Environmental Management: The brief history of environmental management

Environmental management is the systematic approach to managing human activities and interactions with the environment to minimize negative impacts, conserve resources, and ensure sustainability.

Environmental management refers to the structured efforts to regulate and improve human interactions with the environment. Its history is a testament to evolving awareness of ecological issues and humanity’s responsibility toward nature.

The earliest and notable records of the need for environmental management could be traced back to 1600s in the Fenland of Scotland. The Fenland was initially maintained by ecological homeostasis and through the cult of the wilderness.
The fen dwellers cared for the fens through peasant traditional interaction with the aquatic system.
Around 1642 the government resolved to undertake the fens (Wetlands) through technological engineering so as to drain the fens.
The government believed that draining the fens would increase crop production and allow a wider variety of crops to be grown.
The local people were against this draining idea and protested demanding for application of environmentally sound technology or leaving the wetlands as intact as possible for their own sake.
This was a form of traditional environmental management.

Another land mark in the history of environmental management is the industrial revolution in the mid-1700s

this was when humanity started excessive pressure on the environment.
There was a wide outcry against pollution by industries and members of the public.
This led to development of environmental management strategies with emphasis on reducing the impact of industrial activities on the environment.

The other historical land mark of environmental management was recorded during the French Revolution between 1788 and 1798.

However, during this period emphasis was more on the social, economic and political dimensions of the environment than the ecological one.
During this period, several human rights were designed in order to protect societal interests.
Political reforms were emerging in most parts of the world in order to safeguard humanity

In 1919, significant of Environmental Management – related events took place.

The Petroleum and Allied Industries established the American Petroleum Institute (API), which recognized that, lack of standards in industries had caused several accidents. To ensure safety, the API eventually came up with a mission which had four dimensions namely:

Safety.
Enhancing environmental performance.
Human and ecological health
Compliance to environmental standards

The above outlined themes drastically influenced and improved the process of environmental management especially in industries.

After the global war period, there was urgent need for environmental management following the devastative effects of the first and second world wars.

For example, during the Second World War (1939-1945), there was rapid development of nuclear weapons which had devastative impacts on water, land and air pollution, land degradation, diseases and loss of human life, more especially in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were stricken by the atomic bomb.

The newly inverted bombs such as the torpedo caused large scale water pollution.
In 1970, the lack of standards for industrial products and processes expedited the creation of environmental law, corporate code of conduct, environmental management and trade regulations. During this period, a voluntary code of environmental management conduct and ecological auditing programs were developed.

In 1987, the UN World Commission on Environment known as the Brundtland Commission published ‘Our Common Future’, where the term Sustainable Development was first used.

This called for industries to develop effective EMS. It is one of the most significant periods in the evolution of environmental management.

Around 1990s, these codes of conduct led to the development of EMS in industries. Among the implemented voluntary codes of ecological conduct were the following: Responsible Care, which was first adopted by association of the American and Canadian Chemical Industry in 1988.

The other code of conduct was called Strategies for Today’s Environmental Partnership (STEP) programme adopted by the American Petroleum Institute in 1990.

Rio de Janeiro Conference Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 was another significant landmark in environmental management. It led to the development of the Agenda 21 (a global plan of action to promote sustainable development) and the Rio Declaration which had a set of 27 principles for achieving sustainable development.

One of the principles was environmental management.

In 1991, prior to earth summit, the International Standardization Organisation (ISO) and International Electro-technical Commission established the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) to develop some recommendations for best practices in Environmental Management.

After 1992, there had been a series of conferences called COPs (Conference of the Parties) to find means and ways of combating current environmental problems more especially climate change. However, none of them has materialized because environmental management is now being largely influenced by exploitive ideologies than the principles of environmental management themselves. The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on 16 February 2005.

As of September 2011, 191 states including Zambia had signed and ratified the protocol. The only remaining signatories who have not ratified the protocol are the United States of America and China. Other minor United Nations member states which did not ratify the protocol are Afghanistan, Andorra and South Sudan.

In December 2011, Canada also renounced the Protocol (meant to drastically cut emission of Green-House-Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere). In the contemporary world, there had been large scale paradigm shifts in terms of environmental management because environmental problems are ever changing, complex, contested and contextual. Currently the global standards of environmental management are summarized in the ISO14001.

The benefit of using the ISO 14001 environmental management system is recognized world over, and carries serious weight behind it. ISO 14001 EMS ensures you are designing an environmental management system that adheres to the guidelines laid out in the ISO 14001 environmental management system framework. Find detailed information on ISO 14001 under in module two.

Brief History of Environmental Management Legal Frame Work in Zambia

As early as 1980s, The Government of Zambia recognized the need for a coherent and deliberate approach to sustainable management of Natural Resources.
This was a result of many environmental problems such as air pollution, groundwater pollution, deforestation, wildlife depletion, solid waste management, biodiversity and land degradation that were on the increase.
These environmental problems were on an increase due to high levels of poverty, population increase, economic growth, inadequate implementation of policies and limited knowledge on environmental management.
To respond to these problems, the National Conservation Strategy was formed in1985. An overall environmental and natural resources management framework was created through this National Conservation Strategy of 1985.
In 1990, the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act, Cap 204 of the laws of Zambia was approved. The Government of the Republic of Zambia enacted the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act (EPPCA) in 1990 at the time when the country realised that development without regard to sound environmental management had potential to lead to environmental challenges and disasters. EPPC Act become the principle act on the environment.
This led to the formation of the Environmental Council of Zambia in 1992.
Formation of the National Environmental Action Plan in 1994 is another landmark in the history of environmental governance in Zambia.
NEAP recommended that legal and institutional frameworks be established to manage the environment.
This was then followed by the formation of the National Policy on the Environment in 2007.
Over years, new environmental problems have emerged locally and globally and there was need to formulate laws that adequately took care of the new environmental issues.
In 2011, Environmental Management Act No 12, of 2011 was enacted.
This repelled the EPPC act of 1990. The new Act led to the renaming of ECZ to ZEMA.

PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

There are basic principles that guide decision making in environmental management.

Polluter Pays Principle

The Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) is an environmental policy principle which requires that the costs of pollution be borne by those who cause it. In its original emergence the Polluter Pays Principle aims at determining how the costs of pollution prevention and control must be allocated: the polluter must pay.

PPP is a commonly accepted practice that those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment. For instance, a factory that produces a potentially poisonous substance as a by-product of its activities is usually held responsible for its safe disposal. This principle underpins most of the regulation of pollution affecting land, water and air.

At the international level the Kyoto Protocol is an example of application of the PPP: parties that have obligations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions must bear the costs of reducing (prevention and control) such polluting emissions.

A number of developing countries have recently extended this principle to create an obligation on the state to compensate the victims of environmental harm. This variation of the polluter-pays principle is aimed at ensuring victims’ compensation when polluters cannot be identified or are insolvent and at providing stronger incentives for local governments’ monitoring of environmentally risky activities. These regimes hold local governments primarily or jointly-and-severally liable for environmental damage and allow them to act in subrogation against the polluters.

The User Pays Principle (UPP):

It is considered as a part of the PPP. The principle states that all resource users should pay for the full long-run marginal cost of the use of a resource and related services, including any associated treatment costs. It is applied when resources are being used and consumed.

The Sustainability Principle

The concept of sustainability is based on the premise that people and their communities are made up of social, economic, and environmental systems that are in constant interaction and that must be kept in harmony or balance if the community is to continue to function to the benefit of its inhabitants— now and in the future.

According to the Brundtland Report sustainability states that ‘meeting needs of present generations without compromising the needs of future generations’. Generally this principle is considered with the trilogy of economic, environmental and social objectives underlying sustainable development. This principle is the basis of the environmental accounting measures of sustainable income.

The Precautionary Principle

The main objective of the precautionary principle is to ensure that a substance or activity posing a threat to the environment is prevented from adversely affecting the environment, even if there is no conclusive scientific proof of linking that particular substance or activity to environmental damage. The words ‘substance’ and ‘activity’ are the result of human intervention. When the health of humans and the environment is at stake, it may not be necessary to wait for scientific certainty to take protective action.

The Rio Declaration in its Principle 15 emphasizes on this principle, wherein it is provided that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage. Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. Therefore, the principle is essential for the protection of environment and human health by implementing in the field of production and distribution of energy resources.

It is the duty of all the persons to participate in collectively environmental decision making activities. Some participation areas are related to the use of trees and other plants, minerals, soils, fish and wildlife for purposes such as materials and food as well as for consumptive and non-consumptive recreation. The second issue concerns solid waste i.e. garbage, construction and demolition materials and chemically hazardous waste etc. The third issue of participation is related to pollution generating activities.

The Participation Principle

Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration in 1992 at the Earth Summit promotes public participation in environmental decision-making and access to information and justice in environmental matters. Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level.

At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available.

The Equity Principle

Equity means that there should be a minimum level of income and environmental quality below which nobody falls. Within a community it usually also means that everyone should have equal access to community resources and opportunities, and that no individuals or groups of people should be asked to carry a greater environmental burden than the rest of the community as a result of government actions.

It is generally agreed that equity implies a need for fairness (not necessarily equality) in the distribution of gains and losses, and the entitlement of everyone to an acceptable quality and standard of living. This principle can be put into two subgroups

Intra-generational equity

The benefits from the range of planned interventions should address the needs of all, and the

social impacts should not fall disproportionately on certain groups of the population, in particular children and women, the disabled and the socially excluded, certain generations or certain regions.

Inter-Generational Equity

Development activities or planned interventions should be managed so that the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

PRINCIPLES GOVERNING ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACCORDING TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2011

The following principles shall be applied in achieving the purpose of the EM Act—

(a) the environment is the common heritage of present and future generations;

(b) adverse effects shall be prevented and minimised through long-term integrated planning and the co-ordination, integration and co-operation of efforts, which consider the entire environment as a whole entity;

(d) the polluter pays principle;

(e) equitable access to environmental resources shall be promoted and the functional integrity of ecosystems shall be taken into account to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystems and to prevent adverse effects;

(f) the people shall be involved in the development of policies, plans and programmes for environmental management;

(g) the citisen shall have access to environmental information to enable the citisen make informed personal choices which encourages improved performance by industry and the Government;

(h) the generation of waste should be minimised, wherever practicable, and waste should, in order of priority, be reused, re-cycled, recovered and disposed of safely in a manner that avoids creating adverse effects;

(i) the environment is vital to people’s livelihood and shall be used sustainably in order to achieve poverty reduction and socio-economic development;

(j) non-renewable natural resources shall be used prudently, taking into account the needs for the present and future generations;

(k) renewable natural resources shall be used in a manner that is sustainable and does not prejudice their viability and integrity; and

(l) community participation and involvement in natural resources management and the sharing of benefits arising from the use of the resources shall be promoted and facilitated.