Legal Framework for the Ecological and Biodiversity Needs of Soil: Progress Towards an International Instrument for the Sustainable Use of Soil
It has been forecast that the global human population will increase from the present six billion to eight billion by the year 2020. In order for there to be sufficient food, both for these additional people and to raise the standard of provision for those at present with inadequate diet, a large increase in food production must take place. This increase in food production must come from approximately the same land area as is at present under agriculture, as the remainder is too dry, too wet, too cold, or too steep and mountainous to make a significant contribution. This inevitably means greater pressure will be put on prime lands, and especially those with the most fertile soils, to provide the extra food required. As demand increases, there will be increasing pressure also on the less productive soils, where the impact of soil degradation is most dramatically seen, and this could possibly result in the displacement of people from their homelands.
Human Dimensions of Soil and Water Conservation: Mongolia
The fundamental philosophy of soil and water conservation is that "the conservation and enhancement of the quality of soil and water are a common concern of all humanity. Inherent in this philosophy is the responsibility of humanity for maintaining and enhancing the productivity of soil, taking effective measures to prevent soil degradation and safeguarding and improving the quality of water resources to meet the needs of agriculture, society and nature". In this regard, it is recognized that nations should prepare national action plans to assist with the implementation of good land husbandry. These plans should provide for the conservation of soil and water by including provisions for integrated land management; environmental impact assessment; development of adequate environmental standards and controls; the monitoring of environmental quality; scientific and technical cooperation; development and transfer of technology; development and sharing of information and knowledge; and environmental education and training (WASWC 2008). Since the 1950s Mongolia had been transformed by rapid economic development and industrialization from what was predominantly an agricultural economy based on nomadic animal husbandry, towards an industrial economy. Today over half the population lives in urban areas. As was the case with many rapidly industrializing countries, environmental and resource management considerations were generally absent from land planning and utilization. As a consequence, Mongolia's soil and water resources are now significantly degraded. With an area of 1.56 million square km, and a population of around only 2 million, Mongolia is the seventeenth largest country in the world territorially but much of the land is not productive. Land that is productive is under developmental pressures that are leading to environmental deterioration. Land available for agricultural production is decreasing: grazing land was 141 million hectares in the1960s but has now dropped to 117 million hectares while the number of livestock has risen to 43 million head. This number has increased in recent years because Mongolia has not had a dzud for several years. Like many developing countries, Mongolia's economy is raw material oriented, where raw materials from the agricultural and mining sectors and semi finished products provide the main export items. Many environmental, social, economic, political and legislative factors interact in Mongolia that affect its ability achieve effective soil and water conservation. Mongolia was a socialist state with a centrally planned economy until 1990 when it became independent of the USSR and adopted a democratic form of government and free market economy (UNDP 2005).
A Method to Identify and Evaluate the Legal and Institutional Framework for the Management of Water and Land in Asia: The Outcome of a Study in Southeast Asia and the People's Republic of China
Achieving the sustainable use of water and land resources is a major challenge for the world in the twenty-first century. Despite the emerging recognition of their central role in human survival, water and land ecosystems are being degraded at an alarming rate. Of significant concern is the sustainable production of food, maintenance of livelihoods of rural land users and improving the quality and biodiversity of natural resources (World Resources Institute 2000; WSSD 2002a, b, c). The creation of an enabling environment for farmers and agencies to adopt management practices that reduce water and land degradation and improve food security is crucial. It is important to create a legal framework to define what activities are allowed in a particular area and who is responsible for them and for the state of the resources. In particular, rural land users should have the benefit of securing tenure or long-term access to land and assured rights of access to the water resource (Penning de Vries et al. 2002). The benefits of capacity building in environmental, legal and institutional systems to the Asian region in general are widely recognized, especially to the knowledge, understanding and capability of environmental law to improve the quality of the natural environment (Boer et al. 1998; Craig et al. 2002).
Strengthening Carbon Financing for Regional Grassland Management in Northeast Asia Working Paper 2: Legal and Policy Framework to Support Livestock/Grassland Nama, Mongolia
Working Report 2 follows from Working Report 1 where in the latter the background and concept to the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) approach for livestock/grassland management is discussed. A full discussion on the development and characteristics of a livestock/grassland NAMA is found in the paper "Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions for Grassland and Livestock Management in Mongolia" (Hannam and Tennigkeit). Working Report 2 discussed the legal and policy framework to support a livestock/grassland NAMA. Given the social, economic and ecological significance of the grassland/livestock industry to Mongolia, the policy, legal and institutional system to manage the climate change impacts on the grassland and the livestock industry should be developed in conjunction with an overall national climate change management system for Mongolia.
Legal Framework for Improving Carbon Management in Grasslands in the People's Republic of China
This "Preliminary analysis of three environmental laws in relation to carbon management" is a component of the Regional TA on managing grassland areas in the face of climate change in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The regional capacity development technical assistance (TA) for Strengthening Carbon Financing for Regional Grassland Management in Northeast Asia is a continuation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) support for regional cooperation among the countries of Northeast Asia to combat dust and sandstorms. Overall, the TA contributes to the implementation of the regional master plan that was prepared under the TA on Prevention and Control of Dust and Sandstorms in Northeast Asia. In particular, the PRC TA focuses on land management techniques that improve soil carbon levels and therefore contributes to the reduction of land degradation from the effects of climate change. The principal aim of this preliminary analysis is to provide information on the capacity of three selected PRC environmental laws relating to the management of carbon associated with agricultural land use activity in the grassland areas, as a contribution to the regional TA. Specifically, the analysis investigates the capability of the PRC Agriculture Law 2003 to manage soil carbon, including its relationship with the PRC Grassland Law 2002 and the PRC Desertification Law 2001 (the national laws), from an integrated perspective in relation to the management of soil organic carbon (SOC) in PRC grasslands.
Report 2: A Framework and Technical Guidelines for Participatory Development of New Legislative Proposals Relevant to SLM in Pamir-Alai
There are many reasons why members of the public and stakeholders should participate in law-making, including having a role in "best practice in law-making". Consultation provides a way to test the clarity, comprehension and likely effectiveness of proposed legislation. In the PALM Region, participatory consultation will help to better identify social and ecological problems associated with achieving a sustainable land management (SLM) and how to maximise the quality and effectiveness of SLM legislation for the region. When the diverse range of affected interests and groups is included, especially disadvantaged and marginalised people in the PALM Region, SLM law-making decisions are more likely to be based on more complete information about the law itself, its impact and operation for the region. Global experience indicates that national environmental laws that are based on incomplete information will often need to be subsequently reformed. This not only incurs additional government and parliamentary time and resources, but also collateral costs associated with unintended or unforeseen impacts or injustice. Such costs may be substantial and significant, but they are difficult to calculate and are not likely to be compensated.
International Experiences in Regulating the Use and Management of Pastures: Pasture Law
Outline: • International aspects • Key points from global experience • Observations from national level • Example 1 – Mongolia (single law) • Example 2 – China (integrated approach) • Improving national legislation • Conclusions
Additional Training Workshop for Legal Task Forces: Developing Skills to Undertake Legal and Policy Reform for SLM
1. At the meeting between University of England (UNE) and the legal Task Forces (LTFs) on 4 and 7-8 October 2009 in Bishkek an urgent need for additional specialized training was identified by the LTFs. In particular the training would focus on skills to enable the LTFs to effectively complete their obligations in preparing the Regional Natural Resource Management Governance Framework (RNRMGF), including national laws and institutions necessary to implement the trans-boundary law. 2. Key topics requested by the LTFs for further training included: • Interpretation of governance principles and international environmental law norms (from global and regional environmental treaties and strategies) and application to national level law-making and reform; • Developing legal and institutional elements from international law for; land management, protected area management, biodiversity, climate change, soil and water protection, environmental management - for national law-making and reform; • Discussing case examples from these legislative areas to show how the norms and elements can be directly applied by LTFs in preparing the RNRMGF, which includes the national laws and institutions necessary to implement a trans-boundary law.
Capacity Building for Developing National Legal and Policy Frameworks for Soil Conservation and Protection
There has been significant activity in capacity-building approaches to improve the environmental law and policy for soil conservation and protection in recent years. The approaches described in this paper stem from international and national level investigations and reforms which have produced legal and policy frameworks, guidelines and legislative information on the sustainable use of soils and land degradation control. These approaches have developed from researching environmental law materials, experiences of national reforms, regional reforms and review by environmental law and scientific experts. Various international environmental law organizations have carried out the studies and reviews, especially the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) Commission on Environmental Law. At the international level, the main objective is to develop a clear picture of the environmental law, including the role of multilateral treaties and regional treaties, in soil protection, and prepare draft legal rules and commentaries and recommend ways to improve the international environmental law for sustainable use of soils. At the national level there have been investigations into the legal, policy and institutional aspects of soil protection in a number of countries, for example, the People’s Republic of China, Iceland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (Pamir-Alai eco-region) and the European Union (EU). Comprehensive legal and policy frameworks prepared by individual nations have emphasized integrated ecosystem management and sustainable use of soils. International training and workshops on techniques for analyzing national legislative systems for sustainable land management and sustainable use of soils have been held in a number of countries, for example, China, Iceland, Thailand, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and reports have been prepared on the legal and institutional systems for soil conservation in Australia, New Zealand, USA and the European Union. Recent investigations have commenced in the Balkans and Brazil. There is now a variety of legislative materials available on the status of soil conservation law and policy at the international and national levels, as well as associated training materials to assist countries to reform domestic laws and policies.
Developing a Good Regulatory Practice Model for Environmental Regulations Impacting on Farmers
This research examines the regulatory process literature to identify how to improve environmental regulations impacting on farmers. Regulatory process is defined as the steps, procedures and policy guidelines that dictate how regulations are made and implemented by governments. Poor process makes it more likely that regulations will be poorly designed or implemented. This report discusses the foundations of good regulatory practice. Appendix 1 provides a more detailed guide to where particular aspects of the literature can be found for those who are serious students of regulatory and other natural resource management (NRM) practices. Case studies in Appendix 2 illustrate regulatory issues including: the jurisdictional underpinnings of natural resource regulations, which are frequently complex and introduce inefficiencies in the operation of regulations; regulatory instrument design and the implications for efficiency of different designs; the science/law interface and how it impacts on the cost and implementation of regulation; and co-regulation and smart regulation. Regulatory performance is complex and many of the relationships between regulation and its outcomes are indirect. Factors influencing the outcome of regulation include: the political context; the attitudes of those regulated to the rules; the skill and resources available to the regulators; and the variability of economies, climate, markets and societies. Processes provide a framework within which the application of skillful design can result in better laws, particularly by assisting the transparent contesting of regulatory or other proposals so as to force improvement.