Focus: Environment
This week’s topic is based on a suggestion from Anjum Hassan, a Gulf News reader and a biology teacher. According to Sheila Berry, a South African environmental justice activist, the main issue with environmental mainstreaming, which links poverty to envi
Together we can make a change!
There is much legitimate concern at present about the rise in the incidence of environmental problems such as climate change, droughts and floods, loss of soil fertility, unsustainable exploitation and incremental destruction of biodiversity. With persistent poverty, in part entrenched by such system failures, there is a growing interest in ways to minimise the chain of costs that arise from environmental shocks and stresses. The environment needs to be recognised as a key component in policies for security, stability and sustainability. However, it is becoming clear that environmental concerns lie at the heart of all good development. The assessment of effective mainstreaming suggests that there are some clear principles behind it, including leadership, integration, key sectors, dialogue, ownership and subsidiarity, use of environmental mainstreaming processes, as well as transparency and accountability. Consideration of the environment needs to cover both ‘positive’ issues, such as opportunities and potentials for sustainable use of environmental assets, as well as ‘negative’ issues, including problems of environmental degradation and pollution that have been uppermost to date in the development and use of safeguards. The environment needs to be considered at local levels, whereby local organisations and individuals make daily decisions about the way they use and manage environmental assets. We must work to make effective environmental mainstreaming a broader affair rather than prevailing narrower approaches. From Ms Anjum Hassan Biology teacher based in Sharjah