Environmental Management: Principles and practice

The state and environmental management
Environmental management has in part evolved separately from environmental science
and is a politicized process (Wilson and Bryant, 1997). Is the process of environmental
management, then, controlled by the state, NGOs, international agencies, or what?
Ultimately, with global interdependence and shared world systems there has to be
some element of international co-ordination and control. Below that, the majority of
environmental management is in state hands but, like medicine or economics, the
profession should be able to steer the state towards certain goals. Hopgood (1998) has
examined US policy on international environmental issues since 1972, seeking to
establish whether the state had retained or lost control of policy making to environmental
groups and international agencies. The answer was not clear.
A decentralized approach might prove less robust against special-interest
groups, large companies, etc., than a centralized and state-supported approach (Walker,
1989). It is not uncommon for states in a federal system to come into conflict amongst
themselves or with central government over environmental issues. One reason for
the formation of the EPA in the USA was to co-ordinate and integrate efforts under
a federal system.
Transboundary and global environmental management
The need for transboundary and global environmental management is growing. Local,
regional, national and corporate environmental management can draw upon
established social institutions, the market, law and, ultimately, the power of the state
to force a resolution of conflicts. However, transboundary and global environmental
management must rely on building international co-operation. In practice honouring
agreements is often more difficult than achieving them. There is also the question of
who or what body should foster international co-operation to search for solutions to
transboundary and global problems, oversee implementation and, if environmental
management is to be anticipatory, identify potential problems and conflicts before
they develop too much (Davos, 1986; Agarwal, 1992). Some see UN bodies as able
to fulfil these roles, others suggest it should lie with internationally respected research
centres. At present both these types of institution play a part, but overall co-ordination
and enforcement is too weak.

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With the spread of free trade as a consequence of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (which became the World Trade Organization—WTO—a
few years ago), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and similar
undertakings, environmental management must cope with problems caused if controls
can be interpreted as a ‘trade barrier’. Efforts are being made to improve environmental
management provisions in free trade agreements, but there are still problems—like
the USA-Mexico yellow-fin tuna debacle (Mumme, 1992; Seda, 1993).