ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

A diverse set of activities

Environmental management is not easy to define. As Barrow (2005) has acknowledged, it can refer
to a goal or vision, to attempts to steer a process, to the application of a set of tools, to a
philosophical exercise seeking to establish new perspectives towards the environment and human
societies, and to much more besides. Environmental managers are a diverse group of people
including academics, policy-makers, non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers, company
employees, civil servants and a wide range of individuals or groups who make decisions about the
use of natural resources (such as fishers, farmers and pastoralists). Indeed, environmental
management involves all people to some extent because all human activities ultimately have some
sort of environmental impact. However, some individuals are more directly involved with resource
use, and some special interest groups are particularly concerned with resource exploitation and with
issues related to pollution. Environmental management therefore involves many stakeholders and
requires a multidisciplinary perspective. It involves many spatial scales, ranging from the local to the
global. It also involves many, diverse goals, including the desires to control the direction and pace of
development, to optimise resource use, to minimise environmental degradation and to avoid
environmental disaster. Environmental management may be practised by individuals and groups
holding conflicting - and even directly opposing - views, as may be the case when environmental
managers employed by large multinational corporations come into conflict with environmental
managers representing voluntary organisations.

A focus on decision-making

In general, however, environmental management is concerned with the understanding of the

structure and function of the earth system, as well as of the ways in which humans relate to their
environment. Environmental management is therefore concerned with the description and
monitoring of environmental changes, with predicting future changes and with attempts to
maximise human benefit and to minimise environmental degradation due to human activities. Yet,
characteristically, environmental management is about decision-making - and it is especially
concerned with the process of decision-making in relation to the use of natural resources, the
pollution of habitats and the modification of ecosystems. Fundamentally, then, environmental
management is a political activity because those decisions - about resources, pollution and
ecosystems - are never neutral or objective; on the contrary, they are value laden and they reflect
the exercise of power by particular groups over others. Moreover, in general, it is naïve to conceive
of environmental management as being about simply 'the management of the environment' in the
sense of humans manipulating and controlling the components and processes of the earth system.
Of course, humans do exert such influences on the earth system; but it is a fallacy to think that
humans 'manage', for instance, populations of humpback whales. Instead, it is more accurate to
suggest that humans may be able to make some progress towards managing human impacts on
humpback whales. Ultimately, then, environmental management is more concerned with the
management of human activities and their impacts than with the management of the natural
environment per se.

Influencing the course of development

Nevertheless, some types of activity are common to environmental managers. Environmental
managers attempt deliberately to steer the process of development in order to take advantage of
opportunities; they attempt to ensure that critical environmental limits are not exceeded; they work
to reduce and mitigate environmental issues; and they are concerned with increasing the
adaptability and resilience of human societies in the face of environmental change, variability,
unpredictability and hazards. From this point of view, environmental management may be defined
as the system that anticipates and avoids, or solves, environmental and resource conservation
issues. From another point of view, environmental management may be defined as a process
concerned with human- environment interactions which seeks to identify:

1.what are environmentally desirable outcomes

2.what are the physical, economic, social, cultural, political and technological constraints to
achieving those outcomes

3.what are the most feasible options for achieving those outcomes

Indeed, in many parts of the world (and arguably worldwide), environmental management is
intimately linked with pressing issues of justice and even of survival. A further definition might
suggest that environmental management is concerned with meeting and improving provision for
human needs and demands on a sustainable basis with minimal damage to natural habitats and
ecosystems. Thus the concept of environmental management is closely related to another important
(and problematic) concept: that of sustainable development.

7 Basic principles

Environmental management refers to those activities which enhance beneficial links and minimise
adverse links among resources systems and their environments, and which seek to attain desirable
environmental system states, in response to community perceptions and desires, under prevailing
socioeconomic and technological conditions.

In particular, the goals of resource management are often single purpose, whereas those of
environmental management are invariably multi-purpose’ this is because resources management
focuses only on its resource system while environmental management deals with both resource
system and their environments. Further, community needs and value are fundamental to
environmental management goal setting.

The Principles of Environmental Management:

These are some guiding principles of environmental management. These principles are helpful in
environmental decision making.

1. Polluter Pays Principle (PPP):

For the last two decades, many economists have suggested that firms discharging polluting effluents
to the environment should somehow be made to pay a price for such discharges related to the
amount of environmental damage caused.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD )has suggested the Polluter Pays principles (PPP) as a general basis for the
environmental policy. It states that if measures are adopted to reduce pollution, the costs should be
borne by the polluters. According to the OECD Council, “The principle to be used for allocating costs
of pollution prevention and control measures to encourage rational use of scarce environmental
resources and to avoid distortions in international trade and investment is the so-called Polluter Pays
Principle.” The essential concern of this principle is that polluters should bear the costs of abatement
without subsidy.

The Polluter Pays Principle, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of India, means that the absolute
liability for harm to the environment extends not only to compensate the victims of pollution but
also the cost of restoring the environmental degradation. Thus, it includes environmental costs as
well as direct costs to people or property. Remediation of the damaged environment is part of the
process of sustainable development and as such the polluter is liable to pay the cost to the individual
sufferers as well as the costs of reversing the damaged ecology.

The application of this principle depends upon the interpretations, particular cases and situations.
This principle has brought more controversial discussions during the Rio Earth Summit 1992. The
South has demanded more financial assistance from the North in combating the environmental
degradation in the South.

There are practical implications on the allocation of economic obligations in relation to

environmentally damaging activities, particularly in relation to liability and the use of economic
instruments.

2. 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.

3. The Precautionary Principle (PP):

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.

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.

4. Principle of Effectiveness and Efficiency:

It is essential that efficiency of resource use may also be accomplished by the use of policy
instruments that create incentive to minimize wasteful use. It also applies to various issues of
environmental governance by streaming processes and procedures in order to minimize
environmental costs.

5. The Principle of Responsibility:

It is the responsibility of all persons, corporations and states to maintain the ecological processes.
Further, access to environmental resources carries attendant responsibilities to use them in an
ecological sustainable economically efficient and socially fair manner.

6. The Principle of Participation:

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.

7. The Principle of Proportionality:

The principle of proportionality is based on the concept of balance. A balance is to maintain between
the economic development on the one hand and environmental protection on the other hand. It
cannot be disputed that no development is possible without some adverse effects on ecology.
Therefore, it is essential to adjust the interest of the people as well as the necessity to maintain the
environment. Moreover, comparative hardships have to be balanced and benefits to a larger section
of the people have to be maintained