reduce greenhouse gases while selling carbon credits to polluting companies in the United States. The project will offset 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 18 months.20 In fact the G-8 summit being held at Berlin this year from 6-8 June, 2007 is mainly for the purpose of discussing climatic change due to the greenhouse gas emissions and the role of countries in this regard. Only time will tell whether such talks are useful in persuading the 8 most industrialised nations to reduce their economic expansion activities and care a little more for mother nature.

6

Conclusion

As of now, India is still not ready for a substantive law for the enforcement of CSR. However, certain judicial pronouncements are a positive indication that the country is slowly getting ready for such a law. India is coming out of the traditional view of ‘doing for the sake of it’ and coming forward and realising their responsibilities. When the concept of CSR begins to be understood as a business oriented concept, without which the business would become difficult, it will be the time when India may be ready for statutory backing to the CSR. Notwithstanding the above and any amount of sermonising on the CSR platform, ultimately we have to remember Milton Friedman’s famous quote that “the business of business is business”. It reinforces the view that all CSR is driven by business interests and it is best left to the judgement of a corporate as to what makes good business. Globalization has been a force that has been all-pervasive and has impacted India in a great way. It has led to a new global order and the success of a country lies in its ability to face the upcoming challenges, and to emerge in the global order with a winning outlook. The way India has responded to the Kyoto Protocol has been commendable and it has created a lion’s share for itself in the global carbon trading market. This is a perfect example of India’s resilience and its capability to modulate its policies in a changing world arena. It is also very crucial for India to capitalize on this success and to consolidate its market share further. It will face

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a lot of competition from countries like China and Brazil in the carbon market in the near future. It will ask for great foresight and management skills of the Indian companies to fend off such competition in carbon trading. India should also try to develop industrial techniques and production methods, which utilize renewable sources of energy. The best technique to match up to the challenges brought about by globalization is to anticipate the future commitments under international treaties and obligations. India will have to cut its GHG emissions under the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which starts from 2012. India should try to frontload its preparations to meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol and concentrate on harnessing renewable sources of energy. The right approach is to understand that the environmental problems should not be read in isolation, they have a direct impact on the economic condition and human development in a country. India should frame its environmental policies and legislations keeping this aspect in mind. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals should be the leading light in any such exercise, which are strived for by all the member-nations of the United Nations.

Notes 1

‘The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’ available at http://unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/items/2627.php as visited on 21 October at 1640 hrs. 2

Q&A: The Kyoto Protocol. available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4269921.stm as visited on 23 October 2006 3

The Kyoto Protocol sets targets for industrialised countries to cut their GHG emissions like carbon dioxide, methane, hydroflurocarbons, perflurocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride, nitrous oxide. 4

The adoption of a pro-active approach has been suggested in the Montreal Climate Change Conference 2005 to engage other main actors, notably the US. See .Montreal Climate Change Conference 2005.available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/policies/climate-conference.shtml as visited on 23 October 2006. 5

‘Kyoto Protocol’, available at http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php as visited on 25 October 2006 6

ICSI, “Corporate Governance”, 4th ed., 2006, p. 299

7

Ibid.

8

Partners in change, “making corporate social responsibility your business”, slide 1.

V. S. Malik and R. Santhalia 9

63

Ibid.

10

Tatjana Chahoud, Johannes Emmerling, (et. al), ‘Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility in India- Assessing the UN Global Compact’s Role” May, 2006, p.12 11

UNCTAD’S 1999 report on The Social Responsibility of Transnational Corporations 12

Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee, “Corporate Social Responsibility”, 1st ed. at p.

13

AIR 1983 SC 759

8. 14

“India‘s Environmental Concerns”, Process of greening by the Indian Industries, by Kamal Nath, Pg. 21. 15

Report published by Paryavaran Mitra: Friends of Environment, http://paryavaranmitra.org.in/misc/marine%20pollution.doc, as last visited on 21/5/2007. 16

The non-complying Party is to make up the difference between its emissions and its assigned amount during the second commitment period, plus an additional deduction of 30%. In addition, it shall require the Party to submit a compliance action plan and suspend the eligibility of the Party to make transfer under emission trading until the Party is reinstated 17

Q&A: The Carbon Trade. available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4919848.stm as visited on 23 October 2006 18

“Documents in International Environmental Law”, by Philippe Sands & Paolo Galizzi, Second Edition. 19

Abhishek Kapoor, .Green to black: India Inc tops carbon trading, firms cash in. available at as visited on 24 October 2006 at 1200 hrs. 20

‘New fund-raising route for clean tech projects’. available at http://www. thehindubusinessline.com/2006/08/23/stories/2006082303030900.htm as visited on 14October 2006.

Biographical Note Vikramaditya Singh Malik, student of law, currently pursuing his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India, currently in the 2nd year of the 5 year course. Also, he has an interest in corporate law with special emphasis on Corporate ethics and Responsibilty. Roshan Santhalia, student of law, currently pursuing his B.A. L.L.B. (Hons.) degree from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India, currently the 2nd year of the 5 year Course. Also, he has a special interest in Environmental Law and its implication in the global context.

Part II Tensions within Environmental Values

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Chapter 6

Cape Wind: A Case Study in the Politics of Technology Choice John C. Berg Cape Wind is a proposed commercial venture to generate electricity from 130 wind turbines mounted in a small area of Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts, USA. The project is generally supported by the environmentalist movement. However, its opponents have also based their case on environmental values, arguing that it would desecrate an area of great natural beauty. Proponents argue that it is no longer possible to preserve nature through inaction; if we are to slow climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, nature must be altered in order to be saved. The controversy is being settled through elite conflict, between the corporate entrepreneur behind Cape Wind on one hand, and several millionaire residents of the South Shore of Cape Cod on the other, with little voice for the concerned public. This paper describes the conflict to date, and attempts to show how it might be handled better through a more participatory process, and through an orientation toward problem solving, rather than conflict. Key Words: Wind power, climate change, policy, conflict, democracy.

Bill McKibben has argued that we have reached "the end of nature."1 In his view, the effect of human civilization on nature has become so great that it can no longer be avoided, only controlled. From now on, even wilderness areas will exist as the result of human intervention, rather than of the absence of human influence. But now the basis of that faith [in the essential strength of nature] is lost. The idea of nature will not survive the new global pollution — the carbon dioxide and the CFCs and the like. This new rupture

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Cape Wind: A Case Study with nature is not only different in scope but also in kind . . . We have changed the atmosphere, and thus we are changing the weather. By changing the weather, we make every spot on earth man-made and artificial. We have deprived nature of its independence, and that is fatal to its meaning. Nature’s independence is its meaning; without it there is nothing there but us.2

This concept is useful in understanding the controversy over the proposed Cape Wind project in Massachusetts, as the project’s opponents argue that it will spoil a beautiful natural area,3 while proponents argue that the threat of climate change, and the consequent need for non-carbon-based energy sources, must override such concerns.4 This controversy involves disputes over basic values, scientific interpretations, and facts. To resolve such disputes would require an open, wide-ranging, and well-informed discussion of everyone affected - and where climate change is involved, everyone is affected. One possible decision mode might be deliberative democracy, a process in which participants evaluate and respond to each other’s policy arguments.5 Participatory democracy, where everyone affected has a voice, might also be appropriate.6 Better yet, the process could be both participatory and democratic. However, the actual decision-making process focuses on the minutiae of regulatory compliance, in an atmosphere of competing public relations campaigns and disingenuous appeals to artificial regulatory criteria. At no point is the public empowered to make a basic choice. After briefly describing the proposed project, the arguments of the contending parties, and the details of the decision process, this paper will argue that a new, more inclusive process is needed if we are to confront the challenge of climate change with any hope of success.

1

The Cape Wind Project

Cape Wind is a proposal by Energy Management, Inc., a for-profit corporation, to build 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal, a shallow area in Nantucket Sound, slightly over 5 miles off the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.7 With average wind conditions the project, once built, would generate an average of 170 megawatts of electricity, with a maximum of 458 megawatts. The average production would be about 75 % of the 258 mega-watts normally used by Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Each turbine would be on a tower 16 feet in diameter and 258 feet tall, with the tip of the blade, when vertical, extending 440 feet above the surface of the water. The wind farm would be located in federal waters. It would be connected to the mainland, and to the national electric grid, by two 115 kilovolt cables. These cables would pass through waters regulated by the state of Massachusetts.

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Cape Wind is the first major alternative energy proposal for Cape Cod, but not the only one. In May 2006 Patriot Renewables, LLC, proposed a 90 to 120 turbine wind farm to be sited in Buzzards Bay;8 and in June 2006 Oceana Energy Company announced that it is considering Vineyard Sound for the site of a tidal power plant.9

2

Competing Rhetoric

The debate about Cape Wind can be grouped around two themes, environmental values and class resentment. Environmental values include natural beauty, alternative energy, and public health. While these values conflict to some extent — as expressed by the slogan of "Clean Power Now," "It’s not the view, it’s the vision"10 — there is considerable overlap in the values of the two opposing sides. At the same time, each side accuses the other of de-fending the privileged position of the wealthy, or of greedy corporations, contrary to basic values of democracy and equality. A

The Proponents

Proponents of the Cape Wind proposal emphasize the project’s potential for improving air and water quality, as well as lowering the cost of electricity and stimulating the regional economy. Clean Power Now, for ex-ample, asserts that the project would reduce concentration of particulates in the air over Cape Cod, and thereby prevent 15 premature deaths a year, along with 5,000 asthma attacks and 35,000 upper respiratory problems. In addition to the human suffering prevented, this cleaning of the air would save US-$ 56 million annually in health care costs. More sweepingly, they assert that the project would ". . . take a meaningful and positive step toward reducing man-kind’s impact upon climate change and global warming."11 An article in the same group’s most recent newsletter declares, "We know what the Cape Wind project will mean to us in terms of wind energy being supplied - cleaner air, a brake on escalating energy costs, and a blow struck against both global warming and oil and gas imports."12 Proponents are also at pains to refute opposing environmental arguments, such as the potential that birds will be harmed by flying into the turbines. For example, Cape Wind asserts that "Cape Wind will also reduce global warming greenhouse gas emissions by 734,000 tons per year. Global warming contributes to rising sea levels and more frequent storms that erode our beaches and cause coastal property damage. Global warming and climate change presents the greatest threat to birds and sea life and their habitat."13 While proponents of the project do attempt to refute the environ-mental arguments made against it,14 they also impugn their opponents’ good faith, asserting that they are largely the super-rich, who care more about the view from

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Cape Wind: A Case Study

their beach-front property on Nantucket Sound than about the fate of the earth "wealthy Cape Codders who don’t want their beachfront views blighted or their sailing waters cluttered."15 William Koch, chairman of the board and a major contributor to the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, is described as a "coal magnate,"16 "billionaire fossil-fuel magnate,"17 and "the businessman, Museum of Fine Arts benefactor/exhibitionist, and former America’s Cup winner whose net worth is a mere US-$ 1.3 billion."18 Proponents are fond of quoting heiress Rachel Mellon, who allegedly told a lawyer who said the he liked the project, "You’re a traitor to your class."19 The clear implication is that the personal interests of the project’s wealthy opponents are leading them to make dishonest arguments against the project. B

The Opponents

Meanwhile, Cape Wind’s opponents also appeal both to environ-mental values and class resentment. The website of the main opposition group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, emphasizes the unique qualities of the sound, and declares that: Nantucket Sound is more than a body of water. It is a source of livelihood for many local fishermen; an inspiration for artists; a source of solace, relaxation, and recreation for the thousands that flock to its shores. It is a natural treasure and it must be preserved.20 The Alliance lists the potential for disruption of bird migration along the Atlantic Flyway, disturbance of habitat for gray and harbor seals, dolphins, whales, and turtles, and the possibility of oil spills among its environ-mental concerns.21 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has been active in environ-mental causes, acknowledges that many environmentalists support Cape Wind, but argues that doing so is a mistake, because: All of us need periodically to experience wilderness to re-new our spirits and reconnect ourselves to the common history of our nation, humanity and to God. The worst trap that environmentalists can fall into is the conviction that the only wilderness worth preserving is in the Rocky Mountains or Alaska. To the contrary, our most important wildernesses are those that are closest to our densest population centers, like Nantucket Sound.22 Cape Wind opponents attack on economic privilege focuses on one individual, Cape Wind Associates president Jim Gordon; citing tax credits for wind energy and the use of public waters to site the turbines, they charge that the project amounts to "paying a developer to make money," and argue that "the

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project should not be built and funded with taxpayer monies."23 William Koch put it more pithily:

"He’s a greedy capitalist," Koch said of Jim Gordon, the Cape Wind president who is trying to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm in the Sound’s shallow waters. "If I had my greedy capitalist cap on, I’d like to develop a project like this, too ... But I don’t want to make (my money) off the people on Cape Cod, of which I’m one.24

The debate over Cape Wind thus involves both a disagreement about values and how to realize them and factual claims about whose interests would be furthered by which alternatives. The ideal of global citizenship would suggest that those affected by the project (participatory democracy) should assess these competing claims and come to a conclusion (deliberative democracy). The actual decision process, as we shall see, is very different.

3

Who Decides?

In practice the decision-making process for Cape Wind has been neither deliberative nor participatory - nor, for that matter, has it been particularly democratic. There has been a great deal of public debate. There have even been opportunities for the public to vote, as when the island town of Nantucket defeated a proposal to support the project in April 2006, with 2,156 out of 3,409 voting no.25 However, such votes have no effect on the fate of the project, which is being decided through multiple regulatory processes, each narrowly limited in scope and far removed from the public. There are approximately 17 government agencies involved in considering whether to grant permits for the project.26 Most of these processes are legally restricted; for example, the Energy Facilities Siting Board of Massachusetts had to approve the route for the transmission lines that would connect the wind farm to the electricity transmission grid, but had no jurisdiction over the wind farm itself.27 Without an empowered public forum to make the decision, opponents attempt to find technical faults and side issues with the potential to halt the project. For example, a small debate broke out over possible interference of the turbines with military radar, after Representative William Delahunt (D-MA), who opposes Cape Wind, asked the Department of Defense to study the issue.28 In the spring of 2006, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) attempted to add a rider to a bill reauthorizing the Coast Guard that would have given the governor of Massachusetts - at that time, a committed opponent of the project - the power to veto it.29

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4


Can There Be a Better Way?

Present decision-making procedures for Cape Wind are based on a classic, topdown model of democratic governance. Elected legislative bodies are supposed to make general policy decisions, but not involve themselves in the implementation of those policies. Administrative agencies, often using a quasi-judicial process, make implementation decisions by applying the criteria in the legislation, but are not supposed to consider any values outside their mandate. Project planners seek approval on the most general level before disclosing the particulars, while opposition to the particulars is dismissed as the "NIMBY," or "not in my back yard."30 However, this process fails to realize the values it is based on, due to the sophistication of political insiders. Powerful elected officials can try to change the procedural rules in order to produce a predetermined outcome, as with Senator Stevens’s attempt to give a veto to the governor of Massachusetts; or they can tailor their objections to fit the legal authority of the regulatory agency, rather than stating their real concerns, as with the attempt of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound to argue that the wind turbines would interfere with military radar. Perhaps the need to reduce greenhouse gases is so great that we can-not risk the use of democratic processes; the public may not be equipped to evaluate scientific evidence or to make hard choices.31 However, it is difficult to accept this argument - always the rationalization for authoritarian government. Moreover, limitations on democracy create the danger of popular back-last against needed projects. Is an alternative possible? At this point, I can only sketch the broad outlines of a better process. Such a process would, it seems to me, have the following characteristics: 1. Participation must be linked to power. People affected by the project should be able to vote with the sense that their vote will affect the out-come, not just be a registration of their opinion. 2. Everyone affected should have a say. There really is a NIMBY effect, although it is often exaggerated; so the right to a voice and a vote on Cape Wind should not be limited to residents of Cape Cod, but should include all those who would share in its costs and benefits. 3. The principle that makes it all work: participatory deliberation should start with the big picture. Supporters of Cape Wind say it is needed to help prevent climate change. Opponents say that they are for wind power, but not in that site. What is missing is an overall plan for greenhouse emission reduction that details how much of each partial solution is needed in order to solve the problem. Once such a plan exists, Cape Wind and similar projects can be put in context. If Cape Wind is not the best site, then where should

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it be instead? If we reduce the amount of wind power, how much will we have to increase energy conservation? A similar principle was applied to budget votes in the US Congress under the "pay as you go" (PAYGO) procedure. Under this procedure, any-one offering an amendment to spend more money on a given activity had to include in that amendment a proposal either to cut other expenditures or raise revenues by an equal amount.32 Similarly, once a master plan for greenhouse gas reduction was eliminated, any plan to cancel a given project would have to include a plan to make up for the lost capacity elsewhere. Much work remains to be done to develop a meaningful, participatory, deliberative, and democratic process. Perhaps it is only a utopian dream. But if we want both environmental justice and global citizenship, I can see no other way.

Notes 1

B McKibben, The End of Nature, Random House, New York, 1989.

2

Ibid, p. 54.

3

See, for example, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, "Cape Wind: Overview." Online at http://www.saveoursound.org/Cape/Overview. 4

See, for example, S Economou, "Cape Wind, global warming and poisoned air," Providence Journal, May 19, 2007. Online at http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_solon19_05-19-07 _CC5KSDP.13993f9.html. 5

J Bessette, ‘The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy and American National Government’, University of Chicago Press, Chicago,1994; J Fishkin, Beyond Subjective Morality: Ethical Reasoning and Political Philosophy, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984; E Leib, Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 2004. 6

C Benello and D Roussopoulos, The Case for Participatory Democracy: Some Prospects for a Radical Society, Grossman, New York, 1971; D Roussopoulos, C Benello, eds., Participatory Democracy: Prospects for Democratizing Democracy, Black Rose, Montreal, 2005. 7

Information in this and the preceding paragraph is taken from Energy Management Incorporated, "Cape Wind: Energy for Life," http://www.capewind.org/index.php, and from US Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, "Outer Continental Shelf, Headquarters, Cape Wind Offshore Wind Development 2007. Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), request for written scoping comments

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and invitation for participation by cooperating agencies," Federal Register 71, no. 103 (May 30, 2006) pp. 30693-30694. 8

Cape Cod Times, May 23, 2006.

9

Cape Cod Times, June 7, 2006.

10

This slogan appears on the masthead of every issue of The Vision, the newsletter of the pro-wind energy group Clean Power Now. See, for example, The Vision 1:1, September 2003, http://www.cleanpowernow.org/images/Newsletters/TheVisionVol1Iss1.pdf. 11

Ibid.

12

C Stimpson, "Bringing the Value Chain Home," The Vision 5, Spring 2007,

p. 1. 13

Cape Wind, "Project at a Glance," http://www.capewind.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file= index&req=viewarticle&artid=24&page=1. 14

Clean Power Now, "Top 10 Myths about the Cape Wind Project," October 23, 2006, http://www.cleanpowernow.org/images/downloads/Myths_1006.pdf. 15

A Reilly, "This Story Blows: The Bizarre Story of Cape Wind," Boston Phoenix 36, 1 June 2007, p. 16. 16

J. Gordon, "Coal Magnate’s Argument Full of Holes," New Bedford StandardTimes, 5 June 2006. 17

J Blanchard, "History Traps Rich Club Folk in Osterville," Providence Journal, 11 September 2006. 18

Reilly, op. cit., p. 16. "Exhibitionist" refers to Koch’s funding of an exhibit of his private art collection in which he insisted on including, among other things, empty bottles of expensive wine he had drunk, and three of his racing yachts erected on the museum’s front lawn. 19

W Williams and R Whitcomb, Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound, Public Affairs, New York, 2007, p. 33. 20

Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, "The Sound: Overview," http://www.saveoursound.org/Sound/Overview. 21

Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, "Sacrificing a Valuable Natural Resource," http://www.saveoursound.org/Cape/ConcernsEnvironment. 22

R Kennedy, Jr., "An Ill Wind Off Cape Cod," New York Times, 16 December 2005. 23

Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, "Concerns: Economics," http://www.saveoursound.org/Cape/ConcernsEconomics.

J. C. Berg 24

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K Dennehy, "Koch: It’s About Money," Cape Cod Times, 7 October 2005.

25

J Kolnos, "Nantucket Voters Reject Wind Farm Project," Cape Cod Times, 12 April 2006. 26

The number 17 is from the Cape Wind website, Cape Wind, "Frequently Asked Questions," http://www.capewind.org/FAQ-Category10-Permitting +Process+and+Cape+Wind-Parent0-myfaq-yes.htm; the pro-ject plan submitted to the Minerals Management Service, Department of the Interior, by Cape Wind has a list of 16. Minerals Management Service, "Summary of Plan Materials," pp. 27-28, online at http://www.mms.gov/offshore/PDFs/CapeWindProjectPlanFiling2.pdf. 27

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Energy Facilities Siting Board, "In the Matter of the Petition of Cape Wind Associates, LLC and Commonwealth Electric Company, d/b/a NSTAR Electric EFSB 02-2 for Approval to Construct Two 115 kV Electric Transmission Lines, Final Decision," May 11, 2005. 28

I Fein, "Defense Department Cites Potential Radar Interference from Wind Farms," Vineyard Gazette Online, 6 October 2006. 29

J Eilperin, "Big Interests Propel Cape Fight Over Wind Energy," Washington Post, 14 May 2006. Eventually, Congress voted to give the com-mandant of the Coast Guard, not the governor of Massachusetts, the power to block the project, and only if he found that it would interfere with navi-gation. R Klein, "Congress Reaches Pact on Wind Farm," Boston Globe, 22 June 2006, A2. 30

R Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Knopf, New York, 1974, gives many examples of such a process. 31

W Ophuls, Requiem for Modern Politics: The Tragedy of the Enlightenment and the Challenge of the New Millennium, Westview, Boulder, 1997. 32

L LeLoup, "Republican Congresses and the Budget Process: In with a Bang, Out with a Whimper," Extensions, Spring 2007, pp. 7–8. The PAYGO procedure was eliminated in 2002.

Biographical Note John C. Berg is Professor of Government at Suffolk University and Associate Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. His books include Unequal Struggle: Class, Gender, Race, and Power in the US Congress (1994) and Teamsters and Turtles? Progressive US Political Movements in the 21st Century (2001).

Chapter 7

Exacerbation of Childhood Asthma among Children Living in Highly-trafficked Areas: An Unintended Public Health Consequence of Diesel-emission Control Technology Martha E. Richmond Diesel emissions contain significant amounts of particulates and nitrogen oxides, which, when inhaled, can pose numerous health problems. To address this issue and respond to regulatory requirements, sophisticated systems that trap diesel emissions have been developed. These systems consist primarily of particle-filtration devices that collect and periodically ignite trapped material. The mass and size of particles released into the environment is decreased, but the proportion of ultrafine particles is greater than that produced without collection devices. Increasing evidence suggests that ultrafine particles may pose a greater health risk than larger particles characteristic of older diesel technologies. Ultrafine particle number is highest in locations close to roadways, dropping off quickly at distances beyond several hundred meters; thus, those close to heavily trafficked roadways are at greater risk for particle-related health effects, including asthma. Recent studies have found a relationship between symptoms of asthma in children and exposure to high amounts of fine particulate matter specifically associated with diesel emissions. Childhood asthma compromises the lives of children in myriad ways, and, in the United States, is more prevalent among children of lower socioeconomic class. This must be addressed by involving residents of affected communities in decision-making. A model used in one affected inner-city community is discussed. Key Words: Diesel, ultrafine particulate matter, asthma, socio-economic status, heavilytrafficked environment, community strategy.

1

Background

The diesel engine, developed in the late 19th century, has played a major role in industrial growth throughout the past century. Diesel engines are light and durable, giving them distinct advantages over other forms of power. Today they

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Exacerbation of Childhood Asthma

are used world-wide to power such heavy duty vehicles as trains, trucks, buses, boats, and construction equipment. In a number of countries, diesel is also the power source of choice for automobiles. Diesel fuel is combusted by compressing a fuel/air mixture to its ignition temperature. Because ignition, with modern technological advances, requires no external energy source, diesel power has energy advantages over gasoline combustion. However, diesel fuel has a higher boiling point, and, being less volatile than gasoline, when combusted, produces a mixture of products that contain significantly more particulate matter than gasoline exhaust. The composition of the exhaust will vary considerably, depending on the type of vehicle, the type of fuel, and the conditions of vehicle operation, but it is always a complex mix of particulate matter and vapors. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, more than half of particulate matter from mobile source emissions comes from diesel-powered vehicles.1 Like particulate matter from other man-made sources, particles from diesel exhaust contain a large proportion of very small matter. Approximately 90% of the particles are less than 1 micrometer in size, and can, therefore, be easily respired.2 Adsorbed onto these particles are a large number of toxic substances, many suspected to cause mutations or to lead to the development of cancer.3 In addition, diesel emissions contain oxides of nitrogen and ozone, and, depending on the quality of the diesel fuel, also contain sulfates.4 Worldwide, regulations have been established to address health and environmental issues associated with diesel. Control of particulate matter has been a major regulatory focus, although other pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and sulfates are diesel-associated pollutants that can adversely affect public health, and are regulated as well. However, this paper will focus on particulate air pollution because it has played a prominent role in the research and health concerns associated with diesel. The paper will also concentrate primarily on the U.S. although the issues and events that are described apply to other industrialized highly-trafficked countries as well. Directly or indirectly, regulatory policies often mandate that new technological controls be developed. This has certainly been true for diesel emission control technology, and has led, over the past approximately 20 years, to the extensive development of sophisticated particle control technology. Although the total amount of emissions has decreased, the technology has, at the same time, changed the nature of emission composition, enriching the mix with particles of a smaller size. Emerging scientific data suggest these are more likely to adversely affect human health, and to have an especially greater impact on communities in very close proximity to traffic. This has occurred at the same time as these communities are finding increases in respiratory disease, including childhood asthma. The possibility that new technology has had an adverse effect on human health, and that the adverse effects have had a greater impact on underserved popu-

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lations is discussed in this paper. The paper also considers alternative ways of addressing the same health and environment issues.

2

Regulation of Air Pollution from Diesel

Throughout the world regulatory strategies exist to address air pollution. These regulations may vary among governmental constituencies; however, one common approach has been to specify that a given pollutant must not exceed an acceptable environmental concentration. The value of this concentration is generally determined by health considerations, and is a value regarded as sufficiently low to protect human and environmental health. Considerations of human health incorporate protection for the elderly, children, women during pregnancy, and others whose health, for a variety of reasons, may be compromised. Stationary facilities and mobile sources are required to take measures to ensure that environmental releases will not raise the concentration of a regulated pollutant above the specified value. In the U.S. the Environmental Protection Agency designates pollutants regulated in this way as criteria pollutants. There are five criteria pollutants: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. These pollutants are generally regarded as the best indicators of air quality. The specific regulatory approach for each criteria pollutant varies, based, in large part, on available information about its potential toxic actions, and, as additional information becomes available, a specific regulation may be revised. Specified geographical areas are expected to maintain air quality that conforms to regulations established for each criteria pollutant. When the concentration of a given criteria pollutant exceeds its air quality standard, the area is said to be out of compliance and is designated as a non-attainment area. Such an area will be required to adopt various measures to ensure that it returns to compliance. These measures may take several forms, including more stringent engineering controls on mobile and stationary source emitters. In the U.S. particulate matter is regulated according to size. Two standards exist. A primary focus of both standards is to protect against adverse effects resulting from inhalation. One standard is for coarse particulate matter. The other is for very fine matter. The coarse particulate matter, designated PM10 , includes particles ranging in size from 2.5µ to 10µ in diameter. The second standard is for particles smaller than 2.5µ in diameter, designated PM2.5 . This second standard was established as information became available demonstrating that smaller particles, because they can penetrate the respiratory system more deeply, are a greater health threat than coarser particulate matter. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, revised in 2006, specify a standard of 150 µg/m3averaged over a 24 hour period for PM10 and 35 µg/m3 averaged over a 24 hour period for PM2.5 . An annual arithmetic mean

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of 15.0 µg/m3 was also established for PM2.5 . Due to a lack of evidence linking health problems to long-term exposure to coarse particle pollution, EPA revoked the annual PM10 standard in December of 2006.5 Other regulatory agencies have taken a more stringent approach toward particulate matter regulation, especially regulation of PM2.5 . In the U.S., the state of California, considered a leader in regulatory policy related to air pollution, established an annual arithmetic mean of 12.0 µg/m3 for PM2.5 .6 The World Health Organization guidelines specify an annual arithmetic mean of 20 µg/m3 for PM10 and a 24 hour mean of 50 µg/m3 . For PM2.5 the guidelines specify an annual arithmetic mean of 10 µg/m3 and a 24 hour mean of 25 µg/m3 .7 The regulations for PM2.5 deserve special consideration. In many respects, these regulations and their revisions grew out of a series of studies and other observations that were published during the early part of the 1990s and became a subject of much discussion and controversy. The studies include a number of epidemiologic investigations that reported increases in mortality associated with short-term increases in particulate air pollution8 most closely with increases in PM2.5 concentration. At the same time that concerns about short term increases were reported, the effects of long-term exposure to particulate pollution were also coming under increasing scrutiny. Two independent prospective cohort studies, one conducted by the American Cancer Society, and the other by investigators at the Harvard School of Public Health, found significant increases in mortality from long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution.9 Because these observations suggested that the public was not being adequately protected from adverse effects of particulate air pollution, and because, should the criteria standards be inadequate, engineering and other emission control devices would need to be more stringent, the epidemiologic observations were quite controversial. An article published in the journal Science in 1997 that describes the issues surrounding these findings noted that “industry and environmental researchers are squaring off over studies linking air pollution and illness in what some are calling the biggest environmental fight of the decade.” 10 Given the controversy, it became essential that the findings be corroborated by an independent group. This was done by a research team under the direction of the Health Effects Institute, an independent non-profit organization. Reanalysis corroborated the original findings.11 Additional work, including a further analysis of one of the original study cohorts as well as well as follow-up studies in the U.S. and Europe, further strengthened conclusions of the reanalysis.12 Although most of the later studies examined the relationship between particulate pollution and death from respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, or both, some also examined asthma morbidity and mortality. What is especially interesting is the finding that the relationship between fine particulate air pollution exposure and each outcome is linear.13 Seemingly, therefore, no threshold exists for the harmful effects of particulate air pollution.

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Although current regulations commonly divide respirable particles into categories of PM10 and PM2.5 , these categories represent cut off values for particle size, and do not represent the full range of particle sizes falling within each category. Particulate matter of sizes smaller than 2.5µ in diameter includes a significant number of very small particles, some smaller than 0.1µ in diameter commonly designated as ultrafine and nanoparticles. These particles, because they can aggregate, generally have a very short life span, but can penetrate deep into the respiratory system, and, if poorly soluble, can also cross membranes. This means that they can enter the blood stream and move to other parts of the body.14 Under the right conditions, they can also form aggregates and are, therefore, sometimes referred to as nucleation mode particles. For all these reasons, while they are not regulated in a different manner, ultrafine and nanoparticles are a subject of especial interest, and much regulatory policy has considered ways that their potential to cause serious health problems might be better addressed.

3

Diesel Emission Control Technology

Diesel emission control technology addresses the emission of several toxic substances, but its primary goal has been to lower the total mass of particulate matter. Controls can be retrofitted to older vehicles as well as being standard equipment on new vehicles. Although the specific details of the various emission control devices are proprietary, the basic design is relatively consistent, and consists of two major components: a filter to remove particulate material and a catalytic converter to promote chemical conversion of toxic substances to more benign products. The particulate filters are designed so that they are periodically heated to temperatures that combust the trapped particles and regenerate the filtering system. The heating schedule may depend on backpressure resulting from particle accumulation on the particle filter. The particle combustion products are released as exhaust. Newer designs incorporate a catalyst as part of the particle filter, lowering the particle combustion temperature to that of the diesel exhaust. Introduction of the emission controls has resulted in emission of less total exhaust if exhaust is measured in units of mass. However, the oxidation of particles trapped on the filters may have introduced other pollution problems. Very small particles, namely those in the ultrafine and nanoparticle range, have always been a part of emissions, but the mass of these very small particles relative to the total mass of particulate emission has increased with use of the newer technologies. Specifically, while the total mass of emissions has decreased approximately 3 fold, the ratio of the number of small particles of the ultrafine and nanoparticle size to the number of large particles has increased approximately 30 fold.15

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4


Childhood Asthma and Diesel Pollution

Childhood asthma is a serious global problem with a complex etiology, and environmental factors have always been thought to play a part. While recent data for the U.S. (current to 2004) suggest that asthma incidence and prevalence may be stabilizing among certain groups, long-term surveillance data generally show increasing rates of asthma incidence and prevalence among all ages.16 The U.S. prevalence among children under 18 in 2004 is twice the prevalence in 1987.17 The death rate among children 5-14 increased approximately threefold over the period 1979-2004, and, in 2004, the last year for which stable surveillance data are available, approximately 29% of all lifetime asthma cases were found among children 17 years of age or younger.17 The relationship between childhood asthma and diesel is a major issue of concern. While it is difficult to unequivocally demonstrate a causal relationship, data generally support the hypothesis that asthma is more common in areas of heavy traffic or areas with significant industrial activity, suggesting that that these factors play important roles. One compelling example is New York City where the rate of childhood asthma incidence and prevalence is significantly higher than the national rate. In the Bronx, a heavily industrialized and trafficked area, asthma is reported to affect 20-25% of school-aged children.18 Possibly, because of other demographic considerations, race and income level in the U.S. are both strongly associated with childhood asthma. The most recent surveillance data from the American Lung Association report that the prevalence of asthma among black children is almost twice that of white children in the same age range.19 According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, during the years 2005-2004, children living below the poverty level were more likely to have had a reported asthma attack within the past 12 months, and this was especially true for African-American children.20 highest risk are poor non-white children. These children are more likely to have several activity limitations and not to make use of ambulatory care procedures.21 Children with asthma lose, on average, approximately 2 to 2.5 more school days/year. For some children the loss of school days is much larger. Although the etiology of asthma is complex, the high prevalence and incidence rates in industrialized areas suggest that particulate matter, because of its association with traffic and industrialization, is important. Particulate air pollution, especially ultrafine air pollution, is most concentrated around heavily trafficked inner city environments such as freeways.22 The amount of deposition, especially deposition of ultrafine particles, decreases very quickly as distance from a freeway decreases.23 Not surprisingly, these data suggest that people living closest to heavily trafficked areas are at most risk for respiratory conditions related to particulate air pollution. This has been supported by several studies in major metropolitan areas.

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One study covered extensively in the lay press looked at the relationship between episodes of high particulate air pollution and asthma symptoms among children in the South Bronx area of New York City.24 Results of this study are expected to be published in peer reviewed literature later this year. The intent of the study was to see if asthmatic symptoms were worse on days of high particulate air pollution. The relationship between exposure and exacerbation of asthmatic symptoms was assessed by enrolling school-age children with asthma to carry back-packs equipped with pumps that could sample ambient air for particles. By examining the particles for absorbed materials, it was possible to determine how much of the particulate matter came from diesel exhaust. The study found that while only 5 to 10% of fine particulate air pollution was from diesel exhaust, this specific pollutant seemed to have the greatest exacerbating effect on childhood asthma. On days where diesel traffic pollution was highest, wheezing and other symptoms were significantly higher.25 Other studies examining the relationship between traffic density and asthmarelated health end points report similar findings. Study sites include a range of different locales: Southern California, Eire County, New York and The Netherlands. A common feature of each has been proximity to traffic or traffic-associated pollutants. Investigators in The Netherlands reported that children attending schools close to motorways with heavy truck traffic had more respiratory symptoms than those attending schools close to motorways without heavy truck traffic.26 The study conducted in Southern California reported positive associations between childhood asthma and components of urban air pollution, including PM2.5 .27 Exacerbation of childhood asthma has been shown to be related to several diesel-related factors: proximity to traffic, exposure to diesel traffic, and specific exposure to diesel particulate matter. These experimental findings do not demonstrate unequivocally that the primary exacerbating factor is ultrafine particulate matter. However, findings from controlled clinical exposure studies suggest that asthmatic individuals may be especially susceptible to particle deposition in the airways.28 These findings, taken together with the observation that, while smaller in mass, ultrafine and nanoparticles are greater in number and can penetrate deeply into airways, suggest that diesel control technology may have inadvertently exacerbated an already serious condition. From a scientific perspective, one challenge in demonstrating strong relationships between mobile source pollutants and health outcomes has been aerial monitoring. As many investigators have noted, pollutant concentration decays rapidly with distance from roadways.29 Hence the relationship strength between exposure and outcome may be underestimated. Hopefully, newer statistical approaches, taken together with geographic information system analysis, will improve the strength of associations.

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5


Community Strategies to Address the Relationship between Asthma and Diesel Exposure in Inner City Communities: A Case Study

The effects of diesel pollution continue to be addressed by scientists, regulators, and engineers. Technological changes expected to further lower the emission of diesel pollutants have been mandated by a number of governmental regulatory agencies, and, ultimately, changes will be introduced that should better protect public health. However, for residents of communities seriously affected by pollution on a daily basis, mandated changes, because they have a slow impact and fail to address current problems, have little immediate consequence. Residents of these communities have more urgent needs and, necessarily, seek alternative solutions to air pollution problems. It is from this perspective that more creative solutions have evolved. Interestingly, these solutions have often re-defined the direction of research and identified other more effective means to address health and pollution problems. The solutions also serve to empower those most directly affected. An example of the AirBeat project, a project supported by a coalition of community, academic, and governmental organizations in the inner city community of Roxbury, Massachusetts, is an excellent illustration of one urban community’s strategy to deal more directly with diesel pollution and asthma. Roxbury, Massachusetts is an inner city neighborhood of Boston. The population is among the poorest in the state. Approximately 30% of the residents and 45% of all children live in poverty, and more than 90% of the residents are people of color.30 Asthma in Roxbury has long been regarded as a very serious problem by community residents. In 1997, the asthma hospitalization rate of Roxbury residents was five times the state average, and the death rate from 1980 to 1993 was reported to have increased 118%.31 In one housing development, 44 % of families reported that at least one family member had asthma.32 In March 2001, two children, 12 and 16 years old, died in the same week from asthma attacks.33 School-age children, realizing that asthma posed a serious health threat, were enlisted in a youth program that was part of the Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project to identify environmental factors that might be playing a role in asthma. Enrolled students mapped both the homes with childhood asthma cases and various sources of air pollution in the community. Although the area has myriad sources of pollution, realizing that particulate air pollution from diesel exhaust is especially dangerous to public health, students focused on diesel-powered vehicles as a potential major contributor. They found that more than 150 diesel vehicles drive through the neighborhood streets each hour. Among the vehicles driving through the neighborhood on a daily basis were 400 out of service buses that were garaged in the neighborhood. Within a 1.5 mile radius of area schools, five diesel bus and truck garages are located.34

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While the project findings might not meet scientific standards of proof necessary to support the hypothesis that small particulate emissions or other pollutants from diesel exacerbate childhood asthma, the project became a force that empowered students, uniting them in efforts to combat a common environmental health and pollution issue. With the assistance of Alternatives for Community and Environment, the students took several steps to lower diesel pollution. This included a successful campaign to enforce the state “no-idling” law, now more effective in both urban and suburban communities in the greater Boston area. The student movement and Alternatives for Community and Environment also brought together a coalition of community, governmental, and academic groups who applied for and received funding supporting an air monitor situated in the center of a heavily trafficked area of Roxbury. The monitor, which collects 24 hour averaged data on PM2.5 , carbon black (used to co-track diesel as the source of fine particulate matter), and ozone, is maintained by local residents and youth volunteers. Data published in 2002 indicate that, while the 24 hour averaged levels of PM2.5 and carbon black are generally considered to be at levels where they pose moderate threat to human health, the levels are significantly higher than those found in the area close to the Harvard School of Public Health, a facility located in another inner-city neighborhood. This same grass-roots organization also launched the Clean Buses for Boston Coalition that focuses on a broader range of air pollution issues that affect inner city communities.35 The Roxbury initiative is not unique to communities affected by traffic and diesel pollution. Other community groups that have effectively worked to change conditions include West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. in New York City, The Bus Riders’ Union in Los Angeles, the Transportation Equity Project in Pittsburgh, the Bay Area Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative in San Francisco, to name but a few. These and other community-based coalitions have been effective in not only addressing specific diesel pollution problems, but in working for other solutions to transportation that will improve the quality of life in the urban environment.

6

Conclusion

Through the combined efforts of the scientific, technological, and regulatory communities, a number of steps have been taken within the past 30-40 years that have resulted in positive environmental changes. These efforts are ongoing, and will ultimately address a number of environmental and health concerns. Nevertheless, they cannot address the full spectrum of environmental concerns that become part of the urban and industrial landscape. It is likely that diesel will continue to be part of this landscape for the foreseeable future, and given this reality, work to develop new technologies that will lower emissions should continue. Regulatory agencies have mandated that new technologies will further lower emission

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of fine particulate matter. For example, the state of California and the European Union have set forth very specific regulatory guidelines about particulate emission controls, their development, and their adoption by a variety of dieselpowered vehicles. Fuels can also be reformulated to burn cleaner. What will not addressed in any of these programs and policies, however, is the reality that fossil fuel combustion products, whatever their form may be, are ultimately released into the environment. Until this issue is addressed effectively, heavily populated communities with large traffic volume or industrial activity will be adversely affected, and it is more likely that the impact of these effects will be greater for less affluent communities. Residents of these communities are more likely to suffer adversely from multiple issues related to poor environmental conditions, and it is, therefore, especially troublesome that children within these communities should deal with the debilitating problems associated with asthma when they might be prevented. The joint report of the World Health Organization and the European Environmental Agency on Children’s Health and the Environment advocates that health of children be high on the political agenda.36 Many authorities feel that the bulk of childhood disease, including childhood asthma, can be attributed to environmental factors.37 This would appear to be borne out by a large body of data that has been accumulated on a worldwide basis. Many factors are associated with childhood asthma. While there is no one specific factor responsible for cause or exacerbation, policies and practices to address potential contributors should, nevertheless, be in place. Evidence continues to accumulate implicating particulate air pollution from diesel, especially fine particulate air pollution, as a significant contributing factor, and children in heavily exposed communities seem most at risk. Effective policies and practices to address the health and environmental problems for these communities must be more comprehensive than they are at present. While more efficient emission control technology can lessen discharges from individual vehicles, it cannot address the broader problems associated traffic patterns or traffic volume. Ultimately, pollution must be addressed by the development of alternative strategies for transport of people and for commodities, and must develop through partnerships involving community members, scientists and regulators

Notes 1

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ‘Mobile Source Emissions, Past, Present and Future,’ 2

Kathleen Nauss, ‘Diesel Exhaust: A Critical Analysis of Emissions, Exposure, and Health Effects, Summary of a Health Effects Institute (HEI) Special Report HEI Diesel Working Group,’ at http://www.dieselnet.com/papers/9710nauss.html.

M. E. Richmond 3

ibid.

4

ibid.

87

5

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ‘Particulate Matter. PM Standards,’ at http://www.epa.gov/air/particlepollution/standards.html. 6

California Air Resources Board, ‘Ambient Air Quality Standards (AAQS) for Particulate Matter,’ at http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/aaqs/pm/pm.htm#3. 7

World Health Organization, ‘Use of the Air Quality Guidelines in Protecting Public Health: A Global Update,’ at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.html, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.html . 8

C Arden Pope and W Douglas Dockery, ‘Health Effects of Fine Particulate Air Pollution: Lines that Connect,’ Journal of Air and Waste Management, 56, 709-742, 2006. 9

ibid.

10

J. Kaiser, ‘Showdown over Clean Air Science,’ Science, 277, 466-469, 1997.

11

Pope and Dockery, op. cit.

12

ibid.

13

ibid.

14

ibid.

15

A Meyer, ‘Why Use Size, Substance and Number of Solid Particles Instead of PM-Mass to Characterize and Limit Particle Emissions of IC-Engines,’ http:// www.aqmd.gov/tao/Ultrafine_Presentations/Keynote_Andreas Mayer.pdf 16

American Lung Association, ‘Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality,’ American Lung Association Epidemiology and Statistics Unit Research and Program Services, July 2006. 17

ibid.

18

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, ‘Asthma Initiative,’ at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/asthma/asthma.shtml, http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/asthma/asthma.shtml. 19

American Lung Association, op.cit.

20

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ‘Respiratory Diseases-America’s Children and the Environment: A First View of Available Measures,’ at http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/respiratory_diseases.htm! OpenDocument&Click=, http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/respiratory_diseases.htm! OpenDocument&Click=. 21

LJ Akinbami, BJ LaFleur, and KC Shoendorf, ‘Racial and Income Disparities

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in Childhood Asthma in the United States,’ Ambulatory Pediatrics, 2(5) 382-387, 2002. 22

Constantinos Sioutas, Ralph J. DelFino, and Manisha Singh, ‘Exposure Assessment for Atmospheric Ultrafine Particles (UFPs) and Implications in Epidemiologic Research,’ Environmental Health Perspectives,” 113 (8) 947-955, 2002. 23

Chang Hee Christiane Bae, Gail Sandlin, Alon Bassok, Sungyop Kim, ‘The Exposure of Disadvantaged Populations in Freeway Air-Pollution Sheds: A Case Study of the Seattle and Portland Regions,’ Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 34(1) 154–170, 2007. 24

M Fernandez, ‘A Study Links Trucks’ Exhaust to Bronx Schoolchildren’s Asthma,’ New York Times, 29 October, 2006. 25

Ibid.

26

Nicole A H Janssen, Bert Brunekreef, Patricia van Vliet, Francee Aarts, Kees Meliefste, Hendrik Harssema, and Paul Fischer, ‘The Relationship Between Air Pollution from Heavy Traffic and Allergic Sensitization, Bronchial Hyperresponsiveness, and Respiratory Symptoms in Dutch Schoolchildren,’ Environmental Health Perspectives 111(12), 1512-1518, 2003. 27

John M. Peters, ‘California Air Resources Board Epidemiologic Investigation to Identify Chronic Effects of Ambient Air Pollutants in Southern California,’ at http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/abstracts/94-331.htm#Executive. 28

David C. Chalupa, Paul E. Morrow, Gunter Oberdorster, Mark J. Utell, and Mark W. Frampton, ‘Ultrafine Particle Deposition in Subjects with Asthma,’ Environmental Health Perspectives, 112 (8) 879-882, 2004. 29

Sioutas, op.cit.; Bae, op.cit.

30

Penn Loh and Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, ‘Environmental Justice Organizing for Environmental Health: Case Study on Asthma and Diesel Exhaust in Roxbury, Massachusetts,’ Annals, American Academy for Political and Social Science, 584 110-123, 2002. 31

Penn Loh, Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, Standrick Wiggins, David Noiles, and Cecelia Archibald, ‘From Astha to AirBeat: Community-Driven Monitoring of Fine Particles and Black Carbon in Roxbury, Massachusetts,’ Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(supplement 2), 297-301 (2002). 32

ibid.

33

ibid.

34

ibid.

35

ibid.

36

G Tamburlini, O von Ehrenstein and R Bertollini, eds. ‘Children’s Health and Environment. A Review of Evidence. A Joint Report from the European Environment Agency and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Experts’ Corner,’

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European Environmental Agency Series, 2002. 37

ibid.

Bibliography Akinbami,LJ. BJ LaFleur, and KC Shoendorf. ‘Racial and Income Disparities in Childhood Asthma in the United States,’ Ambulatory Pediatrics, 2(5) 382-387, 2002. American Lung Association. ‘Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality,’ American Lung Association Epidemiology and Statistics Unit Research and Program Services, July 2006. Bae, Chang Hee Christiane, Gail Sandlin, Alon Bassok, Sungyop Kim. ‘The Exposure of Disadvantaged Populations in Freeway Air-pollution Sheds: A Case Study of the Seattle and Portland Regions.’ Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 34(1) 154–170, 2007. California Air Resources Board. ‘Ambient Air Quality Standards (AAQS) for Particulate Matter,’ 2006. Chalupa, David C., Paul E. Morrow, Gunter Oberdorster, Mark J. Utell, and Mark W. Frampton. ‘Ultrafine Particle Deposition in Subjects with Asthma’ Environmental Health Perspectives, 112 (8) 879-882, 2004. Fernandez, Manny. ‘A Study Links Trucks’ Exhaust to Bronx Schoolchildren’s Asthma,’ New York Times, 29 October, 2006. Janssen, Nicole A.H., Bert Brunekreef, Patricia van Vliet, Francee Aarts, Kees Meliefste, Hendrik Harssema, and Paul Fischer. ‘The relationship between air pollution from heavy traffic and allergic sensitization, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and respiratory symptoms in Dutch schoolchildren,’ Environmental Health Perspectives 111(12), 1512-1518, 2003. Kaiser, J. ‘Showdown over Clean Air Science’ Science, 277, 466-469, 1997. Loh, Penn and Jodi Sugerman-Brozan. ‘Environmental Justice Organizing for Environmental Health: Case Study on Asthma and Diesel Exhaust in Roxbury, Massachusetts,’ Annals, American Academy for Political and Social Science, 584 110-123, 2002. Loh, Penn, Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, Standrick Wiggins, David Noiles, and Cecelia Archibald. ‘From Astha to AirBeat: Community-Driven Monitoring of Fine Particles and Black Carbon in Roxbury, Massachusetts,’ EnvironmentalHealth Perspectives,110 (supplement 2), 297-301 (2002). Meyer, Andreas. ‘Why Use Size, Substance and Number of Solid Particles Instead of PM-Mass to Characterize and Limit Particle Emissions of IC-Engines.’ http://www.aqmd.gov/tao/Ultrafine_Presentations/Keynote_Andreas Mayer. pdf, 2006.

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Nauss, Kathleen. ‘Diesel Exhaust: A Critical Analysis of Emissions, Exposure, and Health Effects, Summary of a Health Effects Institute (HEI) Special Report HEI Diesel Working Group; 1997. Peters, John M. ‘California Air Resources Board Epidemiologic Investigation to Identify Chronic Effects of Ambient Air Pollutants in Southern California’, 2006. Pope, C. Arden and Douglas W. Dockery. ‘Health Effects of Fine Particulate Air Pollution: Lines that Connect,’ Journal of Air and Waste Management, 56, 709-742, 2006. Sioutas, Constantinos, Ralph J. DelFino, and Manisha Singh. ‘Exposure Assessment for Atmospheric Ultrafine Particles (UFPs) and Implications in Epidemiologic Research,’ Environmental Health Perspectives,” 113 (8) 947-955, 2002. Tamburlini, O. von Ehrenstein and R. Bertollini, eds. ‘Children’s Health and Environment. A Review of Evidence. A Joint Report from the European Environment Agency and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Experts’ Corner,’ European Environmental Agency Series, 2002. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. ‘Asthma Initiative.’ http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/asthma/asthma.shtml http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/asthma/asthma.shtml 2006. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ‘Particulate Matter. PM Standards.’ 2006. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ‘Mobile Source Emissions, Past, Present and Future,’ 2006. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ‘Respiratory Diseases-America’s Children and the Environment: A First View of Available Measures.’ 2007. World Health Organization. ‘Use of the Air Quality Guidelines in Protecting Public Health: A Global Update.’ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.html http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.html 2007.

Biographical Note Martha E. Richmond is the Director of Environmental Studies, the Director of Environmental Science, and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Suffolk University in Boston, MA, USA. She also was a Consulting Staff Scientist at the Health Effects Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA where she was involved with

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projects examining the relationship between human health effects and exposure to mobile source air pollutants.

Part III How to Resolve these Tensions

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Chapter 8

Adaptations to Environmental Sustainability: The Story of the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Elaine Anderson The municipality of Delta (British Columbia, Canada) is situated on the outskirts of Vancouver (one of the largest cities in Canada). Delta is part of the Fraser River delta which is essential to the functional integrity of the Pacific Flyway (an internationally significant stopover point for migrating birds). One million migrating and wintering waterfowl and 5 million shorebirds from Asia, Alaska, and Western Canada use the Fraser River delta for feeding and roosting. Delta also has some of the most fertile soil and one of the longest growing seasons in all of Canada. The Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (DFWT) was founded in 1993 by local farmers and conservationists as a response to ongoing conflict over agricultural and wildlife resources. Government policies appear to have assisted in the formation and initial development of the DFWT, but there seems to be a lack of government policies that support long-term sustainability of such organizations. Ongoing, consistent, and adequate funding is the biggest challenge facing the DFWT today. The cumulative effect of agro-ecosystem loss in communities around the world has the potential to negatively affect the sustainability of both local and global food systems. The story of the DFWT illustrates how competing interests can work together to enhance both agricultural land and wildlife habitat through a combination of enabling government policy, citizen collaboration, and on-the-ground agri-environmental stewardship. Key Words: Community, agriculture, sustainability, wildlife, habitat, policy, conflict, collaboration, stewardship.

1

Introduction

This paper provides the preliminary results of my doctoral research involving the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (DFWT) in British Columbia, Canada. The DFWT is a non-government organization which was founded in 1993 by local farmers and conservationists interested in conserving agricultural and wildlife resources. The DFWT supports both wildlife habitat conservation and agriculture by sharing the cost of specific management practices contributing to soil

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Adaptations to Environmental Sustainability

and/or wildlife habitat conservation and enhancement.1 For the purposes of this research, the term agri-environmental stewardship is used to refer to the conservation and/or enhancement of both wildlife habitat and agricultural viability. There are three main themes in my research. They are: 1. Documentation of the history and development of the DFWT; 2. Identification of government policies that have enabled or impeded the work of the DFWT; 3. Development of an adaptive agri-environmental policy framework that is responsive to changing global conditions.

2

Global Context

Over the past century there has been a fourfold increase in the world human population. The global population is expected to increase to nine billion by 2050.2 Agricultural land is being lost to development and farmers are under intense pressure to produce more food on less land. The industrialization of agriculture has resulted in environmental problems such as soil loss, water pollution, and destruction of wildlife habitat.3 Eliminating native plants and animals from farmland either intentionally or unintentionally through clearing or through the use of toxic substances negatively impacts natural ecosystems.4 In addition, wildlife are being forced onto farmland as a result of urban development where they compete with farmers for limited resources and reduce agricultural productivity (e.g. consuming crops).5 6 The cumulative effect of agro-ecosystem loss in communities around the world has the potential to negatively affect the sustainability of both local and global food systems. The DFWT is one example of how a local community organization has managed to enhance agricultural land and wildlife habitat simultaneously. The story of the DFWT’s successes (and challenges) may help to inspire other communities to work together to protect the viability of both agricultural land and wildlife habitat.

3

Local Context

The municipality of Delta, the focus of this research, is approximately 180 km2 in area and has a population of roughly 100,000. Delta is situated about 60 kilometres from the City of Vancouver in the province of British Columbia (BC) on the west coast of Canada adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. Less than five percent of BC has land that is considered to be arable or potentially arable. Nonetheless, agriculture is BC’s third largest primary industry, behind forestry and mining.7

E. Anderson A

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Agriculture

Delta has some of the most productive farmland in Canada. Soils in the lowlands of Delta are comprised of fertile silt clays or silt. They have good water storage capacity and the potential to sustain crop production year-round.8 The top three farm types in Delta are vegetable farms (26.5%), animal production (mainly dairy cattle and horses) (21.5%), and greenhouse, nursery, and floriculture (17.7%).9 The lowlands of Delta (where agricultural operations are located) are at or below sea level. Consequently, most of Delta is surrounded by dykes to prevent flooding.10 B

Wildlife

The municipality of Delta provides vital wildlife habitat. Most of this habitat is on or adjacent to agricultural land. The municipality of Delta is part of the Fraser River delta. The Fraser River delta is one of the largest estuaries on the north Pacific Coast and essential to the functional integrity of the Pacific Flyway. It also supports the highest densities of wintering waterfowl in Canada. One million migrating and wintering waterfowl and 5 million shorebirds from Asia, Alaska, and Western Canada use the Fraser River delta for feeding and roosting.11 Delta is also home to a wide variety of resident wildlife including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Delta provides essential habitat for the Townsend’s vole (Microtus townsendii) which uses old field habitat to feed and breed. In Delta, grassland set-asides also provide habitat for Townsend’s voles. The Townsend’s vole is a key food source for local raptors.12 C

Agricultural Land Reserve

Approximately half of the land area in Delta is located within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). The ALR is a provincially regulated land use zone where agriculture is the priority use and non-agricultural uses are regulated. The BC Land Commission Act was established in 1973 in response to fears that agricultural land was rapidly disappearing from British Columbia as a result of urban development. Much of the agricultural land that was being lost was a result of urban sprawl linked to the growth of Vancouver. Unfortunately, the ALR has not shielded farmers from the impacts of globalization, free trade, climate change, and competing interests for agricultural land. As a result, farmers in the Vancouver area struggle to remain competitive and sustainable in the global marketplace.

4

Canadian Governance

Canada is a federated country made up of ten provinces and three territories. Under the British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act) legislative

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powers in Canada were divided into federal and provincial jurisdictions. Agricultural responsibilities were split between the provinces and the federal government. The federal government took control of agricultural research, policy and interprovincial and international trade. Provinces were given control over agricultural education including extension, agricultural colleges and universities.13 Management of wildlife in Canada is shared by federal, provincial, and territorial governments. Federal responsibility for wildlife includes migratory bird protection, designation of nationally significant wildlife habitat, control of international trade in endangered species, and research on wildlife issues deemed to have national importance. Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for other wildlife issues such as conservation of wildlife populations and their habitat within jurisdictional boundaries.14 Responsibility for environmental and agricultural resources in Canada is divided at both the federal and provincial levels of government. The federal department of agriculture (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) and federal department of environment (Environment Canada) are separate departments with separate, and very different, mandates. The province of BC has a similar structure with a separate department of environment (Ministry of Environment) and a department of agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture and Lands), each with their own mandates. This organizational structure creates four separate silos of bureaucracy, territoriality, and policies. This structure appears to impede a holistic or systems approach to agri-environmental issues.

5

Research Methodology

The approach taken in this research is primarily qualitative. It involves collection of data from both primary and secondary sources. The secondary sources of information include government and non-government reports, peer reviewed journals, and policy documents from countries with supportive agri-environmental policies. The sources of primary information include face to face semi-structured interviews and stakeholder consultation with individuals who have been involved in the formation and development of the DFWT. Letters were sent to 81 individuals who have been involved in the formation and/or development of the DFWT inviting them to participate in the study. In terms of research typology, this research is ‘applied research’ because the findings will be applied to develop an adaptive agri-environmental policy framework that takes into consideration changing global conditions. This policy framework is currently under construction and will be developed through a participatory planning process with stakeholders involved in the DFWT. The intent is to create a national policy framework that provides a structure within which provinces can develop adaptive policies that reflect the diversity and unique challenges facing agri-environmental stewardship in their communities.

E. Anderson

6

Conflict leads to Cooperation

A

Introduction

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This section provides an overview of the key conflict that existed prior to the formation of the DFWT. Additional less severe conflicts existed prior to the formation of the DFWT, but they are not discussed here due to space constraints. B

Data Limitations

The information provided below is based on preliminary results of face to face semi-structured interviews conducted with 11 of the 81 people (14%) who have been involved in the formation and/or development of the DFWT, as well as secondary sources of information such as DFWT annual reports. The 11 individuals who were interviewed have been, or were currently, involved in the DFWT. They represented various interests or perspectives including federal government, nongovernment, local government, DFWT staff, DFWT directors, and the University of British Columbia. Although the number of interviewees is relatively low at this point in time, the results of the interviews have been generally consistent with the information found in secondary sources. The key findings outlined below are based on the most common and consistent responses in the interviews and are corroborated by secondary sources of information. C

Waterfowl Predation

A key conflict that existed prior to the formation of the DFWT was the negative impact of waterfowl predation on over-wintering vegetable crops and forage crops. The financial impact was greatest for dairy farmers because of damage to their forage crops. In some instances, newly seeded forage fields were consumed by ducks in a single night. Waterfowl also had a negative impact on soils. Waterfowl congregating and feeding in vegetable fields over the winter compacted soil resulting in poor drainage, water accumulation, and delayed planting of crops in the spring. Farmers were unable to plant some crops due to waterfowl predation. Farmers were not compensated for wildlife damage, nor did they receive any public recognition for the habitat they were providing for wildlife. The establishment of conservation areas by the government in and around Delta appeared to exacerbate the waterfowl predation problem because farms in Delta were more or less surrounded by these conservation areas. Waterfowl spilled over from these areas to feed on crops, resulting in between $200,000 and $600,000 damage to hay production and silage for the dairy industry. Dairy farmers were forced to import more forage from other areas to make up for the losses. In addition, there was a lack of communication between wildlife and agricultural interests. A lack of support from the community (from both a financial perspective

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and a public recognition perspective) meant that farmers were less inclined to encourage waterfowl grazing. The key government policy that contributed to this conflict was actually the absence of a policy that provided compensation for wildlife damage. Other government policies that contributed to this conflict include increased development on and around the Fraser River delta, resulting in less land available for wildlife habitat and, as a result, a higher concentration of waterfowl on farm fields. The federal Migratory Birds Convention Act (1917) also appears to have contributed to the conflict because this Act stipulates that the Canadian government is responsible for managing resources for migratory waterfowl. The waterfowl damage that was occurring on farm fields seemed to indicate that resources for migratory waterfowl were not being adequately managed. D

Greenfields

The waterfowl predation conflict in Delta was the catalyst for the development of a project called Greenfields which started in 1991. The goal of the Greenfields project was to develop a strategy that would allow agriculture and wildlife to coexist on farmland in Delta. The project was a cooperative venture between farmers and wildlife agencies. The main component of the project was a cost sharing program that supported winter cover crops, an important soil conservation practice that also provides habitat for waterfowl. Greenfields paid for the seed and farmers planted the seed in the fall to establish cover crops. Crops were monitored for growth and locations where birds consumed crops were documented.15 The Greenfields project received financial support from various government and non-government agencies. E

Cooperation

The issues related to waterfowl predation, the lack of a forum for communication, and the success of the Greenfields project appear to have been the key situational drivers that led to the formation of the DFWT in February 1993. The eight founding directors represented a partnership of wildlife and agricultural interests, with equal representation from the conservation and agricultural communities. The DFWT was established as a community-based, non-profit, charitable society.16 The DFWT took over administration of the Greenfields project from Ducks Unlimited Canada (a non-government organization) in 1995. The municipality of Delta (local government) appears to have been a strong supporter of the DFWT in its start-up phase. Local government staff and elected representatives contributed time and in-kind support (e.g. meeting rooms), legal advice, as well as some mediation between conservation and agricultural interests. Other government agencies that were involved from the beginning include the federal Canadian Wildlife Service (Environment Canada), BC Ministry of

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Agriculture, and the BC Ministry of Environment. Non-government organizations that were involved from the beginning include the Delta Farmers’ Institute, the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee, the University of British Columbia, and Ducks Unlimited Canada. Government policies allowing representatives to be involved in the formation of the DFWT appear to have played an important role in the establishment of the DFWT. F

A Shot in the Arm

In the late 1980s the federal government embarked on a plan to build a third runway at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). The new runway would affect approximately 350 hectares of wildlife habitat close to the municipality of Delta in an area of international significance for migratory and wintering birds. As a condition of development, Transport Canada (the federal government agency responsible for airports) was required to establish a compensation package to mitigate the loss of wildlife habitat.17 In March 1995, the DFWT was awarded $2.25 million from this compensation fund for a farmland stewardship program in the lower Fraser River delta. The money was placed in a trust fund so that the income could be used for stewardship programs on farmland to benefit both wildlife and agriculture in perpetuity. This federal compensation policy has had a positive impact on the ability of the DFWT to expand and develop its stewardship programs.18

7

DFWT Stewardship Programs

This section describes some of the stewardship programs offered by the DFWT. A

Winter Cover Crops (aka Greenfields)

Winter cover cropping is the most common technique used by the DFWT. Cover crops are typically a cereal or leguminous crop which are planted after a cash crop has been harvested, usually in late summer or early fall. Cover crops are sometimes planted in order to provide alternative foraging areas for waterfowl that over-winter on the Fraser River delta.19 An average of about 1214 hectares (ha) has been planted annually. Farmers receive $111/ha for every hectare planted under the guidelines of the program. B

Grassland Set-asides

Grassland set-asides are grassland rotations that are integrated into farm management plans. Degraded soils can be vastly improved through the use of grassland rotations. The grasslands also provide important habitat for wildlife, such as the Townsend’s vole which is the main food source for a variety of grassland hawks

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and owls. As of 2005, there were 29 fields (231 ha) in Delta in the grassland set-aside program. Farmers are paid an average cost share of $667/ha. Farmers have indicated that they are willing to set aside an additional 81-121 ha, but the DFWT does not have sufficient funding to support these additional set-asides.20 C

Hedgerows and Grass Margins

Hedgerows are linear barriers of trees, shrubs, perennial forbs and/or grasses usually associated with field boundaries. Grass margins are linear patches of grassland habitat around cultivated fields. They both benefit wildlife by providing habitat for small mammals, songbirds, raptors, and insects.Hedgerows can act as windbreaks, living fences, and also provide additional income to farmers if they include marketable products such as fruit.21 Hedgerow agreements span ten years and can be extended for another ten years. Participants are paid $741/ha/year for any land that is taken out of agricultural production as a result of establishing the hedgerow.22 D

Laser Levelling

Medium to fine textured soil and a high water table are common characteristics of the agricultural land in Delta. Laser levelling evens out the topography of the land. This allows farmers to reduce ponding on their fields, improving the establishment and longevity of winter crops and grass fields that are subject to grazing by waterfowl. Laser levelled fields tend to dry out more quickly in the spring. Earlier access gives farmers more options on what to plant in their fields and it also improves the likelihood that a cover crop can be planted on the field once the cash crop is harvested. Delta farmers are eligible to receive 50% of the cost of laser levelling their fields up to a maximum of $309/ha from the DFWT.23

8

DFWT Accomplishments

Accomplishments of the DFWT include improved communication and cooperation between farmers and conservationists, improved wildlife habitat viability and agricultural viability as a result of cost sharing between DFWT and local farmers, and the diversity of on-the-ground agri-environmental stewardship programs offered.

9

DFWT Challenges

Despite the significant accomplishments of the DFWT, it faces some ongoing challenges, particularly related to funding. This section focuses on some of the policy issues related to funding. Other challenges such as increasing waterfowl populations, First Nations land claims, and construction of provincial transportation

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infrastructure (road and rail) affect farmers and wildlife in Delta, but they are not discussed here due to space constraints. Ongoing, consistent, and adequate funding appears to be the biggest challenge facing the DFWT. The income generated from the DFWT trust funds combined with other government funding programs allow the DFWT to share costs with farmers for various agri-environmental stewardship programs. However, the money they receive is not enough to pay farmers to cover the losses they incur as a result of wildlife damage or to fund all of the programs to their fullest extent (e.g. grassland set-asides). There are a number of issues related to government funding programs. For example, the amount of money available from the federal government for agrienvironmental stewardship programs appears to be diminishing. In addition, the application process and reporting requirements for federally funded programs are overly bureaucratic and time consuming. To make matters worse, federal funds are frozen on a fairly regular basis. When a funding freeze occurs, any money that has been promised to an organization is unavailable until the funding freeze is removed. This can have serious impacts on non-government organizations such as the DFWT which are depending on the money to fund staff positions or programs. Also, provincial and federal government funding programs are typically structured to provide funding for new projects. As a result, successful long term projects that do not generate revenue, such as the agri-environmental stewardship programs offered by the DFWT, are not eligible for many government funding programs. A lack of long term consistent funding impedes the ability of the organization to make long term strategic plans and reduces the ability of the organization and its programs to be sustainable. Government policy related to the allocation of money toward new programs rather than sustaining successful existing programs impedes the ability of organizations such as the DFWT to develop.

10

Summary

Competition for resources in Delta creates numerous challenges for farmers and for wildlife. The DFWT appears to have helped resolve or mediate many of the conflicts between farmers and wildlife. Preliminary research results indicate that government policies did not act as an impediment and generally supported the formation of the DFWT. However, government policies do appear to have impeded the ongoing development of the DFWT. The key issue appears to be the lack of enabling policies to ensure the long term sustainability of the organization and its programs. The DFWT appears to have played a significant role in assisting farmers to manage their land for both agriculture and wildlife. It is one example of how community collaboration and participation can contribute to both local and international agri-environmental sustainability. The next phase

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of this research will use a participatory planning process to develop an adaptive agri-environmental policy framework that will support the formation and sustainable development of local agri-environmental organizations.

Notes 1

Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (DFWT), Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Annual Report (2005–2006), Delta, 2006, p. 5. 2

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Sustaining life on earth: how the Convention on Biological Diversity promotes nature and human wellbeing, Convention on Biological Diversity, viewed May 25, 2007, http://www.cbd.int/default.shtml, p. 3. 3

S Gliessman, Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, 2000, p. 3. 4

M Altieri, ‘Ecological impacts of industrial agriculture and the possibilities for truly sustainable farming’ in F Magdoff, J Bellamy Foster, and F Buttel (eds), Hungry for Profit, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2000, p. 81. 5

P Neave, E Neave, T Weins, and T Riche, Availability of wildlife habitat on farmland, Government of Canada, viewed October 1, 2005, http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/biodiversity/habitat, p. 146. 6

D Freshwater, A U.S. perspective on multifunctionality. The World Bank, viewed March 6, 2005, http://go.worldbank.org/H1Q3T60M80, p. 2. 7

BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, About the agriculture industry, Government of British Columbia, viewed May 29, 2006, http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/aboutind/profile.htm, p. 1. 8

Klohn Leonoff Ltd., WR Holm and Associates, and GG Runka Land Sense Ltd., Delta Agricultural Study, BC Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Agriculture Canada, BC Agricultural Land Commission, Delta Farmers’ Institute, and the Corporation of Delta, 1992, p. 95. 9

Corporation of Delta, Census of Agriculture 2001 – Selected characteristics, Corporation of Delta, viewed May 15, 2007, http://www.corp.delta.bc.ca/, p. 2. 10

R Butler and R Campbell, The birds of the Fraser River delta: populations, ecology and international significance, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Ottawa, 1987, p. 10. 11

Ducks Unlimited Canada, A proposal for habitat conservation in the Fraser River delta, presented to the Board of Directors of Ducks Unlimited Canada, Delta, 2000, p. 1. 12

M Merkens, ‘Value of Grassland Set-asides in Increasing Farmland Habitat Capacity for Wintering Raptors in the Lower Fraser River Delta’, in T.D. Hooper (ed) Proceedings of the Species at Risk 2004 Pathways to Recovery Conference,

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March 2-6, Victoria, BC, Canada, 2000. 13

D Young, Agricultural extension in Canada, University of Saskatchewan, viewed October 11, 2004,f http://www.extension.usask.ca/, p. 6. 14

BC Ministry of Environment, The Wildlife Act: Managing for sustainability in the 21st century, Government of British Columbia, Fish and Wildlife Branch, 2007, p. 40. 15

T Duynstee, The Greenfields Project 1991-92 interim report, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Delta, 1993, p. 1. 16

Anonymous, Farmland & Wildlife, newsletter of the Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1995, p. 1. 17

ibid., p. 3

18

ibid., p. 3

19

Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (DFWT), op. cit., pp. 5-8.

20

ibid., pp. 8–11.

21

S Gliessman, op. cit., p. 236.

22

Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (DFWT), op. cit., pp. 13–15.

23

ibid., pp. 11-12.

Bibliography Altieri, M., ‘Ecological impacts of industrial agriculture and the possibilities for truly sustainable farming’ in F Magdoff, J Bellamy Foster, and F Buttel (eds), Hungry for Profit. Monthly Review Press, New York, 2000, pp. 77-92. Anonymous, Farmland & Wildlife. Newsletter of the Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1995. BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, About the agriculture industry. Government of British Columbia, viewed May 29, 2006, http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/aboutind/profile.htm. BC Ministry of Environment, The Wildlife Act: Managing for sustainability in the 21st century. Government of British Columbia, Fish and Wildlife Branch, 2007. Butler, R. and R. Campbell, The birds of the Fraser River delta: populations, ecology and international significance. Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Ottawa, 1987. Corporation of Delta, Census of Agriculture 2001 – Selected characteristics. Corporation of Delta, viewed May 15, 2007, http://www.corp.delta.bc.ca/. Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (DFWT), Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Annual Report (2005-2006). Delta, 2006.

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Ducks Unlimited Canada, A proposal for habitat conservation in the Fraser River delta. Presented to the Board of Directors of Ducks Unlimited Canada, Delta, 2000. Duynstee, T., The Greenfields Project 1991-92 interim report. Ducks Unlimited Canada, Delta, 1993. Freshwater, D., A U.S. perspective on multifunctionality. The World Bank, viewed March 6, 2005, http://go.worldbank.org/H1Q3T60M80. Gliessman, S., Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, 2000. Klohn Leonoff Ltd., W.R. Holm and Associates, and G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd., Delta Agricultural Study. BC Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Agriculture Canada, BC Agricultural Land Commission, Delta Farmers’ Institute, and the Corporation of Delta, 1992. Merkens, M., ‘Value of Grassland Set-asides in Increasing Farmland Habitat Capacity for Wintering Raptors in the Lower Fraser River Delta’ in T.D. Hooper (ed) Proceedings of the Species at Risk 2004 Pathways to Recovery Conference. March 2-6, Victoria, BC, Canada, 2000. Neave, P., E. Neave, T. Weins, and T. Riche, Availability of wildlife habitat on farmland. Government of Canada, viewed October 1, 2005, www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/biodiversity/habitat. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Sustaining life on earth: how the Convention on Biological Diversity promotes nature and human well-being. Convention on Biological Diversity, viewed May 25, 2007, http://www.cbd.int/default.shtml. Young, D., Agricultural extension in Canada. University of Saskatchewan, viewed October 11, 2004, http://www.extension.usask.ca/.

Biographical Note Elaine Anderson, PhD Candidate, MSc(Planning), BSc(Agr), BA, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada: [email protected]

Chapter 9

Customary Law and Community Based Conservation of marine areas in Fiji Erika Techera Sustainable development goals of social, economic and environmental improvement can be easily identified, but appropriate methods to resolve the often conflicting issues remain elusive. The achievement of triple bottom line goals is problematic the world over, but particularly keenly felt in small island states with large indigenous populations and strong customary laws and practices. Top down legal approaches have been imposed with limited success and it has now been recognised that bottom up, community based, participatory mechanisms are preferable. The Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network is an example of a successful initiative involving communities in the protection of their local marine environment through the implementation of community based adaptive management techniques. The LMMA Network has been remarkably successful in the Fiji Islands where the knowledge, traditional practices and customary laws of its indigenous population have been utilised to achieve positive outcomes. LMMA implementation in Fiji has led to increased marine biodiversity and a corresponding reduction of poverty in areas where rural livelihoods depend on marine resources. Equally important, the LMMA process has improved community solidarity. The experience of the LMMAs may offer best practice guidance to many other countries facing similar challenges. Key Words: Environmental law, customary law, community based conservation, Fiji, biodiversity, sustainable livelihoods.

1

Introduction

Sustainable development involves a multifaceted approach to the environment, the rhetoric of which has been almost universally accepted. However, the greater challenge has been to translate its broad aspirational principles into action. This is particularly the case for the small island developing states of the South Pacific which have large indigenous populations living traditional lifestyles according to customary laws, which are often in conflict with western legal systems imposed during colonial periods.

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Customary Law and Community Based Conservation in Fiji

Western legal mechanisms to facilitate conservation have involved top down centralised approaches, but these have been ineffective in achieving positive biodiversity conservation outcomes. So new approaches have been necessary that better address social and economic development issues, such as the establishment of sustainable livelihoods, as well as conservation. Local communities cannot be ignored in this quest as increasing importance is being placed on indigenous rights and issues of environmental justice. Also, conservation practices have changed reflecting international pressure to recognise local participation and the acknowledgement of the value of traditional knowledge. This has led to the recognition that bottom up participatory mechanisms are preferable. The focus of this paper is Fiji’s Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMAs) which are one of the most longstanding and well documented experiences of community based marine management in the Pacific, and therefore provide an excellent case study to support communities taking control of their local environment.

2

The Fiji Islands

The native Fijian people have traditionally had a profound relationship with nature, evidenced by their stewardship ethic over communal land and marine areas. This connection is both physical and cultural, extending from reliance on marine resources for food and livelihoods to deeply rooted traditional practices surrounding the use of marine resources for ceremonies and celebrations. Marine resources collected from traditional fishing grounds (qoliqoli ) have historically been the main source of protein for native people, with any excess harvest being sold as part of the village livelihoods. Maintenance of stocks was also acknowledged by the indigenous people and traditional conservation mechanisms included tabus and seasonal fishing bans. Whilst populations remained low, and adherence to customary law high, these traditional conservation mechanisms worked well. However, they began to fall into disuse, or became ineffective, as population pressures increased. The result has affected cultural identity and reduced respect and observance of traditional practices. This in turn has caused damage to natural marine resources. Adherence to customary law has also been affected by outside influences due to urbanisation and more particularly globalisation. Fiji’s coastal communities are becoming more modernised and the introduction of more advanced technology, commercialised fishing practices and access to new markets, has put marine areas under further threat.1 Specifically, it has been noted that one of the problems facing fisheries is that improved technologies result in improved methods of fishing with a consequentially greater depletion of wildlife. This is in contrast to agriculture where generally technology has been applied to increase yields without increasing land holdings.2 Today marine resources are under threat in Fiji not only from over-fishing but also pollution and

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habitat destruction (notably coral reefs and mangroves swamps). These problems are worse in areas close to population centres such as Suva where land based and marine based pollution and poaching are all significant issues3 . Many local Fijian communities noticed the loss of biodiversity, but lacked awareness of the environmental damage they were causing they had little alternative livelihood options. However, as it became apparent that marine resources were continuing to be depleted, many villages again turned to traditional laws and practices. Some Fijian villages established isolated community-based marine conservation areas which acted as a catalyst for further conservation measures to be developed and implemented. These local projects were also successful at integrating stakeholders into the management and monitoring of their resources which eventually lead them to joining the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network.

3

The LMMA Network

The LMMA Network was officially launched in October 2000.4 Prior to that there had been various community based conservation projects in the South Pacific but many of them were overlapping with no mechanism to share resources or information5 . Representatives of the World Resources Institute (WRI), MacArthur Foundation and Packard Foundation devised a system that would bring together these isolated projects.6 The LMMA Network is a learning network involving practitioners7 in various locations around the world8 utilising common strategies and evaluation mechanisms to improve the success of community based marine conservation.9 One of the advantages of the LMMAs approach is that it utilises existing agencies and effectively distributes project work amongst them, with the agreement that they will each use the same training, monitoring and assessment criteria. Expertise is retained within the network and the project work shared. The Network provides support to other members and offers help to local communities by assisting with capacity building and sharing of resources and information, education and awareness, drafting management plans, marine resource and habitat mapping, monitoring and evaluation of socio economic, biological and environmental data collected. More specifically, the LMMA Network facilitates positive outcomes by providing training, networking opportunities and analysis tools. Networking is facilitated by putting individual communities in touch with others in the same regional area so that they can exchange information and share resources and skills. The LMMA Network system utilises two key elements: The Social Contract and the Learning Framework. All members sign the LMMA Network Social Contract which provides a commitment to work together to achieve the goals of the LMMA. The Social Contract, whilst not legally binding, places considerable

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pressure upon members to comply with it. It provides the grass roots commitment to the LMMA goals and the ideological foundation for the development of individual, site specific, management and action plans. The Learning Framework is central to the LMMAs system and ensures that common parameters and standardised procedures are used for the collection and analysis of data. Adaptive management tools are then utilised to learn from this data and plan better for marine management in the future. This learning is enhanced by continuous interaction with other LMMA members through workshops and symposia where experiences, successes and failures are shared and discussed. The Learning Framework outlines 37 specific factors and methods to measure biological, socioeconomic and governance conditions10 and contains assumptions about how these factors will affect the success of the project sites.11 The project team members then collect data on these factors to test whether or not these assumptions hold true in reality. The initial data is used to provide the factual foundation of the Management and Action Plan and the data collected on an ongoing basis provides the factual material for subsequent alterations and amendments.12 To date there have been two LMMA Annual Reports outlining the project and its success13 The first Annual Report in 2004 gave a comprehensive background to the network including a history of its establishment. The second Report in 2005 sets out the results and experiences to date across the whole LMMA Network and provides a powerful learning tool for specific countries and communities.

4

Fiji LMMAs Network (FLMMAs)

Fiji was central in the establishment of the LMMA Network and “arguably the birth site of the overall Network.” 14 Currently, there are six main organisations that make up the FLMMA: the World Wildlife Fund, Fiji Country Programme, Institute of Applied Science Programme of the University of the South Pacific, Foundations of the Peoples of the South Pacific, International Marine Alliance and Ministry of Fisheries and Forests.15 For every project, one of these organisations will take the lead. The FLMMAs model operates by noting an initial interest from a community to establish a Project Site. Three workshops are then held with the community involved: management and action planning, biological monitoring and socioeconomic monitoring. These are critical to raising awareness of the importance of these factors in circumstances where the communities may have put some of them into practice, but never considered their significance. During the workshops specific community information is collected including local biological, meteorological and ecosystem data, area mapping, historical trends, livelihood issues and cultural information. The focus is then upon specific ecosystem and species sta-

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tus, threats and their causes and possible sustainable livelihood options. This data provides the background material necessary to prepare a community action and management plan. A FLMMA Project Site is characterised by local ownership of land which is adjacent to near shore waters, where the marine area is actively being managed by the local community either with or without government or other partner organisation assistance. A Project Site includes the natural resources such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, mudflats and mangroves and other near shore waters as well as the local community which owns and uses the resources. Essentially, the FLMMAs system involves the local community developing a marine Management Plan for the Project Site. This may involve an initial period of education and training with resources provided by external partners. Thereafter, the local community is responsible for the implementation, monitoring and enforcement of the management plan. The management plan usually incorporates traditional knowledge and conservation practices combined with modern scientific knowledge and monitoring methods. Tools that are used include limited harvesting restrictions for particular species and behavioural controls such as specific gear or equipment bans. These tools are implemented using customary legal mechanisms such as tabus and more modern methods such as government controls. However, the FLMMAs approach is not limited simply to conservation measures but also include raising of awareness, capacity building, establishment of sustainable livelihoods, the interaction of local community with the Fijian Great Council of Chiefs and international interaction with other LMMAs network members in other countries 16 . The first FLMMA was Ucunivanua where clam (kaikoso) stocks were severely depleted. The villagers set up a 24 hectare restricted area in front of the village as an experiment. The village chief held a traditional ceremony to declare the area tabu for 3 years. The community used their scientific monitoring skills to collect data and maintain statistics across the area. At the end of the first year increases in the size and number of clams was noted. By the end of a three year period a 165 fold increase in clams was recorded in the refugia and 58 fold increases in surrounding marine areas.17 In the longer term the Ucanivanua project site improved stocks to such an extent that the excess has been harvested and sold. Enough funds have been raised to bring electricity to the village and build a sea-wall to preserve a sacred burial ground.18 Another example of the FLMMA system in action is in Veratavou, where the goals were to rehabilitate degraded habitats and replace lost species of importance. Management and monitoring systems were put in place to identify threats, implement solutions, record and monitor outcomes. In order to achieve these aims surveys were undertaken of local communities to obtain information

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about the natural resource biology and socio-economic issues of importance to the community. Adaptive management techniques were then adopted. A temporary tabu was converted into a permanent ban and farming was encouraged to replace fishing as a livelihood. A specific aspect of the plan involved identifying income generating initiatives. One of these involved a bioprospecting arrangement with a pharmaceutical company whereby the community was paid licensing fees for sample of medicinal plants and marine invertebrates.19 It was reported that the socio-economic results of the FLMMA project, included a 35% augmentation of household incomes between 1998 and 2002 20 .

5

Biodiversity Conservation Outcomes

The first objective of the LMMA Network is to halt biodiversity loss. Historically there was little quantitative and qualitative data that could be used to measure local biodiversity in Fiji and other South Pacific countries. However since 2000, baseline and updated data has been collected at LMMAs sites in accordance with the Learning Framework standardised procedures. The success of the system to achieve biodiversity outcomes can be illustrated by the project sites in Fiji, referred to above. From the first pilot site in Ucanivanua to Nacamaki, Sawa and today over 200 FLMMAs sites, either improvement in biodiversity has been noted or the losses reduced. There are no reports of biodiversity losses continuing at the same rate as before a FLMMA was introduced. However, many threats to the marine environment originate on land. The general perception by communities was of improvements in overfishing but that pollution had worsened. This issue usually falls to the central government to regulate by way of land management laws and policies. For example, whilst local communities may be able to control and regulate fishing they would have little impact on land based marine pollution. This is perhaps an area that needs to be considered within the LMMA Network. The second objective is to develop resource management policies and work to develop coastal and marine conservation strategies with other stakeholders and partners. Again, Fiji provides a good example of progress towards this objective. As at 2004 Fiji had 33 FLMMAs which included 37 villages utilising 39 management tools. The total LMMA area was 2090 km2 of which 87km2 was designated MPAs. By 2005 the number of FLMMAs had increased to approximately 189, established in 177 villages in Fiji, covering 7,010 km2 with 490km2 of MPAs.21 This is an impressive statistic as the entire land area of the Fiji Islands is only 18,000 km2 . The Fijian national government has formally adopted the LMMA system and has created a new division in the Fisheries Department to work with it and look after marine conservation in general. The Minister of Fisheries is a member of the FLMMA network, which ensures integration and communication between local communities and their national government.

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The third objective is to promote local and global awareness of the LMMA system by showing the conditions under which LMMAs can be most effectively used. It is clear that this goal is being achieved. LMMAs have been formally recognised by the government of Fiji, as a best practice model of the way to achieve the successful combination of conservation and sustainable livelihood goals. This can be seen from external reports such as the World Resources Institute Report 2005 and MPA News. However, the LMMA system is an intangible network and therefore difficult for many people to understand. Network identity, communication and public awareness are therefore all significant issues. This has been addressed by the central LMMA Network team through the development of a Learning Framework Database to store and analyse information from all network members.22 In 2005 the FLMMAs database was completed, providing linking information for all Fijian Project sites. These resources provide critical factual scientific data and are used in combination with cross site visits to increase the awareness of specific problems and ways and means to address them. The LMMA Network Coordination Team has also indicated that an LMMA video will be produced23 as well as a LMMA Guidebook.24 In Fiji a combination of Government supported and community based radio broadcasts on marine conservation have been used to raise awareness and stir interest in FLMMAs. The last objective is to enhance capacity to adopt and implement marine management plans. In Fiji this has been achieved by training over 1000 people in the LMMA system. This represents about half of all people trained throughout the network.25 In addition, a specific biological monitoring training program have been developed by the University of the South Pacific Institute of Applied Sciences (USP-IAS) including a biological monitoring training video specific to LMMA management.26 This can be used to train many local people in data collection techniques thereby capacity building at the grass roots level. In August 2005 representatives of 14 project sites27 and other Network members attended a workshop in Fiji where site data relating to 10 of the 37 Learning Framework key factors was discussed and compared. These 10 selected assumptions that form the foundation of the Learning Framework were specifically analysed.28 Socio economic factors were compared against habitat and species health in the context of overall LMMA success.29 This analysis provided the main source of information used in the 2005 LMMA Annual Report and provides important evaluative data. In summary the results indicated that leadership strength was a key factor of success whilst lack of funding was the main problem likely to cause failure.30 Strong community consensus was insufficient for success in the absence of strong village leadership. The LMMA Annual Report 2005 confirms that the introduction of new livelihoods is more likely to succeed where village communities have participated in

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their establishment. Throughout Fiji it can be seen that this is being done. Almost all FLMMAs Management Plans incorporate this as a goal and many examples can be identified. In Navukavu the local women’s group is petitioning for two sewing machines which will allow them to mend children’s school uniforms and also make goods to be sold in the market at Suva.31 Another example is the bioprospecting arrangement at Verata (set out above). One alternative sustainable livelihood with great potential is eco tourism. Partnerships with existing and new industries are very important in this regard. Resorts especially should be encouraged to work with indigenous communities to assist in establishing livelihood options. An example of this can be seen in the Hideaway Resort about 130km from Suva on Viti Levu, which fronts the Korolevu-i-wai’s qoliqoli. This qoliqoli encompasses four villages including Tagaqe. The Resort and the village chiefs have worked together for many years for the betterment of the community and its environment. However, more recently the Tagaqe village has established a FLMMA. Both villagers and resort employees participated in the training and education workshops conducted by the USP-IAS. The area directly in front of the resort has now been declared tabu and no fishing is conducted there. In addition a coral farming project has been established. The Resort encourages visitors to sponsor the planting of coral in the hope that it will spawn and replenish the reef. The Resort has paid for buoys to mark out the marine management area and has provided other facilities, such as computers, to the village. In return the indigenous community police the tabu areas and some villagers work as coral tour guides at the Resort.32 A further example is a hotel paying $2 to a community trust fund for each scuba diver that accesses the FLMMA restricted area.33

6

Conclusion

The LMMA system has been particularly successful in Fiji where the FLMMAs are spreading throughout the country. The FLMMAs system received the prestigious 2002 Equator Initiative Award from the United Nations Development Programme. Additionally, in April 2004, Alifereti Tawake and FLMMA won the Whitely Award for People and the Environment. The funds from the awards was placed intro trust for to sustain the FLMMA work.34 In 2007 the Mositi Vanuaso project won the National Energy Globe Award35 . In December 2004, FLMMA was registered as a Charitable Trust under the Charitable Trusts Act of Fiji, making it the first LMMA country network to obtain official NGO status. FLMMA is working on setting up Trust Funds and exploring investment options for award money to make FLMMA work self-sustainable in five to ten years time.36 Of great significance is the number of communities working more closely together than they had before. For example in the Macuata province in the north central region of Vanua Levu, five chiefs have joined together to protect the Great Sea

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Reef (known as Cakaulevu). The reef covers more than 200,000 square km (the third largest in the world) and many of its thousands of species are unique to that area. Permanent no take tabu zones have been declared with anyone found fishing in the waters being fined. This earned the Fijian Government and FLMMAs network members the WWF Conservation Leadership Award.37 Today, Fiji Islands has by far the most Project Sites in the overall LMMA Network. The LMMA approach has brought back to life fading traditional management practices and re-invigorated customary law. However, there are a number of further challenges for the Network. Firstly, to ensure the long term sustainability of the FLMMAs care should be taken to secure the availability of technical expertise and scientific information. Up to now the University of the South Pacific Institute of Applied Sciences has been training local communities in relation to data collection and biological monitoring38 . The next step is to build training capacity in regional areas by the training of ‘trainers’. These trainers could be members of the communities themselves or their partners. This has already begun in Fiji with the workshops to train additional provincial teams using the Kadavu qoliqoli Management Support Team model. However, expanded training programs need to be instituted. In addition, further attention should be directed to alternative income generation projects. More partnerships need to be developed which go beyond the members of the LMMA organisation, and extend to private industry and government entities generally. The 2005 LMMA Annual Report did not directly address the issue of future sustainable livelihood options. However, in the earlier World Bank report it was noted that alternative programmes, such as aquaculture and offshore fishing, were not successful in reducing coastal harvests. In addition it was noted that villagers only supported the introduction of alternative employment where the financial benefits were greater than their previous return from coastal fishing.39 Therefore the identification of livelihoods with greater earning potential is essential, such as bio-prospecting and other biotechnology industry initiatives. Investigation of sustainable financing mechanisms is necessary to support such projects and external partnering could be utilised. In addition, alternative employments such as tourism, the introduction of user fees or retailing of traditional products could be viable alternatives but resources would be needed not only for training but also education, to overcome the disincentives. The second challenge is to continue the expansion of the FLMMA system into other areas in Fiji. It is clear from some of the more recent studies that vast areas remain unmapped with no indication of baseline data. Even in areas where the FLMMAs have been established, there continue to be many problems including poaching, renewed community pressure on marine resources, including subsistence needs and livelihoods, the re-opening of tabu areas and other external resources pressures such as tourism. These issues have been recognised by the communities themselves. In the analysis undertaken in 2005 there was considerable support

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for the declaration of marine sanctuaries which were perceived as including stricter enforcement mechanisms.40 This leads to the third challenge of identifying legal frameworks to support and facilitate FLMMAs. This is necessary to give them legitimacy, ensure their long term success and provide stronger enforcement mechanisms. Arguably, the recognition of customary law has a significant role to play. Constitutional recognition of customary law, within the dominant legal system, would ensure enforceability of Management Plans that include those laws. An alternative approach could involve the functional recognition of customary law for specific conservation purposes. Lastly, the FLMMAs could receive formal status by declaration as marine protected areas.41 This again would provide greater scope for legal enforcement. The Fijian Government has recognised the need for legal support of the FLMMAs. As set out above, the LMMA System has been formally adopted by the state government with the commitment that by 2020 FLMMAs will be established that cover 30% of the country’s waters. To facilitate this, indigenous honorary fish wardens have been endorsed under s.7 of the Fisheries Act [Cap 158]. In addition the Government has introduced into Parliament the Qoliqoli Bill which officially transfers legal ownership of coastal areas and resources back to traditional landowning clans. In conclusion it is clear that the LMMA system has transformed the way NGOs, Universities and governments work together with local village communities in Fiji. Rather than simply aiming to achieve conservation or environmental goals, the system is designed to balance conservation, sociological and economic outcomes. Despite the continuing challenges facing the LMMA system, it may well hold the key to best practice community based conservation of marine areas in the South Pacific.

Notes 1

‘An Institutional Model for Co management of Coastal Resources in Fiji’. John W. Virdin, Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems, Yale School of Forestry and Environment Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. (2000) 28 Coastal Management pp. 325–335, at page 325. 2

Protected Areas and Demographic Change: Planning for the Future. A Working Report. IVth World Congress on National Parks and Protected Areas, Caracas, Venezuela. IUCN, Social Sciences Division. 1992. Page 11. 3

For example, it is reported that in the Navukavu Qoliqoli about 10km southwest of Suva, rubbish litters the shoreline. This comes from Suva itself as well as ships anchored in the harbour which simply throw litter overboard. The marine environment is being polluted directly by ships left to rust on the reefs. Poach-

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ing is also a problem as the perpetrators are generally armed and there is little the fish wardens can do in response: S Meo and T Parras Fiji: Fishing Village’s Qoliqoli Threatened by City Waste. May 2004, http://64.78.32.149/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=26 at 15 September 2006. 4

Ibid.

5

History of the LMMA Network: http://www.lmmanetwork.org/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=33 accessed 7 May 2007. 6

Ibid.

7

The variety of participants includes individuals and organisations such as local communities, traditional leaders, government representatives, non government organisations, academic scientists and researchers: LMMA Network Annual Report 2004 page 12. 8

Fiji is only one of the countries involved in the Network. The countries that currently form part of the Network include the Fiji Islands, Solomon Islands, Philippines, Palau, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Federates States of Micronesia (Pohnpei). 9

LMMA Network Annual Report 2004 page 2.

10

Learning Framework of the Locally managed Marine Area Network. A Foundations of Success Learning Portfolio. LMMA Network, Suva, Fiji. Version 2.1. June 2004. Pages 4-1 – 4-83. 11

Ibid page 1-3 - 1-4.

12

Ibid. Biological factors include ecosystem, habitat and species health as well as human well being. Socioeconomic considerations are also taken into account such as participation rates and livelihood factors such as employment, economic status, reliance on marine resources, education and environmental awareness. The governance factors include such matters as leadership, compliance, enforcement and conflict resolution. 13

Both Annual Reports are available on the Internet at the LMMA Network website: http://www.lmmanetwork.org. 14

LMMA Annual Report 2004 page 22.

15

B Kuemlangan. Creating Legal Space for community-based fisheries and customary marine tenure in the Pacific: Issues and Opportunities. FAO Fish Code Review No. 7. UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome 2004, page 18. 16

Aliferati Tawake and Silika Tuivanuavou. ‘Community Involvement in the Implementation of Ocean Policies: The Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMAs) Network’, In Tabus or not Taboos: How to use traditional environmental knowledge to support sustainable development of marine resources in Melanesia, page 22. Aalbersberg, A Tawake and T Parras. Village by Village: Recovering Fiji’s Coastal Fisheries. LMMA Network., page 144.

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17

MacArthur Foundation Newsletter Winter 2006. http://lmmanetwork.org/Site_Documents/Grouped/ MacArthurNewsletterFiji06Lndsp.pdf at 19 June 2006. Aalbersberg et al, Village by Village, above n 16, pages 145-146. 18

Ibid, above n 16, page 148.

19

Ibid, above n 16, page 149.

20

A Tawake and S Tuivanuavou, Community Involvement in the Implementation of Ocean Policies: The Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMAs) Network, above n 16, page 22. 21

LMMA Annual Report 2005.

22

The LMMA Social Contract deals with the issue of intellectual property rights to a certain extent. All LMMA members sign the Social Contract. It provides that material is collected and entered into the database and shared with other members to achieve the LMMA Network goals. However, permission will be sought from the relevant community members before publication of any material. Clearly, the issue of proprietary rights in relation to traditional knowledge is not addressed: Learning Framework Social Contract. LMMA Network, Suva, Fiji. Version 24 October 2001. Appendix 1, Intellectual Property Statement. 23


24


25

LMMA Annual report 2005 page 9.

26

Ibid.

27

The 14 sites were chosen because they had each been operating for some time and had both baseline and serial data that could be compared. Of the 14, 7 were located in the Fiji Islands: Ucunivanua, Verata; Kumi, Verata; Navakavu, Verata; Vanuaso, Gau; LamitiMalawai,Gau; Tagaqe, Korolevuwai; Daku, Kadavu. 28

LMMA Network 2005 Annual Report, page 11.

29

Ibid.

30

Ibid page 34.

31

S Meo and T Parras Fiji: Fishing Village’s Qoliqoli Threatened by City Waste May 2004. at 15 September 2006. 32

Alifereti Tawake, Bill Aalbersberg and Toni Parras. Fiji: Resort Works With Village to Conserve Coral Reefs by. May 2004. http://64.78.32.149/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=25 at 15 September 2006. 33

Aalbersberg et al, Village by Village, above n 16, page 149.

34

Ibid, above n16, page 150.

35

http://lmmanetwork.org/

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Site_Documents/Grouped/IOinforma_04_07%20(2).pdf accessed 7.5.07. 36


37

Fijis’ Chiefs create Marine Sanctuaries on the World’s Third Largest Reef. Environment News Service. November 2005. http://64.78.32.149/Site_Documents/Grouped/Fiji%20Chiefs%20Create% 20Marine%20Sanctuaries%20on%20WorldNov05.pdf at 19 June 2006. 38

Much of the success of the LMMA system in Fiji can be put down to the location of the campus in Suva. 39

Where there would be little economic advantage, traditional fishing based activities were preferred, even where the threat of overfishing was well understood. This was found to be because marine activities were seen as hobbies (a combination of work and pleasure providing an income and food) unlike other forms of employment Voices from the Village: A comparative study of coastal resource management in the Pacific Islands. A World Bank Report. 2000. http://www.onefish.org/cds_upload/11105.Voices_from_the_Village, _A_comparative_Study_of_Coastal_resource_management_in_the_Pacific_ Islands.2001-1-31.pdf Accessed at 15 June 2006. Page 14. 40

The earlier World Bank study also confirmed that the need for greater legislative support was recognised by local communities and somewhat surprisingly there was a great deal of support for stricter national regulation relevant to indigenous societies. The challenge for Fiji is to harmonise these community based measures with national projects to achieve the best possible outcomes: Voices from the Village, above n 39, at pages 1 and 7. 41

The mechanism by which this could be achieved is subject to debate. There are various approaches which could be taken ranging from functional recognition of specific customary laws to empowerment of local governance structures and institutions. A full discussion is beyond the scope of this paper.

Bibliography Aalbersberg, A Tawake and T Parras ‘Village by Village: Recovering Fiji’s Coastal Fisheries’ contained in The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty. United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank and World Resources Institute. 2005. G Borrini-Feyerabend, A Kothari and G Oviedo, Indigenous and Local Communities and Protected Areas. Towards Equity and Enhanced Conservation. Guidance on policy and practice for Co-managed Protected Areas and Community Conserved Areas. World Commission on Protected Areas, IUCN 2004. J Corrin Care, Tess Newton and Don Paterson. Introduction to South Pacific Law. Cavendish Publishing Limited 1999.

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J Corrin Care ‘The Status of Customary Law in Fiji Islands after the Constitutional Amendment Act 1997’. [2000] JSPL 37. Fijis’ Chiefs create Marine Sanctuaries on the World’s Third Largest Reef. Environment News Service. November 2005. Accessed on 19.6.06 at http://64.78.32.149/Site_Documents/Grouped/Fiji%20Chiefs%20Create %20Marine%20Sanctuaries%20on%20WorldNov05.pdf Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories. IUCN 1994. History of the LMMA Network: http://www.lmmanetwork.org/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=33 accessed 7 May 2007 B Kuemlangan, Creating Legal Space for community-based fisheries and customary marine tenure in the Pacific: Issues and Opportunities. FAO Fish Code Review No. 7. UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome 2004. Learning Framework of the Locally managed Marina Area Network. A Foundations of Success Learning Portfolio. LMMA Network, Suva, Fiji. Version 2.1. June 2004. LMMA Network Annual Report 2005. A Focus on Lessons Learned accessed on 7 May 2007 at http://lmmanetwork.org/Site_Documents/Grouped/LMMA%202005%20Annual %20Report%20Final%2030%20May%202006.pdf LMMA Network Annual Report 2004 accessed on 7 May 2007 at http://lmmanetwork.org/pdfs/LMMA%202004%20Annual %20Report.pdf LMMA Network: Fiji accessed on 7 May 2007 at http://www.lmmanetwork.org/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=37 LMMA Network: Improving the practice of marine conservation accessed in 7 May 2007 at http://www.lmmanetwork.org/ K McDonald. Community based Conservation: A Reflection on history. University of Toronto. http://www.iucn.org/themes/ceesp/Publications/TILCEPA/ CCA- MacDonald. pdf accessed 24 October 2006. Page 21. S Meo and T Parras ‘Fiji: Fishing Village’s Qoliqoli Threatened by City Waste’. May 2004. Accessed 15 September 2006 at http://64.78.32.149/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=26 Protected Areas and Demographic Change: Planning for the Future. A Working Report. IVth World Congress on National Parks and Protected Areas, Caracas, Venezuela. IUCN, Social Sciences Division. 1992. D Roe, J Mayers, M Grieg-Gran, A Kothari, C Fabricius and R Hughes Evaluating Eden: Exploring the myths and realities of community-based wildlife management. Series Overview. Biodiversity and Livelihood Group, International

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Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). September 2000. Tawake, Alifereti, Akuila Cakacaka, Akuila Sovatabua, Pio Radikedike, and Waisea Waqa. Inaugural Asia-Pacific LMMA Network-Wide Meeting, August 11 – 15 2003: A Tawake, B Aalbersberg and T Parras, Fiji: Resort Works With Village to Conserve Coral Reefs. May 2004. Accessed 15 September 2006 at http://64.78.32.149/Site_Page.cfm?PageID=25 A Tawake and S Tuivanuavou. Community Involvement in the Implementation of Ocean Policies: The Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMAs) Network. In A Caillaud et al. ‘Tabus or not Taboos: How to use traditional environmental knowledge to support sustainable development of marine resources in Melanesia’. SPC Traditional Marine Resource Management and Knowledge Information Bulletin. No. 17, December 2004, pp 14-35. Veratavou Project Report. 2003. Institute of Applied Science. University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji reproduced in the LMMA Learning Framework page 3-4. The Great Sea Reef. The Hidden Gem of the South Pacific. WWF. Accessed on 21.6.06 at www.wwfpacific.org.fj/publications/fiji/GSR_Summary.pdf. Village by Village. Recovering Fiji’s Coastal Fisheries. Accessed on 19.6.06 at http://lmmanetwork.org/Site_Documents/Grouped/Fiji_LMMA_case_study _WR_R2005.pdf J.W. Virdin, ‘An Institutional Model for Comanagement of Coastal Resources in Fiji’. (2000) 28 Coastal Management pp. 325–335. Voices from the Village: A comparative study of coastal resource management in the Pacific Islands. A World Bank Report. 2000. Accessed on 15.6.06 at http://www.onefish.org/cds_upload/11105.Voices_from_the_Village,_A _comparative_Study_of_Coastal_resource_management_in_the _Pacific_Islands. 2001-1-31.pdf

Bibliographical Note Erika Techera is an Associate Lecturer and PhD Candidate at the Centre for Environmental Law, Division of Law, Macquarie University, Australia. Erika’s previous experience included seven years practice as a Barrister in Sydney. LLB (Hons) (UTS), GDLP (UTS), M Env Law (Macq), LLM (Macq).

Chapter 10

The Legacy of Land Tenure in Queensland Australia: The Search for a Cooperative Approach Jo Kehoe The degradation of land continues on vast areas of privately held land within Australia and, more particularly, Queensland. Land tenure in the state is primarily divided into private freehold ownership and Crown leasehold or pastoral leases.1 Such leases are finite instruments, which enable the state government to regulate the use of land in accordance with prevailing societal and, increasingly, environmental expectations. In theory, pastoral leases present an ideal mechanism for cooperative and sustainable development by the Queensland agricultural community and the state government. In practice, this is an aspect of environmental policy making which highlights the intrinsic tensions of public approaches to sustainable land management. Generally, the law and the legal instruments that stem from it, reflect the times and the tensions of those times. This is especially so in the case of state leasehold land in Queensland and the origins of the pastoral lease. The pastoral lease began in the first half of the 19th century, as an attempt by the Colonial Office in London to regulate and control the occupation of land by squatters in Australia. This paper will consider the evolution and journey of leasehold tenure in Queensland and examine the continuing tensions between the agricultural community, the state government and its regulators. Key Words: Land tenure, pastoral leases, agricultural community, Queensland, Australia.

1

Introduction

The development of Australian property law has inevitably mirrored the development and reality of Australian circumstance. The English means of farming and holding land did not simply transfer to a vastly different continent that increasingly became characterised by domestic urban freehold estates and large rural

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The Legacy of Land Tenure in Queensland

leasehold estates. The types of Crown leases typically found in Queensland are unique to the state and unknown within English land law. This paper will discuss the development of land tenure in Australia, including an explanation of freehold and leasehold interests in land and, in legal terms, what amounts to land. This is followed by a consideration of the evolution of leasehold tenure in Queensland leading to the latest development in leasehold land being the rural leasehold land strategy. Finally, the journey towards cooperation between the agricultural community, the state government and its regulators will be analysed including examples of recent cases brought against landholders.

2

Land tenure in Australia

In 1788, when Australia was colonised, the English brought and applied their laws as far as they were applicable to the colony. Two essential land law doctrines, the doctrine of tenure and the doctrine of estates, increasingly became applicable as land was settled by the early colonists. Under the doctrine of tenure all land is vested in the Crown and under the doctrines of estates an individual may not own land but merely an estate in it for a period of time.2 Tenure therefore describes the title held, such as freehold or leasehold and estate describes the period of time for which it is held. In property law tenure refers to the holding of property of a superior in return for services rendered, the word has its roots in the French tenir and Latin tenere both meaning hold.3 The doctrine of tenure has its roots in the feudal system and is relevant today in that an individual cannot own the land itself but an estate in land that is held by the Crown. At the time of colonisation, Australia was regarded as terra nullius meaning land belonging to no-one; the Aboriginal peoples were not viewed as having a formalised political organisation or system of individual land ownership.4 It took until 1992 for the majority of the High Court to decide in Mabo v Queensland ( No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 that Australia was not, in reality, terra nullius. The English legacy of land tenure was considered in this case and, of the doctrine of tenure, Brennan J, stated: “it is a doctrine which could not be overturned without fracturing the skeleton which gives our land law its shape and consistency”.5 This case established that the Crown has radical, ultimate or final title rather than beneficial or complete ownership by acknowledging the occupation of indigenous inhabitants. Brennan J further noted that “radical title is a postulate of the doctrine of tenure and a concomitant of sovereignty”.6 A discussion of the doctrine of tenure in Australia necessarily requires acknowledging the Privy Council decision in the Attorney-General v Brown (1847) 1 Legge 312, this case established the English doctrine of tenure in Australia and the precedent thread was followed by subsequent cases.7 At the time of Mabo (No 2), the High Court stood at the apex of the Australian judicial system: the limited right of appeal to the Privy Council being finally abolished by the Aus-

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tralia Act 1986. The High Court was no longer bound by earlier Privy Council decisions, such decisions now carried persuasive authority and would only apply if deemed applicable to Australia. Brennan J affirmed the Attorney-General v Brown as the authority for the doctrine of tenure in Australia but this case was not followed. It fell therefore to the High Court to define the common law and in so doing overturn one hundred and fifty years of legal precedent8 in rejecting terra nullius and giving recognition to the native title of indigenous Australians. The doctrine of tenure would continue but was adapted to Australian conditions. The common law would now give recognition to native title that, unlike freehold or leasehold title, does not derive from a Crown grant.

3

Interests in land

The most extensive form of ownership in land is a freehold estate or fee simple, the period of ownership is indefinite and landholders may, subject to statutory requirements, deal with the land as they choose. This means a landholder may sell, mortgage or lease the land. On death the land will pass to beneficiaries under a will or, if the landholder dies intestate and without heirs, revert to the Crown. It is possible to carve out of a freehold estate a leasehold interest, which is a lesser form of tenure. The owner of the freehold interest would be the lessor and the owner of the leasehold interest the lessee. The essential elements of the lease are that the lessee has the right to exclusive possession of the land for the term or duration of the lease and the commencement and duration of the lease must be certain or capable of being certain.9 If therefore a lease were to run for twenty years at the end of this period, the lease would revert to the lessor who has a reversionary interest for the duration of the lease, during the twenty year period the lessee may sub-lease the whole or part of the land and the lessor may assign their reversionary interest. In Queensland, tenure is primarily divided into private freehold ownership and state leasehold or pastoral leases.10 State leasehold land covers 65% of the land area of Queensland and is concentrated in the arid and semi-arid regions. State leases will be specified for a particular purpose, most typically grazing, and are divided into three main types: term leases for between one and 100 years; perpetual leases and freeholding leases in which the landholder is in the process of purchasing the freehold title which will issue once the full price is paid. The agricultural community has responsibility for 141.4 million hectares of land in the state.11 Such land is mainly used for livestock grazing or pastoralism.12 Queensland has vast areas devoted to livestock grazing on private land, vast areas of land under private management and control, vast areas that cry out for conservation and cooperation between the landholder and the state.

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4


What is land?

At common law, land includes the surface and what lies above and below the surface. The maxim cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad infernos means the landowner owns land from the heavens above to the centre of the earth below.13 This maxim was modified by Bernstein v Skyviews & General Ltd [1978] QB 479, in respect of land above the surface, to extend only to such height as is necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of the land and structures on it. In Australia LJP Investments Pty Ltd v Howard Chia Investments Pty Ltd (1989) 24 NSWLR 490 established that landowners are entitled to such airspace as is necessary for reasonable use and enjoyment. Ownership of land below the surface is historically more complex and is dependent upon the legal instrument under which the land was conveyed and statute: for example, a lease is likely to contain a reservation of rights to coal and minerals on or below the surface of the land. By the end of the 19th century all states had legislation reserving the right to minerals in the Crown. 14 There are statutory definitions of what constitutes land which follow the common law and typically include hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, of any tenure or description, and whatever may be the estate or interest therein.15 Corporeal hereditaments include physical and permanent objects such as trees on the surface of the land together with mines and minerals lying beneath the land; and incorporeal hereditaments include intangible rights that may be enjoyed over the land such as a right of way easement.16 What happens to trees on land has been a source of contention between the agricultural community and the state in recent times.

5

The evolution of leasehold tenure in Queensland

The roots of present-day state leases may be traced back to colonial settlement when leases, such as grazing leases, where issued as a means to control the use and settlement of land. As leases have evolved their terms and conditions have likewise evolved to reflect prevailing social, economic and environmental trends: in the early pioneering times the overriding drive was to develop and populate the state. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, the impetus for the new state was to develop and grow. This culminated, one hundred years later in 1959, with the “populate or perish” strategy which came from a review of land policy undertaken by Sir William Payne on behalf of the government.17 The Payne Commission prompted the Land Act 1962 which included a raft of different tenures with the principal directive of development being paramount. In 1990 a further review of land policy was undertaken. 18 The Wolfe review recommended the simplification of the many tenure types and, importantly, recognised the problem of land degradation within the state.Concerns about the

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environment and the importance of sustainable land management were beginning to emerge. In 1994 a duty of care responsibility was included in the Land Act making landholders accountable for their actions on the environment in addition to a general environmental duty required by the Environment Protection Act 1994 not to cause environmental harm.

6

The rural leasehold land strategy

It has taken some time for the latest environmental advance in leasehold land tenure to emerge. This most recent development is the rural leasehold land strategy that will target leases as they come up for renewal and affects all renewals granted after January 2008. Sixty-five percent of current pastoral leases will be eligible for renewal during 2007-2012.19 The strategy applies to pastoral leases for terms of twenty years or more covering one hundred hectares or more.20 Lessees will be required to enter into a land management agreement, which will attach to the land and bind successors in title.21 The incentive is the possibility of a fortyyear lease for land assessed by the Department of Natural Resources and Water as in good condition or fifty years for land which also has an indigenous land use agreement or conservation agreement.22 The Department of Natural Resources and Water has undertaken an extensive consultation process in developing the new leasehold strategy in particular with the main agricultural representative body AgForce. The overarching aim appears to be to encourage stewardship of the land and to work in partnership to achieve long-term environmental sustainability. Time will tell how successful the strategy will prove.

7

Difficulties which hamper cooperation

It is hardly surprising that much of the uncertainty and unrest of landholders lies in the legislative layers they are obliged to mine in ensuring conformity with the law. Both the Land Act and the Vegetation Management Act are administered by the Department of Natural Resources and Water and the Vegetation Management Act, in particular, has played a pivotal role in the contention that exists between some sectors of the agricultural community and the government regulators. The detrimental environmental impacts of land clearing are generally now well accepted but it was not part of common knowledge to earlier governments responsible for land legislation and the leases which derived from it. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that land clearing leads to the loss of biodiversity, destruction of habitat and native species, together with a significant contribution to salinity, greenhouse gases and land degradation.23 Nonetheless, Queensland has been, in recent times, a major contributor to land clearing within Australia.24 It was therefore amid growing concerns as to

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the extent and effect of clearing on the environment that the Labor party made a pre-election promise to end broadscale clearing by December 2006. The labor party was duly re-elected and the electoral promise fulfilled but there remains much disquiet and unrest in some sections of the agricultural community. It was noted by a Member of Parliament that a meeting in his constituency of Callide in Queensland, saw 600 landholders attend to vent their frustration against the Department of Natural Resources and Water and its compliance officers or “tree police”.25 Property Rights Australia has declared their intention to challenge the validity of the Vegetation Management Act in court. This organisation was formed in 2003 by Queensland landholders because of concern over what they regard as the erosion of their land rights.26 This same organisation rallied 350 landholders who protested against the legislation during a sitting of the Queensland Parliament in Rockhampton.27 Unrest is not limited to Queensland: the Commonwealth Property Protection Association28 is encouraging farmers across Australia to join in an act of civil disobedience by cutting down one tree on the 1 July, two trees on 2 July and so on. The journey towards cooperation has been hampered by the changes made to the Vegetation Management Act. The impact of these changes is some way from being resolved and is much more than an emotive demonstration of the bush and city divide. The economic reality for some farmers is that there land is potentially devalued.29 Equally, the impact of the legislation on a daily basis has meant farmers can no longer harvest Mulga which is an essential feed-stock during drought conditions. Queensland is currently experiencing an unprecedented and prolonged drought. Scepticism about the ban on broadscale clearing is not limited to landholders. The imposition of legislative controls to stop the clearing of native vegetation throughout Australia has been criticised not least because the structure and implementation of regulatory controls has often led to unproductive and unjust results.30 In a similar vein, it has been noted that statutory controls on vegetation conservation lead to higher costs for landholders and may influence their future ability to compete in global markets.

8

Recent cases

A continual source of contention between landholders and government regulators has been the stance taken by the Department of Natural Resources and Water in enforcing the Vegetation Management Act. One case received a great deal of publicity in Central Queensland. The matter involved the clearing of 11,830 hectares by a prominent cattleman and member of the Acton Land and Cattle Co, which owns more than a million hectares in the district. The defendant pleaded guilty and was fined $100, 000 – one of the largest penalties to date.31 No conviction was recorded and there was no order for costs. The reasoning behind the court’s

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leniency in respect of costs was attributed to the cooperative nature of apparently lengthy negotiations and the guilty plea . Nearly half of the land cleared was granted to the defendant under a pastoral lease. Such leases typically contained a covenant to ring-bark or destroy trees and clear a given area of land. This case highlights the problem of pastoral leases granted under earlier versions of the Land Act conflicting with the current compliance provisions of the Vegetation Management Act. In the same year in another land clearing case the defendant landholder was fined the maximum fine of $125,000, ordered to pay costs of $65,530 and compensation of $85,353 and had a conviction recorded against him. This landholder chose to appeal and was ultimately heard in the District Court of Queensland where the major part of his appeal was upheld.32 The landholder subsequently referred the regulators to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

9

Conclusion

The focus of this paper has been on land tenure in Queensland Australia, and, in particular, leasehold legislation and the instruments derived from it. Terms and conditions under which state leases were granted typically reflect the times in which they are drafted. Leases still therefore exist today in which a condition to clear the land of trees is described as a development and improvement of the land. Ironically, the recent ban on broadscale land clearing remains a source of much unrest in some sectors of the agricultural community. Sustainable land management requires long-term solutions and a partnership approach between landholders and the state regulators. The pathway to cooperation may well have been hindered by recent amendments to the Vegetation Management Act; but the general move towards cooperation between the rural representative body Agforce and the Queensland government - with the rural leasehold land strategy - has taken its initial steps.

Notes 1

Australian Government, Geosciences Australia: Available at: http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/images/tenure1.gif (accessed 2/3/07). 2

PV Baker, Megarry’s Manual of the Law of Real Property, 5th edition, Stevens & Sons, London, 1975, p10. 3

Macquarie Concise Dictionary, Revised Third Edition, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, NSW, 2005, p1248. 4 5

Macquarie Concise Dictionary, n 3, p1250.

Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2) [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 47. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1992/23.html

130 6

The Legacy of Land Tenure in Queensland Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2) [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 50.

7

For example: Randwick Corporation v Rutledge (1959) 102 CLR 54; Wade v New South Wales Rutile Mining Co Pty Ltd (1969) 121 CLR 177; New South Wales v Commonwealth (1975) 135 CLR 337. 8

For example: Milirrpum v Nabalco (1971) 17 FLR 141.

9

See on leases generally: Maudsley R H & Burn E H, Land Law Cases and Materials , 4th edition, Butterworths, London, 1980, ch 8; Tan PL, Webb E, Wright D, Land Law , 2nd edition, Butterworths, Australia, 2002, ch 16. 10

Australian Government, Geosciences Australia: Available at: http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/images/tenure1.gif (accessed 13/3/06). 11

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/[email protected]/46d1bc47ac9d0c7bca256c470025ff87/ F7635B38F792374BCA256DEA000539DA?opendocument. (accessed 2/3/07) 12

Australian Natural Resource Atlas: Available at: http://audit.deh.gov.au/anra/agriculture/gifs/ag_report/section_1/figure1_2.gif (accessed 2/3/07). 13

Butt P, Land Law ,5th edition, Lawbook Co, Australia ,2006, p10.

14

For example, in Queensland the Mineral Resources Act 1989, s8 provides for the Crown’s property in minerals, under s8 (1) gold on or below the surface is the property of the Crown. Under s8 (2) (a) and (b) coal on or below the surface is the property of the Crown though there are exceptions depending on when the land was alienated. Under s8 (3) all minerals on or below the surface are the property of the Crown but again there are exceptions depending on when the land was alienated. 15

For example, s22 (1) (c) Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) and s 36 Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld). 16

PL Tan et al, n 9, p14.

17

Queensland Department of Natural Resources & Mines, “Managing State Rural Leasehold Land: a discussion paper” 2001, p 4. 18

Wolfe PM, Murphy DG, Wright RG, “Report of a review of Land Policy and Administration in Queensland,” Land Policy and Administration Review Committee, Queensland. 19

Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water, “State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy” Available at: http://www.nrw.qld.gov.au/blueprint/pdf/srlls_q_a.pdf (accessed 19/12/06). 20

See n 19.

21

See n 19.

22

See n 19.

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23

See Bates G, Environmental Law in Australia, 5th edition, Butterworths, Australia, 2002, p 362. Gunningham N and Grabosky P (eds) Smart Regulation: Designing Environmental Policy ,Clarendon Press, 1998, Ch 5. Australian Conservation Foundation, “Land Clearing in Queensland: The Problem and the Solution”, at http://www.acfonline.org.au/ (viewed 22 May 2007). AK Krockenberger, RL Kitching, and SM Turton, “Environmental Crisis: Climate Change and Terrestrial Biodiversity in Queensland”, Rainforest Cooperative Research Centre, available at http://www.rainforest-crc.jcu.edu.au/publications/research%20reports/ climateChangeRR.htm (viewed 22 May 2007). 24

The Australia Institute, “Land-use Change and Australia’s Kyoto Target”, Submission to Senate Environment References Committee Inquiry into Australia’s response to global warming (1999). Available on http://www.tai.org.au/ (viewed 13 July 2005). 25

Queensland, Legislative Assembly, Debates (24 May 2005) pp 1521-1522, per the Hon JW Seeney. 26

Property Rights Australia, available at: http://www.propertyrightsaustralia.org (viewed 22 May 2007). 27

Schwarten E, “City March Organised as Queensland Parliament Sits: 350 Protest Tree Clearing Laws”, The Morning Bulletin, Queensland, 7 October 2005. 28

Commonwealth Property Protection Association, available at: http://www.commonwealthpropertyprotectionassociation.com/index.htm (viewed 22 May 2007). 29

Kenny P, “ Enforcement of Vegetation Management Legislation” Paper presented to the Queensland Environmental Law Association, March 2005. 30

Productivity Commission, Report No 29, Impacts of Native Vegetation and Biodiversity Regulations (Melbourne, 2004), available at: http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/nativevegetation/finalreport/nativevegetation.pdf (viewed 15 December 2006). 31

The defendant’s solicitor, Roger Baker, kindly supplied information on the case of R v Acton 2004, heard in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court, on 15 July 2005. 32

McKay v Doonan [2005] QDC 311 2005.

Biographical Note Jo Kehoe is law lecturer at Central Queensland University.

Chapter 11

Compensation, Climate Change and Duties between States Joanna Burch Brown While many ethicists have written on the allocation of responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, considerably less attention has been given to compensation and liability for the consequences of anthropogenic climate change. Approaching the problem from a perspective of ‘duties between states’, this paper proposes a heuristic device through which we might explore what it would mean for states to fully compensate one another on the basis of percentage contribution to cumulative CO2 emissions. The paper identifies a number of hidden ethical problems arising from such compensation, and proposes alternatives to mitigate these ethical problems. In considering the compensation games, the paper initially brackets concerns about epistemological limits, compliance, and transaction costs. Upon reintroducing these practical barriers, the paper concludes that if systematic compensation will be impossible in practice then states should bear a strong duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Key Words: Climate change, compensation, transboundary damage, liability, environmental ethics, international ethics, international relations, global justice.

The increasing evidence of anthropogenic climate change raises challenging ethical questions, many of which have yet to be treated in depth by ethicists. Most ethicists who have written on climate change to date have approached it from a moral cosmopolitan perspective, focusing on the allocation of responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and on the individual ethical basis of such responsibility. However, cosmopolitanism is not the only ethical approach that can require strong action on climate change. Given the diversity of views concerning the legitimate foundations of morals, and the urgency of the problems arising with climate change, insisting on a cosmopolitan foundation may in fact foreclose crucial areas of consensus between diverse ethical frameworks and obscure the extent to which other ethical approaches must reasonably demand action on climate change. Accordingly, the following paper reframes the problem in two ways. Firstly, rather than focusing on duties between individuals, this paper focuses on nega-

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tive duties between states - that is, it focuses on the duty of states to respect the integrity of the territory, citizens and stability of other states. Secondly, the focus is not on determining who should be obliged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per se, but on considering what might comprise fair burden sharing for the damages caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Thus it does not start with a pattern-prescriptive allocation of emissions rights, but with assigning liability and compensation for harm. Following standard practice set in the International Law Commission’s work on state responsibility and liability, the model used here assumes that states may be held responsible or liable either for actions of the state itself, or for failure to regulate activities within its jurisdiction. This model uses a states-based framework in part because between them states bear the official capacity to regulate the activities of virtually all of the major emitters, and in part because states are the bodies engaged most prominently in negotiations over climate change. A states-based framework is of considerable interest given these regulatory and diplomatic capacities. There are two main questions that arise in considering compensatory approaches to achieving ethical ends. First, we must ask whether a given framework of compensation could in theory achieve ethically desirable ends. If we find that it does not, then we need not go on to consider the detailed questions of that framework’s practicality. If we find on the other hand that it does appear in principle to lead toward ethically desirable ends, then we must consider whether it is feasible to design institutions and structures to carry out this compensation. If it is not feasible, then this would seem to imply a strong duty to prevent that damage. Accordingly, the specific aim within this paper is to propose one framework by which we can conceive of compensation between states in the context of climate change, and to consider that framework in broad terms while temporarily bracketing a number of practical considerations. We will, however, briefly reintroduce the practical concerns before drawing conclusions.

1

The Full Compensation Game

Imagine a purely hypothetical scenario, which we will call the full compensation game, in which there exist zero transaction costs, perfect information, and full compliance.1 In this game, the international community sets up a permanent court, which at regular intervals and on an indefinite basis will enable and require every state to compensate every other state on the basis of percentage contribution to the ongoing costs of climate change. To facilitate this, the court will monitor each state’s contribution to cumulative GHG emissions.2 It will also monitor the precise extent of injury caused to each state by climate change in the preceding period. On the basis of percentage contribution to emissions, the court will calculate the compensation owed from each state to every other state.

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Since this is a full compensation game, imagine that the court will consider (among others) compensation for damaged property; for lost lives and injuries; for opportunity costs; and for non-physical and non-monetary loss such as grief and bereavement. For simplicity’s sake, imagine that the values awarded would be comparable with those granted in existing courts for such losses, and these values would be decided through critical comparison of practices in current domestic and international courts. In instances where a whole community is lost, a state is destabilized, or major ecological wealth is destroyed, imagine that compensation may be claimed by the international community, represented by some appropriate body established for the purpose, and the funds transferred to an appropriate cause. Each state would be responsible for representing the full losses of its citizens, claiming compensation from the courts, and distributing the compensation to those affected. The aim would be to ensure that the full, real cost of a state’s contribution to climate change would be internalized by that state in proportion with its responsibility. In the real world, such a system would face overwhelming practical difficulties associated with fraud, practical expense, and epistemological limits. However, in our imaginary conditions of full compliance, zero transaction costs and perfect information, let us assume that these would not pose problems. If states enter the full compensation game with adequate appreciation of the science and an understanding of the range of possible impacts of climate change, then what emissions paths would they pursue, and what would be the overall effect of the game? Theoretically, assigning liability may serve a number of functions including prevention, correction, and reparation.3 Thus the first aim of the full compensation game is to persuade countries, through the threat of future costs, to reduce their emissions such that globally the total emissions will remain at an acceptable concentration. The second aim of the full compensation game is to ensure that the burden of the cost of climate change is internalized by the states responsible for climate change, in proportion with that responsibility. The third aim is to ensure that states that have been injured are sufficiently compensated. In theory, assuming a basic Samuelson condition, it is likely that each state in the game will attempt to reduce its emissions up to the point where the marginal cost of reducing a unit of emissions is equal to the marginal cost of compensating for that unit of emissions. An initial analysis suggests that full compensation could lead to large reductions in emissions because, given the vast projected costs of climate change, major emitters simply could not afford to internalize the full costs of their contributions to climate change. However, we may expect that different countries will choose considerably different emissions paths, on the basis of their own mitigation costs. Given their high cumulative emissions and highly developed research and technology sectors, countries like the US might be likely to pursue intensive reductions. The least developed countries, which due

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to geography and vulnerability will bear the greatest real costs of climate change but have contributed little to greenhouse gas emissions, would face few costs, and considerable benefit. However, the results for developing countries with high emissions would be more problematic. Due to immediate development needs, poor countries with high emissions would face considerably greater competing pressures. They might be unlikely to reduce emissions if it would mean severe limits to development, and the ensuing duties of compensation could wind up locking these states into permanent debt. Thus unless the game were coupled with a highly favorable global approach to mitigation, the full compensation approach might be extremely detrimental and destabilizing for developing states with high emissions, while failing to achieve adequate levels of prevention among these states. The full compensation game thus has a mixture of major benefits and major costs. On the positive side, it effectively forces states to internalize the true cost of their own contributions to climate change. It thereby removes the tit-for-tat impulse that currently dominates many of the negotiations over emissions reduction, since theoretically each state would be fully compensated for any harm it had not caused. Thus states will be inclined to reduce their emissions in order to avoid the costs of compensating other states, and the incentive for them to do so will remain in place even if other states choose not to carry out reductions. Since states will have to pay for their own contribution, they will have an incentive to promote emissions reductions generally, in order to avoid major threshold effects, since these would greatly raise total cost. In addition, the game has the desirable effect that it would provide means of redress for the worst injuries from climate change. Nevertheless, the game has very high ethical costs that arise due to wealth disparities. The real cost of compensation for poor states with high emissions would be far greater than the real cost for wealthier states with comparably high emissions, and this problem is amplified by differences in the strengths of currencies. Theoretically, the game could mean that poor states would be forced to compensate rich states for damage to, say, luxury coast-line properties, at the expense of improving lives of the least well-off in their own countries and perhaps at the expense of their political stability. Despite a superficial appearance of fairness, if it failed to lead to dramatic emissions reductions then the full compensation game could wind up locking developing countries into permanent debt, and could prioritize frivolous goods over essential goods. Although space prohibits developing a full account here of the ethical terms on which we might want to evaluate such outcomes, the full compensation game thus appears to lead to outcomes which would be unacceptable from a number of ethical perspectives, and it seems that we should consider alternatives.

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The Partial Compensation Game

A more promising alternative is a partial compensation game with a minimum damage threshold and a relative maximum cost threshold. The minimum damage threshold would stipulate that states would only be responsible for damages above an agreed level of ‘significant’ damage.4 The relative maximum threshold would limit compensation payable according to per capita GDP. It would state that compensation costs cannot come to more than a given percentage of GDP per capita, which could either be a standard percentage across countries or, preferably, could be a graduated percentage. Like a graduated taxation system, we might permit higher percentages of per capita wealth to be required in compensation from wealthy countries, and lower percentages of per capita wealth from developing countries, with a baseline threshold in place below which no compensation could be required. Percentages could be set at a level that would motivate states toward mitigation and make considerable real contributions toward reparation of injuries, while not being so severe that they would threaten stability. This relative maximum threshold would help to make the real costs of compensation for different countries more equitable. It would neutralize the worst costs for developing countries, would be more likely to receive approval and therefore be of practical relevance, and finally would retain considerable motivational power, assuming that thresholds were set to a sufficient level. In addition the partial compensation game could set standard levels of compensation which would be awarded on the basis of particular types of losses. Rather than offering full compensation, it might follow the developed methods in worker’s compensation and health and safety legislation, which offer specific and limited compensation for specific and limited types of losses. Although this could make the game considerably less appealing to wealthy countries, since it would mean that they would have to bear a greater percentage of their own losses, it would make it far more likely to gain the consent of developing countries, and it would reduce the likelihood that the game would entrench or amplify existing disparities. A final component of the framework could be to require some level of contribution to a Climate Change Compensation Trust Fund at the time of emission, in anticipation of the likely later costs per unit of emissions. This insurance-based principle has been important in various international environmental treaties. It would help to ensure that funds would be available to carry out compensation in the future, and it would build an endowment over time. Because it would involve imposing costs at the time of emission it would consistently prompt reductions, regardless of rates at which individual polluters choose to discount future costs. Following the above thresholds, minimum levels of emissions could be permitted without contribution, and relative maximums could be set on the basis of per

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capita GDP, in order to keep the scheme from overly discouraging development that could otherwise contribute meaningfully to welfare. Nevertheless, payment at time of emission has some problematic features. The determination of the fee would be extremely sensitive to the discount rate selected, time-scale considered, scientific expectation, and political influence, without necessarily reflecting the true long-term cost of a given unit of emissions. The level of damage caused by a given quantity of GHGs will vary greatly depending upon total emissions levels over time, since damages do not increase in a straightforward linear fashion. Setting a fee in advance will almost certainly fail to reflect the real costs associated with a given unit of emissions. By contrast, in the other compensation games states decide what level of risk they are willing to accept, by comparing anticipated cost of future compensation against their own anticipated cost of abatement, and real costs are paid as real damages occur. This forces states to consider the range of future costs of climate change, which depend upon total emissions, whereas the trust fund approach only forces players to consider a set fee for emissions. However, if the fee were to be used in combination with the partial compensation game above then it might serve a useful purpose as a form of basic insurance to build up a long-term fund for compensation.

3

Conclusions

The compensation games presented here help us to visualize forcefully what it would mean for states to be held fully responsible for paying the real costs of their own actions and inactions (including failure to regulate emissions) in the context of climate change. However, before drawing any conclusions, practical considerations of limits to knowledge, compliance, and transaction costs must be reintroduced, because the barriers to such compensation are formidable. Barriers include epistemological problems arising from the limits to scientific knowledge, the long time-scales involved, the complexity of climate systems, and the monitoring of emissions and damages, along with high risks of fraud and failures of compliance. Given these problems, it is entirely possible that a framework of compensation such as that proposed here would prove unfeasible. Evaluating this becomes an empirical question, which in turn points toward ethically significant conclusions. If it is found that the key practical barriers to compensation are more apparent than real, then the partial compensation game with minimum and relative maximum thresholds seems like one approach that could serve as a guide in the formation of a real-world structure for compensation. On the other hand, if it is the case that systematic compensation for the damages caused by climate change will prove impossible, then it follows that states must bear a strong ethical duty of prevention.

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Notes 1

The compensation games presented here were developed in the context of a larger project which proposes a framework of duties between states, and which draws on recent developments in international law to support a principle of strict but limited liability for transboundary environmental damage. Since developing this paper I have come across related arguments in the following pieces, to which the reader may wish to refer for comparison. See T Panayotou, J Sachs and A P Zwane, ’Compensation for "Meaningful Participation" in Climate Change Control: A Modest Proposal and Empirical Analysis’ in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2001. See also RSJ Tol and R Verheyen, ’Liability and Compensation for Climate Change Damages-A Legal and Economic Assessment’, 2001, available at: http://starbulletin.com/2001/08/19/editorial/special.html 2

Note that this framework includes historical contributions to cumulative emissions, following a principle of strict liability. Thus states that are responsible for the bulk of current levels of CO2 would be responsible for compensating other states in proportion with their contribution, on the basis of actual damage done to other states and regardless of prior knowledge or intent. For discussions of strict liability and alternatives in the context of environmental damages consider the following. R Lefeber, Transboundary Environmental Interference and the Origin of State Liability, Cambridge: Kluwer Law International, 1996. LFE Goldie, ‘Concepts of Strict and Absolute Liability and the Ranking of Liability in terms of Relative Exposure to Risk’ in Netherlands Yearbook of International Law Vol 16, 1985. See also International Law Commission, ‘Survey of liability regimes relevant to the topic of international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law (international liability in case of loss from transboundary harm arising out of hazardous activities)’, 2004, A/CN.4/543. Available by link from http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/9_10.htm. See also Xue Hanqin, Transboundary Damage in International Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003. Finally, see recent developments in the treatment of allocation of loss by the International Law Commission at http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/9_10.htm. 3 4

Lefeber, p 1.

There is an extensive literature on definitions of damage, appropriate thresholds etc. For concise discussion of different approaches to the definition of environmental damage see P Sands, Principles of International Environmental Law, 2nd ed, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp 875-878. See also C de la Rue, ‘Environmental Damage Assessment’ in Ralph P. Kroner (ed) Transnational Environmental Liability and Insurance, International Bar Association, Springer, 1993. In addition, consider International Law Commission, ‘Sixth Report on International Liability for Injurious Consequences Arising out of Acts not Pro-

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hibited by International Law’ by Mr Julio Barboza, Special Rapporteur, 1990, A/CN.4/428 reproduced in Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1990 vol. II (Part One). Available by link from http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/9.htm. pp. 88-89, 105; and International Law Commission 2004 as above.

Bibliography Goldie, L.F.E, ‘Concepts of Strict and Absolute Liability and the Ranking of Liability in terms of Relative Exposure to Risk’ in Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, Vol 16, 1985. International Law Commission, ‘Sixth Report on International Liability for Injurious Consequences Arising out of Acts not Prohibited by International Law’ by Mr Julio Barboza, Special Rapporteur, 1990, A/CN.4/428 reproduced in Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1990 vol. II (Part One). Available by link from http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/9.htm. International Law Commission, ‘Survey of liability regimes relevant to the topic of international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law (international liability in case of loss from transboundary harm arising out of hazardous activities)’, 2004, A/CN.4/543 Available by link from http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/9_10.htm Lefeber, René, Transboundary Environmental Interference and the Origin of State Liability, Cambridge, Kluwer Law International, 1996. Panayotou, Theodore, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Alix Peterson Zwane, ‘Compensation for “Meaningful Participation” in Climate Change Control: A Modest Proposal and Empirical Analysis’ in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2001. Available at http://www.idealibrary.com de la Rue, Colin, ‘Environmental Damage Assessment’ in Ralph P. Kroner (ed) Transnational Environmental Liability and Insurance, International Bar Association, 1993. Sands, Philippe, Principles of International Environmental Law, 2nd ed, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003. Tol, Richard S.J. and Roda Verheyen, ‘Liability and Compensation for Climate Change Damages—A Legal and Economic Assessment’, 2001. Available at http://starbulletin.com/2001/08/19/editorial/special.html Xue Hanqin, Transboundary Damage in International Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Biographical Note Joanna Burch Brown is currently a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, where she is working in applied ethics and climate change. She is also

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active as a founder and director of Forest Farm Peace Garden, an East London charity which uses organic gardening, conservation and arts activities with a broad cross-section of the community to promote health, well-being, environmental sustainability and intercultural awareness.

Chapter 12

Advanced Technology Paths to Intergenerational Justice Rasmus Karlsson Traditionally, the green narrative has rejected "big science" in favour of small-scale solutions, local knowledge, and the development of "soft" or "intermediate" technologies. In a similar vein, concern for future generations is often used to propose dramatic reductions in energy- and material flows, as well as the adoption of a more frugal lifestyle thought to be "sustainable". Contrary to this paradigmatic viewpoint, I argue that not only would such green visions be inherently unsustainable but the transition phase would in itself require enormous sacrifices and most likely lead to the violation of basic human rights. Instead, by assessing our own historical situation through the ethical lens of hypothetical contractualism, it is suggested that the interest of future generations is best served by rapid global political integration and an aggressive research agenda aimed at achieving climate stability through the innovation of new energy sources (such as nuclear fusion). It is further argued that we presently are living through a unique "window of opportunity" in which idealism and technological optimism are both urgently needed. Key Words: Intergenerational justice, contractualism, sustainable development, innovation, technology.

1

Introduction

This paper has grown out of a personal dissatisfaction with green political thought but also with its neo-classical adversaries. It is an argumentative piece, which I intentionally have kept brief and, as a consequence, incomplete in its technical details. The basic argument goes that green visions of the "sustainable society" are not as sustainable as their proponents would like us to think nor do they seem capable of garnering wider public support (and that is, I argue, in fact a good thing). Yet, the environmental problems are real and there is mounting evidence that, over the next hundred years, humanity will face a string of serious ecological difficulties, including but not limited to dangerous climate change, biosphere toxification and resource depletion. Acknowledging that "business-asusual" is an even less sustainable strategy, this paper takes up the idea of a

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hypothetical intergenerational contract to ask that deceptively simple question: "what would we want the present generation to do if we were in the shoes of some future unborn generation?"1 Asking that question not only requires us to consider the long-term implications of our present actions but also allows us to use the contractual mechanism to move away from utilitarian calculations. By its philosophical nature, contractual reasoning embodies a strong conception of equality and spatial-temporal neutrality as it, to use the words of John Rawls, affirms that "each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole can override"2 . Though many (including Rawls himself) have used hypothetical contractualism for more narrow and specific enterprises I believe that it in fact is especially well equipped to deal with long-term issues like sustainable development where we cannot resort to arguments based on for instance mutual advantage or reciprocity.3

2

Green visions

Green political visions claim to offer of a path to natural restoration but also a return to a society living within its own ecological limits. Different authors may have different images of what that future green society will look like but common themes are the rejection of global capitalism, dramatic reductions in energy and material flows and a antagonistic attitude towards "big science". According to the limits-to-growth paradigm, the physical finitude of the planet imposes absolute limits on human activity and thus human beings have to learn to separate needs from wants when it comes to material consumption.4 I will not here engage with the question of whether such visions are normatively desirable per se. What I will do is to point out three difficulties related to the realization of any green agenda, focusing on (a) democratic legitimacy, (b) the transition phase, and (c) the sustainability of the envisaged configuration. A

Democratic legitimacy

Books have been written on the relationship between liberalism and green thought.5 Though the two may be a lot more compatible in theory than commonly understood, they remain sharply divided in practice. In the industrial countries today, millions of people live lives that are highly environmentally unsustainable, enjoying round-the-world travelling in first class, large houses and exclusive food. On a global level, billions of other people aspire for the same lifestyle and are working hard to one day be able to afford it. No matter what we think about such preferences, they do exist and it is questionable what means a liberal state has to prevent people from having them. Barring some quasi-mystical "inner change" of humanity, I think we have to accept that many people on this planet are not willing to make any substantial material sacrifices on behalf of the natural world, unless forced to do so by nature itself. This creates a problem of democratic legit-

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imacy for green political visions. Some greens may hope that irrefutable signs of environmental stress and climate related natural catastrophes will one day convince people of the necessity of adopting a more frugal lifestyle. The problem with that hope is that, at such a time, there might not be much natural environment left to rescue. B

The transition phase

This problem of individual preferences travels frighteningly well on to the international level where different countries clearly exhibit different ambitions in the environmental field. Yet, even leading countries (like Sweden) remain remotely distant from any society envisioned in green writings. We also know that green societies are only likely to come about if the transition phase is globally orchestrated. Otherwise, without a global span, the question "why should our country lower our welfare in favour of environmental sustainability if others don’t?" would immediately arise. Even with such a global covenant, the temptation for any state or group to cheat would be tremendous. Naturally, the most obvious possible gains from cheating are military and strategic. Any geographic territory which would reject the green programme would pose a severe threat to all of its neighbours. The problem would be further emphasized by the fact that the countries which today contribute the most to environmental degradation, and whose participation is thus most needed, are also those which would see the largest relative reduction in their military capacity. Considering similar dilemmas of collective action in other areas such as resource economics, it is not surprising that the political potential of green thinking is often thought to be limited by its unrealistic assessments of existing socio-economic dynamics. By all accounts, the transition to a green society would require a radical transformation of existing political and economic institutions. Being so fundamental in scope the transformation would be exceptionally vulnerable to Karl Popper’s devastating criticism of utopian social engineering.6 Any attempt to disentangle the existing thick global web of economic transactions would have numerous unintended and possibly disastrous consequences. Global modernity is simply not a process that can be stopped (or for that part, restarted) at will without jeopardizing the livelihood of billions of people. C

Sustainability?

Some would certainly disagree with my analysis this far, arguing that not only are green visions capable of winning wider public support but the transition phase would also be a lot less difficult than I present it here. Be that as it may, these are immensely complicated issues around which there can - in the true sense of the term - be "reasonable disagreement". Somewhat more straightforward is the question of how sustainable would in fact a future green society be?

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At first, that question may seem just as intractable. But then we have to recall that almost all green authors take their point of departure in the assertion that our ecological systems remain "finite, non-growing, and materially closed"7 . From an anthropocentric perspective that means that the planet comes with certain absolute limits in terms of both sinks and sources, together constituting our civilization’s biophysical limits. If that argument holds it makes sense to say that the number of years that it remains sustainable is a function of our present rate of resource use and pollution build-up. Of course, that function is not of a simple linear kind as technologies and practices evolve over time. On the other hand, the number of years is not infinite (or, would I argue, particularly high). Let me give a very crude illustration of the argument I am making here: Suppose that the current trajectory is sustainable for X years. With a 50 percent reduction in the use of non-renewable resource it would be sustainable for 2X years. Given the extended time available to come up with substitutes, we can probably increase that number somewhat but since we are here concerned with aggregated resources and not specific ones, substitutability becomes less of an option. If we, like most green authors, assume that the present trajectory is highly unsustainable, then a green society, to be as sustainable as claimed, would have to make rather dramatic reductions in energy and material flows. This in turn is likely to put green visions on a direct collision course with the basic needs of billion of people in the developing world, effectively creating a cynical trade-off between present poor in the global South and future poor in the global North. The deeper we look into the future, the worse the problem of sustainability becomes. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that a future green society would be stuck in something best described as "low-tech trap". Living on a subsistence level, primarily occupied with securing environmental sustainability, green societies would not be able to put aside large resource for scientific research and technological development. Consequently, they will over time become less adaptable and less able to come up with substitutes when different natural resource are exhausted.

3

Hypothetical Contractualism

If the arguments above are sound, we have reason to be sceptical about the longterm sustainability of green visions. Yet, this should not be taken as an argument in favour of maintaining the status quo. Rather the opposite, if green visions (with reduced resource use) will eventually turn out unsustainable, it is reasonable to think that the same will happen even sooner if the present trajectory is pursued. Never the less, environmental policy is often framed as a choice between either unpopular radical reforms aimed at (what is perceived as) a sustainable configuration or a wait-and-see attitude which is likely to prove dangerously complacent in the long run. Trying to move beyond this dichotomous reasoning I will now introduce the idea of a hypothetical intergenerational meeting taking place behind a "veil of ignorance". Just as between contemporaries, the purpose of

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the veil of ignorance is to occlude morally irrelevant factors such as gender, nationality or - in the intergenerational context - date of birth from our political reasoning.8 These restrictions prevent us from taking unfair advantage of our own particular circumstances. Instead, we are to seek out policies and institutional arrangements which could not reasonably be rejected by anyone from a position of equality; effectively ruling out utilitarian arguments in which certain individuals are sacrificed in order to achieve some "higher" goal. What would a hypothetical intergenerational meeting think of environmental sustainability? Of course, the answer to that question is (partially) dependent on empirical facts such as the true amount of available resources, the absorption capacity of planetary sinks, the resilience of the ecosystems and, not the least, the potential of technological development. Even so, by its composition, we know that an intergenerational meeting would favour policies that remain sustainable deep into the future. It would reject the present over-consumption of resources, especially if these resources are not used to invent new technologies which, in the future, will allow for substitution. More controversially, I believe that an intergenerational meeting would be able to identify "windows of opportunity" that are not normally associated with environmental sustainability or intergenerational fairness. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, world military expenditures amounted to a conservatively estimated U.S. US-$ 1035 billion in 2004.9 This works out to US-$ 2.8 billion each day - more than US$ 100 million an hour. Of this, the United States alone accounted for 47 percent. Confronted with such figures, especially in comparison with the estimated US$ 19 billion required to eliminate starvation and malnutrition worldwide,10 it is easy to become disillusioned. At the same time, we have to remember that all these resources are used to protect us, not from any external threat, but from ourselves. Thus, within a different global institutional framework, nearly all this money could be directed to other purposes. Recalling that the intergenerational meeting is set up in a way which attributes equal respect to the interest of every present and future individual on the planet, it would definitely have no difficulties in identifying this collective action problem of international security. The meeting would also recognize that, by pursuing an agenda of rapid global political integration, it would be possible to use the peace dividend to radically engage with the task of finding new paths to environmental sustainability. Having come this far I guess that a moderately conservative reader will be bristling with objections. To many, what I have been outlining here is just as "utopian" as any green vision. Yet - and I am afraid this must remain partially an article of faith - I believe that we have good reasons to be more optimistic about the chances of global political integration. Witness how the European Union has allowed Europe to make the transition from an anarchic system in which conflicts were ultimately resolved by force or

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threats of force to a "political and judicial system".11 Simultaneously, economic interdependence, especially between the military superpowers (i.e. the U.S. and China), has turned outright war into a non-viable option (even without invoking notions of Mutual Assured Destruction). In such a global context, the transfer of sovereignty to a supra-national body - guaranteeing the territorial integrity of all countries - would be less of a utopian scheme and more of capitalizing on what already has become a fait accompli. With redefined spatial limits, potential future conflicts over scarce resources would also be possible to avoid, creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop of peace and development.

4

Advance technology paths?

As argued above I believe that an intergenerational meeting would favour policies aimed at global political integration, for three intertwined reasons: (1) it would reduce the risk of war, (2) it would be a first step towards a world in which our life chances are not exclusively determined by our success in the lottery called "nationality", and (3) it would free up massive resources for civil research and technological development. In 2002, Martin Hoffert, together with a large number of leading researchers, published an article in Science with the title Advanced Technology Paths to Climate Stability.12 Taking their argument further, I believe that there could in the same manner be advanced technology paths to intergenerational justice. To be sustainable, these paths would have to provide practically unlimited sources and sinks. To meet both those requirements, I have come to believe that large-scale industrial expansion into space, carried out as part of an aggressive research agenda in the natural sciences, could be a workable strategy. That is also a strategy which I have explored elsewhere in a more scientific context.13 Therefore, it will here suffice to say that the costs associated with space industrialization (as well as with other far-future technologies such as nuclear fusion) are prohibitively high and that no state is likely to be able to muster them alone, at least not without incurring tremendous social costs on its population. This is what makes any advance technology path highly dependent on the emergence of a new set of global institutions. I leave to the reader to decide if they thereby lose their realism or not. In any case, it seems reasonable to assume that we cannot expect these options to remain open indefinitely. As the 21st century wears on, the total available stock of natural resources will diminish while the planetary sinks will continue to fill up. Then, with critical natural resources used up (to produce consumer goods like flat-screen TVs) space industrialization becomes less of an option. Thinking this thought to its logic conclusion should warrant a certain urgency; we cannot expect our grandchildren to have the same possibilities as we (probably) have today. Building on an economic logic already in place, an advanced technology path to intergenerational justice would be less of a fundamental revolution and more of a radicalization of trends that have been

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with us since the advent of modernity (or maybe even longer). None the less, any process of global political integration would require idealism of a kind which we hitherto have only been able to glimpse in short historical moments (such as the end of the Cold War). And many, especially greens, would detest such expansionism and pragmatism, deriding it for being an expression of a particular Western idea about human life. Be that as it may, what we can be certain of is that the 21st century will be a time of dramatically increasing global demand. To then turn the question of environmental sustainability into some sort of "ethical test" of humanity would be irresponsible at best and highly cynical at worst. More important than realising a particular conception of the good (currently held by a small subset of Western intellectuals), we should make every effort possible to protect the natural environment so that new generations can come into existence and be able to formulate their own ideas about what constitutes the "good society" and a rewarding human life.

Notes 1

R Epstein, ’Justice Across Generations’ in P Laslett and J Fishkin (eds), Justice between Age Groups and Generations, Yale University Press, New Haven, C.T., 1992, p. 84. 2

J Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, M.A., 1999, p. 3. 3

Yet, to be fair it should be said that contractual conceptions of intergenerational justice come with certain difficulties of their own, most notably the nonidentity problem and what Amartya Sen has labelled "focal group plasticity"; cf. W Beckerman & J Pasek, Justice, posterity and the environment, Oxford, Oxford University Press; A Sen, ’Open and Closed Impartiality’, Journal of Philosophy, vol. 99, 2002, pp. 445-469. 4

A Dobson, Green Political Thought, Routledge, London, 2007, p. 74.

5

M Wissenburg, Green Liberalism, Routledge, London, 2003; S Jagers, Justice, Liberty and Bread - For All?, Gothenburg University Press, Gothenburg, 2002. 6

K Popper, The Poverty of Historicism, Routledge, London, 2002.

7

H Daly, Beyond Growth, Beacon Press, Boston, M.A., p. 1.

8

Some may feel uncomfortable with such a universal take on who is to be included in our community of justice. Since this is not an endeavour in moral philosophy, I will not be able to further argue the cosmopolitan case here but I can highly recommend S. Caney, Justice Beyond Borders, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. 9

SIPRI, SIPRI Yearbook 2005: Armaments, disarmament and international security, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

150 10

Advanced Technology Paths to Intergenerational Justice Worldwatch Institute, Vital signs 2003, Earthscan, London, 2003.

11

R J Glossop, World Federation? A Critical Analysis of Federal Government, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, 1993, p. 21. 12

M Hoffert et al., ’Advanced technology paths to global climate stability: Energy for a greenhouse planet’, Science, vol. 298, November 2002, pp. 981-987. 13

R Karlsson, ’Reducing Asymmetries in Intergenerational Justice? Descent from Modernity or Space Industrialization?’, Organization and Environment, vol. 19, June 2006, pp. 230-250.

Biographical note: Rasmus Karlsson is a PhD Candidate in political science at Lund University, Sweden. His research interests traverse theories of intergenerational justice, sustainable development, and the temporal dimension of democracy. During 2008 he will be a visiting scholar at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Towards an Informed Citizenship

Part I Foundations

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Chapter 13

Ecocomposition Pedagogy. The Environmental Imperative for L’écriture Féminine Mary Stroud The essentially untapped discipline of “ecocomposition,” a term coined by composition theorists Sidney I. Dobrin and Christian R. Weisser, offers unlimited theoretical potential for addressing issues of environmental urgency through the forum of the college composition classroom. Broaching the topic of global environmental crisis in the writing class usually takes the shape of assigning texts that encourage environmental literacy through a contentbased approach. However, the foundational tenets of “ecocomposition” insist on a paradigm shift in the way that we perceive of the transmission of ecological ethics and knowledge. Dobrin and Weisser claim that the act of writing must be perceived as an ecological act in and of itself, what they call the practice of “discursive ecology.” This theory encourages students to “explore writing and writing processes as systems of interaction, economy, and interconnectedness.” 1 Part of this attention to “systems of interaction,” Dobrin and Weisser insist that their assertions align their philosophy neatly with theoretical approaches that resist “hegemonies which oppress nature in ways similar to the oppression of women and other colonized groups.” 2 Hence, it is my contention that an examination into the theories of French feminist Hélène Cixous’ l’écriture féminine yields distinct possibilities for the development of ecocomposition praxis. This essay examines these possibilities through a parallel investigation into the contentions of Dobrin and Weisser and Hélène Cixous in her essay “The Laugh of the Medusa.” The investigation demonstrates how both theories seek to encourage vitality through diversity, embracing writing as an inherently relational act contingent upon an interdisciplinary world-view that perceives people, writing, culture, and all life on Earth as an ecologically interconnected web of relationships. Key Words: Ecocomposition, Ecofeminism, Composition Theory, Ecology, Discursive Ecology, L’écriture Féminine, Hélène Cixous.

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Ecocomposition Pedagogy “...living means wanting everything that is, everything that lives, and wanting it alive.” Hélène Cixous “The Laugh of the Medusa”

When I began my first year of composition instruction at my graduate university, I was excited to learn that the liberal arts forum theme for that fall semester was entitled “Environmental Responsibility,” encouraging students to think about environmental accountability through various speakers, classroom activities, course texts, and pedagogical approaches. Having just come off a twoyear stint of teaching environmental outdoor education in the wilderness areas of California, I arrived at my first classes with the coveted belief shared by most environmental educators, that literacy in environmental issues is best transmitted through a physical encounter with a natural and ecological space. However, this method was at variance with the content-based approach employed by my directors. Thus, to supplement my limited knowledge in the field of composition studies, I conducted research into the theoretical foundations for teaching environmental topics in the writing class. It was through this investigation that I discovered the appropriately contemporary discipline of “ecocomposition,” 3 a termed coined by composition theorists Sidney I. Dobrin and Christian R. Weisser. In one of their pioneering texts of ecocomposition, Dobrin and Weisser offer their readers a distinct illustration of how this discipline should operate, by emphasizing a technique that champions discourse as a crucial instrument of engaging with place, confirming my previous environmental pedagogical training regarding the way that the physical space of the learning environment impacts the intellectual engagement of the students. By aligning diverse academic disciplines, Dobrin and Weisser illustrate an interdisciplinary, inter-connected practice that resonates profoundly with their ecological bent. They explain in the following definition that, Ecocomposition is the study of the relationships between environments...and discourse...Ecocomposition draws primarily from disciplines that study discourse...and merges the perspectives of them with work in disciplines that examine environment...as a result, ecocomposition attempts to provide a more holistic, encompassing framework for studies of the relationship between discourse and environment.4 Hence, for Dobrin and Weisser, writing can and should be analyzed as a function and product of the physical environment in which it was composed, as they insist, “the what, why, and how of each act of writing is inextricably linked to the where.” 5 On the level of praxis, Dobrin and Weisser suggest that the composition instructor should focus on helping his or her students to develop their writing skills “in a variety of writing environments...6 hands-on experience in a range of environments...nature and environment must be lived in.” 7

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As a new instructor reading these passages, I imagined my students deeply engrossed in writing exercises in the parks of the Los Angeles endangered wetlands followed by coastal excursions that would elicit new understandings of how humans relate with and to the natural world. However, the reality was that I was assigned to a sterile and windowless classroom at the end of long and windowless hallway in an urban university. Complicating this circumstance was the practical pedagogical application of discursive ecology suggested by Dobrin and Weisser, that of teaching hypertext. Because hypertext is immediately non-linear and conducive to the notion of the web-like linkages advocated by ecologists, it offers a unique forum for the writing student to engage heuristically with an alternative form of discourse by employing a technique that works to “break down some of 8 hierarchical conceptions of nature and text.” 9 Yet hypertext presents some very real challenges to composition instructors, requiring technological proficiency and the resources to provide equipment for classes. Confronted by these frustrations, I began to believe that environmental issues could only be relegated as a tool of controversy to spark moments of healthy contention amongst my students. These challenges led to a deeper investigation into practical ways to address the interface between place and ecology, an exploration that led to my contention regarding the complimentary alignment between ecocomposition and French feminist theories of writing. My initial inquiry came through an incorporation of the place-oriented postulations of philosopher Edward S. Casey. Casey argues that the problem of place in Western ideology is complicated by a marked Western devotion to time, or “temporocentrism.” 10 By reevaluating the ways that time is unconsciously rooted in space in the Western conception, Casey privileges the physical over the temporal by insisting, “place, by virtue of its unencompassability by anything other than itself, is at once the limit and condition of all that exists.” 11 Through a discussion of the quality of “implacement,” what Casey defines as a “moving out, entering not just the area lying before and around me but entering myself and others as its witnesses or occupants...12 the binarism of Self and Other,” 13 Casey demonstrates that place and relationships are inextricably tied. In fact, through “implacement” relationships become a defining feature of place, resonating with ecocomposition’s paradigmatic ecological structure. Part and parcel of this emphasis on relationships, political considerations take center stage. Composition theorist Julie Drew discusses this quality by addressing the ways that place-based social relationships within the writing classroom offer a powerful forum for addressing political injustices that impact the lives of all marginalized groups.14 This emphasis on the political calls to attention ecocomposition’s interrogation of oppression and injustice in all social and political arenas. Indeed, Dobrin and Weisser’s cultural analysis is rooted in an examination into the way that language constructs cultural meanings that impact all living things, maintaining resistance to “hegemonies which oppress nature in ways similar to the oppres-

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sion of women and other colonized groups.” 15 Like the Derridean desire to expose ideologically, diametrically opposed and privileged language, Dobrin and Weisser establish that “ecocomposition resists discursive maneuvers that create dualistic splits such as nature/culture and (hu)man-made/natural,” 16 specifically because such dualism contains innate tendencies of entitlement to any one term. Interwoven into this investigation of the destructive power of language, ecocomposition interrogates the positivist bent of the Western world’s esteem of empirical knowledge and Cartesian rationalism. Dobrin and Weisser insist that the Western “discursive position (identifying nature as split from the rational world of humans, and therefore subject to humans’ domination) has its roots in the scientific revolution’s intellectual will to dominance.” 17 As feminist composition theorist Colleen Connolly argues, such an emphasis on rationalism results in an anthropocentric paradigm that divorces the concrete matter of the physical world from the abstractions of the intellectual mind, resulting in gross injustice to anything that is ideologically corporeal. She explains that in this mode, the mind becomes disembodied and the body/nature becomes mindless: the natural world—including other animate life—is seen as an inert object to be analyzed, controlled, and manipulated...which gives primacy to the mind and rejects the body, condemns women, who are identified by their association with the body.18 As Connolly so aptly demonstrates, such devotion to the ideology of abstract thought bears negative consequences to women and ultimately any minority or marginalized group circumscribed within similar terms. In order to counter the fallout of this hegemonic supremacy, ecocomposition can benefit profoundly by seeking out alternative forms of liberatory writing that give voice to the oppressed and interrogate unexamined cultural practices. One of the most radical theories of liberatory writing is that proposed by French feminist Hélène Cixous in her groundbreaking article “The Laugh of the Medusa,” often touted as the manifesto of French feminism.19 Here, Cixous promotes the use of a distinctly feminine form of writing, l’écriture féminine, which offers a powerful medium for women to assert otherwise historically silenced voices. In spite of Cixous’ seemingly singular feminist concentration, the theoretical reach proposed in her article extends far beyond the challenges of gender inequity. Through a patent emphasis on relationships and physical corporeality, Cixous’ feminist theoretical lens offers ecocomposition some very substantial untapped avenues for the continued development of practical pedagogical methods. Cixous’ controversial contentions, including her insistence that it is impossible to define a feminine practice of writing by virtue of the fact that it resists any attempts at being theorized, enclosed, or coded,20 have been simultaneously praised and denounced as untenable for the writing classroom.21 Yet, many features of her declarations resonate powerfully with ecocomposition’s ethical agenda. Hence, it

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is my contention that by employing some of the theoretical techniques delineated in her theories, ecocomposition can only benefit from l’écriture féminine’s celebration of relationships and diversity, its pronounced emphasis on the human body, its call to promote liberation to all marginalized groups, and its drive for the preservation and the promotion of life. To illustrate the problems of gender discrimination, Cixous employs a metaphoric language that evokes a sense of celebration for the diversity of life, resulting in a significant ecological tenor. Indeed, most feminist theories adopt an ethic of diversity. As celebrated feminist composition theorist Lynn Worsham asserts, diversity is a crucial component to the feminist agenda, “the immediate and most pressing task for feminism’s third wave is to forge . . . an alliance that does not protect us from our differences but finds in difference, disagreement, and even despair occasions to hear one another’s words.” 22 By expounding on social diversity, Cixous creates an unspoken alignment with the ecological links that make up the health of the biosphere. One of the most profound ways that these metaphoric connections are illustrated is through Cixous’ discussion of female identity, where she explains that the identity of women is “a process of different subjects knowing one another and beginning one another anew only from the living boundaries of the other.” 23 Cixous follows this by describing a life-conducive formula that is dependent upon diversity for its health and preservation. She outlines this formula by saying, To love, to watch-think-seek the other in the other, to despecularize, to unhoard...It’s not impossible, and this is what nourishes life—a love that has no commerce with the apprehensive desire that provides against the lack and stultifies the strange; a love that rejoices in the exchange that multiplies.24 The ardent emphasis on diversity referenced in this passage creates a direct association between the feminine and life. Indeed, one of Cixous’ most foundational assertions is that masculinist logics actually work to oppress and endanger life, whereas repressed female discourse resists such restrictive practices. As Cixous insists “...we’re not going to repress something so simple as the desire for life.” 25 She even goes so far as to declare that women’s desire to preserve even her own life is perceived in the Western imagination as a “shameful sickness.” 26 In Cixous’ discussion of diversity, gendered, racial, and natural “otherness” also become a vital wellspring for the discursive potential of l’écriture féminine. With this emphasis, Cixous’ seemingly singular feminist bent demonstrates an emphatic call to embrace all manifestations of otherness, including the masculine. She insists, “I want all. I want all of me with all of him. Why should I deprive myself of a part of us? I want all of us.” 27 Cixous also goes on to explain that the struggle of women in the Western context is always a cultural one, much the same as the racial oppression or degradation of the earth stems from cultural ideological

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constructs rooted in a fear of otherness and the desire to penetrate the enigma. To subvert this mode, Cixous calls out and exposes the historical connections between gender, race, and earth discrimination by mimicking the colonial voices of imperialism: “because you are Africa, you are black. Your continent is dark, you’re afraid. Don’t move, you might fall. Most of all, don’t go into the forest. And so we have internalized this horror of the dark.” 28 This connection between women, race, earth, and the “horror of the dark” is a subject of considerable scrutiny and interrogation by celebrated theorist Toni Morrison. Morrison asserts that, in American literature, nature, gender, and race all become immediately available for “meditations on terror—the terror of European outcasts, their dread of failure, powerlessness, Nature without limits, natal loneliness, internal aggression, evil, sin, greed.” 29 In this sense wilderness becomes part of a triad of subjects that feed a profound Western patriarchal psychological nightmare. Thus, Cixous aligns the experiences of all marginalized groups, but especially nature, by metaphorically describing women as “the precocious...the repressed of culture, our lovely mouths gagged with pollen, our wind knocked out of us...the labyrinths, the ladders, the trampled spaces, the bevies.” 30 These metaphoric references also enfold within them assertions about the way in which feminine discourse draws its strength and inspiration from wide reaching, concrete, and libidinal natural sources. “But look” Cixous implores, our seas are what we make of them, full of fish or not, opaque or transparent, red or black, high or smooth, narrow or bankless; and we are ourselves sea, sand, coral, seaweed, beaches, tides, swimmers, children, waves....More or less wavily sea, earth, sky—what matter would rebuff us? We know how to speak them all.31 Cixous’ proclamation of women’s ability to “speak matter” draws a particular alliance with the physical world, an affiliation that works to reground thought in material sources, rather than the abstract espoused by patriarchal forms of discourse. It is this emphasis on the physical that offers the greatest potential for the development of ecocomposition praxis. Indeed, one of the most significant connections between l’écriture féminine and ecocomposition is in the way that Cixous stresses the interconnectivity of the mind and the body, as she implores, “woman...write the body.” 32 By grounding writing in the concrete manifestations of biorhythms, “embodied writing,” Cixous divorces thought from the Western devotion to the notion of the abstract intellect and works to reassert the importance of physical place in cultural ideological considerations. One of the most important ways that embodied writing takes form is through a concentration on personal writing. Cixous explains that the personal can never be avoided in ethical writing, insisting that, “once 33 blazes her trail in the symbolic, she cannot fail to make of it the chaosmos of the ‘personal’—in her pronouns, her nouns,

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and her clique of referents.” 34 Writing the personal, or expressionist rhetoric, was a popular practice in the American writing classroom in the 1960’s and 70’s. As a subjective rhetorical mode, expressionist techniques seek to root students’ understanding of reality through their own personal experiences, arguing that “reality is a personal and private construct,” 35 and urging students to grow as writers through experimentation in form, style, and structure. Although this was a highly popular tool in composition classes at this time, it was also simultaneously criticized for the way that it fostered social and political detachment due to solipsistic tendencies that encouraged what has been purported as composition anarchy,36 eschewing any enforced structure on the act of writing. Composition theorist William P. Banks suggests an entirely different outcome through his own experience with “embodied” writing. Banks expresses disappointment at the movement away from the personal and even forwards several caveats against dismissing its potential for eliciting social change. He insists that “when we ignore the ‘embodied’ in discourse, we miss the ways in which liberation is always both social and individual, a truly symbiotic relationship...” 37 He explains that writing in polished, logical, and linear pieces is actually counterintuitive to human anatomical realities. In order to illustrate this, Banks adopts the model of fragmentation in his own writing. He explains that “fragments...suggest the ways in which our bodies, though seemingly whole, are fragmented, because our bodies-as-we-understand-them are conscious (and unconscious) extensions of not only our minds, but also the minds around us.” 38 Banks’ insistence that the fragmented replicates our own bodies and minds and those of the “minds around us” grounds his argument in more of a social epistemic and decidedly less solipsistic framework. By celebrating the personal of embodied writing, Banks shows us that through knowing ourselves we become connected to those around us, creating the web-like linkages that Dobrin and Weisser insist is the foundation of ecocomposition. “I know the bodies of others by knowing my own body, and vice versa,” Banks explains, “I read into those bodies as I read into my own; I write those bodies as I write my own.” 39 Writing the personal works to immerse student writers in the relational dynamics that tacitly define their lives, while simultaneously functioning as a powerful liaison between the student and the places in which they write by demanding that they engage in first-hand encounters with these places that they will later recount through their writing practices. Affirming the words of Cixous’ feminist contemporary Julia Kristeva, Banks declares, “no matter how we abject our bodies, particularly in the academy, they come back to haunt us. They make their claims on us/for us/in us/outside us.” 40 The physical world, the voices of the oppressed, the declining biodiversity, the human body itself all eschewed by the abstract privilege of patriarchal rationalism will always make their demands known. By coming to know ourselves through embodied writing while simultaneously coming to know others, we can begin to find an intersection of shared responsibility between the political and

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social imperatives of feminist theory and ecocomposition. As Cixous maintains, “In woman, personal history blends together with the history of all women, as well as national and world history. As a militant she is an integral part of all liberations.” 41 As I read these final words at the end of my first semester as a composition instructor, I was inspired by their potential to address environmental exigencies. By employing l’écriture féminine, through personal writing, composition studies may begin to settle some of the innate complications of teaching ecological concerns by immersing students in a heuristic understanding of their own deeply personal and physical relationship with the world. By asking students to embrace the personal, practice embodied writing, and in doing so, “implace” themselves in the world as social, political, and ecological beings, we will be moving one step closer to helping them apprehend the truth that they are as intricate a part of earth ecology as any life on earth.

Notes 1

Notes S I Dobrin and C R Weisser, Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2002, p. 116. 2

ibid., p. 20.

3

ibid.

4

ibid., p. 6.

5

ibid., p. 150.

6

refrequiring

7

ibid., p. 57.

8

refthe

9

ibid., p. 147.

10

E S Casey, Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1993, p. 6. 11

ibid., p. 15

12

refsweeping

13

ibid., p. 314.

14

J Drew, ‘The Politics of Place: Student Travelers and Pedagogical Maps’ in C Weisser & S Dobrin (eds), Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001, p. 59 15

Dobrin, Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition, p. 20.

16

ibid., p. 10.

17

ibid., p. 10.

18

C Connolly, ‘Ecology and Composition Studies: A Feminist Perspective on

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Living Relationships’ in C Weisser & S Dobrin (eds), Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001, p.183. 19

D H Richter, The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Bedford, Boston, 1998, p. 1433. 20

H Cixous, ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ in D Richter (ed), The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Bedford, Boston, 1998, p. 1459. 21

L Worsham, ‘Writing Against Writing: The Predicament of Ecriture Féminine in Composition Studies’ in P Harkin & J Schlib (eds), Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age, Modern Language Association, New York, 1991, p. 94. 22

S Jarratt and L Worsham, Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words, MLA, New York, 1998, p. 329. 23

Cixous, op. cit., p. 1459.

24

ibid., p1466.

25

ibid., p. 1464.

26

ibid., p. 1455.

27

ibid., p. 1465.

28

ibid., p. 1455.

29

T Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and Literary Imagination, Vintage, New York, 1993, p. 38. 30

Cixous, op. cit., p. 1455.

31

ibid., p. 1463.

32

ibid., p. 1457.

33

refwoman

34

ibid., p. 1462.

35

J Berlin, Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1987, p. 145. 36

ibid., p. 145.

37

W Banks, ‘Written Through the Body: Disruptions and ‘Personal’ Writing’. College English, Vol. 66, September 2003, p. 22. 38

ibid., p. 23.

39

ibid., p. 23.

40

ibid., p. 28.

41

Cixous, op. cit., 1458.

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Bibliography Banks W., ‘Written Through the Body: Disruptions and ‘Personal’ Writing’. College English, Vol. 66, September 2003, pp. 22-40. Berlin J.A., Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1987. Casey E., Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1993. Cixous, H., ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’. D. Richter (ed). The Critical Tradition: Classical Texts and Contemporary Trends. Bedford, Boston, 1998, pp. 1454-66. Connolly C., ‘Ecology and Composition Studies: A Feminist Perspective on Living Relationships’. C. Weisser & S. Dobrin (eds), Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001, pp. 179-191.Dobrin, S. I., & C. R. Weisser., Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2002. Drew J., ‘The Politics of Place: Student Travelers and Pedagogical Maps’. C. Weisser & S. Dobrin (eds), Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001, p. 57-68. Jarratt S. & Worsham L., Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words. MLA, New York, 1998. Morrison, T., Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Vintage, New York, 1993. Richter, D.H. The Critical Tradition: Classical Texts and Contemporary Trends. Bedford, Boston, 1998. Worsham L., ‘Writing Against Writing: The Predicament of Ecriture Féminine in Composition Studies’. P Harkin & J Schlib (eds), Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age. Modern Language Association, New York, 1991, pp. 82-104.

1

Biographical Note

Mary Stroud is a part-time lecturer at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California and continues to teach outdoor environmental education at summer camps on a part-time basis.

Chapter 14

Authentic Places, Local Identity and Environmental Discourses Chiara Certomà This paper is intended to provide a critic perspective on the definition of places authenticity as proposed in the conventional environmental discourses. It suggests that, by following a very widespread view, modernity is considered responsible for the loss of authenticity and the consequent disenchantment of the world. However, environmental discourses claiming for the defence of places authenticity and adopting a rhetoric of nostalgia for a loss primeval relation between humans and nature are liable of some critics. In particular, these refer to the essentialist definition of local places and cultures and to the relevance of the underlying power geometries. In order to inquire the possibility for a more positive gaze on modernity an alternative account of modernity is provided, by considering some suggestions from the hybrid geography. A different perspective on places as heterogeneous and porous is proposed together with further developments for the alternative environmental commitment.

Key Words: Environmental discourses, modernity, authenticity, hybridity.

1

Introduction

Conventional environmental politics concerning the protection of places is often based on a classic idea of authenticity, a powerful beacon in the definition of [the] environmental issues. In order to present the issue of authenticity in the modern society two diverse works, produced by very different cultural tradition, have been considered: The ethics of authenticity by Charles Taylor1 and The consequences of modernity by Anthony Giddens.2 The choice is based on the desire of accounting how widespread these considerations are. Even if the tone and the purposes are different, both Taylor and Giddens propose a view of the modern world as a place that irreparably lost its authenticity. What the consequences of this view in the environmental discourses?

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2

Authentic Places, Local Identity and Environmental Discourses

The loss of authenticity

According to Charles Taylor in the pre-modern age: People used to see themselves as a part of a larger order [ . . . ], a ‘great chain of Being’, in which humans figures in their proper place along with angels, heavenly bodies, and our fellow earthly creatures. This hierarchical order in the universe was reflected in the hierarchy of human society [ . . . ]. The discrediting of these orders has been called the disenchantment of the world.3 From Taylor’s complain about the loss of the enchanted order,4 a sense of nostalgia for the past time emerges, because, nonetheless all the benefit deriving from a less “restricted orders”,5 modernity experiences the loss of meaning, the loss of “something worth dying for”.6 As a consequence of this malaise of modernity: “we have lost the contact with the earth and its rhythms that our ancestor had”.7 A similar feeling emerges from Giddens’ thought. In the pre-modern conditions the tie between cultures and nature was continuous but modernity “transforms the world of nature in ways unimaginable to early generations”.8 Traditional cultures were able to handling time and space to insert any particular activity or experience in within the continuity of past, present and future; at the contrary modern societies progressively separated space and time and allow the disembedding and dematerialisation of the social systems. The effect of the technological trust is indeed an alienation from political sphere and a lost of political control “in tackling even vital threats to our lives from environmental disaster”.9 This alienation from political sphere forces people into a sort of “iron cage”.10 However, Taylor argues that there are many points of resistance and that one of these is the whole movement since the Romantic era, which has been challenging the ecological mismanagement, and has been involved in “the preservation of some wilderness area, for instance, the conservation of some threatened species, the protection against some devastating assaults on the environment”.11 The idea of the modern world as a disenchanted world and of places as detached from temporality, disembedded and dematerialised, are both quite widely accepted descriptions of the present time. These are also of central relevance in the environmental debate, especially referring to the protection of places. In classical definitions places are characterised as static, bounded and definable, isomorphic with society and culture settled in, originating a sense of belongingness and authenticity. Their static character is considered the product of a relation between the concept of space and the idea of place: a place comes into existence when humans give meaning to a part of a larger, undifferentiated geographical space.

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Space and time have had a very relevant consideration in philosophical and scientific representation, but, especially in the epistemological understanding, priority interest was accorded to time and the mutual interaction between time and space has been interpreted as a separation. The duration has been excluded from space, so that space lacks, according to this view, of dynamism, movement, and duration: “The historically significant way of imagining space/spatialisation [ . . . ] has reinforced the imagination of spatial as petrification and as a safe haven from the temporal”.12 According to the Vidalian tradition of human geography the natural environment is interpreted as the rough material with which human societies made places. At the same time cultural boundaries of every specific culture enclose coherent and homogeneous fraction of space.13 This isomorphism is a product of the social geographical construction.14 Marc Augè15 argues that to establish a double binding between cultures and places (i.e. places as product of a defined culture and culture as product of a bounded place) is the main effort of every mythology of foundation which originates a sense of belongingness. This is a form of legitimisation of the appropriation, definition and modification of a place, through a narrative that represent a (supposed) exhaustive interpretation of a society precisely located in space and time. The narrative of belongingness naturalises the sense of place, which is the individual and collective meaning of being in a defined somewhere. Places that lack a sense of place are something referred to inauthentic, they could be anywhere. A space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity a ‘non-place’.16

3

The authenticity of places in the conventional environmental discourses

A place is considered authentic when it maintains the classical features and it has not been corrupted by modernity. This represents a powerful source of inspirations for some conventional17 environmental rhetoric, such as some international documents or more radical environmental programmes which base their communication on iconographic and sentimental images.18 Authentic places are ‘pure’ in the sense described by Douglas in Pureness and Danger.19 She refers pureness to the absence of contamination, of pollution, not only in ecological sense but in historical, social or cultural sense as well. Pollution is a particular class of danger associates with ambiguity that emerges from the absence of control and definition. Authenticity represents a source of enchantment deriving from the cyclic refraining time that enables the predictions and supports the existence of the tradition, the belief in the marvellous, the faith in permanence and stability of material signs as well as symbolic systems. From the loss of this pre-modern enchantment derives a narrative of nostalgia often romanticised in the environmental literature that retells the old story of the fall from Grace, the expulsion

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from the Garden. In terms of environmental claims places are often conceived as pre-given and discrete entities based on some eternal authenticity from where the becoming is excluded, so that several environmental declarations consider that “deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nations of the world”.20 Furthermore, environmental politics on places protection is frequently based on the empowerment of local people which enables strategies of romantic othering by eco-planners, policy makers, activists and tourists.21 This ensures locals, to be the owners of a special relation with the place and part of the conservation process. Efforts by international environmental organisations, individuals and networks, to sustain their struggle for the preservation of their home place, confirm them the legitimacy of their cause.22 At the same time, the locals’ discourses become more politicised by internalising a language of rights, of political struggle and scientific description which confers them authority.23 Some questionable points emerge from this approach.

4

Questioning the conventional environmental defence of places

This rhetoric and essentialist account of an increasingly fast loss of identity may call for a backward-looking defensive reaction. The idea of local community as homogeneous, harmonic, environmental friendly (as well as conception of places as bounded and undisturbed) is the product of an essentialist view because, probably, there is no such thing as a place or a community per se, but there are constructions of discourses and practices that define what kind of world do people want to live in.24 Ironically, the homogeneity of places are quite often defended by people “who belong to more than one world, speak more than one language (literally and metaphorically), inhabit more than one identity, have more than one home”.25 Environmental discourses practitioners, from in-between, produce the idea of authenticity of places as valuable (partly or completely) from the outside, because of their awareness of different less valuable possible becomings of a place. This romantic production of authentic places and locals implies that ‘international biodiversity conservation programs and ecotourism are both (related) forms of western hegemony, and [ . . . ] together they fail spectacularly to deal with global inequality’.26 The underpinning values, such as the value of biodiversity, of cultural heritage, or posterity rights, are not as inherent as some conventional environmental discourses assume to be. 27 The idea that locals, especially if qualified as indigenous, have a more direct access to nature because of their maintenance of traditional value, and a privileged understanding of environmental issues, has been questioned from an epistemological point of view by Bruno Latour28 :

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Non western cultures have never been interested in nature; they have never adopted it as a category; they have never found a use for it. On the contrary, Westerners were the ones who turned nature into a big deal, [ . . . ] a formidable moral gigantomachy [which] constantly brought nature into the definition of their moral order.29 The imbroglio of a deep form of exoticism embraced by western culture, where no primitive harmony or authentic immediateness is present, is perpetuated by the ‘environmentalist myth[that] non-industrial societies possess a degree of ecological wisdom which has been lost in the process of industrial development’.30 However, frequently environmental politics of defending places authenticity is supported by local people. In these cases locals consider modernity as a process of subversion of any structured orders and rule, as moral contaminations, and physical destruction. The localist effort to conserve the dominant rule of the local community joints the conservative aspect of some environmental discourses. The problem is that the blood and soil narrative of authenticity is frequently the result of silencing otherness in defining the place desirable features.31 To embrace the romanticised ideal of noble savage, who is a disinterested natural custodian of the environment, disregards that local inhabitants might be very proprietarial about their land and resources, and deeply resent the idea that foreigns have any right to unilaterally declare them in need of conservation or to limit their economic activities. In the conventional environmental discourses is often assumed that locals are satisfied with their lifestyle (subsistence or traditional lifestyle), have limited material and financial aspirations and ‘are not annoyed by the enormous gulf between their level of affluence and that of the foreign conservationists, consultants and tourists whom they interact with on a regular basis’.32 Furthermore, in some cases, the conventional environmental politics may become part of the same iron cage they are supposed to break.33 It is not unusual that large corporations and international institution, local governments and big environmental association discovered the currency of environmentalism and ‘environmentalism is now a pillar of establishment orthodoxy’.34 This means that the issue of places protection, as the others environmental issues, are not a matter of authenticity, of scientific or spiritual Truth, of pursuit of higher values, but it’s a matter of competing political projects in a always dynamic and global frame.

5

An alternative approach to modernity

The (supposed) power of moderns resides in their ability to maintain the distinction between human culture and natural beings as unbridgeable distance. The price of this power which moderns ascribed to themselves is the impossibility to think themselves in continuity with pre-moderns and part of the Great Chain of Beings. They managed to hidden the process of mediation (consisting in creating

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“mixtures between entirely new types of beings, hybrids of nature and culture” 35 ) by “conceiving every hybrids as a mixture of two pure forms”.36 Nonetheless separation between non human nature and humans has never been effective. Hybrids are everywhere, they are the cyborgs, the trickers, the monsters generated from the overlapping realities of the world.37 The possibility of interaction, interference or co-creation of hybrids is the result of a deep appreciation of co-dependence that enacts an increasing differentiation and the consequent relational identification. The reference to the hybrid reality constitutes the peculiar feature of the alternative account of modernity. Environmental discourses are often based on the claims for getting back to nature as if it is a separate realm from society (particularly from modern industrial urban society). This explains why very often radical environmental organisations campaign on the same ground that their supposed “enemies”, such as economic corporations and life-science companies, arguing for the necessity to supply to the limits of the nature.38 If, as in the present work says, the main features of modernity consists in the dichotomist differentiation of the natural from the social and the (supposed) breaking of the order of being, by assuming the realist account of nature, the iron cage will be preserved instead than opened by environmental claims. At the contrary, any a priori division between society and nature is dissolved in the hybrid theory and a different politics is requested to take into account the fate of organism as well as machines, nonhuman natural elements and relations. Instead of two separated realms, the world is composed of a multiplicity of relations that connects together very different kind of beings, not in form of pre-given entities but in form of constituting realities with an effective causal potentiality. The space of overlapping hybrids entities suggests also the possibility for an alternative account of modernity not as a disenchanted but as an enchanted world. Jane Bennet39 provide an interesting attempt to reverse the image of modernity as disenchanted place of death and alienation, of control and disembodied freedom, compared with a golden age of cosmological coherency or a dark pre-modernity. The enchantment refers to a ‘condition of exhilaration or acute sensory activity’, a ‘surprising encounter, a meeting with something that you did not expect and are not fully prepared to engage’.40 Bennet introduces a view of the world, not as a re-enchanted but as an already (or still) enchanted place where the marvellous emerges everyday from the practices of hybridity.41

6

The authenticity of heterogeneous places

Competing political projects on the future of a place usually assumed the realist approach as framework for the creation of different narratives. An interesting example of this process can be found in the market theory where the image on a geographical area is said to

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Show the values which the various groups connect to the area, to its characteristics and its identity. It is in this way that groups take possession of a geographical space, synthesizing their view of the area in stereotypes and ‘labels’ and creating ‘myths’ through the selective narration of the social, economic and historic characteristics of the area.42 According to this view the contestation of places is mainly based on the diverse geographical imaginations (several possible images of the area), competing for the imposition of a narrative over the others. Actually, the intent of this paper is to provide a different account of the production of these politics. They are seen not only as a human production but as the effect of mixed or hybrid realities overlapping and effectively produce multiple narratives, not only linguistically but also practically operating. The political relevance is not just superimposed by human rationality but is the ongoing effect of a co-definition process between acting, thinking, refraining, projecting, speaking and interacting of the different dynamic components of the overlapping hybrid networks. This view decentres the social agency intents, Recognising it instead as a relational achievement and it decouples social agency from the logocentric assumptions that restrict the capacity to act or to have effects to human beings, admitting others players to the networks of social life.43 This approach implies that the conception of nature or environment as something fixed and external should be substituted by a conception of the world as in commotion. Authenticity and enchantment emerge “within the routine, interweaving of people, organism, elements and machines as these configure the partial, plural and sometimes overlapping time/spaces of everyday living”.44 Special implications follow on for the environmental issues because they may not be seen anymore as a matter of technical definition of authentic features to preserve, of wildlife lists or images of the surviving natural (and so legitimate) elements in the untidy and indefinable modern world. The notion of places as settled, bounded, homogeneous and coherent could be replaced by a concept of place as meetingplace: “the location of the intersections of particular bundles of activity spaces, of connections and interrelations, of influences and movements”.45 By following Massey,46 the aim is not to deny the identity of places and the sense of belongingness people can feel, but to reject the parochialism and the exclusivities that a commitment to place can produce as a response to globalisation; and on the other hand to hang on to a genuine appreciation for the specificity of local area. This requires a different account of identity not as a bounded, enclosed and pure, but as essentially porous and open, linked with other places. Across these permeable boundaries things move constantly and identities merge and blend. 47 The place specificity is the result of a construction out of a particular constellation

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of relations between creole networks, hybrid entities, mixes, hackers, invasions, viruses and fluxes: “a product of interrelations –connections and disconnectionsand their (combinatory) effect”.48 Their specificity is continually reproduced from a number of heterogeneous sources and conflicts over the definition of what should be considered heritage and what should be the development. As a result: Uniqueness is constructed (and reconstructed) from combinations of local characteristic with those wider social relations. Place is an articulation of that specific mix in social space-time. Nowhere else can have precisely the same characteristics, the same combination of social processes.49 The peculiar feature of every place is not furnished by a pre-given collective identity or some eternal geographical features, but precisely from the “throwntogetherness”,50 a negotiation of here and now which must take place between both human and nonhumans. The nature itself is constantly moving and this problematizes any notion of intrinsic indigenity. Every place is the outcome of temporary meeting up of cultures, history, political design, geological events, economic strategies, animals population, with environmental feed back, technological products, information produced by every organism and so on. Their future is always to be negotiated. Flows and interconnections enveloping the world (as well as individual identity in the frame of a local culture) may be variously structured according to the position, the history, the aspirations and the physical bounds. They structure complex power-geometries that connect people, places, objects, information, and processes around the globe by giving a different weight to every single relation.51 Normally the political debate is concerned as only involving the human society but in the presented view, the space of the political antagonistic negotiations should be enlarged to include the nonhuman entities of hybrid networks. This approach avoids the romanticism but recognise the “place-specific conjunction of human and nonhuman trajectories and it politically addresses the terms of their intersection”.52

7

Conclusion

Places are hybrid entities defined by the overlapping relations, some of them very difficult to identify or acting from geographical and temporal distances. Open places are considered to be dynamic, fuzzy, and extroverted. Their porous boundaries explain strange presences, embarrassing links, inexplicable similarities in living organism and cultures: the intense presence of Australian threes in Cyprus, a Muslin community in Chiapas, Chinese musical elements in Giacomo Puccini works . . . . The fear of authenticity loss can be prevented by providing a different meaning of authenticity, namely the authenticity considered as the unique possible combination of material and not material relations: an inclusive authenticity that

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can be challenged and contested by the different ‘forms of life’ deriving not only from a diverse interpretations of the same reality or from a merely cultural construction of it, but from the several overlapping material and not material realities that define the specificity of a place. This new authenticity questions every effort of categorization, taxonomic intents or technical management of the external world. At the same time this is much more promising from a political engagement point of view. The environmental politics arena, far from being abandoned, is the proper one to engage a competition between antagonistic view of authenticity, not as something that have been lost, but as something to be create. This would imply a consideration of hybrid and plural actors involved in environmental processes and would be inclusive of new meaning and practices defining the authenticity of a place.

Notes 1

C Taylor, The ethic of authenticity, Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1992 (or.ed. The malaise of modernity, 1991). 2

A Giddens, The consequences of modernity, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1990. 3

C Taylor, The ethic of authenticity, p.3.

4

This loss has been called disenchantment by Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 5


6


7


8

A Giddens, The consequences of modernity, p.60.

9


10

C Taylor, The ethic of authenticity, p.8. The concept of iron cage has been introduced by Weber in the last section of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 11

C Taylor, The ethic of authenticity, p.99-100.

12

D Massey, For space, Sage publications Ltd., London, 2005.

13

C Church & J Elster, Thinking locally, acting nationally: lessons for national policy from work on local sustainability, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2002. 14

P Claval, Geographie culturelle, Armand Colin- VUEF, Paris, 2003.

15

M Augé, Non places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity, Verso, London, 1995 (or.ed. Non-Lieux, Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité, 1992). 16

M Augé, Non places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity,

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p.78. 17

Conventional environmental discourses consider environmental issues as a matter of scientific and technological development or juridical creation of rights and enforcement of procedural norms. The conventional approach is often presented by some institutions, media, corporations and some large environmental organizations as the mainstream view for the protection of nature and human life quality by following a broadly accepted view of green-commitment.. 18

S Whatmore, ‘Heterogeneous geographies. Reimagining the space of N/nature’ in I.Cook, D.Crouch, S.Naylor and J.R. Ryan (eds), Cultural turns/Geographical turns, Prentice Hall, Harlow, 2000. 19

M Douglas, Pureness and Danger. An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979 (or.ed. 1966). 20

General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 1972, Convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage, UNESCO, last update 28 May 2007, http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/. 21

C Katz, ‘Whose nature, whose culture? Private productions of space and the ‘preservation’ of nature’ in B. Brawn and N. Castree (eds.), Remaking Reality, Routledge, London, 1988. 22

JP Brosius, ‘Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representation of Indigenous Knowledge’. Human Ecology, vol.25, nov.1, 1997. 23

JP Brosius, ‘Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representation of Indigenous Knowledge’. 24

U Best and A Stüver, ‘The Politics of Place: Critical of Spatial Identities and Critical Spatial Identities’, in International Critical Geography Groups, For Alternative 21st century geographies. 2nd International Critical geography conference, Taegu University, last update 2 august 2000, http://econgeog.misc.hitu.ac.jp/icgg/intl_mtgs/taeguprogram.html. 25

S Hall, ‘New cultures for old’ in D. Massey and P. Jess (eds), A Place in the World?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, p.206. 26

S Foale and M. Macintyre, ‘Fujichrome Green: The Photographic Fetishization of Biodiversity by Environmentalists’, p.1. 27

Quite often the environmental politics or the environmental discourses are seen by the majority of the local population as something subverting the tradition and the structure of places, in the name of same global values (as the protection of a particular specie from hunting) that are supposed to have the same force everywhere and do not depend upon being agreed upon or not 28

B Latour, Politics of Nature. How to bring the Sciences into Democracy, Harvard University Press, Harvard, 2004 (or.ed. Politiques de la nature).

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29

B Latour, Politics of Nature. How to bring the Sciences into Democracy, p.43.

30

K Milton, Environmentalism and Cultural Theory, Routledge, London, 1996,

p.7. 31

G Rose, ‘Place and identity: a sense of place’, in D. Massey and P. Jess (eds), A Place in the World?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, p.104. 32

S Foale, ‘Where is our development? Landowner aspirations and environmentalists agendas in Western Solomon Islands’. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 2 (2), 2001, p.49. 33

K Milton, Environmentalism and Cultural Theory.

34

C Katz, ‘Whose nature, whose culture? Private productions of space and the ‘preservation’ of nature’, p.51. 35

B Latour, We have never been modern, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1993, p.10 (or.ed. Nous n’avons jamais été modernes, 1991) 36

B Latour, We have never been modern, p.78.

37

D Haraway, ‘The promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others”, p.297. 38

N Castree and T.MacMillan, ‘Dissolving Dualisms: Actor-networks and the Reimagination of Nature’, in N.Castree and B.Braun, Social Nature, Blacwell Publishing, Oxford, 2001, p.219 . 39

J Bennet, The enchantment of modern life. Attachments, crossing and ethics, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2001. 40

J Bennet, The enchantment of modern life. Attachments, crossing and ethics,

p.5. 41

J Bennet, The enchantment of modern life. Attachments, crossing and ethics, p.104. 42

N Bellini, ‘Territorial Governance and Area Image’. ISTEI- Istyituto di Economia d’Impresa and Univesita’ degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, last update 2 August 2006, www.unimib.it/symphonya, p.5. 43

S Whatmore, ‘Heterogeneous geographies. Reimagining the space of N/nature’, p.266-267. 44

S Whatmore, ‘Heterogeneous geographies. Reimagining the space of Nnature’, p.268. 45

D Massey, ‘The conceptualisation of place’, p.59.

46

D Massey, ‘Landscape as a provocation’.

47

D Massey, ‘The conceptualisation of place’, p.64

48

D Massey, For space, p.67.

49

D Massey and P Jess, ‘Places and cultures in an uneven world’ in D Massey

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and P Jess (eds), A Place in the World?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, p.222. 50

D Massey, For space, p.149

51

These present several connections with the environmental justice debate (spatial domination and conflict, environmental racism and classism, unequal distribution of eco-harms). 52

D Massey, For space, p.171.

Bibliography Augé M., Non places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity. Verso, London, 1995 (or.ed. Non-Lieux, Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité, 1992) Bellini N., ‘Territorial Governance and Area Image’. ISTEI- Istyituto di Economia d’Impresa and Univesita’ degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, last update 2 august 2006 Bennet J., The enchantment of modern life. Attachments, crossing and ethics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2001 Best U. and Stüver A., ‘The Politics of Place: Critical of Spatial Identities and Critical Spatial Identities’, International Critical Geography Groups, For Alternative 21st century geographies. 2nd International Critical geography conference, Taegu University, last update 2 August 2000 Brosius J.P., ‘Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representation of Indigenous Knowledge’. Human Ecology, vol.25, nov.1, 1997 Castree N.and MacMillan T., ‘Dissolving Dualisms: Actor-networks and the Reimagination of Nature’, in Castree N.and Braun B., Social Nature. Blacwell Publishing, Oxford, 2001 Claval P., Geographie culturelle. Armand Colin- VUEF, Paris, 2003 Douglas M., Pureness and Danger. An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979 (or.ed. 1966) General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 1972, Convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage, UNESCO, last update 28 may 2007 Foale S., ‘Where is our development? Landowner aspirations and environmentalists agendas in Western Solomon Islands’. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 2 (2), 2001 Foale S. and Macintyre M., ‘Fujichrome Green: The Photographic Fetishization of Biodiversity by Environmentalists’. Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Working Paper no.54, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2004

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Giddens A., The consequences of modernity. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1990 Hall S., ‘New cultures for old’ in Massey D. and Jess P. (eds), A Place in the World?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995 Haraway D., ‘The promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others’ in Grossberg L., Nelson C and Treichler P.A. (eds.), Cultural Studies. Routledge, New York 1992 Hinchliffe S., ‘Inhabiting: Landscapes and Natures’ in K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile, N. Thrift (eds.), The handbook of cultural geography. Sage Publication Ltd., London, 2002 Hinchliffe S., Space for Nature, in printing Katz C., ‘Whose nature, whose culture? Private productions of space and the ‘preservation’ of nature’ in Brawn B. and Castree N. (eds.), Remaking Reality. Routledge, London, 1988 Latour B., We have never been modern, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1993 (or.ed. Nous n’avons jamais été modernes, 1991) Latour B., Politics of Nature. How to bring the Sciences into Democracy, Harvard University Press, Harvard, 2004 (or.ed. Politiques de la nature) Lefebre H., The production of space. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 1991 (or.ed. Production de l’espace, 1905). Massey D., ‘The conceptualisation of place’ in Massey D. and Jess P. (eds), A Place in the World?. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995 Massey D. and Jess P., ‘Places and cultures in an uneven world’ in Massey D. and Jess P. (eds), A Place in the World?. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995 Massey D., For space. Sage publications Ltd., London, 2005 Massey D., ‘Landscape as a provocation’. Journal of Material Culture, vol.11 (1/2), 2006 Milton K., Environmentalism and Cultural Theory, Routledge, London, 1996 Rose G., ‘Place and identity: a sense of place’, in Massey D. and Jess P. (eds), A Place in the World?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995 Taylor C., The ethic of authenticity. Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1992 Whatmore S., ‘Heterogeneous geographies. Reimagining the space of N/nature’ in I.Cook, D.Crouch, Naylor S. and Ryan J.R. (eds), Cultural turns/Geographical turns. Prentice Hall, Harlow, 2000

Biographical Note Chiara Certomà is PhD student in Political Science at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (Italy).

Chapter 15

Environmental Ethics: Core Concepts and Values Mark H. Dixon The common practice in environmental ethics is to attempt to derive our ethical obligations to the natural environment through either the teleological or deontological ethical traditions. The aim here is to articulate more-orless explicit ethical principles or duties to govern our interactions with the natural environment. The problem though is that these attempts are rather abstract and thus miss a crucial realization. Ethics is more than the attempt to formulate abstract theories or rules – it must also reorient or refocus our perceptions and our characters. Even the most persuasive theories will have little value unless human beings are able to internalize them, i.e., to connect them to their lives and experiences. What is it then that can bridge the chasm between principle and action? In the end it is character that provides the motivational connection between ethical knowledge and ethical behavior. This paper attempts to formulate our ethical obligations to the natural environment through certain core concepts and values that an environmental ethics must encompass in order to become and remain a viable ethical force. These core concepts and values, which represent basic philosophical, ecological, spiritual and ethical insights, are: place, interdependence, enough, reverence and compassion. Key Words: Environmental ethics, virtue ethics, place, interdependence, enough, reverence, compassion

1

Theories and Motivations

The purpose in this paper is to explore a conceptual landscape - a virtue theoretic perspective on environmental ethics. The question that underlies and motivates this exploration is: What is the relation between ethical principles and the operative human will? In the Crito it is Socrates’ conviction that to know what is right is to do what is right. Doing evil Socrates argues harms to evildoer as much as the victim,

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Environmental Ethics: Core Concepts and Values

and since no rational human being desires personal harm, no one does intentional evil. The direct implication here is that evil or immoral actions are done through ignorance. Thus the relation between the ethical knowledge and the human will is immediate and direct - to know the moral law is to be moral. Though the details differ Immanuel Kant also argues a similar direct connection between ethical knowledge and ethical behavior in the Foundations for the Metaphysics of Morals.1 The problem is that the empirical evidence belies the connections between the ethical knowledge and ethical behavior that Socrates and Kant envision. While it is perhaps true that ethical knowledge justifies ethical behavior, there is no essential connection between ethical knowledge and ethical behavior and thus no guarantee that such knowledge will motivate ethical behavior. What is it then that can or does motivate ethical behavior? A response to this question lies in the realization that there is more to the situation than either Socrates or Kant imagines. Besides reason and the passions there is one more consideration in the ethical equation - the person’s character. It is this character that provides the motivational connection between ethical knowledge and ethical behavior. Persons with little or no moral character can acknowledge the moral law and nevertheless engage in unethical behavior. Persons who have a virtuous moral character will do more than acknowledge the moral law, their character will increase the chances (there is still no guarantee) that their behavior will be in accordance with the moral law. Character’s role in ethical behavior implies that character and its development is, or ought to be, an essential consideration in environmental ethics. The question then is what constitutes a virtuous moral character? What concepts, attitudes and values encourage ethical behavior? In particular what concepts, attitudes and values would an environmental ethics consider to be essential in order to preserve and sustain the natural environment?

2

Core Concepts and Values

In this paper I shall propose and describe five concepts and values that are essential to a viable ecocentric environmental ethics.2 I believe these are critical in as much as in their absence the character that translates theoretical principles into ethical behavior will have inadequate motivation. These concepts and values are: place, interdependence, enough, reverence and compassion. A

Place

‘Place’ is a phenomenological concept that focuses on the experiential connection to particular places, landscapes or areas within the natural environment. Prior to the industrial revolution individuals and societies were rather immobile - there

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181

was little desire or reason to relocate. Moreover uncertain political conditions meant that relocation was dangerous and sometimes even impossible. There were professions that did require travel - soldiers, musicians and certain craftsmen were in more-or-less continuous movement. These were the exceptions though. As a rule most individual’s lives and occupations, as well as political and religious allegiances, bound them to particular places. As a consequence individuals would develop deep psychological, social and religious connections to particular places that would endure over the generations. So intimate were these associations that certain places would acquire names and even personalities. The more unusual places would even be seen as sites that had special powers, or were homes to spirits, and so would have essential roles in a culture’s collective experiences and stories. Connections to place would also figure in personal identities, i.e., individuals would define themselves through their geographical origins and even incorporate geographical identifiers and place names into their surnames. With industrialization all this changes - social structures and institutions undergo radical changes, larger familial structures collapse, and individuals and their nuclear families become more mobile. The inevitable consequence is that individuals develop no connections to the natural environment. What connections that do develop are to human built places. The problem though is that such places are more-or-less interchangeable - suburban areas, commercial districts, inner cities are indistinguishable as to their actual geographical locations. What clues there are to location are due to the natural elements that remain in the human built environment - palm trees rather than maple trees, orchids rather than roses and so on . . . The crucial realization here is that all experience is particular - it concerns particular occurrences, in particular places at particular times. Where there are no experiential connections to particular geographical places it seems impossible that an experiential connection to the natural environment should arise. It is through one’s ties to specific places that it is possible to generalize one connections and concerns to the larger natural environment. On a phenomenological level one experiences the relation to a place as an psychological, emotional or spiritual connection that inspires love, respect and reverence. On a pragmatic level connection to place imposes limitations on action, since overuse or overexploitation threatens survival.3 Connection to place then, as a experiential connection to the natural environment, is essential to an ecocentric environmental ethics.

B

Interdependence

In Western philosophical and religious traditions human beings set themselves against nature - there is nature and culture, wilderness and civilization, the savage and the humane. This opposition is more than a biological or cognitive distinction

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it has serious ethical implications - human beings are superior to nature. In what John Passmore identifies as the Baconian-Cartesian tradition the implication is that human beings have the right to dominate and control nature.4 Or perhaps even more extreme, in the Fichtean-Hegelian tradition, human beings’ role is to transform nature, and in its transformation to humanize, civilize and spiritualize nature.5 Thus the natural environment becomes a resource to use to realize human ends and, at least in some instances, their realization improves upon nature and increases its value. The environmental and ecological sciences become possible in the realization that there is a fundamental material interdependence between all the entities within the environment. Ecosystems represent adaptive systems, i.e., discrete and discernible entities that have properties it is impossible to reduce to the properties their component entities and processes possess.6 These properties emerge through the components’ structural organization and functional interactions, i.e., through their systemic ecological interdependence - their eco-interdependence.7 This ecointerdependence means that survival is more than an individual issue - it is also a collective issue. What threatens the ecosystem, threatens all the individuals and species within the ecosystem, and what threatens the individuals and species within the ecosystem, threatens the ecosystem. While it is their intricate structural and functional relations that create the material interdependence between an ecosystem’s component entities and processes, in Buddhism there is a concept ‘paticca samupadda’ that describes a fundamental interdependence between all entities on a more metaphysical level. Paticca samupadda is the idea that all entities arise or come to be in relation to other entities. The concept’s usual translation is either dependent origination or dependent co-origination. The implication in dependent origination is that the commonsense inclination to see individual entities as separate and distinct is unjustifiable - there is no independent existence. In Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism there is a concept that expresses this same metaphysical interdependence, though in a more environmental sense - esho-funi. Esho-funi is more than mere ecological interdependence though, it represents a fundamental oneness between living creatures and the natural environment a connection so intimate that the distinction between the environment and its inhabitants is, at this level, an artificial one.8 Where eco-interdependence designates a material interdependence and paticca samupadda and esho-funi designate a metaphysical oneness, the Shinto concept ‘makoto no kokoro’ represents an experiential interdependence between human beings and nature. The concept’s literal translation is ‘heart of truth’ and it describes an experiential awareness that is fundamental to Shinto.9 In Shinto the natural and the human, the material and the spiritual, are inseparable. ‘Makoto’ means ‘truth’, ‘genuineness’ or being as one is.10 As beings

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that live in a natural environment, human beings are intrinsic to that environment. What we see as our personal selves and the natural environment intersect and, to some degree, merge at their respective boundaries. Thus human beings are more than their individual atomistic selves. To be genuine then is to live, as our true nature implies, in rather against the environment. ‘Kokoro’ means ‘heart’ and describes “a resonant responsiveness within the overlap between the world and the person”.11 What resonates in kokoro are the person’s thoughts and emotions in response to nature. ‘Makoto no kokoro’ then means to live in such a manner that one’s internal state mirrors or reflects the environment’s external state. The natural environment that inspires awe and the human being that experiences awe are inseparable components in the same process.12 The conclusion here is inescapable, these diverse concepts demonstrate an interdependence between human beings and the environment that operates across levels - the metaphysical, the material and the phenomenological. The implication here is no less inescapable, the Western philosophical and theological distinctions between human beings and the natural environment have little justification, and as such pose a serious obstacle to a genuine ecocentric environmental ethics and a serious danger (as the historical evidence indicates) to the environment.

C

Enough

In ‘Ecological Footprints of Nations’, Mathis Wackemagel, Larry Onisto, et al calculate 52 nation’s ecological footprints. An ecological footprint measures the average citizen’s consumption level relative to the nation’s ecological production level. Where the average citizen consumes more than the nation is able to produce, there is an ecological deficit. This means that the nation’s consumption levels are unsustainable unless it is possible to acquire the balance through trade or purchase. Where there is less consumption than production there an ecological surplus and the nation’s consumption levels are sustainable. As a global average, there are 1.7 hectares13 available to sustain each person. The average consumption rate however is 2.8 hectares per person. There is then an unsustainable - 1.1 hectares per person global ecological deficit. In the United States the difference between actual consumption and sustainable consumption is even more dramatic. The actual consumption per person is 10.3 hectares and the sustainable consumption rate is 6.7 hectares. The average American’s consumption then is 1.5 times more than is sustainable in the United States, and 6 times more than global production rates are able to sustain.14 In 1992 Americans spent 2 trillion dollars on consumer products and services. In 2004 this had risen to 3.9 trillion dollars - a 95% increase in little more than a decade!15 There can be little doubt that in the United States and other modern industrial societies conspicuous over-consumption has become a religion, and

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its temple is the ubiquitous mall. There can be even less doubt that these consumption levels are unsustainable. As an environmental value ‘enough’ focuses on the difference between needs and desires. A need is a requirement - a requirement whose satisfaction is essential to one’s survival. These are, at a minimum, certain basic material needs sustenance, shelter and clothes. It is perhaps also plausible to include as a basic psychological need love and as a basic social need a means to earn a livelihood. In contrast to these needs, desires represent non-essential interests or preferences. The problem is that while needs are finite, i.e., there is a satiation point, desires are infinite. No matter what one has, it is possible to desire more. It is desire that sets into motion the consumer cycle - labor, purchase, consume, labor, purchase consume . . . The fundamental realization here is that it is possible to live, and to live well, without being able to have all that one desires - that it is possible to have enough. There is no essential relation between how much one has and how well one lives. In general to have enough means to use no more resources than one’s well-being requires. In practice it means to live a more minimal or simple existence, it means to use less and to conserve more. To some the ideas ‘minimal’, ‘simple’ and ‘less’ summon images that are closer to deprivation and destitution that what the ideas are meant to communicate. It is essential to dispel such images. To have enough means more than bare subsistence. Less resource use is consistent with being able to use more than the bare minimum it requires in order to survive. What it requires is that we use resources in a manner that is sustainable and that will ensure that future generations have adequate resources available to ensure their well-being. Thus it is critical to use no more than the environment is able to replace through natural processes. Thus a simpler existence is compatible with a prosperous existence. There is a direct connection between the awareness that one has enough, that a simpler existence is possible and desirable, and the realization that one has obligations to the environment to ensure that one’s lifestyle is sustainable so that others (human as well as non-human) have enough as well. D

Reverence

Awe, deep respect, dread, otherness, one’s own insignificance, the other’s magnificence and mysteriousness - all these emotions, experiences and characteristics combine in reverence. To experience reverence then is to be in relation to an other (whether animate or inanimate) and to realize one’s own insignificance in comparison to the other’s grandeur and magnificence - all our own accomplishments, knowledge and dreams are negligible in comparison. It is to recognize that the other is mysterious and even ominous - it inspires a certain unease and trepidation. It is to recognize that the other is incomprehensible, enigmatic - there is

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no language even to constrain or describe its nature. The inevitable responses to these realizations are veneration, awe and a deep respect. In the Western philosophical and theological traditions reverence has its principal role in the relation between human beings and the divine. In indigenous cultures and in certain Eastern philosophical and theological traditions though, reverence is seen as a proper response to more than the divine. This is perhaps because the divine receives such radical reconfigurations in these traditions. In some traditions the divine is thought to be co-extensive with or in the material universe. In other traditions there are multiple divinities that dwell in and protect particular places or entities. Their presence communicates a spiritual or divine aspect these places or entities. There are also traditions in which there are no divine beings though the natural environment is nevertheless seen as being divine or spiritual in its fundamental nature. Whatever the precise relation between the divine and nature, as an environmental value, reverence is seen as a proper response to the natural environment. Nature’s magnificence, its splendor, its power and human beings absolute and complete dependence upon it inspires awe, dread and deep respect - reverence. To revere nature though is more than an attitude or response to its wonders, it also imposes certain obligations and duties upon human beings. That nature requires such deep respect means that it must be seen to have value in its own right, rather than mere instrumental value. While the natural environment’s use is permissible, it should be obvious that manipulation and wanton destruction are incompatible with its reverence. Reverence then is essential to a genuine environmental ethics. The spiritual aspect in particular that reverence encompasses imposes fundamental limitations on the natural environment’s use and treatment.

E

Compassion

A core virtue in Buddhism is karuna - compassion. Compassion requires more than that one sympathizes with others’ conditions or even that one loves others. It means that one empathizes with their conditions, i.e., in a real sense that one shares their pains and sorrows. It also means that one desires to ease those pains and sorrows, and that one’s actions are consistent with this desire. In Buddhism it is sentience that determines moral status, thus human beings must direct their compassion to all beings that can experience pleasure and pain. What an ecocentric environmental ethics requires is that we enlarge the moral realm even more to include certain inanimate entities and even ecosystems. Thus compassion becomes the appropriate response to their existence as well. It is all too obvious that, as a general rule, human beings restrict their compassion to other human beings and even here its application is selective rather than universal. Non-human animals receive much less compassion and inanimate entities and ecosystems little or none. That compassion is at least a plausible

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response to non-human animals’ conditions is undeniable (even where there is little compassion in practice). That it is even possible to be compassionate to plants, inanimate entities and entire ecosystems is more controversial - some would argue impossible. The first stage in the moral realm’s expansion is to see all living beings as compassion’s proper beneficiaries. This is the basic conviction that underlies and motivates biocentrism. To be alive is to have interests (at a minimum the interest to remain alive) and to have interests means that what others do can either promote or harm those interests. Though controversial, this seems at least plausible. To treat all living beings with compassion then is to acknowledge and respect their interests. It also indicates the willingness to promote these interests. Since it is undeniable that neither stones, rivers, mountains nor ecosystems are living beings what possible interests could there be to acknowledge or respect? The interest to remain as one is seems neither plausible nor practical. Change is intrinsic to existence - inanimate and animate. Perhaps a more viable candidate is the interest to avoid trivial use or gratuitous destruction. To the degree the previous concepts and values - place, interdependence, enough and reverence shape one’s character, it seems essential to acknowledge such interests, and thus the need to be compassionate. Nevertheless there seems to be an experiential chasm here. That one can imagine and be empathetic to other human beings’ or animals’ pain seems obvious enough. That one can even imagine a plant’s damage, let alone see it as pain, is a considerable conceptual and experiential leap. To see a plant wither under intense sunlight or regain its luster after being given water though, does have a certain familiar experiential aspect to it and can encourage our concern and motivate our actions. Nevertheless the conceptual and experiential leap that it requires to be able to imagine a stone, or river, or mountains, or ecosystem’s ‘experiences’ seems more than considerable, to most it would seem impossible. Perhaps though this limitation has more to do with Western philosophical and theological biases, than with strict impossibilities. Native Americans seem to have no problem with such a leap - indeed to them there is no leap at all. That the earth, trees and stones can experience pain is so obvious as to be axiomatic, and the proper response is compassion.16 Compassion then is a core value that must underlie our interactions with the natural environment. To the degree that it does it will guide our interactions with the natural environment and place serious limitations on its use and exploitation.

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Conclusion

While each concept and value here is, on its own, essential to an ecocentric environmental ethics, their real power emerges in their interactions within the individual. These interactions create a unique multi-dimensional mindset that alters the person’s Lebenswelt in fundamental respects. Within this Lebenswelt human beings are able to recognize that there is a fundamental connection to the environment that obviates the unreflective distinction between our selves, in the restrictive Western philosophical and theological sense as atomistic or monadic, and the natural environment. We experience this interdependence through connections to particular places - connections so intimate as to determine our selfidentities. This interdependence also encourages a compassionate awareness and concern that embraces the inanimate as well as the animate - it is possible to harm the earth as well as what lives on it and within its dominion. Thus to harm the natural environment is to harm ourselves in a quite literal, rather than a mere instrumental, sense. The concept ‘enough’ contributes the awareness that there is no essential connection between well-being and happiness and acquisition and over-consumption. Indeed acquisition and over-consumption are destructive to the environment and to ourselves, and as such obstacles to be overcome. Reverence more than the other concepts and values here introduces a spiritual element. It is a response to the environment’s non-material, though no less real, characteristics - its magnificence, splendor and mysteriousness. A response moreover in which nature is seen to have value in its own right and to deserve our respect and protection. Will it be simple or unproblematic to embrace and encourage these concepts and values? A response other than ‘no’ would be disingenuous. These ideas will require fundamental changes in attitudes and lifestyles. It will be hard - survival often is. The critical realization though is that in contrast to other dualities, survival’s opposite is untenable.

Notes 1

In the Foundations Of The Metaphysics Of Morals, Kant argues that, as rational beings, and thus ends-in-themselves, human beings legislate the moral law, i.e., within the moral realm rational beings are legislators as well as citizens. To legislate the moral law and nevertheless refuse to act in accordance with its dictates then is inconsistent with human beings’ rational nature. 2

Though there will be differences in importance and interpretation, it should be obvious that these same commitments are also essential in the other common environmental ethical theories - anthropocentrism, sentientism and biocentrism. 3

See Anna Peterson, Being Human: Ethics, Environment, And Our Place In The World, The University Of California Press, Berkeley, 2001.

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4

J Passmore, Man’s Responsibility For Nature, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1974, pp. 20-24. 5

Passmore, pp. 33-35.

6

Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications, George Braziller, New York, 1969, p. 55, and Ervin Laszlo, The Systems View Of The World: A Holistic Vision For Our Time. The Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, 1996, p. 17. 7

So as to be able to use ‘interdependence’ in a more generic sense, I shall use ‘eco-interdependence’ to describe the material or ecological interdependence that exists between the entities within the natural environment. 8

Nichiren Daishonin, The Major Writings Of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 4, Nichiren Shoshu International Center, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 145-154. 9

I owe this translation, as well as an instructive discussion about the concept makoto no kokoro, to Dr. Hideo Nishimura, Dr. Fumihiko Tochinai and Dr. Hidekazu Kanemitsu, professors at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Japan. 10

Thomas P Kasulis, Shinto: The Way Home, The University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2004, p. 24. 11

Kasulis, p. 25.

12

Kasulis, p. 26.

13

1 hectare = 2.5 acres.

14

Wackemagel, Mathis, Larry Onisto, Alejandro Callejas Linares, Ina Susana López Falfán, Jesus Méndez García, Ana Isabel Suárez Guerrero, and Guadalupe Suárez Guerrero, Ecological Footprints of Nations: How Much Nature Do They Use? - How Much Nature Do They Have?, Report to the Earth Council, Costa Rica, 1997, viewed on March 5, 2006, <www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/ english/footprint>. 15

Statistical Abstract of the United States, U.S. Census Bureau, 2006, Table 1016, p. 674. 16

See David Suzuki and Peter Knudtson (eds), Wisdom Of The Elders: Sacred Native Stories Of Nature, Bantam Books, New York, 1992.

Bibliography Abram, David, The Spell Of The Sensuous: Perception And Language In A MoreThan-Human World. Vintage Books, New York, 1996. Brinkman, John T., Simplicity: A Distinctive Quality Of Japanese Spirituality.. Peter Lang, New York, 1996. Fricker, A., ‘The Ethics of Enough’. Futures, vol. 34, 2002, pp. 427-433.

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Goodenough, Ursula and Paul Woodruff, ‘Mindful Virtue, Mindful Reverence’. Zygon, vol. 36(4), December 2001, pp. 585-595. Kant, Immanual, Foundations Of The Metaphysics Of Morals, 2nd Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1989. Kasulis, Thomas P., Shinto: The Way Home. The University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2004. Laszlo, Ervin, The Systems View Of The World: A Holistic Vision For Our Time. The Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, 1996. Marietta, Don E. Jr., ‘Back to the Earth with Reflection and Ecology’, in Eco-Phenomenology: Back To The Earth Itself. Charles S. Brown and Ted Toadvine (eds), State University of New York Press, Albany, 2003, pp.121-138. Matsumoto, Shigeru, Motoori Norinaga. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1970. Nichiren Daishonin, The Major Writings Of Nichiren Daishonin, Volume 4. Nichiren Shoshu International Center, Tokyo, 1986. Passmore, John, Man’s Responsibility For Nature. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1974. Plato, Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo. Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis, 1981. Peterson, Anna, Being Human: Ethics, Environment, And Our Place In The World. The University Of California Press, Berkeley, 2001. Picken, Stuart D.B., Sourcebook In Shinto: Selected Documents. Praeger, Westport, CT, 2004. Suzuki, David and Peter Knudtson (eds), Wisdom Of The Elders: Sacred Native Stories Of Nature. Bantam Books, New York, 1992. von Bertalanffy, Ludwig, General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. George Braziller, New York, 1969. Wackemagel, Mathis, Larry Onisto, Alejandro Callejas Linares, Ina Susana López Falfán, Jesus Méndez García, Ana Isabel Suárez Guerrero, and Guadalupe Suárez Guerrero, Ecological Footprints of Nations: How Much Nature Do They Use? - How Much Nature Do They Have?, Report to the Earth Council, Costa Rica, 1997, viewed on March 5, 2006, www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/ english/footprint.

Biographical Note Mark H. Dixon, Department of Philosophy & Religion, Ohio Northern University, USA.

Chapter 16

Dianoetic Virtues in Addressing a Morally Correct Treatment of Genetic Engineering Rafaela C. Hillerbrand This paper addresses questions on the morally adequate treatment of genetically modified (GM) organisms, or briefly GMO. The choice for or against the use of a certain GM technology is viewed as a genuine decision under uncertainty. This challenges ethical reasoning in so far as for most part of the time moral philosophy has referred to a world in which the morally relevant decision outcomes are both, well determined and knowable. It is shown that the customary approach of treating uncertainty in ethics, that is incorporating elements from decision theory into a welfare-based approach, is only capable of dealing with parts of the problem we encounter with the choice for or against the use of GMO. It is suggested that a virtue ethical approach focusing on dianoetic virtues such as the Aristotelian phronesis is capable of treating the problems of GM which decision theory fails to stand up for. A synthetic approach, combining a welfare ethics which incorporates elements of decision theory and a virtue ethics as known in Antiquity, provides a proper account on the problems we face when dealing with modern technologies such as GMO. Key Words: Genetic modification, virtue ethics, decision theory, ethics of technology, intergenerational ethics, reflective equilibrium.

1

Outline

The paper in hand touches on the problems raised for moral philosophy by the production and the market release of transgenic organisms. More commonly these are referred to as GM, genetically modified, organisms, or briefly GMO. The modification of higher animals and humans is excluded from this analysis, as these issues pose additional conceptual questions. Due to its topicality and its widespread use, we focus on genetic engineering of plants. However the arguments derived in this paper apply equally not only to this ‘green GM’, but also to what some languages refer to as ‘red or yellow’ and as ‘grey or white’ GM, namely the use of genetically modified products for medical therapy or the genetic modification of microorganism for the production of enzymes or fine chemicals, respectively.

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Dianoetic Virtues in Addressing Genetic Engineering

Instead of an overall attitude pro or against GM per se, rather every newly available GM product has to be evaluated individually.1 However, the choice for or against the use of the new product is more often than not a collective decision: Due to, for example, pollen flight even labelling does not give the individual consumer the chance to abstain from a GM organism after its market release. This following analysis aims at providing suitable means for evaluating the use of a specific GM technology.

2

GM and Risk

The topicality of climate change has somewhat displaced the public debate on genetic engineering; fear of GM crops however remain. A recent change in the European Union (EU) regulation2 in June 2007 is grist for the mill of antagonists: According to this new regulation, even ecological food might entail traces (i.e. up to 0.9 %) of GM material. With this new regulation, the EU reacted to the unavoidable fact that when an ecologically tilled field is in close neighbourhood to one where GM crops are used, the ‘ecologically’ tilled products cannot be guaranteed to be free from GM due to pollen flight.3 This is one of several hazards antagonists of GM have always pointed out, and are denoted here as possible ‘one-level’ negative consequences of GM technologies. Apart from this horizontal gene transfer to wild types or feral relatives, one-level hazards comprise the possibility that other genes might be changed involuntarily, the unintentional alteration of the primary or the secondary metabolism of the GM plant, or transgenic plants producing environmental toxins. This entails threats on a second, or ‘derived’ level, namely that higher animals eating the plant lack primary or secondary plant substance, which other organisms are dependent on, or the transgenic plants produce environment toxins. Frequently emphasized is also that GM crops will be used for the production of hybrid seeds, which cannot be saved. Peasants thus might become dependant on biotech companies. Although the latter is not a new threat posed by GM, it is frequently emphasized that this threat might become significantly enhanced by the new technology. An infamous example was given by Monsanto which distributed its herbicide ‘Roundup’, to which only their own GM crops were resistant to. Among the prevalently discussed one-level potentials of GM are the higher yield crops might produce, the possible higher nutrition values of plants, and improvements in other plant substances. Currently available are, for example, the ‘Golden Rice’ that is richer in vitamins than conventional rice, a raps oil optimised for combustion, or several plants with better resistance to pests. It was also experimented, though without success, to improve the shelf life of vegetables such as the infamous Flavr Savr tomato. On a second level, one thus might expect from the use of GM a preservation of the environment as the yield crops that will produce per unit area is enhanced. It is even frequently argued

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that GM has the potential to reduce the numbers of famines in the world. It might also provide former third world countries with more independence. For example, both, India and China, sew their own GM crops in order to become economically more independent from the West. Last but not least it is worth mentioning that concerning the yellow or red GM, the use of new cell lines has already spared some animals from research. Although we mentioned only the most frequently discussed and maybe the most obvious of all the possibly benefits and harms, this list points out one of the most salient features of the decisions for or against GM: It is a genuine decision under risk where both the possible harm as well as the possible benefit are to a large extend unclear and it is not known with certainty which one will occur. The proponents of GM put the dilemma bluntly in the following way: Shall we discard the possibility of developing an economically acceptable way of how to feed a growing world population only for the sake of a highly uncertain harm to something or someone that can be grasped today only vaguely as ‘future generations’ ? The antagonists frame the dilemma differently: Do the possibly severe harms of GM not outweigh its benefits? Thereby antagonists frequently stress solely the severity of the possible harm, while advocates focus only on the estimated, supposedly very low, occurrence probability of this harm. This is not only visible in the debate on GM, but rather for the public discourse on many modern technologies. However, an evaluation of GM firstly has to incorporate both, benefits and harm, as well as their occurrence probability. Secondly, it has to account for the fact that not only the harm of the market launch of GM crops, for example, is uncertain, but also the expected benefit. The latter is rather frequently overlooked — not merely within the sociopolitical debate.4 However, even if crop with enhanced nutrition values were possible, it is not at all clear that it is used to solve problems like world poverty. Note that in particular the vast number of famines nowadays are not primarily due to a lack of resources. Moreover, the research on GM crops is not only financed by governmental money, but to a large extend done within private companies. Similar uncertainties are encountered in the economic benefit expected from the use of GM: The currently pursuit goals in genetic engineering such as total herbicides or products extending the shelf life of perishable goods, only leads to the set goal when one continues along the lines of current productions in the agrarian sector. However if through re-regionalisation and diversification the distance between producer and consumer are shortened and the number of mixed cultivation is enhanced, these achievements even loose their economic benefits for the respective producer.5 The distinction between one-level and derived costs and benefits of the use of GM shall emphasis and help to clarify where the uncertainties in predicting future harm and benefit of GM lie. Even if genetic engineering is from a scientific basis very likely to have the potential to solve many of worlds largest problems, it is, firstly, not clear whether this will be the future line of research in this field.

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Secondly, it is uncertain whether the GM products will at all be used for the advocated good goals.6

3

Classification of Uncertainty

The last section identified the choice for or against the use of GM as a genuine decision under ‘risk’, whereby the term ‘risk’ was used in its demotic meaning, referring to an action with possibly very severe hazards, but which seem to be unlikely to occur. Due to its ambiguous use both within the technical literature as well as within the public, we want to restrain from using the term ‘risk’. Our main focus is set on the fact that the outcomes of the use of GM — benefits as well as harms — are highly uncertain. This poses a major problem for ethical reasoning: Ethical reasoning has for the most part referred to a world in which the morally relevant decision outcomes are both well determined and knowable. This is clearly not the case when reasoning about the aftermaths of the use of GM or of many other ‘new’ technologies. In order to adequately handle decisions under uncertainty, two distinct types of uncertainty are to be distinguished, namely the ‘uncertainty of consequences’ and the ‘uncertainty of demarcation’.7 For problems like the ones posed by GM, both uncertainties are of importance, however the latter is commonly overlooked in the sociopolitical as well as the moral-philosophical debate. A. Uncertainty of consequences Most of the time, the prognosis on the aftermaths of a specific decision are highly unclear. This might be due to the fact that information which may influence the knowledge of the consequences of a decision is not available or is on such a scale that it cannot be assessed adequately by the agent within the time the decision has to be taken. This can be due to contingent features of the specific situation. For example, up to now molecular genetics does not provide an elaborate theory on the aftermaths of changes within one gene for the whole organisms.8 Furthermore, experimental investigations on the influence which GM has on the primary and secondary metabolism of plants is fairly complex, lengthy, therefore immensely costly, and thus is fairly often omitted. Moreover, it might be difficult or even impossible for the layperson, i.e. for policy makers and the general public alike, to distinguish reliable from unreliable information. It might be difficult or even impossible for the moral subject to decide whether the people providing the information are themselves reliable, whether the used methodology is subject to doubt, or even how to determine the relevant scientists for obtaining the information. In the case of GM, one of the most severe problems is due to the fact that the industry does not make all their risk studies public. In summer 2005, sceptical environmental groups had even to go to court in order to get the results of test feeding of rats with GM maize. There may also be limitations in principle to obtaining information about the decision outcomes: The implications that the use of GM crops might have

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on future generations, for example, depend crucially not only on ‘hard scientific facts’, e.g. with respect to horizontal gene transfer, but also on the course of societies, technologies, etc. - a knowledge which in principle remains beyond the grasp of the decision maker. Furthermore decisions might touch on systems that do not allow for certain predictions: Complex systems entail feedback processes and therefore - although the underlying dynamics is purely deterministic - cannot be predicted with certainty as they might exhibit chaotic behaviour. As a paradigm of a complex system one might refer to the climate system; in the context of GMO however it has to be pointed out that most sociological systems, the economy, the biosphere etc. are indeed complex systems.9 B. Uncertainty of demarcation Before one can actually reason about the aftermaths of the use of GM crops, one has to start with some demarcation of the decision itself. Here the uncertainty of demarcation denotes the fact that not in every decision situation is it established how to determine the ‘decision horizon’10 : The scope of the decision or even which problem the decision is supposed to solve might be unclear. Thereby it seems a general phenomenon that different interest groups set the decision horizon differently: For GM crops, many proponents focus only on the benefits for poor countries on a short time-scale, while opponents have a stronger tendency to include also the more distant future. Has the reasoning about the market launch of any GM technology really to incorporate thinking about the political misuse of that technology? And if so, do we have to reason about misuse in the form of large-scale eugenic programs or totalitarian control over life, or do we also have to evaluate that the possibility to perform categorically forbidden acts is enhanced for anybody by this new technology?11 In order to elucidate the importance of the demarcating of the decision horizon, it is instructive to look at the currently very heated public dispute on climate change: It is under debate as to whether a possibly man-made climate change can be discussed independently of problems connected to the use of energy resources whose usage emits no greenhouse gases, such as nuclear power. Discussing nuclear waste disposal, one might ask whether we do or do not have to take into account that future generations might be incapable of reading records on the waste disposal while, at the same time, there will have been no other information transfer from one generation to the next on the subject of nuclear waste disposal. One can continue with an infinite list of related questions. In addition to the sketched issues as regards the decision horizon, the uncertainty of demarcation also entails the problem that it can be unclear whether all the available options have been identified. This constitutes a problem in principle as for many decisions future research might find new ways of how to act. Thus one can never be sure to have identified all the possible decision options. For example, GM is neither the only, nor the most obvious solution to world poverty. C. Prospects and limits of this classification Neither the uncertainty of consequences nor the uncertainty of demarcation can be eliminated in principle. Both

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constitute major challenges for ethical reasoning if it seeks an implementation of its norms in moral practice. However, the classification of risk with respect to context into two subclasses is an ideal type classification as both uncertainties are interrelated. For example, setting the decision horizon has consequences for the uncertainty of the regarded consequences: The wider the chosen decision horizon, the more unreliable are the probability estimates assigned to the possible consequences. One might not be able to obtain frequency estimates and has to rely on subjective probabilities. In the language of technology assessment such kind of situations are referred to as decision under ignorance. Narrowing down the decision horizon, the more reliable are the frequency estimates. Although uncertainty of consequences and uncertainty of demarcation are thus interrelated, the two are conceptually different. It suggests itself to treat both differently: In this way the elaborate framework developed within decision theory, a subject not only of theoretical philosophy, but also of economics and mathematics, can be incorporated into ethical reasoning.

4

How to adequately handle risks

A

Probabilistic decision models

For the moment, we assume the decision horizon to be fixed and focus solely on the uncertainty of consequences. We do not discuss in detail which kind of decision model is suitable for evaluating the aftermaths of GMO use. However two things shall be stressed. Firstly, the question on how to deal with the uncertainty of consequences can be answered solely within decision theory. Secondly, the widely applied expected utility theory, short EUT, does not seem adequate for evaluating the aftermaths of GM technologies. EUT judges a decision solely in terms of the harms and benefits which can be expected on average. This is reasonable only if the entire information on the probability distribution is entailed in the mean, i.e. when the limiting distribution is Gaussian. However there is no a priori reason why this should be the case for the aftermaths of GM - in particular as they touch on complex systems like the biosphere or economic system. A decision theory incorporating not only the mean, but higher moments of the distribution as well seems more adequate. Note that this is an argument against the use of EUT in the context of GM on empirical grounds and differs from the moral arguments frequently raised against EUT. When settling the question on how to deal with the uncertainty of consequences within some decision theoretic framework one has to presuppose that the consequences have been evaluated ‘properly’ in a preliminary step. How to actually do this has to be determined by ethical reasoning and not by decision theory. Though this constitutes a severe problem, it is not specific for ethical considerations under uncertainty as they are characteristic for the debate on GMO. We therefor do not discuss this issue in more detail here.

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Notes on the Precautionary Principle

It is frequently argued that for very severe harm, its occurrence probability is irrelevant for ethical reasoning. Within decision theory such types of decisions models are known as maximin strategies: The worst outcomes which we can possibly imagine have to be avoided at any price. This implies, for example, that no matter how high the possible benefits of a GM product for curing or preventing AIDS are, if there has been no time or money for extensive testing that rule out the threat of a change in DNA which might in the long run constitute a major threat for the existence of mankind, it is forbidden to launch this GM technology. Within applied philosophy and political and juridical sciences, this decision guideline is referred to as ‘precautionary principle’. As there are various definitions of the precautionary principle in the literature, it shall be stressed that here the precaution principle is understood as the rule that one should never engage in a technological development or application unless it can be shown that this will not lead to large-scale diasters or catastrophes.12 The example above revealed that the precautionary principle in its strong form can yield behaviour guidelines which contradict some intuitive moral judgments. Disregarding probabilities can be problematic also on other grounds. For example, quite often the worst case scenario is counter determined by the occurrence probability. Moreover, the precautionary principle simplifies the real moral dilemma which GM or other technologies pose.13 Philosophers arguing for applying the precautionary principles presuppose a distinction between act and omission: Only the consequences of the application of GM are considered, however the aftermaths of not using it are not taken into account. Assuming that the act-omission distinction cannot be justified on moral grounds in the case considered here, the introduction of a new technology, this procedure amounts to setting a wide decision horizon when estimating the hazards of the application of a new technology, while at the same time using a narrow decision horizon when estimating the consequences of not using it. This inconsequent evaluation does not do justice to the complexity of the decision for or against the use of a certain GMO, where frequently enormous benefits are at stake, both when using and when abstaining from it.

5

Rehabilitating of virtue ethics: judgment as a supplementation of rules

As argued above, a welfare based approach incorporating elements of decision theory seems able to deal with the uncertainty of the consequences of GM. However before being able to do this, the decision horizon has to be set — a procedure itself subject to uncertainties. Decision theory hardly touches on the problem of how to set the decision horizon. An exception is L. J. Savage14 who proposes a formal approach to this problem. However, the relevant question for tackling the

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uncertainty of demarcation, namely, to state criteria on how to form this partition, is not answered by Savage or in any other decision theoretical approach.15 S. O. Hansson lists some criteria which can supplement Savages’ account, and thereby illustrates most lucidly the difficulties that arise when one wants to state context-independent criteria to determine the decision horizon16 . Settling the demarcation problem depends on many context-dependent aspects, for example: Do some of the actions have similarity with any decision in the past? What is the nature of the system our decision is touching on, does it entail feedback processes? . . . Answering these questions, we have to take into account that on the one hand it speaks in favour of a wide decision horizon that only thereby we can account for the complexity of the actual situation. On the other hand, due to cognitive limitations, wide decision horizons are extremely difficult to handle.17 In order to account for the problem related to un unfinished set of decision options, we can distinguish between three different approaches: (i) Postponing the decision and hoping that at some later time we will know more about possible decision options, (ii) solving the problem permanently now, although we may have not yet identified most of the possible actions, or (iii) settling for a preliminary solution while at the same time looking for further decision options which may qualify as solutions for longer periods or even as permanent ones. Approaches (i) and (iii) clearly entail demands for more research, not only and not even predominantly in the field of genetics, in order to be able to identify yet unknown decision options. Alternative (i) is a distinct option only if doing nothing now is not yet a ‘decision by default’. This seems quite often not to be the case. The question for moral philosophy is as to how to decide on moral grounds which of the three options (i) - (iii) to choose. Again the answer hinges on many contextdependent features, for example, on how settling for one specific scenario, restricts the number of possible future decisions. Furthermore it might be of importance for how long and how extensively alternative decision options have already been searched for or if there were similar decision situations in the past. A solution detached from contingent features of the decision situation seems to be out of reach. We thus want to put forward the claim that any general rule is doomed to fail in treating adequately the problem of the uncertainty of demarcation. With respect to the colloquial use of the term ‘uncertainty’, M. Luntley notes something similar:18 The ethically competent need general rules, but these are not what primarily lie behind ethical competence in decision making. Wise judgement is not constituted by grasp of general rules, but by the attentional skills for finding salience in the particularities of situations. The important element of decision making [. . . ] is the element that turns on the possession and operation of these attentional skills.

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We want to argue that the conceptual skill Luntley mentions should be identified with Aristotle’s dianoetic virtue of phronesis.19 This skill is used in the context of an ethics of science and technology for example by O. Höffe.20 But contrary to Luntley who does not distinguish ‘uncertainties’ which are different with respect to context, we hold the opinion that for treating the uncertainty of consequences adequately, general ‘rules’ of the form given by welfare based ethics seem to be required. A synthetic approach, combining welfare based ethics and a virtue ethics approach as it shall be sketched in the following, might be able to cope with the ‘uncertainty’ of decisions in the full meaning of the word. Höffe follows the antique understanding of phronesis: Judgement in this context labels a certain ability and willingness to identify and to implement the ways and means of how to realize a moral norm in real life situations.21 This antique phronesis as a judgment obliged to judge on moral grounds seems to have been diminished with time: In modernity ethics and judgment seem to decouple, judgment becomes equal to a kind of cleverness that is neutral with respect to ethical reasoning. Although this type of cleverness was already known as panurgia in antiquity,22 it is only in modern times that it seemed to be looked upon favourably. The problems we face when dealing with decisions under ‘uncertainty’, seem to enforce a reversement of this depotensation of the antique phronesis. Not only do the many context-dependent features which seem to be relevant for coping with this uncertainty of demarcation undermine an overall, contextindependent approach in the form of general rules. Rather it seems that the complexity often related to the uncertainty of demarcation implies that quite often only people actually involved with the sometimes rather complex prognosis are able to determine the decision horizon and determine how to treat the unfinished list of options in such a way that it does justice to problems in the real world. But only by first determining the decision horizon, a specific decision situation can indeed be identified as morally relevant. If indeed only specialists who are not experts on moral philosophy are able to do this, the phronesis is of essential importance: For determining the decision horizon, for example, specialist knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient; the people in possession of the relevant knowledge must also have the ability and willingness to determine, for example, the decision horizon on moral grounds. Thus a first task of the phronesis is to distinguish certain decision situations as ethically relevant. A second task of the phronesis is the application of (general) rules. Thus the phronesis arbitrates between general normative rules — as, for example, given a welfare based approach in connection with decision theory — and a specific decision context. This second duty of the phronesis parallels to some extend the duty that according to Kant as to be done by judgement, Kant’s ‘praktische Urteilskraft’. A rehabilitation of an antique dianoetic virtue seems capable of solving problems that are to some extent genuinely modern. But unlike in antiquity, where it

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could be expected that everyone with some experience and the relevant knowledge combined with a certain willingness was able to determine on his own how to act morally correctly in a given situation, this is not the case when we are confronted with ‘uncertainties’ related to decisions that touch on the remote future: First, the complexity makes it indispensable for moral philosophy to provide the moral agent with some general guidelines. Second, the complexity of many prognoses makes it not only impossible for the layperson to judge by its own; rather the nature of the prognoses makes an interdisciplinary assessment inevitable. A paradigm for this is the choice for or against the use of certain GM products.

Notes 1

According to L.J. Frewer et al. 1997, “ ‘Objection’ mapping in determining group and individual concerns regarding genetic engineering” in: Agriculture and Human Values 14, 67- 79, also the objections to the technology do not focus on the technology per se, but rather on specific applications of genetic engineering. 2

EC No 1829/2003.

3

With the help of technology protection system, commonly referred to as TPS, the occurrence of horizontal gene transfer to wild types or feral relatives of the plant completely eliminate it, see S. K. Wertz 2005, “Are genetically modified foods good for you? A pragmatic answer” in: International Journal of applied philosophy 19(1), 129 - 139, page 3. 4

Compare, for example, H. T. Engelhardt, and F. Jotterand 2004, “The precaution principle: a dialectic reconsideration” in: Journal of medicine and philosophy. A forum for bioethics and philosophy of medicine 29(3), pages 301- 312.and K. Moreno 2002, “Ban on genetically modified crops causing starvation, food experts say” CNSNews.com, September 2006, 2002. 5

See Janich/Weingarten 2002, 111f “Verantwortung ohne Verständnis? Wie die Ethikdebatte zur Gentechnik von deren Wissenschaftstheorie abhängt” in: Journal for General Philosophy of Science 33, 85 - 120. Note that what is denoted as first and third level here, is referred to as ‘damping factors’ by Häyry and Takala 1998, “Genetic engineering and the risk of harm” in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 1, 61 - 64. 6

Similarly, K. Nolan and S. Swenson 1988, “New tools, new dilemmas: Genetic frontiers” in: Hastings Center Report, November 1988, 40 - 46. note on the research in human molecular genetics and its aspired future benefits: “If human molecular genetics is to function well in improving medical car, complex judgments about appropriate use will be unavoidable.” (page 44). 7

This typology follows loosely S.O. Hansson 1996, "What is philosophy of risk?", Theoria. vol 62:169-186. 8

See e.g. Janich/Weingarten 2002, “Verantwortung ohne Verständnis? Wie die

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Ethikdebatte zur Gentechnik von deren Wissenschaftstheorie abhängt” in: Journal for General Philosophy of Science 33, 85- 120. 9

The term ‘complex system’ always stands for the technical terms, referring to systems with a large number of degrees of freedom which are interrelated via feedbacks. 10

See Hansson 1996, page 37 and Savage 1954, The Foundations of Statistics, New York: John Riley, page 83. 11

See Häyry/Takala 1998, 61f.

12

For more information on this strong version of the precautionary principle in the context of GM see Engelhardt/Jotterand 200. Note in particular that the notion ‘precautionary principle’ within a judical context differs from this use in moral philosophy. 13

See section 2 in this paper.

14

See Savage, L. J. (1954). The Foundations of Statistics, New York: John Riley. 229 p. 15

See, for example, Savage 1954, 16; Spohn, W. (1978), Grundlagen der Entscheidungstheorie, Kronberg/Ts.: Scriptor, 216 p, page 63. 16

S. O. Hansson 1996, 373-375.

17

See Hansson 1996.

18

Luntley 2003, 326. "Ethics in the Face of Uncertainty: Judgement not Rules", Business Ethics: A European Review vol 12(4): 325–333. 19

For example NE, VI 8-19.

20

Höffe 1993. Moral als Preis der Moderne: ein Versuch über Wissenschaft, Technik und Umwelt, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 311 p 21

Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics (EN), VI 8-19.

22

For example Aristotle EN, VI 13.

Biographical Note Rafaela Hillerbrand is a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford. She holds a PhD both in theoretical physics as well as in philosophy. Her current research is on the moral and epistemological issues of global catastrophic risks.

Part II Merits and Drawbacks of Top-Down Approaches

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Chapter 17

Sustainability in Higher Education: Engaging Students in Campus Environmental Audits Stephen Woolpert Campus environmental audits teach students to “think ecologically”. Ecological thinking is a habit of mind which recognizes that individuals are members of larger social and biotic communities, and therefore leads students to consider social and environmental problems to be at least partly their own. Two dimensions of ecological thinking are presented: Systems thinking and Biophilia. Each of these dimensions is nurtured by “pedagogies of place”, learning activities that treat the campus’ landscape and operational practices as subjects of inquiry. By actively studying the environmental impact of their own campuses, students are being educated for a sustainable future. Key words: Sustainability, ecological, education, pedagogy, audits.

1

Introduction

Recent scientific reports on global warming remind us - if we needed reminding of the important ways that each generation of college students is shaped by the larger historical context in which their education takes place. At worst, the planet is now capable of self-destruction in many of its major life systems through human agency. At the very least, it is capable of a violent and irreversible alteration of its chemical and biological constitution. Academic institutions should help students make sense of these larger events. A major theme of the liberal arts tradition, going back at least to Cicero, sees a public purpose to liberal education: to prepare students to contribute responsibly and capably to the common good. Liberal education is uniquely suited to provide students with a fuller understanding of the world and their place in it. However, we face difficult challenges in fulfilling this task with regard to environmental sustainability. Most academic institutions are geographically removed from the obvious effects of environmental degradation. Many students see higher

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education as a means to financial success rather than to responsible citizenship. They interact primarily with other humans and with human-made technologies. University students often feel disconnected from where they live. There is also growing concern about how to prepare students to function in a world that is becoming simultaneously more diverse and more globally interdependent. This conjunction of fragmenting loyalties and multiplying responsibilities makes the tasks of liberal education more difficult, but also more worthwhile. This paper concerns a particular intellectual habit or way of knowing that helps prepare students to contribute to the common good. I term this habit of mind “ecological thinking” - by which I mean thinking about how things fit together, about patterns and interrelationships, and about our solidarity with the living world. Ecological thinking is that integrative habit of mind which recognizes that individuals are members of larger social and biotic communities, and therefore teaches students to consider social and environmental problems to be at least partly their own. Martin Luther King, Jr., exemplified ecological thinking when he said, “All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality . . . Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” 1 I should hasten to add that ecological thinking is not, strictly speaking, “new”. In fact its roots are ancient. It does, however, run contrary to certain tendencies in modern thought. This paper rests on two premises: 1. Given the state of the environment, and the impact of humans on the planet, all students should learn responsible environmental citizenship; and 2. The root cause of the environmental crisis is part and parcel of what modernity believes and acts upon. It is in the very fabric of our lives, not out there somewhere. It arises, as Susan Griffin says, “from a consciousness that fragments existence . . . . The prevailing habit of mind is to consider human existence, and above all human consciousness and spirit, as independent from and above nature.” 2 Therefore, the environmental crisis challenges us to confront taken-for-granted patterns of thinking. The educational challenge is how to bring students to a sustained level of understanding concerning these trends and their consequences. My argument is this: To do so requires an ecological way of seeing how we fit into the larger scheme. Several implicit assumptions of modern thought are counterbalanced by ecological thinking. First, the modern division of academic labor into highly specialized disciplines has bureaucratized knowledge within clear compartmental boundaries. Disciplined inquiry has made impressive achievements that have, until now, overshadowed the fragmentation of thought that comes in their wake. Nonetheless, questions that might have been asked across a whole spectrum of disciplines are rarely posed, much less addressed.

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The dominating influence of anthropocentrism is another taken-for-granted element of modern thought. The nonhuman world is presented as the supplier of natural resources - aspects of earth that satisfy human wants. In this view, the value of that which is nonhuman is a function of its usefulness in human terms. Humans are the center of a fragmented world, surrounded by stacks of imperfect assets crying out for development and management. In most textbooks, for example, the belief that humans have a privileged status among the myriad forms of life is simply assumed. Humans are rarely portrayed as interdependent with other living beings or as individualized expressions of cultural patterns. A third assumption of modernism is reductionism. In many branches of knowledge, the meaning of a thing is found by analyzing the particulars composing it, not by understanding the dynamic relation of those particulars to any Gestalt of meaning. By giving priority to the particulars, reductionism keeps us from seeing things as whole entities. The reductionistic view of the world fosters precise analysis of limited problems. However, it also causes us to lose sight of the larger patterns in terms of which these problems remain intelligible. By contrast, Michael Polanyi explains that we make sense of the world by attending from its particulars to the whole pattern that provides the meaning of those particulars: scientists do this when they incorporate data into theory; doctors do this when they read from the symptoms of illness to diagnose the disease; dancers do this when they resolve the discrete movements of their bodies into patterns of grace, form, and rhythm; it is what poets do when they integrate simple fragments of sense into a poem. It is also what you do as you read these words.3 Finally, modern thought tends to assume that the discrete individual is the basic social unit, overlooking the linkages among persons and within living systems. The separation of "living" organisms from their supportive but "nonliving" environments is ecologically fallacious. But just as classical physics reduced the physical world to the motion of atoms, so political theorists such as Hobbes reduced the patterns observed in society to the behavior of discrete individuals. This enabled him to think of individuals as absolutes, cut of from their surroundings. Recall that life in Hobbes’ state of nature is not just “nasty, brutish, and short,” but also solitary. For his intellectual progeny, such as the classical and neo-liberals, utilitarians, and rational-choice theorists, it is rare to start from the fact that humans are born out of and into relationships. So my argument thus far is that, while the proximate causes of environmental degradation are increasing population, affluence, and technology, modern habits of mind - compartmentalized, anthropocentric, reductionistic, and atomistic thinking - have hindered us, both in academia and in society, from seeing the general nature of the environmental problem until it has become critically advanced. What we need now are “pedagogies of connectedness” that reinsert humanity back into nature.4

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What Is Ecological Thinking?

One primary dimension of this way of knowing is “systems thinking”. Here the term “ecological” means more than just the study of organisms and their environments. In its more general sense, an ecological approach to problems emphasizes relationships. Contrary to the anthropocentric hierarchy, with humans at the top of the biological heap, the pre-eminent metaphors in ecological thought are the web of life and the circle of life. Humans are not located apart from or above the natural world. And unlike reductionism, it is a way of thinking that is grounded in holism, in the consideration of an issue, a topic, or a problem in its larger context. Ecological thinking draws our attention to the emergent, global properties of self-organizing systems–those properties which could not be predicted simply from knowledge of the system’s component parts. Therefore, to think ecologically is to focus on coherent wholes rather than discrete parts; it is concerned with relationships more than objects, with processes more than structures, and with networks more than hierarchies. The boundaries between self and other, between human and nonhuman, and between life and non-life are not absolute or impermeable. Ecological thinking is holistic in temporal as well as spatial terms. Events are systematically connected in both time and space. One of the fruitful consequences of ecological thinking is to break down the barriers isolating one subject from the next so that students can understand more fully how their choices affect both other human beings and the natural world. A familiar motif of liberal education is that it encourages students to “think twice.” Students are beginning to think twice in ecological terms when they ask not “why?” but “and then what?” Systems thinking, however, is only one face of ecological thinking. The etymology of the word “ecology” refers to the study of “home”. One can think about our natural home in both logocentric and mythocentric ways. The logocentric approach refers to reason and demonstrability, and is expressed in systems thinking generally and the science of ecology in particular. It yields empirical understanding of our interdependence with the nonhuman world. But a second major dimension of ecological thinking is mythocentric in character; it consists of an affinity for the natural world, which E.O. Wilson refers to as “biophilia”. 5 Mythos refers to story or fiction. So the mythocentric dimension of ecological thinking is associated with a view of the world as sacred, mysterious, and wondrous. It signifies the subjective aspects of our experience with nature, rather than our objective observations of it. Working with symbols and metaphors rather than logic and measurement, it activates the imagination and the intuition. Until fairly recently, human culture was very much a local phenomenon. Language, diet, clothing, architecture, and religion have traditionally been intimately related to particular locales. People oriented themselves by establishing

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direct and personal relationships to the places where they lived and worked. They possessed a keen knowledge of place that was passed on from generation to generation. In these cultures’ ceremonies, rituals, and habits, nature archetypes are commonplace, such as the Earth Mother, Gaia, the Green Man, and Pan. These mythological figures convey the fecundity, earthiness, and power of the natural world. In the modern world, however, we have come to think of culture as something set apart from the natural world (although interestingly, more people visit zoos in North America than attend all sporting events combined.6 ) Globalization honors no community boundaries, human or natural. Communication technology allows us to live in mediated worlds and virtual realities. Our sense of place is fractured; we feel disconnected from where we live.7 Woody Allen captured this succinctly when he said, “nature and I are two.” Our culture has literally become “dis-placed”; we spend much of our time going somewhere else, in cars or in airplanes. We move to better jobs; jobs move to cheaper labor; products move everywhere. Most of our belongings are supplied from unknown places; our wastes are shipped away and consigned elsewhere, also unknown. The feedback loops between our actions and their consequences in the natural world have become disrupted. A system that lacks feedback is stupid by definition. So in this respect human decisions are becoming decreasingly intelligent and, therefore, increasingly dangerous. The poet William Blake could “see the world in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour”. He was pointing to a sense of the wholeness of things which has been eroded by the development of the modern world view. We have almost completely lost our intimacy with the natural world. When I ask students basic questions about their surroundings - weather patterns, the kind of soil, the phase of the moon - answers to which would be commonplace among pre-modern societies, their first impulse is to do a Google search to find the answers. Do I want them to become hunter-gatherers? No. Biophilia does not mean technophobia. Nor do I mark students down if they are afraid of snakes. But I am concerned that while we teach our students to become literate in reading human language, they may remain illiterate in reading in the language of the world about us. All too often education fails to stimulate what Rachael Carson called “the sense of wonder”. She says, If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow . . . .Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration, or love—then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Those

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Sustainability in Higher Education who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.” 8

By providing a direct connection with the evocative beauty and earthy power of nature, ecological thinking overcomes the split between spirit and matter, reclaims the sense of the natural world as enchanting, sublime, and wondrous, and re-establishes a sense of community with nonhuman life forms. To summarize: ecological thinking is a way of seeing the world that is grounded in experiences of community and ontological connectedness with other beings. Each face of ecological thinking, by providing a view of the whole, establishes where we stand in the world, so we can feel at home within it. Each dimension enables us to situate ourselves as humans in the matrix of the earth. Students need systems thinking to determine rationally how to live in a sustainable manner; but students also need to acquire perceptions, understandings, and skills centering around a sense of kinship with life, so that they develop an affinity for the natural world.

3

Learning to Think Ecologically: Campus Environmental Audits

One of the important questions in the scholarship of teaching and learning is how to teach students a general knowledge structure - such as legal reasoning, dialectical thinking, or in this case, ecological thinking - from specific learning experiences so that they can apply it themselves. Is it best to present a single paradigmatic example for them to emulate, or a variety of examples? Should a general description or definition of the general knowledge structure be presented first, after illustrative cases, or never? One approach is to provide students with a description of ecological thinking early on, and then offer them a variety of illustrations and opportunities to practice it. A particularly effective pedagogical approach to developing in students both systems thinking and a sense of place is to treat their locale and daily patterns of living as subjects of inquiry. The landscape of academic institutions provides countless “teachable moments.” What students consume and what they waste also offer them opportunities to explore their relations to the larger world. In this regard the liberal arts have all too often failed to provide students with an adequate framework for understanding. David Orr says, As commonly practiced, liberal education has little to do with its specific setting or locality. The design of buildings and landscapes is thought to have little or nothing to do with the process of learning or the quality of scholarship that occurs in a particular place. In fact

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buildings and landscapes reflect a hidden curriculum that powerfully influences the learning process.” 9 For example, classes are typically taught in buildings that Descartes would have liked—lots of squareness and straight lines. How they are heated and lighted, and at what true cost to the world, is an utter mystery to their occupants. But because they use energy and water wastefully, these buildings tell their users that resources are cheap and abundant and can be squandered with no thought for tomorrow. In “service learning” courses, students at Saint Mary’s College of California and elsewhere have analyzed the ecological footprint of their campus - such as its consumption of materials, water, and energy; its landscaping, transportation, and waste disposal practices - and then examined more sustainable alternatives. In courses such as “Public Relations and Civic Engagement” and “Nature and the Sacred”, students integrate theory with group research projects to promote collaborative learning. Students learn about their relation to the larger world by actively uncovering their own impact on a significant public good: environmental well being. Saint Mary’s students have conducted campus audits on, inter alia, recycling practices, landscaping, and solid food waste. One group’s efforts resulted in a switch to fair trade coffee at the student union; another’s to sweat shop-free apparel at the book store. Students studied the harmful effects of the polystyrene products that were used by the College food service; they presented the food service director with sugar cane-based alternatives, which he adopted. This year they located a bio-digester not far from campus that can convert food waste into energy, thereby diverting 11 tons of waste weekly from the local landfill. Student advertising campaigns have been built to promote more carpooling, bicycling, and recycling. Students who engage in these activities learn about their interdependence with the larger world. They learn about the campus’ built environment and the natural systems that provide its energy, services, and materials. At the same time, these students acquire local knowledge and a sense of place. They make affective connections to their locality by learning outside the boundaries of the classroom.

4

Conclusion

The notion of an ever-accelerating rate of production and consumption rushing into an open-ended cornucopian future has lead to an imminent environmental crisis. Although the most devastating impacts of environmental degradation are visited on indigenous peoples and people in developing countries, we are tied to one another and to our natural environment in ways we can no longer ignore.

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Ecological thinking is a set of integrative skills that allows students, who might not otherwise consider environmental problems to be at least in part their own, to build bridges of knowledge that reach across the boundaries of geographic location, socioeconomic status, and academic disciplines. It is not just a matter of getting biology majors to talk to political science majors or affluent students to talk with victims of environmental injustice. It is rather a matter of how students see the venture of knowing itself, across all branches of study. It is a counterpoise to the reductionism that collapses insight into data, wisdom in to bits of knowledge; moral vision into incremental acts of amelioration. It counterbalances the atomistic assumption that severs being from belonging. It begins not only to recover the connectedness of what we know, but also to recover the connectedness of ourselves to each other, across intellectual disciplines, across political and ethnic boundaries, and finally, contrary to anthropocentrism, to recover our connectedness to the body of the world. Campus environmental audits promote ecological thinking. They conceive of the learner, the teacher, and the curriculum as an ecology of learning patterns which are nested in an academic institution’s built environment, which in turn is nested in the intelligence of the natural systems that provide the energy, services, and materials on which students rely. These pedagogies of place also contribute to the public purpose of liberal education by increasing students’ capacity for responsible membership in the communities in which they will live and work.

Notes 1

M L King, in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., J Washington (ed), HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1986, p. 269. 2

S Griffin, The Eros of Everyday Life, Doubleday, New York, 1995. p.29.

3

M Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1966.

4

C Bowers, Education, Cultural Myths, and the Environment, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY. 1993. 5

E O Wilson, Biophilia, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984.

6

P Kahn, The Human Relationship with Nature, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001, p.23. 7

G Smith, ‘Creating a Public of Environmentalists’, in M Hale (ed), Ecology in Education, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 207-227. 8

R Carson, The Sense of Wonder, The Nature Company, Berkeley, CA, 1994, p.26. 9

D Orr, ‘Reassembling the Pieces: Ecological Design and the Liberal Arts’, in Ecology in Education, M Hale (ed), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,

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1993, pp.229-36.

Bibliography Bowers, C., Education, Cultural Myths, and the Environment, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY. 1993. Carson, R. The Sense of Wonder. The Nature Company, Berkeley, CA, 1994, p.26. Griffin, S. The Eros of Everyday Life. Doubleday, New York, 1995. p.29. Kahn, P. The Human Relationship with Nature. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001, p.23. King, M L, in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. J Washington (ed), HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1986, p. 269. Orr, D, ‘Reassembling the Pieces: Ecological Design and the Liberal Arts’. in Ecology in Education. M Hale (ed), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, pp.229-36. Polanyi, M. The Tacit Dimension. Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1966. Smith, G. ‘Creating a Public of Environmentalists’. in M Hale (ed), Ecology in Education. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 207-227 Wilson, E O. Biophilia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984.

Biographical Note Stephen Woolpert is Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Professor of Politics at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Chapter 18

The role of Psychology in the Response to Global Warming. Some Preliminary Observations Jo Thakker Evidence suggests that global warming is not simply a reality, but also a more pressing problem than was previously assumed. It seems clear that human activity is causing global warming and that this warming is destabilising the environment. As a psychologist, a question that I am compelled to ask is: What will it take for individuals to change their behaviour? Arguably, an effective response to the problem of global warming will necessitate that as a species, we radically change our behaviour. For example, we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, we need to plant trees (and reduce deforestation), and we need to increase our use of environmentally friendly means of generating electricity. Of course, this is old news, but what is new (or perhaps simply more authoritative) news is that we actually have to make these changes or risk extinction. This paper will examine the potential role of psychology in assisting with the management of global warming, especially in light of current knowledge of the best ways to instigate behavioural change. Key Words: Climate change, psychology, risk.

1

Introduction

If governments are to effectively tackle global warming they must work with what we know about human nature. What we know now, suggests that individuals are unlikely to change their behaviour unless there is a real, impending and proximal problem. However, if we wait until such time as climate change begins to affect people in this way, it may be too late. Therefore the onus is on governments around the world to educate people and to implement strategies that will impact on individual behaviour. Moreover, social scientists need to work together and with government bodies to develop behaviour change strategies that have a sound scientific basis. Basic psychological theories offer insights into the many factors that shape human behaviour. Behaviourists highlight the importance of various types of rewards and punishments, social psychologists emphasise the

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importance of interpersonal and societal variables, and evolutionary psychologists refer to the impact of evolutionary pressures (not that these approaches are mutually exclusive). This paper, the key purpose of which is to initiate further discussion in the area, seeks to illustrate how psychology might contribute to 1)understanding our current environmental situation, and, 2)responding to the some of the difficulties. After briefly discussing the theoretical background to the connection between psychology and environmental issues there is a brief outline of the problem of climate change. This is followed by an overview of psychological explanations and then a discussion of possible psychological responses.

2

Background information

The topic of this paper is consistent with the general approaches of both environmental and ecological psychology. Environmental psychology gained momentum in the 1960s when the significance of the environmental context of human behaviour was more fully acknowledged.1 Prior to this the physical context of behaviour had received very little attention within psychology. Environmental psychology thus became a significant field in its own right and over the last few decades it has developed into a variety of sub-fields: These include the areas of technology, public policy, and sustainability.2 Environmental psychology is often traced to the work of Roger Barker, who was one of the first individuals to highlight the role of situational factors in the understanding of human behaviour. Although it is also interested in environmental factors, ecological psychology has tended toward a more philosophical approach. Promoted by J.J. Gibson (e.g. 3 ), ecological psychology has generally promoted a strongly realist interpretation, in which knowledge is seen as arising out of direct perception of the physical world. Hence, arguably according to ecological psychology the environment is seen as paramount in terms of the understanding of human behaviour. In a sense environmental and ecological psychologies move in opposite directions: In the former there is a focus on the impact of individual on their environments and in the latter there is a focus on the impact of environments on individuals. However, according to both fields the interaction between individuals and their environments is seen as an important object for psychological investigation.

3

What exactly is the problem?

In 1982 the well known psychologist B.F. Skinner wrote: Most thoughtful people agree that the world is in serious trouble. A nuclear war could mean a nuclear winter that would destroy all living things; fossil fuels will not last forever, and many other critical

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resources are nearing exhaustion; the earth grows steadily less habitable and all this is exacerbated a burgeoning population that resists control. The timetable may not be clear, but the threat is real. That many people have begun to find a recital of these dangers tiresome is perhaps an even greater threat.4 Although much has changed during the last twenty five years, Skinner’s comment on environmental welfare remains pertinent. He points to the problems of overpopulation, nuclear war and resource exhaustion. (He also notes the problem of human apathy arising from repetition of environmental warnings, however, this I will discuss later). Obviously, as noted by Skinner, there are a multitude of environmental problems that are currently faced by humanity. A recent article5 provides a comprehensive summary of the key environmental problem areas. They are: pollution, population, climate, fisheries, food, transportation, wildlife, energy, biodiversity, marine systems, energy, water, toxins, urbanization, and forests. As noted by the authors of this article, 15 of the 24 ecosystems examined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA)6 were found to be either being used in an unsustainable manner or were damaged. Although population is just one of the issues mentioned above, it is important to keep in mind that this is a problem that feeds into many of the other problem areas. One group of researchersreported that there are now almost 2 billion more people living on the planet then when Skinner presented his paper in the early 1980s.7 Furthermore the researchers stated that: “Someone born in 1950 would have been one of 2.5 billion people, but this same person in 2030 will share the planet with 8.1 billion at current rates of population growth.8 This starkly illustrates the extent of the population explosion. Closely related to this sharp increase in population is the problem of human-induced global warming. More people, quite simply, mean more activity and greater emission of the substances that are believed to be contributing to climate change. While many documents have been generated on the topic, one of the most influential recent reports was provided by Nicolas Stern for the British Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.9 Stern wrote: “The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: Climate change is a serious global threat, and it demands a serious global response” and “Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people will suffer hunger, water shortages, and coastal flooding as the world warms.” 10 As a social scientist I am not qualified to evaluate the substantial body of scientific evidence that relates to climate change. However, as noted by Stern, there is now substantial evidence that human activity is causing an increase in global temperatures. Nonetheless some scientists may argue that the evidence is not yet conclusive. My response to this argument is that even if it is merely likely that human activity is warming

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the planet to a dangerous level, human beings have an obligation to attempt to fix the problem. From a broad, perhaps evolutionary, point of view, it may be argued that this is merely a natural process which does not require any ameliorative action because there have been many previous mass extinctions and this is part of the natural order of things. Thus human beings may die out but another species that is just as significant, if not more so, will replace us. For example, dinosaurs died out making way for human beings and many other mammals. However, one of the problems with this argument is its anthropocentricity – there is more at stake here than the survival of Homo sapiens. Human activity has already brought about the extinction of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of animal species and a rapid warming of the planet may annihilate many more. Arguably, as we have caused the problem we have a moral obligation to fix it, not just for our own species but also for the other creatures with which we share this planet.

4

Why psychology?

The social sciences, in general, have much to offer in terms of responding to environmental challenges. While the physical sciences have been most important with regard to the identification of specific environmental problems, solving many of these problems will require multi-disciplinary approaches. These sorts of approaches will be crucial because the problems faced are complex and thus require very sophisticated responses. For example, attempts to decrease fossil fuel use require expertise from chemists, physicists, meteorologists, policy makers, social scientists, and politicians, along with many other skilled individuals, and, furthermore, there needs to be good communication between fields of knowledge. Obviously one of the important roles for social scientists in this discussion is the conveyance of knowledge and understanding of the social factors that pertain to environmental issues. Whereas sociology typically examines social issues at the community and societal levels, psychology is more concerned with individual factors. It explores issues of individual difference and includes investigations of phenomena such as motivation, cognition and wellbeing. These sorts of investigations are highly relevant to discussions of environmental issues because many approaches to dealing with environmental problems require various types and degrees of behaviour change. For example, an obvious solution to increasing amounts of rubbish is to encourage people to recycle certain items. But, what really drives people to change their behaviour? Is it feelings of concern for the environment or is it a desire to conform to what is seen as an emerging social norm? Answering these sorts of questions is important because in order to change the behaviour of millions of people it is necessary to first understand what drives behaviour. And of course although there are certain shared characteristics that arise from our

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genetic origins there are also many differences across social groups and across individuals. Thus the task is by no means easy and the path ahead is barely formed. However, the areas of ecological and environmental psychology provide useful frameworks for investigations in the area. A sizeable body of previous research has explored the intersection between human behaviour and environmental factors. Hence, there is already a theoretical foundation from which to explore contemporary environmental issues.

5

Explanations of the problem

Different disciplines naturally take different theoretical approaches to explaining environmental problems and also, within specific disciplines there is much theoretical diversity. Within psychology some of this diversity arises from the presence of various levels of explanation. For example, there are many explanations for schizophrenia; some refer to phenomena at the genetic level, some to phenomena at the interface of biology and environment (such as cannabis use) and some to psychosocial factors (such as familial stressors). Similarly in terms of psychological explanations of environmental issues there are various ways of approaching the topic, therefore the explanations offered herein are simply an illustration of the possible contribution of psychology. Evolutionary explanations focus on specific behavioural tendencies that have arisen via the process of natural selection. The central idea is encapsulated by the phrase “survival of the fittest” wherein fitness refers to a range of qualities that increase the likelihood that organisms will successfully reproduce, and hence pass on their genetic material. According to Darwinian Theory, every creature on the planet has been through a process of adaptation which has resulted in the primacy of fitness enhancing behaviour.11 Hence, evolutionary explanations are important in understanding human behaviour because they are in some senses fundamental. One of the most obvious and probably universal manifestations of evolutionary theory is the desire that human beings have to promote the wellbeing of their family members; especially their children. There is a powerful bond between parents and children that is resilient and long-lasting. Many adult human beings devote their lives to caring for their offspring and doing whatever they can to enhance their chances of survival. We typically live in small worlds and focus on our own needs, the needs of our children, and the needs of others who are close to us. This is evidenced at election time; the issues that tend to receive the most attention are issues such as income tax, health care, and education, while environmental concerns are frequently seen as unimportant. Many countries around the world have so-called Green parties, and typically, although the policies they promote are both benign and far-reaching (both geographically and temporally)

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they remain on the political fringe and receive only a small amount of votes. For example, in New Zealand the Green party attracted just five percent of the votes in the last general election.12 So, one explanation for our current environmental situation is that as a species we tend to live our lives with little consideration for the wider environment. Thousands of years ago this sort of living had a lesser impact; there were fewer people, and human activity was generally less damaging. Now, industrialised and technologically advanced societies need enormous amounts of resources to function and they produce large amounts of waste. However, we continue to lead lives that focus on our own needs and we tend to downplay the significance of the impact on the planet. Another explanation for the current plight of humanity is that the future is by definition intangible. As explained by Rumph and colleagues, “ . . . future events that have yet to happen cannot act directly on us and we cannot act directly on future events.” 13 As well as being intangible, the future is also uncertain; while there may be a sound scientific basis for certain predictions, predictions are usually tentative. Thus it is easy to dismiss and ignore future possibilities, even if the possibilities are unpleasant, because they are both distal and provisional. While human induced global warming is seen by the relevant experts as a highly likely explanation for current climatic phenomena, it is nonetheless still being debated in some scientific circles and furthermore, its implications for the future remain unclear. While some predict catastrophe, others predict less dramatic outcomes. This ambiguity, in terms of both the details and the timetable allow people to dismiss the issue entirely. An analogy is useful in illustrating this explanation into. Suppose that a large asteroid is identified that is on a trajectory that is heading towards Earth. Scientists examine the trajectory and the time frame and predict that there is a 30 percent chance that the asteroid will hit the planet and wipe out most species, including human beings. I would imagine that the response to such a scenario would be to do everything possible to prevent a hit – even though the chance of a hit is only 30 percent. If we compare this scenario to the chance of a catastrophe due to global warming it would seem that in light of current evidence the chance of a catastrophe due to this phenomenon is probably even higher, however, the response as been somewhat lacklustre. One obvious reason for this difference in reaction is that global warming is a process rather than an event. If an asteroid was on its way to earth, the time of impact, and the consequences of the impact would probably be reasonably clear and predictable. In contrast, global warming is something that takes place over many years, and involves the interaction of many complex factors, and this means that it is more easily dismissed.

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Another explanation for the tendency to ignore climate change is what Weiskel refers to as “the politics of distraction.” 14 What Weiskel is referring to with this concept is the blurring of boundaries between politics and celebrity. In explaining the general ignorance of environmental issues Weiskel argues that changes in the way that various media operate have led to a diminished understanding of important issues. He notes a number of significant trends, including “ . . . the steady growth of celebrity politics whereby celebrities become politicians and political figures seek enduring recognition as celebrities.” 15 Thus politics has become a battle of personalities rather than a battle that is won or lost according to politicians’ positions on various issues. Rather than voting in terms of political views individuals vote for the politician who is most likeable. As argued by Weiskel, George Bush has been packaged and promoted as a “happy hick” who is a simple and innocent man. Though he does not ride horses he spends time at his “ranch” and is seen as a down-to-earth cowboy. Hence, Bush junior’s gaffs are laughed off as somewhat silly but forgivable, because they arise from his humble origins. From this point of view the media are seen as a tool that play into this portrayal and this is evidenced by the fact that Bush’s (many) verbal errors have been collected by various websites and have become a source of great amusement. Just as politicians seek celebrity status, so too do celebrities become politicians. Perhaps the most well known example of this is Ronald Reagan who was elected into the position of President of the United States following a successful career as an actor. Similarly Arnold Schwarzenegger gained governorship of California on the back of an acting career. These examples demonstrate that simply being well known is a tremendous advantage when seeking a political position. Neither Arnold nor Ronald had any special skills arising from their acting careers apart from an ability to function in the public eye. However, their fame was seen by the public as an indication of suitability for the roles they were seeking. The problem with this is that issues such as climate change tend to take a back seat. People are distracted by the entertainment value of politics and are therefore more interested in the personalities of candidates rather than the policies. As mentioned above, another dimension of this phenomenon is the tendency for politicians to attempt to achieve celebrity status after leaving office. Politicians can use their public profile to build celebrity status even in cases in which they were not celebrities prior to becoming politicians. This trend contributes to the merging of celebrity and politics; thus the public see politics as part of the entertainment industry. The ultimate result of all this is that the significance of issues is diminished. Issues such as global warming are overshadowed by personalities and various other minutiae that are highlighted by various types of news media.

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6


Psychologically-based responses to the problem

As evidenced above, psychological approaches offer a range of interesting insights into the issue of climate change. Similarly psychology offers a range of possible responses to the problem. It is not possible in this paper to discuss all of the ways that psychology may be able to contribute so I will just include a couple of examples that are related to the explanations that I have mentioned above. First, given what we know about human nature our response needs to work with this knowledge. In other words we need to design strategies that take into account what we know of human behaviour rather than expecting human beings to behave in radically different ways. If people are generally focussed on their own and their children’s wellbeing then strategies that are designed to ameliorate climate change need to incorporate this. For example, people need to know how global warming will affect them, their children, and their grand children and the effect needs to be made clear and palpable. If people can see how a malevolent trend will directly affect them then it is more likely that they will make any necessary changes in their behaviour. Such an approach is likely to be more effective than an approach which requires people to think beyond their own small world. In a similar vein, if the future is easily able to be discounted because it remains abstract and uncertain then it needs to be clarified. Thus, the public should be informed about the possible adverse outcomes, in detail, so that they can develop an understanding of the information. This is not to be confused with scaremongering which seeks to use a person’s fear response as a motivator for behaviour change. Rather information should be presented in a clear and readily digestible fashion so that individuals can form reasoned opinions. As mentioned above, many years ago Skinner noted the problems that were likely to arise from the unsustainable approach to living that was seen in many human populations. Thus it is perhaps particularly appropriate that we should attempt to apply his behavioural principles to contemporary environmental issues. One of the concepts that he introduced during the early years of his work was the notion of shaping by successive approximations.16 This refers to the process of shaping behaviour by reinforcing behaviours that are not ideal but which are in the right direction. For example, if you want a young child to learn to eat food with a spoon then you begin by reinforcing any behaviour which is moving towards eating with a spoon. Thus you may begin by reinforcing touching the spoon and then only reinforce when the spoon is picked up. In this way it is possible for new behaviours to be shaped. An example of this in the context of an environmental issue is described by Nevin.17 Although this example is described as involving the “foot-in-the-door” technique it is essentially a shaping process. The foot-in-the-door technique involves gaining an individual’s agreement to a small initial change and then re-

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questing progressively more significant change. Nevin outlines the example of a water conservation project in Canada, in which homeowners were requested to sign a document which committed them to limiting watering of their lawns, which most people agreed to. Then these households were visited by people who provided them with gauges for measuring rainwater and requested a further reduction in water use. The water use of this group of households was then compared to the households who had simply received an information pack, and it was found that the watering by the former group decreased, on average, by 54 percent. In contrast water use in the latter group actually increased. While obviously there are a variety of important factors at work here, such as the social contact that took place in the shaping condition, what is most relevant herein is that change can be successfully implemented via a series of small steps. Sometimes behaviour change can seem overwhelmingly difficult to people and therefore it is helpful to make changes slowly and incrementally. While this may seem somewhat obvious it is interesting that this sort of idea is not evident in the implementation of environmental policy. In terms of even more fundamental environmental principles there is also the basic issue of reinforcement. According to the principles of behaviour theory – as originally detailed by Skinner – behaviour which is positively (as in a reward) or negatively (as in the removal of something aversive) reinforced is more likely to be repeated. Therefore it follows that if governments want to bring about a particular behaviour in a certain population it is advantageous for that behaviour to be reinforced. In simple terms this suggests that it is a good idea to reward individuals for engaging in environmentally friendly behaviours. Sometimes these sorts of behaviours are intrinsically rewarded. For example people who ride bicycles to work may find the physical activity pleasurable and they will also have the benefit of becoming more physically fit if they repeat the activity. Also, they will save petrol and thus save money. However, along with these intrinsic rewards it may also be useful to offer addition forms of positive reinforcement in order to increase bicycling in a specific area.

7

Conclusion

It appears that if humanity is to survive long into the new millennium there will need to be a substantial change in the way that we live. We need to take greater care of our planet – it is after all the only home we have. An optimal response to our current situation will require a robust interdisciplinary approach in which many diverse disciplines work together. As illustrated herein psychology has much to offer in terms of understanding human behaviour and thus devising appropriate strategies. Gifford writes: “Given the near-vertical human population curve since the 16th century, the limits of human nature, never-ending war in one region or an-

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other, and constant threat of pandemics, a deep fear seems truly justified.” 18 While Gifford’s comment is eloquent and insightful we need to move beyond simply harbouring a fear of the future and begin to develop strategies for changing our current course.

Notes 1

R Gifford, Environmental psychology and sustainable development: Expansion, maturation, and challenges. Journal of Social Issues, vol. 63, issue 1 2007, pp. 199-212. 2

Ibid.

3

Gibson, J.J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, 1986. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 4

Skinner, B.F. ‘Why we are not acting to save the world’, in Upon Further Reflection, B.F. Skinner, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp 1-14. 5

Vlek, C. & Steg, L. Human behaviour and environmental sustainability: Problems, driving forces, and research topics. Journal of Social Issues, vol. 63, issue 1 2007, pp. 1-19. 6

MEA, Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report. Retrieved 17 May 2007 from http://www.millenniumassessment.org. 7

R Rumph , C Ninness , G McCuller , & Ninness, SK Guest editorial: Twenty years later, commentary on Skinner’s “Why we are not acting to save the world.” Behavior and Social Issues, vol. 14, issue 1 2005, pp. 1-6. 8

Ibid, p. 3.

9

Stern, N. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. Retrieved 20 May 2007 from www.hm-treasury.gov.uk. 10

Ibid: Summary of Conclusions, p. vi.

11

R Dawkins The Selfish Gene (New Edition). Oxford University Press, New York, 1989. 12

New Zealand Ministry of Justice, Chief Electoral Office. 2005 Election Official Result from http://2005.electionresult.co.nz. 13

Rumph, R. op. cit. p. 1.

14

Weiskel, T.C. From sidekick to sideshow – celebrity, entertainment, and the politics of distraction. The American Behavioural Scientist, vol. 49, issue 3 2005, pp. 393-409. 15

Ibid, p. 396.

16

Skinner, B.F. About Behaviorism. Vintage, New York, 1974.

17

JA Nevin, ‘The inertia of affluence’ Behavior and Social Issues, , vol. 14,

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issue 1, p 7-20. 18

R Gifford, p. 210.

Biographical Note Jo Thakker, PhD is working at the Psychology Department, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Chapter 19

Building Citizenship on Environmental Local Problems in Mexico F. Medardo Tapia Uribe The purpose of this research is to describe how schooling, media and an active citizenship contribute to people’s understanding of their local environment problems and to the start up of initiatives that contribute to the region’s sustainable development in Morelos (being the southern neighbour state of Mexico city). We asked ourselves three questions: How knowledge and social context contribute to the understanding of local environmental problems? How do they use such knowledge to define their own responsibility as well as its government’s about environment problems? How do they use their cultural, social and symbolic capital to discuss and take on their responsibilities of doing something about their local environment problems? We used several kinds of research methodological tools. Two kinds of surveys, one among a probabilistic sample of families living in Morelos’ most populated river micro basin, Apatlaco; another among a probabilistic sample of junior high school and high school students of the same river micro basin area. Our research site included forest and municipalities of the highlands of Cuernavaca’s metropolitan area as well as its ravines and low deciduous jungle. We also carried out open ended interviews among citizens, students and teachers surveyed. We analyzed junior high school and high school civic and science programs. We also analyzed main local newspapers debate between 2000 and 2006. This research has been funded by the Mexican Ministry of Science and Technology and the Mexican Ministry of Environment since 2004. Key words: Citizenship education, environment education, active citizenship, local environment, education for sustainable development.

1

Introduction

The public sphere – since the ancient Greece held to be a civic space for critical and rational deliberation on public affairs - has become one of the main sources of civic education today. We know, since several years already, that television is teenagers’ main source of political information worldwide. Mexico’s 2000 national

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youth survey also taught us that television continues to be the most referred source of information for 62 percent of youngsters interviewed.1 In addition, 39 percent of them sustain that it is there where they have learned most about politics.2 This figure doubles the percentage of those youngsters who sustain that their main source of political formation is their parents and their schools. Surely, this is one of the reasons why Mexican citizenship and ethics education current program for junior high school states that ‘Young people in the contemporary world: mass media and a committed, participative and informed citizenship’, are one of its main themes. In addition, perhaps because of the same reasons, they suggest as part of their learning activities, that students track controversial news and organize a debate. In such debates other specialists suggest a careful and clear role for teachers.

2

Objectives, research questions and methodology

Three years ago, we started a research project with the purpose of learning how schooling, media and an active citizenship contribute to people’s understanding and to the start up of initiatives to act upon their local environment problems and contribute to their region’s sustainable development. We asked ourselves three questions: How knowledge and social context contribute to their understanding of the environment? How do they use such knowledge and social context information to define their own responsibility as well as their governments’ about environment problems? How do they use their cultural, social and symbolic capital to discuss and to take on their responsibilities of doing something about their local environment problems? We used several kinds of methodological tools for our research. Two kinds of surveys were carried, one among a probabilistic sample of families living in Morelos’ most populated river micro basin, Apatlaco; another among a probabilistic sample of junior high school and high school students of the same river micro basin area. Our research site includes forest and municipalities of the highlands of Cuernavaca’s metropolitan area and its ravines as well as low deciduous jungle. We also carried out open ended interviews with adults of the families surveyed, students and teachers. Finally, we analyzed programs and textbooks of civic and science subjects of junior high school and high school. We also gathered and analyzed main local newspapers published between 2000 and 2006. In this paper, we will be presenting only results that answer partly and mostly the third question, related to the public debate over Morelos sustainable development. We will refer the latter as local development.

3

Environment and sustainability education: a framework

Social dimensions of environment problems have been an issue since the first international statements made about it. As a strategy to face them, these dimensions

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were made part of environment education. However, after United Nations Organization’s ‘Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014’ resolution 57/254,3 social issues like poverty, cultural diversity, intercultural understanding, human rights and peace became part of those current development needs that endanger future generation’s capacities to satisfy their own needs.4 These issues broaden environment education tasks and definitions. They also make them part of other learning needs, like citizenship education and other kinds of social sciences contents. This requires that we look at environment and sustainable development education needs in terms of their social construction, that is, nature as a cognitive problem as well, as an object of appropriation, not only material and utilitarian perspective but also symbolic. The latter allows norms, symbols, images and speech to create a social structure to perceive, live and confront different kinds of relationships between man and nature. Environment and sustainable development problems, however, take place in the public sphere as social demands and as a debate. The debate is about a new relationship between society and nature over specific social problems and development public policy.5 The public debate over environment local problems is, as in the rest of Mexico, damaged as a result of a political representation crisis. This crisis jeopardizes the utopian democratic aspiration –to participate in the discussion of everybody’s affairs– in two ways: one, in the framework of a long historic process of a Welfare State, which gradually took over the administration of people’s welfare; two, the most powerful sectors and interest groups of society transformed those public sphere forums, everyday discussion spaces and the media. We must remember that the public sphere, a liberal heritage, was the mediation space between the State and civil society; between private and public life, to discuss people’s wellbeing affairs, like environment problems and sustainable development. Collusion, cooptation and commercialization have transformed the public sphere into a world of cultural consumption, simulated image and opinion manipulation. This has put media products to the service of created interests. As a result, many media products are trivial, false and absurd or made superficial in order to be accepted as common sense. This has a political intention. It is part of a strategy of exercising ideological power over spectators, public and citizens as a simulation process. However, according to public policy specialists, we should not be surprised because even policy makers use rhetoric, the art of persuasion –of making things with words– and there are positive consequences in it. In an open debate, persuasion is a bilateral exchange, a method of mutual learning by means of speech. A true debate allows participants to defend interests and opinions as well as adjust their vision of reality and even change their values.6 Bourdieu7 sustains that public sphere debate also contributes to the construction of social institutions -that set of stable social relations that enables individuals with power, status and resources of various kinds by means of which they have the authority to speak and the credibility over what they say-.

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In sum, it continues being important to do politics by participating in the public sphere debate. Nevertheless, it is a great challenge because of the way public sphere has been transformed. We agree with Bourdieu’s proposal: doing politics through language and its symbolic power is an initial but necessary step. Agents’ knowledge of their world allows them to act upon it. Politics starts by denouncing doxa’s violation, those individual shared everyday opinions, beliefs and judgments. Political subversion starts by vision’s cognitive subversion. Nevertheless, the efficacy of this heretic speech does not rest upon language’s immanent power or the author’s charisma but on the social authority that has built by means of the social institution that authorizes to talk and to use certain kind of language. Methodologically, this requires doing a socio – historic analysis rather than a semiotic one. This means we will be examining how citizens build their practical competence of language use in order to be listened, credibly and successfully convincing. In general, we will try to reconstruct the habitus, those sets of dispositions that make agents act and react in a certain way and by means of which individuals and groups generate their practices, perceptions and attitudes. This set of dispositions become practical and orientation competences.

4

Results

Citizens and students rank rubbish disposal as the main environment local problem, followed by forest devastation, as well as ravines and rivers pollution. Surprisingly, students and citizens sustain that the lack of environment education is the cause of these environment problems. Our survey results also indicate that schooling environment teaching programs, as part of science and citizenship education programs, seem to provide current junior high and high school students with a different understanding of environment problems of citizens’. Students, particularly junior high school students, seem to be more willing than citizens to participate actively in contributing to solve such local environment problems, despite the lack of confidence they have on government authorities and assured reduced citizen’s participation or indifference. Local knowledge and community’s history, however, also influences students and citizen’s definition of environment problems. Nevertheless, it is very difficult that they fully appreciate, understand and commit themselves beyond their local definition of environment problems. This is the way peasants, community and organized citizens behave. However, school science and citizenship programs, are not successful in providing students with competences for dealing with social dimensions of environment problems and sustainable development. Students and citizens acknowledge that they do not know how to organize themselves and what to do about rubbish disposal and micro basin pollution. School’s contribution and citizenship participation remains to be raising individual consciousness of environment local and global problems. This might be one of the reasons for drawing the line between students and citizen’s responsibilities from those of government authorities. Once the latter fails,

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students cannot capitalize their willingness to participate and contribute to solve local environment problems. In this context, citizens and students end up individually doing what they believe is their responsibility; others end up thinking on ways of organizing inefficient ‘environment’ campaigns. Most citizens believe that part of their responsibility is to educate their children, perhaps their only responsibility. Some others dare to mobilize society and themselves. They start by participating in the public debate over Morelos’ sustainable development. There were four main issues in Morelos’ sustainable development debate: the construction of a commercial centre in Cuernavaca, the state capital city; the pollution of Morelos’ most populated river micro basin, Apatlaco; the forest devastation of a federal decree protected area, known as Chichinautzin Biological Corridor; and the San Antón Ravine Cascade also located in downtown Cuernavaca. The construction of the commercial centre Costco building in a famous former hotel –Casino de la Selva–, was the most widely discussed local environment problem. The debate was centred on mural paintings and trees destruction. Civil society created an organization, the Civic Front, which would be civic society’s main speaker before municipal, state and federal government authorities. In addition to trees and painting destruction, the Civic Front main complaint to authorities, especially to municipality authorities, was law violation in several instances: land acquisition price under commercial rates, the destruction of federal protected archaeological sites, the violation of urban development plan and urban settling law and authorities’ legal responsibilities omission (federal, state and especially municipal authorities). Other kinds of arguments used by the Front were that construction site location was inappropriate, that authorities have turned into business speakers and that in the end the city would lose more jobs than the ones that would be created. Government authorities’ main argument was that they were strictly acting by the law. Blocking the construction site, government facilities –including breaking into one of its meetings– and the streets were the Front other means of public expression, in addition to media an internet. In the end, police violently repressed a Front street blocking and put in jail the Front’s main leaders. The Apatlaco micro basin river pollution problems are as old as the creation of Morelos most important sugar refinery in 1938. This refinery is its main pollution source and the cause of demographic population rate growth. In such a long history, its debate echoes unfinished projects and politicians’ unfulfilled promises. In its recent history, garbage and rubbish removal and disposal has added its contribution to Apatlaco river pollution. The biological corridor has three main debate participants: peasants, ejido and communal forest land holders -Ejidatarios and Comuneros-municipal authorities, state and federal government and illegal tree cutters. Peasants claim a privileged access to the forest –they say: it is our forest- because of their le-

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gal rights and because they defend and look after the forest in several ways, for example, against illegal tree cutters and fire. They claim that municipal, state and federal authorities refuse to stop illegal tree cutters, land invaders or illegal real state businessmen because of corruption. They warn authorities: we will stop them and take law in our own hands, with machetes if necessary. Federal and state authorities tend to be very descriptive of the forest problems. One of their claims is that there are comuneros and ejidatarios allied with outside illegal tree cutters and that some of them start forest fire sometimes in order to take advantage of law, because ‘dead wood trees’ can be cut. Many times they cut more than those. Other comuneros and neighbours confirm that illegal local cutters do their cutting during daytime and transport wood at night. Very often, when police catch them, they close the streets and take over the town. Local municipality citizens argue that they need to eat and they cannot compete against city residents schooling; otherwise, they say, we will have to turn ourselves into thieves. They also argue that Federal government has neither serious economic plans for their municipalities nor a policy for a rational management of their forest. San Anton’s ravine and water fall has debated about trees cutting urbanization development, but the main issue has been its ravine and water fall’s pollution because of uncountable faecal coli form bacteria as well as garbage and rubbish.

5

Discussion and final comments

Relying on school and local knowledge, students and citizens confront environment and sustainable development problems. Students are mostly willing to participate despite school unfulfilled promised of technical and social knowledge and abilities to act upon local environment problems. They, like their parents, are restricted to rely on their local knowledge and community tradition to act as citizens despite of a government not very willing to negotiate their decisions. First, there is a quite local definition of environment problems. This is true for peasants and urban civic society groups. Corridor peasants generally never really fight other than their local forest problems. The Frente civil group acknowledged the government’s claim: they had not really debated over the forest problems in spite of its long time devastation until the government reminded them of this publicly. Government authorities on the other hand lack expertise on how to deal with environment problems, including its planning and their own collusion with powerful interest groups. This is how they learned it and have been doing it for decades. The Frente learned that they have to defend their trees and their city; originally they called themselves ‘tree guardians’ and most of their main leaders have a personal history of being part of civil society movements, some of them since 1968. Peasants have fought for their communal land since Spanish colony, the Mexican Revolution and a government policy that has excluded them from mainstream development. Government authorities and Mexican political parties,

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on their side, have a long tradition of authoritarian public policies that has existed for decades, distorting any kind of citizenship and democratic participation. They also have a long history of collusion with several interest groups, including mass media monopoly TV enterprises and environment problems. The debate starts because the doxa, everyday life and beliefs, is interrupted. It is time to discuss our rights and responsibilities as citizens and government authorities. Their dispositions matrix is broken. Citizens then question who has the authority over the city, the forest, the river or the community’s direction of development. Both consider themselves deceived and citizens and police take the streets. Peasants, as part of what seems to be an indigenous tradition, take over the streets and stop outsiders and federal state police from coming in their village. The Frente took over Costco construction site adjacent streets but municipal and state authorities ordered police men to stop them and take them to jail. This ended up sustainable development debate and public demonstration. Then the debate centred on government repression. Government’s repression is an expression of its authoritarian vision. Citizens claim rights over their forest, their trees, their water and their land. The local and state government claim to defend the law. Ironically, both claim to be willing to negotiate and debate and in practice violence appears and both actors show their power. Unfortunately democratic discussion is put aside and this is how citizens and government in the public sphere teach young students to mobilize themselves and to act to confront environment and sustainable development problems. Perhaps this is why students do not trust government officers and they are not confident on their way of making important contributions to solve their local environment problems and to build sustainable development. Due to this, perhaps, only 15 per cent of youngsters of last national youth survey, 2005, are interested in politics. This is one of the most important challenges of Mexican citizenship education and this is why trust in social institutions has been identified as perhaps the main source of its weakness. They need a common ground, a democratic public space. Can it be defined collectively if there is no trust between both sides?

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Notes 1

Instituto Nacional de la Juventud, Encuesta Nacional de Jóvenes 2000, Instituto Nacional de la Juventud, México, 2002, p. 284. 2

Ibid., p. 291.

3

UNESCO, Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014, retrieved, 7 June 2007 <portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27234 &URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. 4

UN, Department of Economic & Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development, 2003, retrieved, 7 June 2007, www.un.org/esa/sustdev/. 5

JL Lezama, La construcción social y política del medio ambiente, El Colegio de México, México, D. F., 2004, pp. 25-72. 6

G Majone, Evidencia, argumentación y persuasión en la formulación de políticas, Colegio Nacional de Ciencias Políticas y Administración Pública A. C. y Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, D. F., 1997, p. 42. 7

JB Thompson, ‘Editor’s introduction’, in P Bourdieu, Language and symbolic power, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 1991, pp. 8-9.

Bibliography P Bourdieu, Language and symbolic power, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 1991, 302 pp. JL Lezama, La construcción social y política del medio ambiente, El Colegio de México, México, D. F., 2004, pp. 25-72. JB Thompson, ’Editor’s introduction’, in P Bourdieu, Language and symbolic power, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 1991, pp. 1-31. JB Thompson, ’La teoría de la esfera pública’, in Voces y culturas, no. 10, 1996. . JB Thompson, Ideología y cultura moderna. Teoría crítica social en la era de la comunicación de masas, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. Unidad Xochimilco, División de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, México, D. F., 1998, 482 pp. G Majone, Evidencia, argumentación y persuasión en la formulación de políticas, Colegio Nacional de Ciencias Políticas y Administración Pública A. C. y Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, D. F., 1997, 240 pp. Instituto Nacional de la Juventud, Encuesta Nacional de Jóvenes 2000, Instituto Nacional de la Juventud, México, 2002.

Biographical Note F. Medardo Tapia Uribe is researcher at Mexico’s National University, CRIM, UNAM. .

Chapter 20

Environmental awareness education at Ritsumeikan’s Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Institutions in Japan Subana Shanmuganathan, Monte Cassim and Kyoko Ukita Carson’s book Silent Spring (1962) on human influenced environmental effects paved the way for many more reports and events such as the United Nations Conferences on the Human Environment (1972) Habitat (1976), the Brundtland Report on Our Common Future (1987) and Rio de Janeiro’s Agenda 21 (1992), and protocols, such as the Kyoto Protocol (1997), on matters relating to critical environmental issues. One among such major issues is the access to a variety of education for youth and adults, all aimed at reducing environmental degradation that leads to inequity and injustice in terms of access to natural resources and healthier livelihoods for all citizens. The UN’s Agenda 21 to recent Stern report continue to reiterate the importance of increased public awareness on local and pressing global environmental issues especially, among the younger generation through novel learning methods, such as leisure activities. In view of this urgent need to educate youngsters on environmental aspects and its impact on life on earth, the efforts made by Ritsumeikan’s primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions and results achieved within the context of Japanese way of life, are discussed in detail. Key words: Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’, climate change, environmental education, Japan.

1

Introduction

Carson’s book Silent Spring (1962) on the environmental effects of synthetic pesticides to the recent Stern report (2006) on climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions, keep on pointing out that the underlying cause for all these effects is human behaviour. All the reports continue to urge for global partnerships to curb environmental negative behaviour through initiatives aimed at achieving greater sustainability in terms of natural resource use and minimising environmental pollution at all levels and scales12 . Under a broader conceptual framework, Oluf showed how sustainable environment development could be linked to economic

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Environmental Awareness Education

growth and to social justice (both within and between generations), humanistic solidarity, a concern for the world’s poor, and respect for the ecological limits to global development, including a few other aspects relating to sustainable development3 . Industrial pollution, access to fresh and cleaner air and water, and the foundations for healthier livelihood, such as reduction of child mortality, improvement in maternal health and reduction of risk from major epidemics, are the main aspects relating to growing disparity between North and South in the current context. In view of the above fact, the paper begins with a report on some of the major events, reports, and conventions that continue to reiterate the need for increased public awareness on environmental issues, through novel programmes within all sectors of education. The main aim of these reports has been the promotion of environmental education focused on achieving sustainability to protect the environment from further deterioration that invariably leads to inequity and injustice. Subsequently, Japanese age-old traditions, cultural values and practices that are considerate of fellow citizens and future generations are outlined. The legislative measures adopted by the Ministry of Education to encourage the exploration of novel learning methods to increase awareness on critical local and global environmental issues at primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors are explained. Finally, Ritsumeikan’s efforts in this regard are discussed.

2

Carson’s Silent Spring to Stern report on human impact on nature

Rachael Carson’s efforts of the early 1960s’ are seen as a major influence in the formulation of stringent legislative and rigorous measures on the use of chemicals, such as DDT, in America and around the world4 15 . In her final book Silent Spring, lately described as the clarion call to the American society, the author elaborated upon the need to examine the excessive toll taken on insect, aquatic, animal, plant, and human life by pesticides. Carson was mainly concerned of the post World War II policy of increasing the use of synthetic chemicals with insecticidal properties in American agriculture, forestry, and management of natural resources. The book eventually became famous for its influence in compelling the American government to establish a state run institution, now called as the Environmental Protection Agency. Furthermore, the book promulgated information that caused for some of the world’s most rigorous environmental legislative measures on pesticide use by raising important questions on the chemical industry about human impact on nature. In the following years, the world witnessed many events, conventions held, protocols singed up, and the next section gives a review on the major ones with special emphasis on the environmental education related aspects. The UN conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm from 5-16 June 1972; declarations and principles formulated at this conference were mainly

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concerned of the need for a common outlook and values to inspire and guide the peoples of world in the preservation and enhancement of our global environment. Of the 26 principles, no.19 describes the importance of environmental education as, Education in environmental matter, for the younger generation as well as adults, giving due consideration to the underprivileged, is essential in order to broaden the basis for an enlighten opinion and responsible conduct by individuals, enterprises and communities in protecting and improving the environment in its full human dimension. It is also essential that mass media of communications avoid contributing to the deterioration of the environment, but, on the contrary, disseminates information of an educational nature on the need to protect and improve the environment in order to enable mal to develop in every aspect6 : p5. The UN conference on Human Habitat held in Vancouver from 31 May-11 June 1976; the focus of this event was on human settlement issues with urbanisation and its impact on the environment. In the conference declaration, Action Plan: Recommendation C.11: Infrastructure policy c (ii) deals with the issue of efficient use of resources and elimination of excessive consumption through development, education, conservation and other appropriate measures 7 Brundtland report Our common Future (1987); in the 274 page report the committee spelt out on how environmental education should be incorporated into all sectors of education. The following is paragraph 68 from the original report (manuscript in English translation); Environmental education should be included in and should run throughout the other disciplines of the formal education curriculum at all levels - to foster a sense of responsibility for the state of the environment and to teach students how to monitor, protect, and improve it. These objectives cannot be achieved without the involvement of students in the movement for a better environment, through such things as nature clubs and special interest groups. Adult education, on-the-job training, television, and other less formal methods must be used to reach out to as wide a group of individuals as possible, as environmental issues and knowledge systems now change radically in the space of a lifetime.” 8 p117 Rio de Janeiro’s Agenda 21 (1992); chapter 25, titled “Children and Youth In Sustainable Development”, of the main report is dedicated for environmental education and awareness in the education sector. In this chapter, under Activities, paragraph 9d discusses on the need to induce youth to the environmental issues with practical skills,

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Environmental Awareness Education “Ensure access for all youth to all types of education, wherever appropriate, providing alternative learning structures, ensure that education reflects the economic and social needs of youth and incorporates the concepts of environmental awareness and sustainable development throughout the curricula; and expand vocational training, implementing innovative methods aimed at increasing practical skills, such as environmental scouting;” 9 [Chapter 25, Para 9 (d)]

Kyoto Protocol (1997); established in 1997 based on principles set out and signed in 1992 came into force on 16 February 2005, 90 days after Russia did rectify the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of its share. It is implied in Article 10e of the protocol that the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change act on educating everyone concerned in the following manner; “Cooperate in and promote at the international level, and, where appropriate, using existing bodies, the development and implementation of education and training programmes, including the strengthening of national capacity building, in particular human and institutional capacities and the exchange or secondment of personnel to train experts in this field, in particular for developing countries, and facilitate at the national level public awareness of, and public access to information on, climate change. Suitable modalities should be developed to implement these activities through the relevant bodies of the Convention, taking into account Article 6 of the Convention;” 10 p8 The so-called parties mentioned above are the 34 of the 38 industrialised countries that rectified the protocol, an international agreement setting individual targets for each of the countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Ample scientific evidence is now available in support of the fact that these gases are partly responsible for global warming that may have catastrophic consequences for life on Earth11 . Stern Report (2006): Independent Review, by commission appointed by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, is an assessment of the evidence and building understanding of the economics of climate change. In the report, Stern described the scientific evidence on climate change and the associated serious global risks as overwhelming, demanding an urgent global response. As far as education is concerned, the following is an excerpt from the report’s executive summary; “Educating those currently at school about climate change will help to shape and sustain future policy-making, and a broad public and international debate will support today’s policy-makers in taking strong action now” 12 p xxi


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Despite all the efforts discussed above, humanity until this date has failed to achieve any substantial progress in curbing the activities that harm natural systems and their functioning. The literature reviewed so far clearly revealed how individuals as well as committees have emphasised the need for widespread public awareness and educational activities to create a better harmonious human-environment relationship that promotes sustainability and social justice. Nonetheless, in reality though much remains to be achieved as environmental education curricula world over are seen as inadequate and insufficient as stated by Schleicher (1989) Boyle (1999) and Bekalo and Banga (2002)131415

3

Japanese tradition and the environment

Traditionally, Japanese value natural resources and the environment as precious commodities. This attitude contributes significantly towards preserving their natural environment. The age-old traditions of Japanese culture in fact enable them to view nature and the environment as sacred. The shrines and Shinto arches seen beside rivers, waterfalls, creeks, and rocks evidence how the Japanese value their environment (Figures 20.4). Over the centuries, this attitude, considerate of fellow citizens, especially future generations and the desire to preserve their environment from further deterioration, has not changed. Japanese people’s lifestyle even today reflects their aspirations to protect the environment. For example, Kobayashi’s views that criticise the modern land reclamation as restraining the children from knowing the coastal environment, exemplify Japanese people’s aspirations to educate their younger generation on their local environment16 .

4

Monkasho efforts

Monkasho’s (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan) recent efforts reflect its intentions to integrate environmental awareness programmes into all sectors of education. The efforts are timely, appropriate and interesting as well. The ministry’s efforts are aimed at introducing the Japanese students to local issues within their community by taking them out of the classroom i.e., fieldwork, meeting with local NGOs. This in a way aligns with chapter 25 of the UN’s Agenda 21 that implies the extension of environmental awareness through alternative learning methods. It also conforms to Brundtland report’s informal nature club approaches for this purpose. In 1997, Monkasho introduced a new national curriculum called “Sogo Gakushu” meaning, “Integrated study” for implementation from 2002 in elementary/ Junior and from 2003 in senior high schools. The new curriculum requires that • Every primary school and junior high school will set the Period of Integrated Study. Primary schools are to have 105-110 hours every year (averaging 3

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Environmental Awareness Education hours a week), and junior high schools are to have 70-130 (averaging 2-3 hours a week).

• Integrated study is defined as lessons in which the school is able to conduct its own special, individually-crafted educational activities which respond to the circumstances of the community, school and children. • Integrated study represents opportunities for learning about interdisciplinary subjects, including international understanding, information, environment, welfare and health. • These classes are not for instilling knowledge, but for developing the aim that students will cultivate the ability to discover and study issues independently, and to learn and think for themselves. • These classes aim for students to acquire the skills to learn and investigate, including how to collect, research and collate information. “ 17 p6. The “Sogo Gakushu” curriculum focuses on the implementation of stress free education. It gives school students an opportunity to learn about the environmental issues concerning their own surroundings and unique to that particular community, at leisure. It also drew widespread criticism from high achievers of the public who saw this as a reflection of the declining academic achievement by Japanese students. In order to address this issues, Monkasho introduced the so-called “Super school project”, a new path, aimed at promoting excellence in specific areas within science/ technology, such as renewable energy, recycling of cooking oil, and many more, or in learning the English Language. Under this new programme, schools that submit attractive proposals could secure grants from the ministry to run their projects. In 2002, 30 schools won grants to run their own projects and now there are about 100 such projects nationwide. Ritsumeikan Academy has been successful in securing two projects in the first year and last year Rits Moriyama Senior High School won a Super Science School grant and some of their 2006 events held under this program are discussed herein based on Moriyama report18 .

5

Ritsumeikan (Rits) and Trust

Rits trust established in 1869, has the following educational institutions located across Japan under its umbrella (see Figure 20.2 for location details); 1. Rits Suzaku Campus Kyoto 2. Rits University, Kinugasa Campus 3. Rits University, Biwako -Kusatsu Campus


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4. Rits Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Oita in Kyushu 5. Rits Junior and Senior High Schools, Kyoto 6. Rits Uji Junior and Senior High Schools, Kyoto 7. Rits Keisho Junior and Senior High Schools, Ebetsu, Sapporo 8. Rits Moriyama Junior and Senior High Schools, Kyoto 9. Rits Primary School, Kyoto 10. Tokyo Campus (& Satellite Office) 11. Osaka Campus (& Satellite Office)

6

Moriyama - Super School project

Through this 2006-Lake Biwa Super Science/ Technology School grant Rits Moriyama won, the school was able to run programmes aimed at introducing some local environmental issues to Junior and High School students. Lake Biwa (Figure 20.3) near Kyoto in Shiga Prefecture is one of the biggest lakes in Japan. Rainwater from surrounding mountains flows naturally into the lake. Hence, the lake serves as reservoir and it as well indicates the status of the surrounding environment. Aware of this fact, since the late 1960s’ itself the local community has been taking measures to keep the area clean. One such measure was to use cooking oil waste from the area to make soap with donations from the locals. Nowadays of course, they use the oil waste for producing bio diesel fuel for vehicles. The following are the programmes Moriyama School was able to run from 10 July – 12 Oct 2006 (see Figure 20.5 for photos). Lake’s aquatic biodiversity; students spent time on learning the lake fish population. In typical Japanese way, they dissected fish and studied its digestive system contents. Moriyama cycle tour; students went cycling around Moriyama city to observe the effects of urbanisation, such as pollution, in rivers, streams, and their biodiversity. Katusbe workshop; students sampled lake water quality and determined its chemical oxygen in demand (COD). “Hotaru-No-Mori” museum/ reference library visit; students visited the library and learned about the local insects. The focus of this event was fireflies. The students met with local communities in identifying the insect habitats. Japanese ecologists see firefly population in decline due to habitat loss. The firefly populations generally thrive on clear running water streams with grass.

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Ritsumeikan Moriyama has Student exchange programmes with schools in Tasmania Australia, UK and US; under a co-operative school agreement. Students of Moriyama are able to visit Tasmania and UK with financial aid from the Ministry of Education. In October 2006, fifteen (15) students and two teachers visited Tasmania and exchanged ideas and views on current environmental issues (see Figure 20.7 for photos). During the exchange sessions students from Japan and Tasmanian schools discussed about each others culture, values, Language as well issues relating to the following matters in the context of their own country; . • Water and the environment; Tasmanian and Japanese perspectives • Met with scientist Jack, who had recently been to the Antarctic. Discussed with Jack about the penguin population there as well as the imminent threat to their habitat due to global warming induced by greenhouse gas emissions. • Conservation of indigenous species from introduced/ invaded exotic species. • Moriyama students made presentations about their projects, such as the “firefly biotope” (see Figure 20.6) that uses energy generated from windmill and solar panels to create waves in water, rooftop gardens. Teaching staff from both schools appreciated the above project outcome. Late last year, participants from around the world attending a gathering in in Ritsumeikan Biwako Kusatsu Campus Kyoto, were impressed when presented with the project outcome

7

RU’s efforts in keeping up with changing times

Ritsumeikan University (RU) founded in 1900 in Kyoto as well introduces programmes to suit the times. For example, in the late 1990s, Rits initiated an interesting programme to introduce its international environmental policy science students to sustainability with a systems (or holistic as in Figure 20.1) as well as reductionism perspectives19 . The university introduced an innovative way to codify, compile, and transmit empirical knowledge relating to sustainability across cultures and generations in the form of principles and obligations using advanced information and communication technologies for delivering a combination of synchronous and asynchronous modalities between the two universities located in Kyoto and Beppu. The following are the principles and obligations included in the interactive web based modules18 (see Figure 20.1 for details); 1.

understanding sustainability a

Man’s isolation from the natural world

b

Anthropogenic impacts on the environment


2.

c

A paleo-ecological perspective

d

The sustainability roadmap

f

Principles and obligations

the three principles a

3.

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Cyclicity of biogeochemical resources

b.

Self-regulation by life forms and their social associations

c.

Guaranteeing biological diversity

the three obligations a

to ensure that the above three principles (2a-c) are not violated

b.

to codify and compile the knowledge that ensures sustainability

c.

to ensure that the knowledge is transmitted through to successive generations

The above approach won the first ever Rits best teaching programme award. Furthermore, the Rits Trust has been very active in delivering quality and up-todate programmes. Last year, in collaboration with University of Applied Science, Trier, Germany, the Trust introduced a dual master’s degree in International Material Flow Management at APU catering to Japanese and German graduate students. The following are the major topics taught in this postgraduate degree; First semester; Ecosystem management, Technology management, Risk Management of technology, Technical aspects of factor 10 efficiency strategies, Renewable energy systems, Clean technologies, Sustainable water and water management, greenhouse gas abatement (Kyoto protocol) and technology system reengineering and project seminar. Second semester; Industrial and regional material flow management, IT and material flow management, System change management, Networking and knowledge management, corporate communications and presentation, Business environment and culture in Germany/ Japan, German/ Japan History and Society and Project seminar; project and business development.

8

Conclusion

From 1960’s Carson’s strenuous efforts to Stern Report of last year including many UN conventions convened and protocols signed up in between, continue to reiterate on educating the younger generation on local and global environmental issues aimed at promoting environmental sustainability and justice in natural resource use and healthier livelihoods. The paper elaborated upon the late 1990s Japanese ministry efforts to introduce schoolchildren to their own local as well as global environmental issues, stress free, also with a means for high achievers to excel in academic pursuits.

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Figure 20.1: Sustainability roadmap of inter-relationships between life forms and earth’s resource-energy systems. Source: Cassim (2005:2)21

Ritsumeikan’s approaches, in view of the current educational requirements also taking advantage of the ministry’s grant scheme provided a good example on how educational institutions could fulfil their responsibilities in delivering the right kind of programmes to educate the younger generation on critical environmental issues, concerning both their own locality as well as global. It gives them the education needed to be of considerate of their fellow citizens in terms of environmental justice and global citizenship.

Notes 1

BBC 2006, Executive Summary, Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change pp xxvii http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6098362.stm 2

BBC 2006, Executive Summary, Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change pp xxvii http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6098362.stm 3

Oluf Langhelle 1999, Sustainable Development: Exploring the Ethics of "Our Common Future" in International Political Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique, Vol. 20, No. 2, The Pursuit of Sustainable Development: Concepts, Policies and Arenas. La recherche du développement viable: concepts, politiques et forums#. (Apr., 1999), pp129-149.


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4

Steve Eukers 1997, Revisiting silent spring: Ongoing strategic lessons Corporate Environmental Strategy Volume 5, Issue 1, Autumn 1997, pp68-72 5

Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment

6

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default. Print.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID=1503 http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.Print.asp?DocumentID =97&ArticleID=1503 last accessed 20 April 2007. 7

The Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements and the Vancouver Action Plan: Habitat the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements convened in Vancouver, Canada, 31 May-11June 1976. http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/ docs/3566_45413_HS-733.pdf 8

Brundtland Report 1987 A/42/A427 English pp374. http://ringofpeace.org/ environment/brundtland.html last accessed 20 April 2007 9

Agenda 21 http://habitat.igc.org/agenda21/a21-25.htm last accessed 20 April 2007 10

Kyoto Protocol http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php

11

Q&A: The Kyoto Protocol by BBC NEWS, Science/Nature, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3927813.stm 4/24/2007 last accessed: 24 April 2007 12

Nicholas Stern 2006 STERN REVIEW: The Economics of Climate Change Executive Summary Report ppxxvii http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/30_10_06_exec_sum.pdf last accessed 24 April 2007 13

Schleicher Klaus 1989 Beyond Environmental Education: The Need for Ecological Awareness International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue, Internationale de l’Education, Vol. 35, No. 3. (1989), pp257-281. 14

Boyle Carol 1999 Note from the field, Education, sustainability and cleaner production, Journal of Cleaner Production 7 (1999) pp83–87 15

Bekalo S, C. Banga 2002 Towards effective environmental education in Ethiopia: problems and prospects in responding to the environment-poverty challenge International Journal of Educational Development 22 (2002) pp35–46 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev 16

Kobayashi Tatsushi 2003, A suggestion about environmental education using the five senses in Marine Pollution Bulletin Volume 23, 1991, Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. pp623-626. 17

Tanaka Haruhiko 2007, Development Education, Global Education and Education for Sustainable Development in Japan. www.deeep.org/english/documents/relevant_docs/de_in_japan_05.pdf last ac-

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Figure 20.2: Ritsumeikan (Rits) and Trust institutions

cessed 30 June 2007 pp11. 18

Moriyama application/ report for global environmental award 2007, available on line http://www.lake-biwa.net/akanoi/ 19

Subana Shanmuganathan and Monte Cassim 2007, Sustainability and systems modeling in university education in proceedings of “Towards sustainable livelihood and environment”, 2nd International conference on Asian Simulation and Modeling 2007, Eds., Benchaphun Ekasingh, Attachai Jintrawet and Somjate Pratummintra. Sheraton Hotel Chiang Mai, Thailand, 9-11 January 2007. pp115-121 www.mcc.cmu.ac.th/ASIMMOD2007/proceeding_list_author.htm 20

Cassim M. 2005, Principles and Practices in Pursuit of Sustainability, The prospects offered by an interactive digital archive network designed as a Virtual Expo 2005. pp37-39. 21

Cassim M. 2005, Principles and Practices in Pursuit of Sustainability, The prospects offered by an interactive digital archive network designed as a Virtual Expo 2005. pp37-39.

Biographical Note Subana Shanmmuganathan, PhD is currently a Research Fellow with Geo-informatics Research Group, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in


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Figure 20.3: Lake Biwa and Omi-Ohashi bridge in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Source: www.ritsumei.ac.jp/infostudents/kanko_guide/en/bkc1e.htm

Figure 20.4: Japanese value the environment and natural resources as precious commodities. The Shinto arches by the rivers, and waterways evidence this fact.

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Figure 20.5: Lake Biwa project activities conducted by Rits Moriyama High School students with a local national project organisers.

New Zealand. The chapter is based on collaborative research Subana conducted with co-authors Prof Cassim and Ms Ukita of Ritsumeikan Academy, during her two-year Japan Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellowship (2005-2007) at Asia Pacific University (APU), Beppu in Japan. Subana’s current research interests are; spatial data mining, clinical data analysis, text mining and computational modelling in environmental and biological sciences in general. Monte Cassim is President of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and Vice-Chancellor of Ritsumeikan Trust. As Professor of Environmental Science, his research centers on biodiversity regeneration in tropical ecosystems and life cycle assessment of production processes and service delivery systems. He also works on health informatics and knowledge discovery in health and environmental systems. Kyoko Ukita is Deputy Director at the Division of Primary and Secondary Education of Ritsumeikan Trust. She currently manages the Secretariat of the Ritsumeikan Moriyama Super Science High School Program.


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Figure 20.6: “Firefly biotope”: a conceptual diagram drawn by students to illustrate the alternative energy creation sources, such as windmill and solar panels, to produce waves in water containers/ rooftop gardens.

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Figure 20.7: Rits Moriyama High School Students discuss with Tasmanian school students and Scientist Jack from Tasmania about each others’ local as well as global environmental issues.

Chapter 21

Reporting Sustainable Development in the Service of Social Responsibility for a Business School Fabrice Mauleon and Mary McKinley France engaged in the diffusion of the concepts of sustainable development and social responsibility in 2001 by requiring companies nationwide to publish social and environmental information relating to their activities annually. The Ecole Superieure de Commerce et Management (ESCEM), which was among the first French business schools to introduce compulsory, interdisciplinary courses on sustainable development, accepted its role as a model for responsible and ethical business practices. This paper demonstrates how a school of business can educate by example when it increases its own transparency and publishes a formal annual report of its social and environmental impacts. Key Words: Social responsibility, sustainable development reporting, higher education.

1

Introduction

In December 2002, the United Nations declared the years 2005-2014 ‘The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development’. Under the auspices of UNESCO, the following statement was published: There can be no long-term economic or social development on a depleted planet. Education to develop widespread understanding of the interdependence and fragility of planetary life support systems and the natural resource base upon which human well-being depends lies at the core of Education for Sustainable Development. In particular, the links with societal and economic considerations will enable learners to adopt new behaviours in the protection of the world’s natural resources, which are essential for human development and indeed survival. 1

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Reporting Sustainable Development

The overall objective of the decade is to integrate the principles, the values and the practices of sustainable development in all the aspects of education and the training. This effort clearly aims at supporting changes in behaviour in order to create a more viable future from the perspective of environmental integrity, economic viability and of a just society for generations present and future. Within the framework of this broad objective, the dimensions of education and training aim clearly to promote a transition towards sustainable development by all the forms of education at every level. By raising awareness and sensitising both students and faculty to the issues surrounding sustainable development, future members of society will be better prepared to deal with those issues. The ESCEM Business School incorporated these elements in the heart of its activities and its strategy very early on. This awakening of conscience has enabled it create and publish a true reflexion of its involvement in sustainable development in the form of an annual report.

2

The engagement of France as regards sustainable development

The Johannesburg Summit of 2002 marked a fundamental turning point for the promotion of sustainable development: that of effective engagement by the French State and its official position on the progressive implication of companies, as opposed to an official disengagement of countries on a world level. The promises made in previous decades, like those of Agenda 21 decreed ten years earlier at the time of the first Earth Summit in Rio, had stipulated a progressive and concrete bringing into force the main precepts of sustainable development. The Johannesburg Summit was to thus apply this cross-country dialogue for the resolution of problems relating to economic development, environmental crises and social inequalities. Unfortunately, the reports showed that nothing had been achieved yet. The observers present in South Africa thus could only note how much the states had not lived up to their promises in this field. However, the parallel report of the engagement of the companies and non-government organisations (NGOs), entities present at the Johannesburg Summit to present their respective and collaborative efforts, provided a counterbalance to the states’ negative assessment. The heads of enterprises, often considered wrongly as most resistant to demands for change, are today actors strongly engaged in sustainable development. French President Jacques Chirac raised the alarm regarding the need for official engagement and clearly expressed an urgency for the planet and its inhabitants at the time of the World Summit: “Our house is burning down and we’re blind to it. Let us make sure that the twenty-first century does not become, for future generations, the century of humanity’s crime against life itself.”.2 This

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pronouncement set the tone of France’s engagement in sustainable development. After the summit meeting in South Africa, the French government deployed an entire strategy whose sovereign application is the creation of a new charter for the environment. With this text, the main principles of sustainable development have now been added to the Constitution of 1958, to the Declaration of Human Rights and the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946 to form the texts of reference of French substantive law. Since 2003, France has been operating under a National Strategy for Sustainable Development encompassing economic development, environmental protection, social justice and solidarity among peoples, generations and territories. Rather than engage in and promote separate projects, the strategy demands that diverse disciplines and partners work together in a systemic network. Its comprehensive policy measures consist of programs encompassing certification and labelling, social investments, fiscal actions and financial incentives. Furthermore, just as corporations are obliged to produce an annual report of their financial performance each year, the measurable results of the national strategy have to be documented in annual reports to the government. And the Nouvelles Regulations Economiques (NRE), passed in 2001, legally requires disclosure of social and environmental issues in the annual reports of firms listed on the French bourse. The spirit and the letter of the law comprise the first time that any nation has demanded that firms develop and publicly report their “triple bottom line.”

3

The engagement of ESCEM as regards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The global concept of education about sustainable development promoted by UNESCO speaks about a world in which each person has a chance to receive an education and to learn the values and behaviours necessary to contribute to a viable future and a positive transformation of society. The concept of values is thus at the heart of learning about the sustainable development concept. How should a school of business incorporate the correct values in its curriculum? To choose a school is an important stage in the life of a student, whether it is for undergraduate, graduate or continuing education. A school’s strategic orientation, its teaching resources, its projects, its successful graduates and its path of development determine its position in the national and international rankings. The best schools have the aptitude to help their graduates become effective managers sought by the top companies. Since its creation in April 1998, ESCEM has focused its resources on becoming one of the premier schools of business in the market. Among its distinguishing features is that it is the only educational institution in France to have made the

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concept of “values” central to its mission. see Table 21.1. The institution decided to transmit and share with its students and stakeholders the values it holds and which are fundamental to success in life, whether personal or professional. A process of collective reflection resulted in setting the mission of ESCEM on 4 fundamental values which typify the school and which are woven into the whole of its activities. Sustainable development is solidly at the center of the activities of ESCEM. It quite naturally finds its place in the teaching of management courses and the research orientations of the school. Each student in the second year of the program, for example, has 45 hours of an obligatory interdisciplinary module on sustainable development applied to the management of organizations. A final group project results in the creation of a company which could qualify as an ethical investment. In addition, a third year major in Management and Sustainable Development was created with the University of Sherbrooke in Canada. In the same manner, the research activities of ESCEM seek to actively enrich the teaching components of the school and to work jointly with companies on applied research projects. One branch of the Research Centre, created in February 2005, is the Research Centre in Sustainable Management (CERMAD) which has the objective to bring together teachers and researchers as well as representatives of the stakeholders receptive to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

4

CSR reporting at ESCEM

Although the NRE law mentioned above is a serious obligation for large publicly held companies, it does not relate to small and medium size companies or those privately owned. Nor does it aim at educational establishments, to be sure. Nevertheless, since 2004/5, ESCEM has conducted and published its own sustainable development report. This concern for reporting and transparency drew its inspiration from a desire to teach by example. Within the framework of the values published and upheld by ESCEM, the school thus engaged in a step of self-evaluation. Conscious of its role as a place of higher education that included social and environmental management, the school initiated an operating mode that incorporated sustainable development. Actions and measuring instruments were gradually developed: management of energy and water resources, social environment, health, safety, information . . . In addition, the exercise in reporting was carried out by ESCEM’s own students trained in sustainable development. In their capacity as “apprentices”, they carried out a diagnosis of the economic, social and environmental performances of the ESC Tours Poitiers. Work was completed on the campus of Tours and comprised the following tasks: to meet and interview the people responsible for information management (administrative directors, financial department, staff of


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logistical services, the sustainable development committee) to carry out a survey and to collect responses from professors and students, and to conduct discussions with the stakeholders of the school (e.g. the Chamber of Commerce). The students were required to sign a statement of honesty and objectivity in their reporting activities. This process of reporting then underwent an interesting evolution. Previously entitled “sustainable development report”, the work of auditing and reporting, which had been built around the triptych of sustainable development, was undertaken in 2005 with a focus on the actual stakeholders. This evolution deserves some explanation. The best known definition of sustainable development is that of the 1987 Brundtland Report: “sustainable development is that development which makes it possible for the present generation to satisfy their needs without harming the capacity of future generations to satisfy theirs” 3 . This political definition is most frequently used within the framework of institutional communication campaigns, including the many variations of company reports. And for good cause. Because this definition is political, it relates to the life of citizens and is aimed at the greatest number. Sustainable development refers as much to current concepts of economic development and the North-South divide, for example, as to environmental concerns of the international authorities since the beginning of the 1960’s. In this definition it is a concept that groups together all the questions, whether economic, political, social, or ecological. However, the definition of Brundtland has a particular disadvantage from its broad advantage. Since it is political, it is consensual and consequently avoids the struggle for balance of power and conflicting opinions. It is obvious that no one could decently be opposed to the stated ambition of the international community and multinational corporations to provide a level of development acceptable to the present generations and to preserve the interests of the future generations. But it is advisable to notice that many companies ignore this definition and are more directly connected with the concept of social responsibility. It is often hard to distinguish between these two concepts of sustainable development and CSR, since they are frequently confused and quoted indifferently one for the other. Many companies communicate about their attention to corporate social responsibility while failing to build the precepts of sustainable development in their strategy. Sustainable development can, however, be distinguished from CSR, which represents the voluntary integration of the social and environmental concerns of the companies in their commercial activities and their relations with all the internal and external stakeholders including shareholders, personnel, customers, suppliers and partners, local communities, etc. This integration serves the purpose of satisfying the applicable legal obligations while benefiting the firm by investing in human capital and respecting its environment4 . The notion of CSR is thus quite simply the application of sustainable development concepts to enterprises.

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To summarize, if sustainable development speaks for the greatest number, then CSR is most competent to concern the individual company directly. The second report carried out by ESCEM thus again bore the title “Sustainable Development Report” but it provides a report on social responsibility for the enterprise, ESCEM. Various stakeholders of ESCEM were identified: students, staff, shareholders, civil society, and companies. Representatives of each stakeholder group participated in the study. For example, in surveying the students-as-stakeholders group, the researchers conducted a quantitative study among the students of the two campuses of the ESCEM, i.e., in Tours and in Poitiers. This study, divided according to three pillars’ of sustainable development, aimed at collecting information on the budget of the students and their financing, at collecting impressions of the students on the integration of the two campuses, their mobility and their consumption patterns. See Figures ?? and 21.2 for a summary of the obtained results. Figure 21.1: The values and their corresponding implications.

Figure 21.2: Housing consumption In the same manner, by calculating the ecological footprint5 of the students, the studies could highlight the share of consumption taken up by transport of the students on each respective campus; but also the ecological impact of housing. These measurements make it possible for ESCEM to begin to better manage its ecological impact. For each stakeholder group, strong points and weak points were elucidated. The weak points are then translated into improvements to be undertaken by the


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Figure 21.3: Total energy consumption in equivalence to consumptions of planets alike our Earth institution. Thus, the weak points highlighted for the student stakeholders were addressed by the following commitments: • To improve consideration for students at the financial level by • Reinforcing partnerships between the school and the banks • Seeking innovative financing solutions for students, such as performance bonuses • Increasing assistance funds • Contributing to creation of a student loan account • To improve the links with student associations and to diffuse the values of the school in the training of students • Communicating the actions undertaken by the school in terms of sustainable development • Introducing the students to the concepts and implications of sustainable development • Developing better links between the student associations and the administration To improve the ecological footprint of the students by

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• Promoting the use of the least polluting means of transportation: bus, bicycle, carpooling, etc. • Facilitating apartment sharing and encouraging the use of low-energy products • Targeting reduction of the ecological footprint created by the students

Figure 21.4: CSR report process. The entire cycle of the CSR report process can be visualized as shown in Figure 21.4: The report includes charts of indicators that serve to measure progress and points that need to be improved. The charts have the double objective to be able, on the one hand, to explain the school’s engagements in the form of measurable indicators. Thus, each activity takes the form of an indicator which fits in a corresponding cell of the table, resulting in the amalgamation of three types of known indicators: • those of the Global Reporting Initiative • those of French law, the NRE • those of the Global Compact of the United Nations. Overall, this process of self-evaluation in regards to social responsibility has made it possible for ESCEM to recently join two initiatives focused on sustainable development. First, ESCEM subscribed in 2005 to the Global Compact initiative of the United Nations which encourages the promotion of fundamental values in the field of human rights, the environment and work standards. Thus, the school identified, implemented and measured a certain number of new practices responding to concrete tasks. For example, in conformity with principles 8 and 9 of the Global Compact “To undertake initiatives tending to promote a greater responsibility as regards environment” and “To support the development and the diffusion of respectful technologies of the environment”), ESCEM adopted measures to reduce its consumption of energy, water, and paper. The efforts made included the creation of ratios making it possible to measure their effectiveness. In


259

2006 we could report that ESCEM decreased by 38% its consumption of electricity, by 53% its consumption of water, 23% its paper consumption and increased by 60% its space for parking bicycles. The initiatives will be continued and again measured in 2007. Secondly, ESCEM signed the Charter of Responsible Campuses. The establishments engaged in this campaign are implementing progressive actions: To sensitize their stakeholders (students, teachers, administrative staff, local companies, communities, administrations of supervision or organizations of accreditation, . . . ), at the local level, national or international, with the need for sustainable development and the necessary contribution of the campuses; To integrate sustainable development into the teaching of all the disciplines where it is relevant and to develop specific courses on these questions, so that all the graduates have knowledge necessary to become actors for sustainable development, in their personal and professional life; To encourage the students to contribute to social and environmental responsibility for the campus, in particular within the framework of their courses (research tasks, thesis topics, etc), to set up an environmental office for the students and to support those who want to be more involved in sustainable development (through additional training courses, internships, professional guidance, etc.);

5

Conclusion

The declared intentions of the program “Decade” drawn up by the United Nations is ambitious. That of the ESCEM is more modest. It espouses the cardinal values already at the heart of the school’s strategy. It is indeed a question of promoting the stakes of sustainable development and of teaching the best practices of the companies on the subject. Indeed, the mission of the ESCEM is “to ensure the education, initial and continuing, of its students, mainly future managers, whose companies, the other economic actors and institutions will need to implement, in an uncertain world, open and globalized, their strategy of development and to face the multiple changes with which they are confronted”. But the mission of the ESCEM is also to think about its responsibility with respect to its stakeholders. In coherence with its four fundamental values - engagement, integrity, curiosity, humility - ESCEM profits today from a report on the state of its engagements. The latter are likely to make it possible for the institution to better implement its mission in appropriate ways and to systematically promote international and multicultural management approaches, social responsibility of enterprises and business ethics.

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Notes 1

www.unesco.org/education/desd

2

http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/World-Summit-on-Sustainable,5117.html World Summit on Sustainable Development – Speech by M. Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, to the Plenary Session, Johannesburg 02.09.2002 3

Brundtland Report, 1987

4

Green book of the European Commission 2001

5

http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org/

Bibliography www.unesco.org/education/desd http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/World-Summit-on-Sustainable,5117.html World Summit on Sustainable Development – Speech by M. Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, to the Plenary Session, Johannesburg 02.09.2002 Brundtland Report, 1987 Green book of the European Commission 2001 http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org/

6

Biographical Note

Fabrice Mauléon is professeur at Ecole Supérieure de Commerce et de Management (ESCEM) Tours-Poitiers, Tours, France Dr. Mary M. McKinley is professeur, ESCEM Tours-Poitiers Tours, France

Chapter 22

Can the Peasantry Decide? A Sociological Study of the Adoption and Impact of Genetically Modified Seeds in Warangal, India. Ashok Kumbamu This paper explores and analyzes how the socio-economic and cultural factors influence farmers to adopt genetically modified (GM) seeds. Also, this paper analyzes the sociological process of information dissemination and issues related to accessibility of information and its access to the farmers of different socio-economic categories. To elucidate the complex process of the adoption of GM seeds, this paper uses the Kadavendi village of Warangal district, southern India, as a case study. The research findings in this paper are based primarily on my field research conducted in Kadavendi in 2006. Key Words: Genetically modified seeds, peasantry, adoption process, information gap, decision making, socio-ecological crisis, India.

1

Introduction

In recent years, several studies have examined the potential implications of genetically modified (GM) crops for the peasantry in developing countries in general, and India in particular, but few have focused beyond economic cost-benefit analysis. Issues related to the socio-economic and cultural aspects that influence farmers’ decision on the adoption of GM seeds, and the socio-ecological implications of the information gap between laboratory and the peasant-farmer have not yet been significantly addressed. Considering this gap in the existing literature, this paper examines and analyzes how the socio-economic (such as kinship, landlordtenant relationships, merchant-farmer relationships, identities, ethnicity, gender relations) and cultural (such as media advertisements, seed companies’ mobile campaigns, billboards, farmer-to-farmer advocacy) factors influence farmers to adopt GM seeds. Also, I explore and analyze the sociological process of information dissemination and issues related to accessibility of information and its access to the farmers of different socio-economic categories. This is very important issue

262

Can the Peasantry Decide?

to be considered because GM cropping has been promoted as the knowledgebased farming system, and the new crop management practices such as “refuge mechanism” 1 are advocated as the socio-ecological risk mitigating methods. To elucidate the complex process of the adoption of GM seeds, this paper uses the Kadavendi village of Warangal district, southern India, as a case study. The research findings in this paper are based primarily on my field research conducted in Kadavendi in 2006. The main reason for the selection of a village in Warangal district is: In this district for the last 30 years there has been a noticeable agricultural land use change predominantly from paddy to cotton. In fact, cotton cultivation has emerged as a new culture - “cotton culture” - since it has become an integral part of farmers’ everyday life. There are several socio-economic and cultural reasons for the overwhelming cultivation of cotton crop. However, the common factor that induces farmers to continuously growing cotton is their desperate situation to come out of poverty and to survive. Farmers’ debt had been accumulated because of consecutive crop failures and poor market price for the produce. But they always have a great hope in cotton cultivation, and believe that one bumper crop would make them debt-free. But their hope had never come true. Moreover, their unflinching hope placed them on the treadmill of cotton cultivation and debt accumulation. However, the land use change from food crops to cash crops led a rapid increase in the use of pesticides and insecticides as well as unregulated digging of bore wells. Consequently, all these activities resulted in deep socio-ecological crises, which, coupled with the negative socio-economic impacts of neoliberal globalization policies since the early 1990s, have manifested in the form of peasantfarmer suicides2 . Though the sociological analysis of farmer suicides is beyond this paper, it provides us a context to better understand the mounting agrarian crisis and the implications of technological interventions. As political economist Keith Griffin asserts the new agricultural technologies create a “commercial revolution” in countryside by making both agricultural inputs (such as land, labor and technology) and output into essential commodities3 . This process of commodification increases farmer’s dependency on the market for agricultural inputs, and also promotes production for the market. Consequently, this process induces a high level of what Krishna Bharadwaj calls “compulsive involvement” in the market, or, of what Amit Bhaduri refers to “forced commerce.” 4 But, the participation and interaction of various classes on the market is not a neutral process; rather it is determined by an individual agent’s socio-economic position (caste, class, race, gender, etc) in a society. Particularly, for the middle and poor peasant-farmers, the commodification of the means of production exerts pressure on cash needs, which in turn pushes them towards local usurious moneylenders and merchants for credit due to lack of formal and reliable institutional credit facilities. This lays a first step for their downfall, and leads to a

A. Kumbamu

263

“credit-product interlocked market relationship”, which works as the “prime mechanism of the differentiation of the peasantry” and depeasantisation.5 In Warangal district, the intensified commodification and commercialization of agriculture resulted in a more complex situation than as envisaged in the ‘classic’ agrarian question. Between 1996 and 2006, in Warangal district alone, more than 1500 cotton farmers (an average two farmers a day) have committed suicide. This is the worst agrarian crisis ever manifested in the history of Indian agriculture. But, despite the spate of suicides, the farmers are overwhelmingly growing cotton with the hope that one good crop may help them to come out of the debt trap as well as the death trap. Against this background of crop failure and farmer suicides, Bt cotton6 seeds were introduced into Warangal district by MahycoMonsanto in 2002 with a premise that Bt cotton would increase productivity and reduce dependency on pesticides, thereby alleviating economic and environmental problems. In this context it is very important to examine and analyze the sociological process of the adoption of Bt cotton and farmers’ receptivity towards the new technology.

2

Adoption Process of GM Cotton: The Case of Kadavendi, Warangal

In this paper, the findings and analytical insights are drawn from interviews I conducted in Kadavendi village in 2006 as part of my larger research project. Particularly, this paper is based on interviews with fifty farmers, who adopted Bt cotton at different points in time from 2003 to 2006. I also interviewed local seed agents and agricultural extension officers to better understand their role in the diffusion process of GM seeds. I have conducted a baseline survey and divided the total agricultural households into two categories – one, Bt cotton cultivators, and, two, non-Bt cotton cultivators. The sample was randomly drawn from the category of the households of Bt cotton cultivators. Agricultural biotechnology, for that matter any technology, do not operate in a social, political and economic vacuum7 . Thus, the factors that influence farmers to adopt the new technology as well as the impact of it varies based on the socioeconomic position of the farmer in a stratified social system. Therefore, for better understanding of the causes and consequences of GM seeds, it is important to examine and analyze the socio-economic conditions of the farmers. Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Farmers A

Agricultural Profile of the Sampled Farmers

The total operational land of the farmers was 326 acres, and of which 260 acres of land (80 percent) was owned by the farmers, and 66 acres of land (20 percent) was rented in. And the total land under cultivation was 309.2 acres (95 percent of the total operational land), which constitutes 82 percent of unirrigated land

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Total number of informants

50

Total operational land

326 acres

Total land owned

260 acres

80 % of the total operational land

Total land rented in

66 acres


Total land cultivated

309.2 acres


Uncultivated

16.8 acres

5 % of the total land

Irrigated land

54.2 acres

18 % of cultivated land

Unirrigated

255 acres


Total land to Bt cotton

167 acres


Total land to rice

54.2 acres


Total land to other crops

88 acres


Table 22.1: A Brief Agricultural Profile of the Informants, 2006. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers.

and 18 percent of irrigated land. Of the total cultivated land, 54 percent of land was used for Bt cotton, 17 percent of land was used for rice, and remaining 29 percent of land was used for other crops. (See Table 22.2) Because of population pressure on available land and commercialization of agriculture, only 5 percent of land was uncultivated, which was left for grazing purposes. But the gradual disappearance of grazing fields has serious impact on livestock survival and the production of manure. Consequently, this has created favorable conditions for mechanization and the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

A. Kumbamu

Number of Year farmers adopted 2003 2004 2005 2006

4 10 42 50

265

Land Percentage used of for Bt farmers cotton adopted (acres) 8 20 84 100

8 32 148 167

Percentage of total cultivated land for Bt cotton 3 10 48 54

Table 22.2: Adoption of Bt Cotton, 2003–2006. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers B

Adoption of Bt Cotton, 2003-2006

For the first time, Bt cotton was introduced into Kadavendi in 2003. In the first year of inception of Bt cotton, only 8 percent of the sampled farmers adopted and only 3 percent of their total cultivated land was used for the new variety. But the percentage of adoption and land used to grow Bt cotton had gradually increased. The percentage of the total cultivated land used to grow Bt cotton in 2004, 2005 and 2006 was 10 percent, 48 percent, and 54 percent, respectively. (See Table 22.1) C

Size of Landholding of the Household

Size of landholding is one of the decisive factors in the adoption of the new agricultural technologies. In the first two years of introduction of Bt cotton (i.e., in 2003 and 2004), the majority of farmers who adopted Bt cotton was the medium farmers with landholding size between 10.1 and 25 acres; whereas in the year 2005 and 2006 the majority of adopters was the semi-medium farmers whose landholding size ranges from 5.1 acres to 10 acres. Contrary to this, no marginal farmer, who has land less than 2.5 acres, adopted the new seeds in the year 2003 and 2004, and very small percentage of the was adopted in 2005 and 2006. (See Table 22.3)

D

The Caste System

In India, the caste system is a defining feature of agrarian social structure. Though traditional caste-based occupations, and the interdependency among these occu-

266


Size Group

2003

2004

2005

2006

Marginal (Less than 2.5 acres)

0

0

10

12

Small (2.5 - 5.0 acres)

25

20

24

10

Semi-medium (5.1 - 10.00 acres)

25

20

52

48

Medium (10.1 - 25.00 acres)

50

60

14

20

Total

100

100

100

100

Table 22.3: Adoption of Bt Cotton and Landholding Size Groups, 2003-2006. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers. pations has declined to a significant extent, the caste system, as an ideology as well as socio-political power, still plays a dominant role in everyday life. Particularly, it acts as a decisive factor in getting access to any new developmental initiative such as the introduction of GM crops. Among the sampled farmers, the majority of adopters of Bt cotton in the first year were belong to Reddy, a dominant “upper” caste; and in the following years the “backward” caste farmers have picked up the adoption process. It is important to note that the farmers of Scheduled Tribe (ST) did not adopt the new seeds until 2005, and the farmers of Schedule Caste (SC) (the so-called untouchables) constitute the minority of Bt cotton adopters. (See Table 22.4) The reasons for the delayed and slow adoption of Bt cotton by the SC and ST farmers were: high price of the new seeds, fear of loss and experimentation, lack of information, etc.

E

Adoption Process of Bt Cotton and the Factors of Influence

In the milieu of despair agrarian conditions, Bt cotton was introduced with a huge claim that the new seeds would solve the problems associated with conventional cotton varieties. The new seeds had been introduced into Kadavendi through different strategies at different stages. I divided the spread of Bt cotton in the village into four major factors based on the strategies adopted by the seed companies in selling the new seeds:8 Factor I: Company mobile campaigns Factor II: Field demonstrations Factor III: Farmer-dealer network strategy

A. Kumbamu

267

Caste Category

2003

2004

2005

2006

“Upper” Caste “Backward” Caste

50

40

10

16

25

40

48

48

Scheduled Caste

25

20

29

20

Scheduled Tribe

0

0

14

16

Total

100

100

100

100

Table 22.4: Adoption of Bt Cotton According to Caste Categories, 2003-2006. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers. Factor IV: Farmers’ advocacy Company Mobile Campaigns: The seed company mobile campaigns played a vital role in the initial phase of the introduction of the new seeds. In their campaigns, the emphasis was placed on: first, the negative agronomic implications of non-Bt cotton varieties in general, and the economic losses with the attacks of bollworm and costs associated with huge application of pesticide in particular. Second, the campaigners highlight the value-addedness of GM cotton and its “positive” agronomic impact during field trials. The tools of campaign were: colour televisions equipped with DVD players, pamphlets, posters, and live speeches by trained campaigners. Although such seed campaigns are not entirely new to the farmers, they always show interest in attending these events because they think that any new seed is somewhat improved and better than the older ones. However, the seed company mobile campaigns attempt to give the farmers a good first impression of the new technology. Field Demonstrations: Apart from general mesmerizing advertising techniques, the seed companies have used an influential seed marketing strategy called “field demonstrations.” To implement this strategy, the seed companies have identified a few farmers, who belong to powerful socio-economic (i.e. upper class and caste) categories, and, who had adequate resources such as suitable land, water facility, instruments, accessibility to public institutions etc. After identifying the so-called “progressive farmers”, the seed companies have freely distributed them the new seeds and all required other inputs, and also provided them proper guidance about the new cropping methods, and closely monitored the growth of the crop through out crop season. Under these favourable conditions, a few farmers got better yields with Bt cotton. After proper evaluation of the agronomic value of Bt cotton, the seed company agents selected the best crop fields for demonstration. All that the seed companies wanted to demonstrate in these model fields was the significant increase in productivity and decrease in the application of pes-

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ticides. The local agents of seed companies were assigned to mobilise farmers in the village and from nearby villages to visit the demonstrative fields by organizing the farmers’ field tours at the cost of companies. Most of the demonstration fields were identified along the main roadside because it would make the task of mobilising farmers by tour vans and jeeps from other villages easy. In fact, in Kadavendi village, all farmers who adopted Bt cotton in 2003 used free seeds provided by the seed company, and all of them visited demonstrative fields in other villages. Farmer-dealer Network Strategy: The rapid increase of agricultural commercialization in the district has created a a market-dependent farming community. Considering the farmer dependency on the market and a huge profits in seed, fertiliser and pesticide business, (and a threat from the Maoist revolutionary movement in this region), many big farmers sold out their land and became seed and pesticide dealers in the towns. This trend started in the mid-1980s, and has been increasing since the early 1990s. The erstwhile big farmers well established in the business by utilising their socio-cultural and political networks in the villages. For the seed companies, these networks have become good channels of the spread of the new seeds. In general, farmers seek advice from their seed dealers on what seed to sow to get a better yield. Taking this situation as advantage, the seed dealers promoted GM seed in a big way in the district. In 2004, 60 percent of the sampled farmers used the free packets distributed by the seed company, and 40 percent of them purchased seeds from the dealers in the nearby town, Jangaon. In the year 2005 and 2006, 45 and 40 percent of the farmers, respectively, bought seeds from seed dealers. (See Table 22.5) Farmers’ Advocacy: As the adoption of GM cotton has accelerated, a few farmers of the demonstration fields and rich farmers have informally taken up the lucrative business of seed selling. These farmer-cum-informal seed dealers have become the front-end agents for companies in the diffusion of the new seeds, and have become ‘resource persons’ for novice farmers in the village. It is very much evident in Kadavendi village that the farmers have more trust in the farmercum-seed dealers than the seed dealer in the town. Apart from the trust factor, the farmers wanted to buy seed from the local seed dealer because of proximity and familiarity. In 2005, 55 percent of the farmers purchased Bt cotton seed from the local dealers, where as in 2006, it has increased to 60 percent. When asked about the factors that most influenced the farmers to adopt Bt cotton, all of them referred to the common factor: Mounting debt burden. The farmers considered the new seed as a new hope amidst the situation of despair. But when probed further, 44 percent of the sampled farmers mentioned that they have adopted Bt cotton after seeing good yields obtained by big farmers with the new seeds. Other factors that influenced the farmers to adopt Bt cotton were: Relatives and neighbours (influenced 24 percent of the farmers), the seed dealers in town and the seed agents in the village (20 percent), and the seed

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Source of Seed

Percentage Percentage Percentage Percentage of of of of Farmers Farmers Farmers Farmers Used in Used in Used in Used in 2003 2004 2005 2006

Company sample packets

parbox49pt100 60

parbox49pt0

0

Town nearby the village (Jangam)

0

40

45

40

parbox54pt

0

0

55

60

100

100

100

50

Local seed agent Total

Table 22.5: Adoption of Bt Cotton and the Source of Seed. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers

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S. No

1

2 3

4

Factors of Influence Perceived success of big farmers and farmers’ advocacy Influence of relatives and neighbors Influence of seed dealers and agents Company mobile campaigns, advertisements, the distribution of sample seed packets, and field demonstrations

Percentage of the sampled farmers 44

24 20

12

100 Table 22.6: Factors of Influence in the Initial Adoption of Bt cotton. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers company mobile and media campaigns, and field demonstrations (12 percent). (See Table 22.6)

3

Information Gap between Laboratory and Field

The level of farmers’ understanding about the quality of the new seeds and the importance of the new cropping methods is very important aspect to be considered, because the critics of GM seeds argue that there would be negative externalities if farmers did not follow the specific cropping practices. Moreover, there are several uncertainties about the socio-ecological and health implications of GM crops. In fact, any kind of uncertainty and unpredictability is a risk. Particularly, in the context of agrarian crisis and farmer suicides, it is very important to examine whether the farmers have accesses to the information about the new agricultural practices required in Bt cotton cropping. And, even if they have access, whether they have understood the information and practice the cropping methods specified.

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Level of Education

Percentage of the sampled farmers

Illiterate

64

Up to Primary school (< 5th standard)

8

Up to Secondary school ( 6-10th standard)

16

Up to Junior college (11-12th standard)

8

Undergraduate

4 100

Table 22.7: Adoption of Bt Cotton, 2003-2006. Source: Interviews with the sampled farmers. In fact, the seed companies insert an information leaflet in every tin of seeds describing the characteristics and benefits of GM cotton. But, how many farmers can read the leaflets and understand the information therein? If we examine the educational levels of the sampled farmers, the majority of them (64 percent) are illiterates. Of 36 percent of literates, 8 percent was studied up to 5th standard and they hardly read and understand the information. Although 16 percent of the farmers were studied up to 10th standard, 8 percent went to junior college and 4 percent was completed under graduation; they never cared of reading the information leaflet. In this kind of situation, the information leaflets have become very symbolic. In addition to this, the public extension services were very poor because of insufficient resources and lack of qualified agricultural officers and supportive staff. Moreover, even the local agricultural officers do not have clear information and understanding about the functioning of GM seeds.

In the context of the information gap between laboratory and the farmer, the local seed and pesticide dealers and big farmers have become resource persons in the village. If a farmer finds anything wrong with his or her crop, then he or she picks up a bunch of leaves from the infected plants and brings them to the seed dealer to seek a quick remedy. The seed and pesticide dealer suggests the farmer some pesticide that provides a good financial margin to them. This explains a fact

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that in the context of the information gap and inefficient government supportive system, the local seed and pesticide dealers make decisions for the farmers and decide the fate of crop, and the farmer. When asked the practice of “refuge mechanism”, no farmer was responded positively. Few farmers practiced in the initial phase of adoption because of the influence of the company campaigns; but abandoned it later, because they thought it was just waste of land as well as seed. But agricultural scientists assert that it is one of the crucial mechanisms in preventing the development of Bt resistant insects. Therefore, the non-practice of specific methods of GM cropping might result in negative externalities, whose socio-ecological and economic costs are uncertain yet. In this paper, I am not suggesting that availability of information itself helps the farmers making ‘rational’ decision on the adoption of GM seeds. But what I am arguing is that in the given socio-economic conditions, the lack of information about the new technology complicates the existing socio-ecological problems and intensifies the agrarian distress.

4

Conclusion

Since the introduction of the “Green Revolution,” many agrarian scholars have identified how new agricultural technologies have been used as an instrument for the penetration of capital into agriculture, creating social as well as ecological contradictions, and accelerating a process of differentiation of the peasantry. In a treadmill fashion, the differentiated agrarian structure and associated asymmetrical power relations have played an important role in the wider spread of the new technologies.9 The case study of Kadavendi demonstrates that the similar patterns are taking place in the spread of GM seeds. Also the case study demonstrates that the farmer has a little or no choice in deciding whether to adopt GM seeds or not because he or she completely lost control over his or her own agricultural system. In fact, what the farming community in Warangal has been experiencing from the “Green Revolution” to the “Gene Revolution” is an alienation of primary producers from the means of production as well as the conditions of production i.e., nature. This has created a “metabolic rift” between the peasant-farmer and his or her field, which has eventually resulted in a socio-ecological crisis that has manifested in agrarian distress and farmer suicides.

Notes 1

For example, in the case of Bt cotton, farmers are supposed to follow resistance management plans, which include a “refuge strategy” i.e., planting non-Bt cotton in at least five rows surrounding Bt cotton, or in 20 percent of the total

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sown area, whichever is more. To help farmers implement the refuge strategy, Mahyco-Monsanto sold seed packages with two packets: a 450-gram packet of Bt cotton and a 120-gram packet of non-Bt cotton for the refuge. The logic behind this is that when non-Bt cotton is planted within or around a Bt cotton field, the non-Bt cotton acts as a “refuge” for Bt-sensitive insects that will breed with Btresistant insects, thereby minimizing or delaying the development of Bt-resistant insects. 2

U Patnaik, ‘Global Capitalism, Deflation and Agrarian Crisis in Developing Countries’ Social Policy and Development, Programme Paper, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2003, No. 15. 3

G Keith, The Political Economy of Agrarian Change, An Essay on the Green Revolution, London and Basingstoke, The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1979, pp. 212. Also see F. Buttel, ‘Social Relations and the Growth of Modern Agriculture’, in Agroecology, R. C.Carroll et al (eds.), New York, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990, pp.116-117. 4

See K Bharadwaj, ‘A View on Commercialization in Indian Agriculture and Development of Capitalism’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 1985, vol. 12 (4), pp.7-25; A. Bhaduri, ‘Forced Commerce and Agrarian Growth’, World Development,1986, Vol.14 (2), pp.267-272. 5

S Adnan, ‘Classical and Contemporary Approaches to Agrarian Capitalism, Economic and Political Weekly, 1985, Vol XX (30), pp. PE 53-64. See B. Jairus, ‘Capitalist Domination and the Small Peasantry: Deccan Districts in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Economic and Political Weekly, 1977, Vol 12 (33&34), pp. 1375-1404; A. Bhaduri, The Economic Structure of Backward Agriculture, London, Academic Press, 1983. 6

Genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a micro-organism, have been inserted into cotton cells, which acts as a pesticide by releasing highly toxic crystals through the leaves and stems of the plant that kills a broad class of insects. 7

T. Byres, ‘New Technology, Class Formation and Class Action in Indian Countryside’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1981, Vol. 8 (4), pp. 405-54. 8

Some ideas presented in this subsection are taken from my detailed account of the sociological process of Bt cotton adoption and its implications for farm communities in Kadavendi village in my forthcoming article, "The Global Knowledge Encounter" in the International Social Science Journal’s special issue on Global Knowledge. 9

Ibid; J Harriss, ‘Capitalism and Peasant Production: The Green Revolution in India’, in Peasants and peasant societies: selected readings, T. Shanin (ed), Oxford [Oxfordshire] and New York, Blackwell, 1987.

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Acknowledgements This paper draws on field research conducted in Warangal district with financial support of the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, and the department of Sociology, University of Alberta. I thank Kishore Karanam, Narsihma Guvvala, Anjaiah Bashipaka, and Srinivasulu Panneeru for their great help during my field research. Cooperation of the farmers of Kadavendi is greatly appreciated; thank you all.

Bibliography Adnan, S., ‘Classical and Contemporary Approaches to Agrarian Capitalism, Economic and Political Weekly.1985, Vol XX (30), pp. PE 53-64. Jairus, B., ‘Capitalist Domination and the Small Peasantry: Deccan Districts in the Late Nineteenth Century’. Economic and Political Weekly, 1977, Vol 12 (33&34), pp. 1375-1404 Bhaduri, A., The Economic Structure of Backward Agriculture. London, Academic Press, 1983. Bhaduri, A., ‘Forced Commerce and Agrarian Growth’. World Development,1986, Vol.14 (2), pp.267-272. Bharadwaj, K., ‘A View on Commercialization in Indian Agriculture and Development of Capitalism’. Journal of Peasant Studies, 1985, vol. 12 (4), pp.725 Buttel, F., ‘Social Relations and the Growth of Modern Agriculture’. In Agroecology, R. C.Carroll et al (eds.), New York, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990, pp.116-117. Byres, T., ‘New Technology, Class Formation and Class Action in Indian Countryside’. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1981, Vol. 8 (4), pp. 405-54. Keith, G., The Political Economy of Agrarian Change, An Essay on the Green Revolution. London and Basingstoke, The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1979, pp. 212. Harriss, J., ‘Capitalism and Peasant Production: The Green Revolution in India’. In Peasants and peasant societies: selected readings, T. Shanin (ed), Oxford [Oxfordshire] and New York, Blackwell, 1987 Patnaik, U., ‘Global Capitalism, Deflation and Agrarian Crisis in Developing Countries’. Social Policy and Development, Programme Paper, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2003, No. 15.

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Biographical Note Ashok Kumbamu is affiliated to the Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Part III Merits and Drawbacks of Bottom-Up Approaches

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Chapter 23

Fundamental Environmental Rights in EU Law Sofia de Abreu Ferreira This paper argues that the protection of the environment is treated as a fundamental value within the European Union. This holds both at the national level as well as to the European level. The European Commission and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) accept this value. We argue that this implies a right of the citizen, namely the right to environmental information. Key words: EU, constitution, fundamental rights, environmental information.

1

Constitutionalisation of the EU

The ongoing disagreement1 on the pertinence of having a “Constitutional Treaty” offers good proof of the dangers of engaging on a constitutional discourse at the European Union (EU) level. However, the paths of EU law and fundamental rights have intertwined long before political talks on a Constitutional Treaty so the de facto existence of a substantive EU constitutional law cannot be ignored2 . To discuss environmental protection from a fundamental rights perspective (idea of norms which occupy a higher moral and legal status in a given hierarchy of norms due to their association with human dignity), in the EU necessarily calls for a synopsis of this evolving “constitutionalisation” process. Originally, the founding Treaties did not contain any reference to fundamental rights. The scope of such Treaties was not to establish a “Community of values” (Joschka Fischer) but rather to functionally integrate markets in order to attain economic benefits3 . The functional method of European Economic Community (EEC) integration led to the gradual expansion of its competences to fields other than economic policy (e.g. environmental policy in 1986). Furthermore, the individual’s sphere of rights suffered interferences not only through national governments’ actions but also, directly, through EEC’s actions.

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Fundamental Environmental Rights in EU Law

It was against a scenario of a supranational “intrusive” legal order, not bound by a formal catalogue of fundamental rights – a Constitution – that the question of whether the EU (then, the EEC) was bound by fundamental rights first arose. In the absence of a written provision in the Treaties and given the unwillingness of the “legislative branch” (Council) to act, it fell upon the Court (European Court of Justice, ECJ) to tackle the issue of fundamental rights’ protection in the EEC. The jurisprudence on the matter is abundant and raises specific issues which clearly fall out of the scope of this paper. Therefore, it suffices to point out the seminal case-law which established a de facto protection of fundamental rights in the EU which, then, led to legislative measures aimed at taking on board that judicial practice. The initial attitude of the ECJ towards the protection of fundamental rights was one of hostility as Stargalata4 so eloquently proves. Stargalata In this case, not only did the Court ignore the protection of fundamental rights as it even stated that Treaty provisions’ could not be overridden by fundamental principles common to the legal systems if the Member States. This approach aroused dissatisfaction amongst several of the higher Courts of Member States5 . Accordingly, the ECJ revisited the question of fundamental rights protection in Stauder6 . In Stauder, the Court held that the fundamental human rights are part of the general principles of EC law. What were these general principles of EC law was not clarified by the ECJ in that case but in a subsequent important case, i.e., in Internationale Handelsgesellschaft7. The Internationale Handelsgesellschaft jurisprudence is the first block in the establishment of a multilevel constitutional space in the EU, through the reference to national constitutional law. There, the Court affirmed that “respect for fundamental rights forms an integral part of the general principles of Community law protected by the Court of Justice. The protection of such rights, while inspired by the constitutional traditions common to the Member States (italics added) must be ensured within the framework of the structure and the objectives of the Community.” This jurisprudence was first upheld and reinforced in Nold8 , Rutili9 and Hauer10 . In the last two cases, the ECJ “granted” special status to the European Convention on Human Rights (hereafter ECHR) as a source of general fundamental principles of law. Other sources of fundamental principles, such as International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter ICCPC), have been tried over the years by the ECJ although their status as an “inspirational source” is far less “secure” than that of the ECHR or national constitutional law, as can be attested by the Grant11 jurisprudence. From this illustrative overview of the ECJ’s classical jurisprudence on the “constitutionalisation” of the Community legal order, two points should be stressed.

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The first point relates to the clear-cut establishment of national constitutional law and ECHR law as the inspirational sources for the development of fundamental norms within the EU. A last remark is aimed at highlighting the deference granted by the ECJ to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in detriment of other international legal instruments and the growing importance of the ECHR, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), as a reference in the Luxembourg Courts jurisprudence12 . The judicial activism of the ECJ in the area of fundamental rights was “legitimized” with Maastricht (1992) through the insertion of Article 6 in the EU Treaty13 , further amended with the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997). Hence, this Article was seen as the “crystallization” of the jurisprudence of the ECJ on this issue. A further step was taken in the process of “constitutionalisation” of the EU by the adoption of a catalogue of fundamental rights of the EU, the “Charter of Fundamental Rights” 14 (2000). This legal instrument is a “soft-law” instrument, for the moment15 , which means that it possesses a mere symbolic and declaratory value. To sum up, although the EU does not have a “Constitution” stricto sensu, the “kompetenz-kompetenz” no longer lies solely within national boundaries. The EU-27 should be seen as a supranational reality within an ongoing constitutionalisation process. This (judicial and legislative) process led to creation of a “multi-level constitutional space” composed by, inter alia, the EU’s fundamental provisions, the “common constitutional traditions of the Member States” and the ECHR (as an “international supplementary constitution” 16 ). It is thus, against this legal background that I wish to assert how environmental protection is approached as a fundamental right in the different fora which compose this “multilevel constitutional space”.

2

Fundamental Environmental Rights in a European Multilevel Constitutional Space

“In Europe, as much as everywhere, humankind depends on Earth’s ecosystems for the services they provide – for resources such as food, water, timber, fibre and fuel; for functions such as climate regulation, the absorption of wastes and the detoxification of pollution; and for protection as afforded by the atmospheric ozone layer (italics added).” 17 Both the EC/EU Treaties as well as the Nice Charter to do not explicitly use the language of rights when referring to the environment but talk instead of a “high level of environmental protection and improvement of the quality of the environment” as a policy goal (see Articles 2 and 174, (1) (2) ECT and Article 37, Nice Charter). However, its systematic insertion in the section of the EC Treaty

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on Principles and part of the Charter of Fundamental Rights reveal nevertheless its importance. The recognition of “environmental rights” per se, at the EU level18 , is, therefore, located elsewhere. The sources of these rights are, thus, Community’s secondary law (the “Aarhus package” 19 ), international conventions to which the EC has acceded to and which, from that moment onwards, “form an integral part of the EC legal order” 20 (“Aarhus Convention” 21 ), national constitutional law of its Member States and the jurisprudence of the ECtHR. Still, these different levels project diverse legal solutions on the intertwining of fundamental rights and environmental protection, i.e., the ECHR addresses environmental protection as a pre-condition for the enjoyment of other fundamental rights, the constitutional law of the member states (MS) mostly sees fundamental environmental rights as substantive rights while the EC chooses proceduralization as a way of furthering an environmental right. I will provide an overview of these solutions, while pointing out their problems from a conceptual point of view. Lastly, I will focus on the approach which designs fundamental environmental rights as participatory/procedural rights – environmental information – as it is the most promising one in terms of an effective and democratic/legitimate contribution to environmental protection.

3

The ECHR: Environmental Protection par ricochet

The22 ECHR23 was established on 4 November 1950, within the framework of the Council of Europe, in order to promote and protect the respect for human rights in Europe. This regional human rights legal instrument comprises 46 Parties (November 2005), amongst which, all European Union’s Member States. The long discussion over how to effectively protect fundamental rights in the EU has, inevitably, led to the consideration of a possible accession by the EC to the ECHR24 , as a way of creating an “international supplementary constitution” 25 of the EU or, as the ECJ, put it in Rutili26 a source of “guidelines which should be followed within the framework of Community Law”. However, this Convention does not include any provision establishing a human right to a healthy environment nor does it touch expressly on the issues of access to environmental information or the right to participation in decisionmaking concerning the environment. The fact that the ECHR dates from 1950 explains that its subject matter is restricted to civil rights and liberties, the so-called “first generation human rights”. Environmental interests were still very much ignored at that point27 thus the question of its protection did not arise28 . This “greening” of the ECHR has been mainly achieved by the jurisprudence of the ECtHR although it is not an exclusive prerogative of that judicial body within the Council of Europe. Other bodies such as the Parliamentary Assembly took a very proactive inclusive view on the subject29 .


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The approach followed by the ECtHR has mainly been one of “protection by ricochet” 30 . The Strasbourg Court “mobilizes existing human rights” 31 , such as the right to respect for a private family life (Article 8, ECHR), to reach indirectly environmental protection32 . The leading case-law is Lopez-Ostra v. Spain33 and Guerra v. Italy34 . Although both these cases were successful from the applicant’s point of view, an analysis of the ECtHR’s jurisprudence on the matter shows the precarious protection accorded to the environment through this instrumental approach. The ECHR’s approach is, therefore, one that does not attach to environmental protection a significant symbolic value to stand on its own as a fundamental right (not an independent cause of action). Rather, it is a condition (one of many) for the enjoyment of existing fundamental rights. This would entail that the protection of the environment would “loose” every time it conflicts with existent fundamental rights. Also, even when a “healthy environment” is a condition for the enjoyment of a certain fundamental right, such as Article 8, ECHR, (in this approach) the State is always considered to be best placed to weight the environment with conflicting interests. This means that the applicant bears the burden of proof (to show that the State has gone beyond its margin of discretion) and allows the State a significant discretionary power that effectively “bends” the effectiveness/enforceability of environmental interests.

4

National Level: a Substantive Environmental Right?

Most national Constitutions of the EU-27 recognize environmental protection as a fundamental value therefore, granting it the status of a “formal” fundamental right. The wording, though, is varied, as the systematic positioning of those environmental rights in the overall scheme of each individual constitutional text, some under the heads of economic and social policy while others under titles on fundamental rights, basic rights or individual rights. Most of these constitutional provisions use the term “right” to a “suitable; healthy living; healthy and ecologically balanced human; benevolent” environment, i.e., they stipulate a substantive fundamental right to an environment. The difficulties of establishing a precise content to terms such as “suitable” or “benevolent” (what is the threshold?) or even “environment” lead some authors to name these rights “virtual rights” 35 . Some of these constitutions talk of State duties’ coupled with “Everyone’s rights” or even “Everyone’s duty” (holder of the right/duty?) in addition to they are framed in a programmatic manner that their material and legal application, again is questionable.

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5


The EC: “Fundamental Environmental Rights” as Participatory Rights

The “Aarhus Convention” foresees in its Article 1 that “in order to contribute to the protection of the right of every person of present and future generations to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being, each Party shall guarantee the rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters ( . . . ). The subject-matter of this Convention is the establishment, within a European framework (UN/ECE), of a trinity of participatory rights. These fundamental rights would be a fundamental “vehicle” to achieve environmental protection. The EC (Decision 2005/360/EC) as well as all its Member States (except Ireland) have acceded to this Convention. Furthermore, the EC has adopted a series of Directives and Regulations (above, note 19) in order to implement the abovementioned multilateral environmental agreement (MEA). So, these participatory rights are binding on the Community and its MS as a matter of International and EC law. I would now like to concentrate on the regime of one of these rights – the right of access to information on the environment – to consider its benefits, as a fundamental environmental right within an effective, democratic, pluralistic and collaborative “multilevel constitutional space” – the EU.

6

The Legal Regime of Access to Environmental Information in the EC

The Community regime on access to environmental information operates at two levels: Member States (Directive 2003/4/EC36, hereafter Directive) and EC (Regulation 1367/200637 - the Regulation – and Regulation 1049/200138 – the “Horizontal Regulation”). Both regimes have a twofold aim: to grant the “public” the right of access to information on the environment (passive access) plus to promote a transparent policy in the field of the environment through the active dissemination of information39 . It is important to stress that the holder of the right of information [“applicant” – see Article 3 (5), Directive; Article 2 (1, a), Regulation] does not need to prove an interest [Article 3 (1), Directive; Article 3, Regulation] and may be someone other than a European citizen (Article 17, ECT). This regime aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in the management of environmental matters as well as environmental awareness is an important step towards the construction of a global “ecological citizenship” 40, which, like the environment, is not attached to national boundaries. A proper implementation and application of such a regime by the public authorities of a MS or the EC is key to the securing a strong, effective fundamental


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environmental right, in this case on its informational dimension. A broad definition of holders of rights and duties as well as of “environmental information” together with a strict process, where delays and exceptions are clearly established is vital. Also, material obstacles, such as costs or unclear or difficultly accessible information can also represent a danger for the effectiveness of the regime. The holders of the duty are the “public authorities” of the Member States [Article 2 (2), Directive] or the Institutions/Bodies of the EC [Article 2 (1, c), Regulation], depending on the applicable legal regime. This definitional category is defined in a broad manner to include the traditional governmental bodies as well as other legal persons performing a public service/function relating to the environment [Article 2 (2), Directive] and in the case of the EC legal regime, it applies to all bodies, agencies, committees (see Rothmans41 jurisprudence) except those acting in a legislative or judicial capacity (e.g., ECJ). As far as the subject-matter is concerned – “environmental information” – again, the operational concept is defined broadly to include all the formats of conveying information (written, visual, etc) plus all the state of the elements of the environment, factors, measures with environmental implications, etc [see Article 2 (2), Directive; Article 1 (1, d), Regulation]. The whole process of making available the requested information is of the utmost importance (Article 3, Directive and Regulation). The environmental information should be made available as soon as possible and, at the latest, within two months (principle of timely information). Plus, it should be provided, in principle, in the requested format. The applicant/public should be informed by the public authorities of her/his rights and how to exercise them [Article 3 (5), Directive, Article 5, Regulation]. These rules are extremely important to guarantee the effectiveness of the individual’s right. An uninformed and unaware public can not exercise their rights. Lastly, the rule of free access carries some exceptions which should be interpreted in a strict manner in order not to deprive the basic right of its purpose [Article 4 (2), Directive; Article 3, Regulation together with rules of Regulation 1049/2001]. Some examples of such exceptions are international relations, or public security. The most problematic of these examples concerns the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information (see for instance MOX Plant case – Ireland v.UK42 ). However, when invoking one of the exceptions the burden of proof falls upon the “public authority” which should provide the reasons for refusal to the applicant [duty to provide reasons – Article 3 (4), Directive; Article 3, Regulation and Articles 7-8, “Horizontal Regulation”]. The duty to provide reasons is crucial in the cases where the applicant considers that its request was wrongfully refused, in which case the applicant is entitled to review procedure [Article 6, Directive and Article 3, Regulation and Article 8, “Horizontal Regulation”].

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This very brief account on the right of access to environmental information in the Community legal order hopes to demonstrate the concreteness of such a right as a fundamental environmental right. The duties and rights are clearly established as well as who are the holders of those rights and duties. The right of environmental information provides public authorities a concrete obligation to manage environmental affairs in a sustainable, clear and transparent way so as to make policy-makers accountable. By promoting an engaged and informed public, a truly “global ecological citizen”, the fundamental right to environmental is also enhancing the overall democratic legitimacy of the EU and building an effective “multi-level constitutional space, where rights are not merely “virtual”.

7

Concluding Remarks

The aim of this paper was to prove that environmental protection is treated as fundamental value in a “multi-level constitutional space” – the EC, National level and ECHR – to which is attached concrete legal rights for individuals. The weight and conceptualisation of fundamental environmental rights differs according to the level one looks at in this “multi-level constitutional space”. Nevertheless, the interpenetration and mutual influence of all the levels will, inevitably, carry an increasing harmonisation of the preponderance of fundamental environmental rights. For the moment, the most promising of these fundamental environmental rights is the one that focus on its participatory manifestations and attaches to environmental protection a symbolic, independent value. The analysis of the regime shows a right to environmental information which is sufficiently concrete and clear in terms of scope so as to be effectively exercised by individuals at the EU-27 Member States’ level and the European Community level. The Right to Environmental information is a fundamental value in any modern, democratic society. Only a citizen empowered by information, i.e., engaged in environmental choices and aware, may make public authorities accountable for their policy choices and, thus, voice her/his concerns to defend the environment. This makes the environmental decision-making process a more democratic (participatory democracy) and efficient one where, ultimately, the citizen-Statesupranational level (EU) come together to collaborate in the management of our common fate.

Notes 1

French and Dutch “NO” when called upon to vote on two referenda on a “Constitutional Treaty” for the EU.


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2

A very interesting account of European Constitutional Law provided by German Legal Doctrine can be found in Von Bogdandy, A. et al (Ed.), Principles of European Constitutional Law, Modern Studies of European Law, Volume 8, Hart Publishing (2006). 3

For a description of the evolution of fundamental rights in EU law see Craig, P. and De Búrca, G., EU Law, Texts, Cases and Materials, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press (2003), at pp. 317-370. 4

ECJ, Case C-40/64, Marcello Stargalata and Others v. Commission of the EEC, 1 April 1965. 5

The most well know dispute between higher national jurisdictions and the European ones led to a legal dialectic between the European Court of Justice and the German Constitutional Court (BverfG) over who has the kompetenzkompetenz. See BverfG, Solange I (1974), Solange II (1986) and Bananas III (2000). 6

ECJ, Case C-29/69, Erich Stauder v City of Ulm – Sozialamt, 12 November 1969. 7

ECJ, Case C-11/70, Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mbH v Einfuhr- und Vorratsstelle für Getreide und Futtermittel, 17 December 1970. 8

ECJ, Case C-4/73, J. Nold, Kohlen- und Baustoffgroßhandlung v Commission of the European Communities, 14 May 1974. 9

ECJ, Case C-36/75, Roland Rutili v. Ministre de l’Intérieur, 28 October 1975.

10

ECJ, Case C-44/79, Liselotte Hauer v Land Rheinland-Pfalz, 13 December 1979. 11

ECJ, Case C-249/96, Grant v. South West Trains Ltd., 17 February 1998.

12

Several authors have underlined the growing importance of the ECHR as interpreted by the ECtHR in the jurisprudence of the ECJ. See, inter alia, DouglasScott, S., “A Tale of Two Courts: Luxembourg, Strasbourg and the Growing Human Rights Acquis”, in CMLR 43 (2006), pp.629-665. 13

Article 6 (1), EUT: The Union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms (italics added), and the rule of law, principles which are common to the Member States. Article 6 (2), EUT: The Union shall respect fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and as they result from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, as general principles of Community law (italics added). ( . . . ) 14

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in OJ C 364, 18.12. 2000 (also known as the Nice Charter). 15

Article I-9 (1), Constitutional Treaty includes the Charter into Part II of this

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Treaty. 16

This term belongs to Christian Tomuschat and is borrowed by Robert Uerpmann-Wittzack with reference to WTO and ECHR law in Uerpmann-Wittzack, R., “The Constitutional Role of Multilateral Treaty Systems”, in Von Bogdandy, A. et al (Ed.), Principles of European Constitutional Law, Modern Studies of European Law, Volume 8, Hart Publishing (2006). 17

European Environment Agency, The European Environment – State and Outlook 2005, Copenhagen, at p. 28. 18

See on this issue Douglas-Scott S., “Environmental Rights in the European Union - Participatory Democracy or Democratic Deficit?”, in Boyle A. and Anderson M., Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection, Clarendon Press Oxford (1996), pp. 109-128. Shelton, D., “Environmental Rights”, in Alston, P. (Ed.), People’s Rights, Oxford (2001), pp. 185-258. Jans, J. (Ed), The European Convention and the Future of European Environmental Law, The Avosetta Series I, Europa Law Publishing (2003). 19

The so-called “Aarhus package” is a series of Directives/Regulations which align EC Environmental law with the “Aarhus Convention” (below). The EC has already put in place two Directives that implement the Aarhus Convention in Community law which are Directive 2003/4/EC (Environmental Information) and Directive 2003/35/EC (Public Participation in Environmental DecisionMaking) as well as Regulation 1367/2006 (which applies the “Aarhus provisions” to the EC Institutions and bodies). A third proposal for a Directive on Access to Justice is pending for approval in the Council of the EU/European Parliament. 20

ECJ, Case C-181/73, R & V. Haegeman v. Belgian State, 30.04.1974, in ECR 1974, at p. 449, at §5. 21

Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (commonly known as the “Aarhus Convention”), which entered into force on 30.10.2001. All EU-27 and the EC are Parties to this Convention with the exception of Ireland (the EC has acceded to this MEA on 17.02.2005). 22

The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), 1950, as amended by Protocol 11 in Browlie, I., and Goodwin-Gill, G. (Ed.), Basic Documents on Human Rights, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press (2002). 23

For a detailed analysis of the ECHR and, namely through a comparison with International Human Rights Law, see Sudre, F., supra. Also, Jacobs, F. and White, R., The European Convention of Human Rights, 2nd Edition, Clarendon Press (1996). 24

This possibility of an accession by the EC to the ECHR is, nevertheless, for the moment (see Constitutional Treaty) expressly ruled out by the ECJ in its


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(Opinion 2/94) and by the Treaties. In fact, the EC’s accession to the ECHR seems to be not only an unlawful project from the viewpoint of EU law, but also from that of the ECHR. This Convention is only open for accession to Member States (italics added) of the Council of Europe (CoE). The EC is neither a Party to the Council of Europe, nor a State. However, this rule is about to change following the entrance into force of Protocol 14. 25

This term belongs to Christian Tomuschat and is borrowed by Robert Uerpmann-Wittzack with reference to WTO and ECHR law in Uerpmann-Wittzack, R., “The Constitutional Role of Multilateral Treaty Systems”, in Von Bogdandy, A. et al (Ed.), Principles of European Constitutional Law, Modern Studies of European Law, Volume 8, Hart Publishing (2006). 26

ECJ, Case C-36/75, supra

27

Only in the 1960s and 1970s did environmental concerns start attracting attention. 28

On the historicity of the protection of human rights see Bobbio, N., L’èta dei diritti, Einaudi (1997). 29

The political body of the Council of Europe underlined “the important role of the ECHR for the protection of democracy and basic rights and liberties of individuals. In the light of changing living conditions and growing recognition of the importance of environmental issues, it considers that the Convention could include the right to a healthy and viable environment as a basic human right” proposing for this purpose the drafting of an amendment or an additional protocol to the ECHR (Recommendation 1431 of 1999). Furthermore, in a recent recommendation (1614 of 2003) on this same issue it stressed the importance of a healthy environment and its need for recognition as a substantive human right at Member State level (§ 9ii) while, within the ECHR, mainly focusing on the procedural environmental aspects of information, participation and access to justice as set out in the Aarhus Convention (§ 6, 8, 9iii, 10i). It recommended the adoption of an additional protocol to the ECHR recognizing individual procedural rights linked to environmental protection as foreseen in the Aarhus Convention. 30

Sudre, F., supra at pp. 275-277.

31

This expression is used by Michael Anderson to describe one way of approaching the subject of environmental protection through a human rights regime in Anderson M., “An overview”, in Boyle, A, and Anderson M. (Ed.), Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection, Claredon Press Oxford (1996), at pp. 4-7. 32

On the analysis of the ECtHR’ jurisprudence on human rights and environmental protection see inter alia Déjeant-Pons, M., “Human Rights to Environmental Procedural Rights”, in Déjeant-Pons, M. and Pallemaerts, M., Human Rights and the Environment, Council of Europe Publishing (2002), pp. 23-46, at pp. 34-45. Frumer, P., “Protection de l’environnement et droits procéduraux de

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l’homme: des relations tumultueuses?”, Rev. Trim. Dr. H. (1998), pp. 813-832. McManus, F., “Noise Pollution and Human Rights“, E.H.R.L.R., Issue 6 (2005), pp. 575-587. 33

Case of López Ostra v Spain (No. 41/1993/436/515), Judgement ECtHR, 23 November 1994. 34

Case of Guerra and Others V. Italy (116/1996/735/932), Judgement ECtHR, 19 February 1998. 35

On the question of the virtual nature of rights see Sudre, F., Droit International et Européen des Droits de L’Homme, 5ème Édition, PUF (2001), at pp. 197-205. This author argues that certain human rights (mainly the so-called 2nd generation human rights) remain “droits virtuels” since its proclamation suffers from both material and legal problems. Their realization which depends on a positive conduct by the State is not always possible due to financial barriers (material problem) and their legal enunciation is made in rather elusive and imprecise terms for an actual and effective implementation/enforceability to be viable (legal problem). 36

Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC, in OJ L 41/26 of 14.12.2003. This Directive entered into force on 28 January 2003 and had to be implemented by Member States by 14 February 2005. 37

Regulation (EC) 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 of 06.09.2006 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters to Community Institutions and Bodies, in OJ L 264/13 of 25.09.2006. 38

Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, in OJ L 145/43 of 31.05.2001. 39

See Article 1 (Objectives); Article 2 (6) (Public); Articles 3-6 (Passive Access); Article 7 (Active Access), Directive 2003/4. 40

See Dobson, A., Citizenship and the Environment, Oxford University Press (2003). Also, Hunter B., D., “Toward Global Citizenship in International Environmental Law”, 28 Willamette Law Review (Summer 1992), pp. 547-563. 41

T-188/97, Rothmans International BV v. Commission of the European Communities, 19 July 1999 (hereinafter the “Rothmans case”). 42

Available at: http://www.itlos.org/cgi-bin/cases/case_detail.pl?id=10 &lang=en


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Biographical Note Sofia de Abreu Ferreira is a PhD Researcher at European University Institute.

Chapter 24

Valuating Traditional Knowledge in Economic Development Melisande Lissa Middleton In addition to being recognized for its cultural and social value, indigenous/traditional knowledge (IK/TK) of the environment withheld by indigenous communities can be valued as human capital and integrated as such in local economic development processes. An example of this occurs in the use of a traditional irrigation technology (raised fields) in the Peruvian region of Puno. This case study allows for an evaluation of the economic benefits of TK at the community level. The analysis raises the issue put forth in recent WTO discussions regarding article 27.3(b), that IK/TK could be protected by intellectual property (IP) rights patents when it is estimated to be useful as human capital. Key words: Traditional knowledge, indigenous knowledge, local economic development, human capital, irrigation, WTO, TRIPs, intellectual property rights, patents.

1

Managing traditional knowledge (TK) as human capital: a case study in Puno, Peru

The Andean region of Puno, known as the altiplano, is located at 3,830 meters above sea level. The terrain is prone to flooding, and thus difficult to cultivate. In order to deal with this situation, Andean indigenous populations displaced huge amounts of soil to create raised fields that were better adapted for agricultural use. Raised fields (camellones in Spanish, waru waru in Quechua, suka kollus in Aymara) are elevated platforms of earth, approximately 1 to 20 meters wide, ten to hundreds of meters long, and 0.5 to 1 meter high. Canals that provided the earth for constructing the platforms surround the fields. Erickson estimated that raised fields cover more than 120,000 hectares of the Lake Titicaca basin, but that most are not currently in use.1

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Archaeological excavations have revealed that farmers began constructing raised fields at some point before 1000 BC. Raised field agriculture thrived in the Puno region during the Tiahuanaco civilization but fell into disuse around 1100 AD2 ; most of the fields were later converted into pasture around the colonial haciendas, and then became government cooperatives in 1968.3 Archaeological investigation and agronomic experimentation, carried out by Erickson and his colleagues between 1981 and 1987 with the participation of local farmers, revealed that raised fields resolved many of the problems that affect agriculture at high altitude4 . The technology combines the rehabilitation of marginal soils, drainage improvement, increased water storage, more efficient use of radiant energy, and attenuation of the effects of frosts. The raised platform allows farmers to double the depth of topsoil for crops, and provides dry surfaces in the wet and often flooded lake and river terrain. The water-filled canals adjacent to the platforms provide moisture to relieve from the droughts that occur during the growing season. Sun heats the water in the canals during the day, which protects the crops against the killing frost that is often present at high altitude. The canals also capture nutrients and produce organic-rich sediments that can be added to the fields to extend the harvest period.5 An evaluation of the result of these effects was described as follows in the UNESCO database of Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge: Experience shows that the minimum night-time temperatures reached in [raised field] areas are two to three degrees centigrade higher than those of the surrounding plains. The moisture provided by the canals lowers the impact of sporadic droughts during the cycle and, in the rainy season, prevents the subsoil from becoming waterlogged by ensuring adequate drainage. Crop yields, in particular yields of potatoes and other Andean tubers, are 50% to 100% higher than the yields obtained using traditional farming techniques. ( . . . ) Studies carried out over the past eight years, covering rotation cycles of five years of cultivation plus three years of fallow, and estimated on the basis of an economic life of 20 years, showed a 7% annual average increase in profits even after maintenance costs were deducted. This result has been achieved in spite of two El Niños. Following the apparent success of this experimentation, Erickson and his colleagues began a small-scale development project to rehabilitate pre-Hispanic raised field agriculture in a few indigenous communities of the Lake Titicaca basin. By the late 1980’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies in Peru and Bolivia began to promote raised field rehabilitation projects by providing funding and assistance for their rehabilitation6 . Estimates show that farmers from several hundred Quetchua and Aymara communities rehabilitated between 500 and 1,500 hectares of raised fields in the years before

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19907. A restoration project supported by CARE-Peru began in 1991 to continue using the irrigation in Puno. The central question is whether the benefits of implementing raised fields in Puno’s agricultural sector outweigh the costs. The interpretation of four data sets helped to determine this8 . (I) The agricultural yield data (kg/ha) from Puno’s Chatuma and Caritamaya communities for 1992-93 provides an assessment of the impact of raised field irrigation compared to that of mountainside and pampas terrain. The figures reveal that in general the yields that were produced with raised fields are higher. (II) A comparison of yields with and without raised fields in the Puno region (1999-2005) show that in most cases agricultural yield was superior when raised fields were used than when they were not. (III) Average quinoa yields in the Puno region from 1979 to 1998 show a sustained increase in average yields starting in 1990, which can be interpreted as revealing a positive effect of raised fields on production, since the beginning of the increase corresponds with the time that raised fields started to be widely in use. (IV) Comparing the costs with the revenue yielded from the harvest of the same year from the fields managed by CARE in 1999-2000 leads to the conclusion that the benefits of using raised field irrigation outweigh the costs incurred by CARE. However, the data also demonstrates that the investment in CARE’s staff participation does not result in an impressive cost/benefit outcome. These interpretations provide evidence that although the benefits of applying TK to an economic sector can potentially outweigh the costs, there are nonetheless inefficiencies in the way that the raised field technique was applied to agriculture in Puno. Two of these challenges are a tendency for farmers to abandon management of the raised fields (which explains the high standard deviation and coefficient of variation observed in data set II for the raised fields), and the shortcomings of a costly NGO staff participation in carrying out raised field rehabilitation. According to Erickson9 , many farms abandoned raised fields in spite of the increase in crop yield. However, reasons for abandonment of the raised fields are independent of the technique’s effectiveness for production. Among the reasons Erickson found are: • Competing labour demands: Constructing large blocks of raised fields requires a significant amount of labour at the start, even though this need diminishes when spread out over successive years of cultivation. However, many farmers migrate for temporary work to cities and mines during a part of the year, which reduces the availability of labour for raised field implementation. • Traditional fallow cycles: Traditionally, farmers plant crops for three years and then leave fields in fallow for up to twenty years. This rotation pattern allows for an optimization of the potential of exhausted and eroded mountain soils, at a relatively low cost. Farmers today apply this tradi-

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Valuating Traditional Knowledge tional rotation technique to raised field agriculture, even though it is not necessary for fields that are well managed. Thus, many raised fields that appear to be abandoned might actually be in fallow.

• Competition with livestock: Livestock is a significant income source for Quechua farmers. Those who manage raised field areas must choose between rehabilitating the fields and grazing livestock. Because livestock has relatively higher market value, farmers often choose livestock over raised fields. Experiments are currently being carried out by individual farmers for integrating raised field agriculture with livestock grazing, but this integration of methods presents challenges and has not yet been widely implemented. • Political instability: The instability caused by Shining Path activities in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s resulted in most international aid agencies leaving Peru, including those who were promoting raised fields in Puno. NGO funding for raised field rehabilitation thus became increasingly irregular, and some fields were therefore abandoned. These reasons for abandonment of the raised fields highlight the fact that raised fields were not a structural part of agricultural life in Puno before their rehabilitation by NGOs at the end of the 1980’s. The Puno case study is particular in this regard, since knowledge of the traditional irrigation technique was reintroduced into farmer communities after centuries of disuse and was not an inherent part of community life. This characteristic is exceptional: in the majority of cases in which TK is used in development, the knowledge is held by community members and passed on between generations instead of being reintroduced by exterior research or development organizations such as Erickson’s archaeological team, CARE and PIWA. This exceptional status of the Puno case study may account for a large part of why raised fields were often abandoned. Based on these facts and the results of data set IV concerning CARE’s financial contributions toward rehabilitating raised fields, it becomes apparent that NGO participation in applying TK to development implies certain challenges that need to be accounted for. For example, NGOs failed to provide farmers with individual incentives for rehabilitating the raised fields. The USAID PL480 program provided surplus food, which was given to farmers in exchange for participating in raised field development projects10 . In the mid-1980s the government of Peru encouraged rehabilitating raised fields using a system by which farmers contributed their labour to building the fields for a low daily wage. To supplement this low income, the payment of additional incentives (food, tools and seed) ensured the farmers’ participation in projects, thereby creating bidding competition between development agencies11 . However, as a result of this system, farmers ended up in a position where they were working for a development agency or NGO rather than for their own farming enterprise. It is therefore not surprising that most of the rehabilitated raised fields that were abandoned in the 1990’s had been constructed

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by communities or by large groups of farmers working together and not individually12 . In the community projects, “poor organization and leadership, internal tensions, and land tenure problems within communities worked against long-term sustained commitment to communal farming of large raised field plots” 13 . This happened because individual farmers were not educated on the potential value that the raised fields had for their crops, so they lacked individual incentive to implement them. These facts led to adverse results in managing the raised field projects, in spite of the irrigation’s potential to increase yields substantially. In response to these difficulties, PIWA initiated its activities in August 1989: through a community outreach system, PIWA provided technical and scientific knowledge to sustain the operation and dynamic of raised field systems.14 PIWA incorporated various local organizations such as rural communities, mothers clubs, families and schools, to spread knowledge of raised field technology throughout the communities.15 A few Peruvian governmental organizations also provided subsidies to PIWA, as a result of the observation that raised fields were improving crop yield16 . These organizations enabled the reconstruction of 500 hectares of raised fields in 72 rural communities in the Puno region. After they were constructed, operating and maintaining the systems became the sole responsibility of the farmers who benefited from using the technology.17 However, in the case of both CARE’s involvement that was financed by international sources18 , and PIWA’s involvement financed by regional government subsidies, this financial link between development organizations and the farmers led to the dependence of farmers on the outside institutions 19 . Provided with the expectation that these institutions would continue to fund these projects, there was limited motivation from the farmers themselves to consolidate their knowledge of how raised fields must be built and managed. The predominance of institutional investment over individual sacrifices to make the construction of raised fields possible, meant that when the outside funds were suspended there was not a sufficiently solid foundation in the community for the raised fields to be maintained. CARE and PIWA have now ceased managing raised field rehabilitation in Puno, largely due to lack of continued funding from their respective international and governmental sources 20 . Both the abandonment of raised fields and the inefficiencies of NGO participation in Puno demonstrate that TK is more likely to be beneficial to local economic growth if it is maintained within the community itself rather than promoted by detached organizations. Ultimately, educating each new generation in the community on its TK can optimize the potential for this knowledge to produce economic benefits.

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2


Placing TRIPs on tradition: patenting traditional knowledge (TK) to maximize its economic benefits

More often than one might imagine, plant varieties used to make pharmaceutical products are discovered through asking local indigenous groups to share their knowledge. When sold on the market, financial gains are significant. According to estimates carried out in 2000 by the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, the world market for such medicines has reached US$60 billion, with annual growth rates between 5 and 15 per cent21 . World Health Organization studies show that at least 25 per cent of prescription pharmaceuticals in the United States are derived from traditional medicine22 . So the question of sharing profits naturally arises: should intellectual property rights patents be applied to TK in indigenous communities? And if so, how feasible is it to actually apply them? The answer is far from straightforward. On the one hand, this type of knowledge deserves compensation. From an ethical as well as utilitarian standpoint, the human capital value that patents place on TK of genetic resources has the potential to improve welfare in these communities. Patents reinforce the capacity for knowledge to generate economic and medical advancement. They can provide avenues for sustainable development, and even incentive for biodiversity conservation. In spite of this, however, even some of the most fervent defenders of indigenous rights plead against granting patents to TK-holders. Some claim that injecting such quantities of financial revenue that flow from these patents could disturb the socio-economic equilibrium that traditional groups strive to maintain. As an alternative, some kind of sui generis benefit-sharing system could be implemented that would compensate communities without interfering with their internal structures. The task of putting a market value on TK through the patent system has been broadly addressed in the past decade by a range of international agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) among others. Most saliently, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has sparked debate since its 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration, when paragraph 19 brought forth the issue of patenting TK of genetic resources. The intention expressed in this particular paragraph is to eventually reformulate the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) article that pertains to the issue (27.3b), with the goal that it “fully take into account the development dimension” 23 when incorporated in legislative proceedings at national and sub-national levels. This emphasis on the development factor implies that valuating TK through the legal system could provide an incentive measure in local communities, to create small and mediumsized business enterprises that utilize their knowledge as human capital.

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In 2006, the TRIPS council produced a renewed series of directives for such patents24 ; discussions are currently still on the way. But in reality, obstacles are bound to come in the way of TK being valued and protected by the law25 . For one thing, the valuation process is expensive: it costs $US 20,000 to obtain a patent that would be internationally recognized (through the US patent system), and $US 1.5 million to challenge one26 . Populations in developing countries are rarely able to produce that sum - and even if they have it available, are not likely to spend it on a legal procedure about which they are hardly informed. A sizeable discrepancy also exists between patterns of customary law honoured in some local communities and positive legislation designed at the national level. The concept of collective property ownership is a typical example, attributing patents to a group of people instead of a single individual. To remedy this, attempts have been made to codify customary law so that it may be considered alongside the national. This happened in Ecuador, where a legislation drafted in 1996 made a point of including traditional collective property rights. By enabling a form of juridical pluralism, this contributed to resolving a water management conflict affecting the Kichwa peoples27 . However, such cases are an exception; in general, the incompatibility persists. Quite simply, a country’s ability to comply with patents on TK also depends on whether its infrastructure can ensure a patent regime for its citizens. In the case of many developing countries, some of them “failed” states, the legal system is inadequate and unreliable. Keith Maskus of the University of Colorado-Boulder estimates that a developing country needs about US$1.5 to 2 million to provide the juridical backing needed for implementing and enforcing patents28 . In an effort to help out, certain international agencies such as WIPO provide technical assistance to governments in drafting relevant legislation. But costs are high, and an intellectual property rights system is not a priority in poor countries devastated by war or disease. In the end, these practical hurdles in implementing patents on TK might be most efficiently overcome through tailored national solutions outside the intellectual property rights system that directly and effectively regulate [ . . . ] conduct 29 . Talks at the WTO have highlighted standards already set by the CBD, urging national legislation to regulate access to TK by outsiders30 . Laws designed within each country are indeed better adapted to local context than their international counterparts; a sui generis patent regime at the national level might include the use of permits, contractual obligations, visa systems and civil or criminal penalties to fix cases of non-compliance31 – employing a series of legal instruments that are more targeted and tangible than what can be enforced, at least for the time being, at the global level provided by the WTO. Along with India, Latin American countries have been especially active in WTO discussions on the topic. In 2002, Peru became the first country with a legal system that protects TK32 : its new law instigated a regulatory framework

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allowing indigenous peoples to assert ownership of their knowledge, including the right to prevent its unauthorized use 33 . In addition to Peru, Brazil has pioneered the way in this field34 : a decree from the Brazilian Ministry of Public Affairs states explicitly that a violation of rights over genetic resources and associated TK will be sanctioned35 . In June 2005, a cooperation agreement was signed by the Federal police, the Brazilian Intelligence Agency and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA)36 In spite of these advances, however, national laws still fail to recognize explicitly that TK might have potential economic benefits that justify the need for its protection independently of its value as cultural heritage. At the level of international institutions such as the WTO, we have touched only the tip of the iceberg: the actual issuing of patents on TK has not yet been formally introduced in legislative texts on the topic - such as TRIPS article 27.3b - and is still at the stage of discussion.

Notes 1

Erickson, Clark, “Agricultural Landscapes as World Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru”, in Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the Conservation of the Built Environment, Ed. Jeanne-Marie Teutonico and Frank Matero, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 2003, pp. 181-204. 2

http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik19-2.htm

3

Ibid.

4

Erickson, Clark and D. Brinkmeier, “Raised field rehabilitation projects in the northern Lake Titicaca basin”, unpublished report to the Interamerican Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1991. 5

Informe Final del Seminario-Taller sobre Tecnologías Alternativas para Aumentar la Disponibilidad de Agua en América Latina, Lima, Peru, 19-22 Sept. 1995, OAS/UNEP. See also Tapia, Mario E. and Mairano Banegas, “Human Adaptation to a High-Risk Environment: Camellones or Waru Waru: Traditional Agricultural Technology of the Peruvian Andes”, Journal of Farming Systems Research-Extension 1 (1): 93-98. 6

Kolata, A.L., O. Rivera, J.C. Ramirez, and E. Gemio, “Rehabilitating raisedfield agriculture in the southern Lake Titicaca basin of Bolivia”, in Tiwanaku and Its Hinterland: Archaeology and Paleoecology of an Andean Civilization, Vol. 1, Agroecology, ed. A.L. Kolata 203-30, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. 7

PIWA, Priorización de las Áreas Potenciales para la reconstrucción de waru waru en el Altiplano de Puno, Programa Interinstitucional de Waru Waru, INADE/ PELT-COTESU, Puno, Peru, 1994.

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8

A more complete analysis can be found in the author’s master’s thesis, “Using TK in economic development: The impact of raised field irrigation on agricultural production in Puno, Peru”, supervised by Dr. Patrick Messerlin (GEM) and Benjamin Shepherd (World Bank) at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris , June 2006. 9

C Erickson, “Agricultural Landscapes as World Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru”, in Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the Conservation of the Built Environment, Ed. Jeanne-Marie Teutonico and Frank Matero, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 2003, pp. 181-204. 10

C Erickson, D Brinkmeier, “Raised field rehabilitation projects in the northern Lake Titicaca basin”, unpublished report to the Interamerican Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1991. 11

Garaycochea, I., “Community-based organizations and rural development with a particular reference to Andean peasant communities”, Master’s thesis, Reading University, Reading, England. 12

C Erickson and D Brinkmeier, “Raised field rehabilitation projects in the northern Lake Titicaca basin”, unpublished report to the Interamerican Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1991. 13

Erickson, Clark, “Agricultural Landscapes as World Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru”, in Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the Conservation of the Built Environment, Ed. Jeanne-Marie Teutonico and Frank Matero, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 2003, pp. 181-204. 14

This was done with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for the Development and Cooperation (COSUDE). Ibid. 15

Ibid.

16

Among these were the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria y Agroindustrial (INIAA), the Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria Salcedo (CIAS) and the Centro de Proyectos Integrales Andinos (CEPIA). 17

Source Book, IETC Technical Publication Series, UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre, Osaka/Shiga, Japan, 1997. 18

in large part the Netherlands, with the support of the NUFFIC or Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education. See www.unesco.org/most/bpik19-2.htm 19

M Middleton, interview with Jaime Villena, Executive Director for PIWANDES, Feb. 2006. 20 21

Ibid.

Carlos Correa, “Protection and Promotion of Traditional Medicine: Implications for Public Health in Developing Countries”, University of Buenos Aires, August 2002.

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22

R Lettington, K Nnadozie, A Review of the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, TK and Folklore at WIPO, South Centre, December 2003. 23

Doha Ministerial Declaration, paragraph 19, Nov. 20 2001: http://www.wto.org/English/thewto_e/minist_e/min01_e/mindecl_e.htm. 24

WTO IP/C/W/368/Rev. 1, p. 5-7.

25

For a comprehensive discussion of this issue, specifically pertaining to the case of traditional medicine, see Carlos Correa “Update on International Developments Relating to the IP Protection of Traditional Knowledge including Traditional Medicine”, South Centre, March 2004 and “Protection and Promotion of Traditional Medicine: Implications for Public Health in Developing Countries”, University of Buenos Aires, August 2002. 26

“The Right to Good Ideas”, The Economist, June 21st 2001.

27

Iza, Leonidas, “Water Belongs to Everyone and to Noone”, in Water and Indigenous Peoples, Knowledges of Nature 2, UNESCO-LINKS 2006. 28

Maskus, Keith; Saggi, Kamal; Puttitanun, Thitima, “Patent Rights and International Technology Transfer Through Direct Investment and Licensing”, in International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology Under A Globalized IP Regime, Ed. Keith Maskus and Jerome Reichman, Cambridge University Press, July 2005. 29

WTO IP/C/W/368, February 8th 2006.

30

Ibid.

31

Ibid.

32

Peruvian law no. 27811. Ruiz, Manuel and Lapeña, Isabel, “New Peruvian Law Protects Indigenous Peoples’ Collective Knowledge” in Bridges, ICTSD, year 6, September 2002. 33

Ibid.

34

See WTO member documents IP/C/W/356; IP/C/W/403; IP/C/W/420; IP/C/W/429; IP/C/W/438; IP/C/W/442; IP/C/W/443; IP/C/W/459; IP/C/ W/474; IP/C/W/475 at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/art27_3b_e.htm. Brazil’s prominent role is motivated by the extent of Brazil’s biodiversity and indigenous communities: it contains 20 percent of the world’s species as well as 200 indigenous communities that speak 170 languages. In 1994, Brazil was also the first country to sign and finally ratify the CBD which was put together at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. 35

Decree no. 5.459, article 30. "Defesa do conhecimento tradicional é prioridade no Brasil", Deutsche Welle Brasil, June 13 2006. 36

Ibid.

M. L. Middleton

303

Biographical Note Melisande Lissa Middleton is a graduate of Stanford University (2002) and Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (2006), with a specialization in international economics. She has written and edited for the World Bank, CNRS, Bayard Presse and UNESCO.

Chapter 25

Community for Sustainability: Some Initial Findings on the Influence of Community-based Organisations on Individuals Lucie Middlemiss Community-based organisations are believed to be able to mobilise citizens to take on more sustainable behaviours. Organisations such as schools, places of worship, clubs and others in the voluntary sector are thought to play a part in persuading individuals to reduce their impacts on the environment and on other people. This paper presents a case study of a church group’s attempt to influence individuals to live more sustainably. The case is part of a broader research project on this topic. Data gathered sheds light on the conditions that are favourable for such interventions, the types of individuals that are involved, the decision-making processes of individuals in taking on targeted behaviours and the outcomes of projects for the individuals involved. One of the themes emerging from the research is the tendency of these projects to work towards multiple goals across the various dimensions of sustainability (e.g. health, local environment, global environment, employment and social capital) and towards multiple potential outcomes for individuals (e.g. behavioural change, attitudinal change, awareness raising). The paper discusses the implications of such a broad focus for involving and influencing individuals. Key Words: Community-based organisations; pro-environmental behaviour; community; sustainability.

1

Introduction

Academics and policy-makers claim that community-based organisations can mobilise citizens to take on more sustainable behaviours.1 This entails organisations such as schools, places of worship, social groups, clubs and other community groups playing a part in persuading individuals to reduce their impacts on the environment and on other people. This paper presents the initial findings of a research project into the role of community-based organisations in influencing

306

Community for Sustainability

individuals to live more sustainably. The research attempts to address the following questions: what effects do sustainability activities run by community-based organisations have on participants, what are the means by which such activities stimulate change in a participant, and in what project and organisation circumstances, and for which types of participant, is change more likely to occur. Work to date has consisted of three case studies of interventions by community-based organisations in the UK. The theoretical framework guiding this research and existing evidence in this area has been summarised elsewhere.2 This paper will focus on the results of a case study of a sustainable consumption project run by the Christian Ecology Group at Holy Trinity church in the north of England. The Christian Ecology Group (CEG) is a group of people, mostly connected with Holy Trinity which has been active for about 12 years. The group has worked on various projects in and around the church to try to improve the environmental and ethical performance and understanding of the congregation and the people of the twon. Activities have included a fair-trade fashion show, a listings for environmental and ethical products and services in the area, and the sale of exclusively fair trade tea and coffee in church. The paper proceeds as follows: first an outline of the research method is given, second, results of the case study of Holy Trinity are summarised, third, an analysis of the results is presented, and finally conclusions are drawn with comments on future research.

2

Method

The research project takes a case study approach, with all cases conducted in a similar manner allowing for comparison of data. In the Holy Trinity case, data was collected from three sources: the practitioners (or organisers of the group), the full congregation and participants in the Christian Ecology group. Practitioners were interviewed for contextual information on the case and its participants. A brief questionnaire was then given to members of the congregation to establish the outcomes of the CEG’s activities for individuals, and their level of participation in the group. A range of congregation members (n=10) were selected for interview from returned questionnaires. Interviews with these participants covered the individual’s involvement in the activity, their motivations for behavioural change and the effect that the project has had on their lives, as well as gathering structured background information on each individual. Following data collection and initial analysis, results of the case were presented back to the practitioners for discussion and verification. Data from the whole group questionnaire was tabulated and subjected to the chi squared test. Participant and practitioner interviews were transcribed, and analysed using the coding program Nvivo. Coding was informed from the beginning by the concepts of contexts (“the prior set of social rules, norms, values and

L. Middlemiss

307

All at HT

CEG involved

n=1,181 n=54

n=38

CEG more involved n=15

Coop

Recycled materials (e.g. paper, bottles, plastic)

93

98

97

100

Bought to support local shops/ suppliers

80

78

82

80

Chosen a product or service on a company’s responsible reputation

62

57

58

60

Avoided a product or service because of a company’s behaviour

58

54

58

67

Actively campaigned about an environmental/ social issue

25

31

39

47

Table 25.1: A comparison of responses to the question ‘How often, if at all, have you done each of the following in the last 12 months?’ by the general population (Cooperative bank questionnaire) to different parts of the congregation at Holy Trinity (numbers show percentages of individuals who have taken each action at least once in the past year).

interrelationships . . . which sets limits on the efficacy of program mechanisms”), mechanisms (“how program outputs follow from the stakeholders’ choices (reasoning) and their capacity (resources) to put these into practice”) and outcomes (“the change in rates which evaluation research will try to discern and explain”).3

3

Results and Analysis

This section presents the initial results of the case study at Holy Trinity. Results from the whole group questionnaire and participant interviews at Holy Trinity are discussed below. Practitioner interviews were mainly used for initial scene setting and verification, and will not be reported here for reasons of space.

308 A

Community for Sustainability Whole group questionnaire

Congregation members were asked a series of questions on their sustainable consumption behaviour taken from a Cooperative Bank survey on ethical consumerism.4 This allows for a basic comparison between the sustainable consumption behaviour of Holy Trinity’s congregation and that of the general population (as represented by the Cooperative Bank survey). Results from this questionnaire are shown in Table 25.1. The only differences of statistical significance here are the responses to the question on campaigning (final row) for those subgroups at Holy Trinity that are either slightly or more actively involved in the GEG (‘CEG involved’, p

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