Environmental Governance and Development Cooperation – Achievements and Challenges
Helle Munk RavnborgDanish Institute for Institute for International Studies
Rasmus Kløcker LarsenSwedish Environment Institute
Mikkel Funder, DIISDanish Institute for Institute for International Studies
The context:
Low ecological footprint in developing countries
Source: WWF Living Planet Report 2012
World
High-income countries
Middle-income countries
Low-income countries
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Hectares per person
% of GDP
Significant costs of environmental degradation to developing countries
Source: World Bank, Country Environmental Analyses; Courtesy of Rohit Khanna
- nevertheless
“A march against nemagon by Nicaraguan farm workers – 2005”Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos
The achievements:
Out of 103 developing countries:
1986:9 had general
environmental legislation
2008: 86 had general
environmental legislation
19
81
19
86
19
91
19
96
20
01
20
06
20
08
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Sub-Saharan Africa (n=45)
South Asia (n=8)
East Asia and Pacific (n=22)
Latin America and the Caribbean (n=28)#
of
cou
ntr
ies
Source: Ecolex.org, own processing
The achievements:
21 developing countries
22,917 environmentally oriented aid
activities
1992-2009:>60 aid
activities per year per country
Source: AidData, own processing
1972
-198
1
1982
-198
6
1987
-199
1
1992
-199
6
1997
-200
1
2002
-200
6
2007
-200
9
Year
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
General environemental objective Rio convention-related objective
# a
id a
ctiv
itie
s h
avi
ng
en
viro
nm
en
t as
pri
nci
pa
l/sig
nifi
can
t ob
ject
ive
The challenges: Environmental governance as
a new policy field Enforcement capacity is
still low Blind spots and the
political economy of environmental governance
inhibit that problems are addressed
International environmental
conventions as legal
and legitimate platform for local and global
environmental governance and for claiming environmental
rights
Courtesy to
Courtesy to Mikkel Funder
Courtesy to David Francois
Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos
The recommendations:
Support efforts to strengthen enforcement capacity – district-level and horizontal
integration Support efforts to strengthen
claim-making capacity of citizens through support for
accessible authorities and CSOs
Participate in efforts to strengthen international
environmental conventions as a legitimate platform for international environmental (development) cooperation
Courtesy to
Courtesy to Mikkel Funder
Courtesy to David Francois
Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos
“Without international support, we would never have been able
to address the environmental problems we have in my district”
– district environmental officer, San Pedro de Lóvago, Nicaragua, April 2012
For more information please visit: www.diis.dk/recom
Courtesy to
Courtesy to Mikkel Funder
Courtesy to David Francois
Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos