Environmental Management: Principles and practice

Environmental management in developing countries
There has been growing interest in applying environmental management to developing
countries, partly stimulated by large funding agencies which since the late 1970s
have established environment departments and adopted policies of environmental
assessment and EIA. By the 1990s most aid agencies and funding bodies had policies
seeking to improve environmental management and many published guidelines which
have influenced a wider spectrum of companies and consultants.
From the late 1970s developing countries have established environmental
agencies, so that by 1992 virtually all had such bodies (although their powers vary
enormously). In parallel with these developments international and in-country NGOs
were spreading. Nowadays NGOs maintain a network of contacts and command
considerable funds and power. Environmental management may therefore have to
work with government agencies, international agencies and NGOs. In developing
countries a major task is often one of co-ordination, hindered by lack of funds and
trained manpower, diverse goals, poor infrastructure, sometimes difficult
environmental conditions, inefficiency and corruption. (For an introduction to

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developing country environmental management see Little and Horowitz, 1987;
Montgomery, 1990b; Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, 1990; Eröcal, 1991).
Environments which challenge environmental management
There are environments which require especially careful management because they
are easily damaged, are prone to excessive human demands (often both), or demand
a specialist approach (the following section is only a brief overview).
Environments used as common resources
The problem of over-exploitation of common resources and the ‘tragedy of the
commons’ model have already been discussed (Berkes, 1989; Bromley and Cernea,
1989). Interest recently has been renewed (Feeney et al., 1990; Vandermeer, 1996;
Elliott, 1997). An environment subjected to use as a common resource need not be