1.
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Institutional framework as
needed for ensuring ecological security is closely inter-twined with
the governance structure. As such, the subject relating to
institutional requirements for ecological security should be
necessarily discussed as an integral constituent of the governance
system. |
2.
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Legislature, Executive and
Judiciary are the three important wings of governance. Over the years,
elaborate institutional mechanism at the Central and State level has
been set up for framing policies and laws, their execution through the
administrative machinery and resolution of conflicts through the
judiciary at various levels. With the increasing concern for ecological
security, a newer set of organizations/agencies to deal with the
ecological issues has been added to the governance structure.
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3.
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However, barring a few
exceptions, the existing institutions have not been able to meet the
expectations. It is primarily attributable to the infirmities in the
institutional framework, which include the following:
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Most government structures
are highly differentiated along sectoral lines with their tasks
compartmentalized within narrow jurisdictions;
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Rules and regulations designed for
exercising controls and prohibitions have led to excessive
bureaucratization; |
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Governance system is highly centralized.
Local bodies are vested
with little or no control over development planning and resource
generation; |
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Despite proliferation of rules and laws
covering a gamut of activities, enforcement and monitoring have been
lax; |
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Apathy for regulations, rent-seeking and
corruption are among the major impediments in enforcement;
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Command and control measures are
predominant rather than incentives for better environmental management
practices; |
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Ecological issues do not necessarily
coincide with the
administrative and legal boundaries. The spatial dimensions of the
ecological impacts are often ignored in the existing system; and,
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At the policy level, professionals and
trained human resources are conspicuously lacking in most of the
institutions. |
4.
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Water management
situation in the country is a typical example of compartmentalized
approach and associated deficiencies in the institutional structure. As
a result, the quantity of available water has been on decline and
quality of water has been deteriorating despite a multitude of
agencies, which are meant to serve as custodians for water management. |
| 5. |
For integration of diverse ecological
concerns in
the development plans, it is necessary to restructure the policy-making
and decision-making processes from their vertical-horizontal
segmentation to a holistic system. Envisioning the development plans
should be based on understanding the interdependence of technical,
economic, social and environmental concerns. Alongside, it is necessary
to define the responsibilities various constituents of government and a
framework within which all policies and programmes of the government
and the private sector should be undertaken. |
| 6. |
To this end, a national-level body
higher than a
Ministry should provide direction and guidance to all ministries. At
the national level, the Ministry of Environment under the guidance of a
National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) needs to translate the
policy vision in terms of action points and programmes for
implementation through the concerned agencies. The Ministry of
Environment has to function as a watchdog to monitor and ensure that
the activities of different line Ministries/Departments are in unison
with the ecological requirements. |
| 7. |
In designing a nodal agency and
outlining its
functional domain, the policy makers have to bear in mind the
‘Allocation of Work’ as assigned to various Ministries. For instance,
the Ministry of Finance has the powers to determine macro-economic
policies relating to taxation and subsidies that have impacts on the
environment, but these cannot be taken away from that Ministry and
given to the Ministry of Environment. As such, working arrangements
need to be devised for incorporating inputs from the Environment
Ministry into the economic Ministries. |
| 8. |
At the State level a body along the
lines of the
national body needs to be created for determining critical regional
resource use, assessment of resource use, implementation of the
national goals, coordinating the functions of agencies involved in
different sectors of the local economy and the local authorities vested
with environmental jurisdiction. |
| 9. |
The local authorities, such as the
municipal
governments and village councils, and project authorities would
constitute the lowest rung of the institutional ladder. They would play
the most important role in micro planning and execution of measures
relating to management of commons including land, water and such other
natural resources. |
| 10. |
The holistic administrative structure
will be
difficult to achieve in the short run considering the legacies of
existing structure and organization of governments. In fact, existing
structures have a tendency to resist change and reinforce their
positions. However, a holistic paradigm needs to be viewed as an end
towards which the design and shape of government structures can be
directed. Furthermore, each layer of administration needs to serve as
an integral component of one another. In such a system, flow of
information and ideas are facilitated allowing better coordination and
flexibility. The problem of an escalation in bureaucracy is also
controlled as no new channels have to be created and with some
modifications and training it ensures better utilization of the
existing staff component. |
| 11. |
The administrative mechanisms also
require a set
of tools and methodologies to work on the pathway to sustainable
development. Rules and regulations that incorporate environmental
concern with development and growth have to devised, measures to
promote sustainable use of resources have to be put in place for
implementation and ambiguities and conflicts in policies have to be
removed and reconciled. The so-called externalities, which include
environmental costs and social costs, have to be incorporated into
decision-making. Externalities lead to inefficient allocation of
resources and their misuse. If, the cost of pollution, and its
attendant health and environmental hazards, is excluded from the cost
considerations of a thermal power plant there will always be the
possibility of the plant increasing pollution to enhance its private
profits. Therefore, for sustainable development, mechanisms are
required to internalize the external costs and benefits. These tools
would have the twin objectives of ensuring that environmental and
social costs are integrated into cost-benefit analysis and by
implication restrict or prevent indiscriminate depletion of natural
resources, and simultaneously, they would ensure that the development
achieved is optimal in its consumption and production mix. |
| 12. |
Effective integration of environmental
concerns
in development process will depend on strategies to tackle the problems
with the available techniques based on intervention through the
national government, provincial authorities, sectoral agencies or local
bodies. To evolve an effective institutional mechanism, the strategies
may include the following components: |
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Identification of issues: This
involves
recognizing the main environmental and economic issues. The major areas
of concern such as soil erosion and degradation, deforestation and
bio-diversity loss, urban pollution, water pollution, energy shortage,
loss in agricultural productivity or sluggishness of exports need to be
spelt out. |
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Enlistment of biophysical, social and
economic
indicators: The problems are reflected in a variety of ways and
their specifications need to be classified in terms of socio-economic
parameters, phase of economic development, level of environmental
degradation (pollution, emission etc.), natural resource base and
regeneration and depletion rates of resources. |
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Defining the jurisdictional domain of
different
agencies: This entails linking the different aspects of the
problems to appropriate levels of intervention. The horizontal and the
vertical spread of government departments and agencies need to be
listed and their functional responsibilities connected to each
indicator recognized. There could be overlaps between agencies and
these too have to be identified. The purpose of such an exercise is to
ensure that the appropriate level is made responsible for implementing
a specific policy and to remove bottlenecks of inter-agency
coordination. An understanding of this will also be useful in assessing
the enforceability of various policy options. |
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Identification and selection of policy
options: Policy options have to be identified and linked to the
administrative mechanisms that exist. The objective of the exercise
would be to ensure that policy measures do not remain mere statement of
intent but become translatable into actions. |
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Assessment of likely impact of the
policies:
The actual impact of policies may take time to discern given the time
lag in implementation and gathering of data. However, the probable
impact can be assessed on the basis of past trends and data. Some
policies may have positive results in terms of growth but can lead to
negative environmental consequences in the short run. On the other
hand, positive environmental impact of policy may lead to short run
retardation in growth rates. The trade-offs involved and the time
dimension of the impact can become an effective tool for weighing the
options and devising corrective actions. |
| 13. |
The Brundtland Commission stressed in
its
report that “Governments must begin now to make the key national,
economic and sectoral agencies directly responsible and accountable for
ensuring that their policies, programmes, and budget supports
development that is economically and ecologically sustainable” (Our
Common Future, 1987). Development planning has been hitherto based on
aggregation of sectoral plans linked to broad economic objectives set
by the planners and coordinated through a central planning body, while
the macro-economic policies are dictated by the Finance Ministry. If
environmental concerns are to be integrated in the economic policy
making matrix, we need to understand the various dimensions and
connotations of sustainable development as distinct from the
conventional development model as also the operational requirements for
both policy making and implementing agencies.
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