Search

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) constitute an ambitious comprehensive global framework including monitoring mechanisms and indicators to evaluate progress towards precise targets of sustainable development. Most European countries have adapted their national sustainability indicator systems to conform to the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, introducing new indicators and monitoring frameworks and governance processes in which these are embedded. What do we know about the political processes and struggles of implementing this important global framework? How does the politics of indicators differ in national contexts? We propose a classification of national indicator systems along dimensions of indicator selection, appraisal landscape, participatory nature, and political communication. We empirically explore these dimensions for four European national sustainability indicator systems through a comparative analysis based on national policy documents, indicator databases, and web portals as well as inputs from workshops and expert interviews. Given the considerable variation with respect to the trajectory of national sustainability indicator systems, we posit that these differences correspond to different national interpretations of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last century, crude oil exploitation and exploration have occurred in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. While oil and gas account for a significant 85% of the national GDP, it has caused catastrophic effects on the environment. This is of particular concern, considering the Niger Delta is the breadbasket of Nigeria, inhabited by 31 million people. However, indiscriminate pollution has arisen from oil spills emanating from exploration activities and gas flaring. Since 2014 alone, more than 550 oil spills have been reported. To address this, the Nigerian federal government has developed environmental policies and laws targeted to regulate environmental management. However, the efficacy of these policies remains in question because of the government's unwillingness to enforce the laws. The aim of this paper is to appraise of the effect of the national policies on environmental management with emphasis on the "Guidelines and Standards for Environmental Pollution Control, 1991". We ask the following questions: What are community perceptions of the direct and indirect impacts of oil spills on ecosystems, health, livelihoods, migration and conflict? What are current and desired compensation provided by government bodies, NGOs and oil companies to support local livelihoods impacted by oil spills? What are key statutory and legal frameworks on environmental protection in Nigeria, how effectively are they performing and what are key challenges confronting compliance with regulatory guidelines and standards? To answer these questions, we recruited the activities of 11 focus groups comprising of chiefs, farmers, youth leaders, members of community and social activists groups from each Niger Delta state and engaged them on qualitative focus group discussions and interviews to identify the impacts of oil spills on settlement's socio-economic and environmental conditions. Results were then analyzed with thematic templet analytic techniques. This study reveals a high impact on settlements with diverse factors that have contributed to the increase in social aspects. Existing policies to regulate and control environmental pollution, but the enforcement of standards has been poor. Consequently, biodiversity has been impacted, affects agricultural soil, human health and the source of farming and farming livelihoods of the indigenous people has had to be abandoned by many living in this region. We argue, Nigeria's reliance on revenue generated from crude oil encourages the uninspiring and lackadaisical approach of the government to enforce these policies in the region. To this end, we recommend various environmental policies should be merged and harmonized under one by-law to ensure uniformity and there is an urgent need to implement the 2006 UNDP report which prioritized environmental sustainability, promotes human partnership development and upholds the goals for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation since the 1980s has led to substantial loss of ecological services in China. As a responsive strategy, China launched the most ambitious reforestation efforts in the developing world. However, like many other environmental policies, forestry policy has not been effectively implemented, mainly due to the fragmentation nature in China's environmental governance institution. This paper highlights the impact of central-local conflicts on forestry policy implementation. With insufficient motivation, local governments tend to minimize their efforts in planning, monitoring, and supporting reforestation activities, which poses great challenges on the sustainability of the reforestation benefits. With extensive field experiences, this paper also raises three innovative strategies to solve the financial dilemma that leads to the effort minimization phenomenon, with both the advantages and disadvantages for each strategy critically discussed. It finally recommends ways by which the central government could improve design of reforestation policies, or other large-scale ecological programs, which involve local governments as a key liaison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to implement environmental policies for sustainable and resilient land use we need to better understand how people relate to their agricultural land and how this affects their practices. In this paper I use an inductive, qualitative analysis of data gathered from interviews with kiwifruit orchardists and observations of their orchards to demonstrate how their interpretation of their relationship with their orchards affects their management practices. I suggest that these orchardists experience their orchards as having agency in four different ways-as wild, challenging, needy, and passive-and that these different perspectives result in practices which produce orchards that impact differently on sensory faculties-sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell. This finding implies that land use policies that seek to change sensory aspects of the land which are in conflict with producers', farmers', or growers' sense of relationship with the land-and how the land 'should be'-are unlikely to succeed. That these orchardists produce fruit which is compliant with two comprehensive audit systems-one of which is organic-and also serve an international market, indicates that the constraints of such systems still allow orchardists to exercise autonomy, express their identity, and make sense of their orchard activities in different ways, indicating a potentially resilient and sustainable production system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with governance of long term socio-technical transitions required to orient development trajectories of advanced industrial counties along more sustainable lines. It discusses the contribution that ‘transition management’ can make to such processes, emphasizes the irreducibly political character of governance for sustainable development, and suggests that the long-term transformation of energy systems will prove to be a messy, conflictual, and highly disjointed process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition management is a new concept for long-term policy design for the reflexive governance of socio-technical systems. It has recently attracted attention beyond its original context, the Netherlands. Yet, considering the local origins of transition management, it is also valid to question whether its assumptions concerning the governance of long-term transitions ‘travel well’. This article aims to explore early experiences of transferring the transition management model into the Finnish context on the basis of two case studies in different sectors. We suggest that the policy design changes when it is moved to another country and identify factors that influence the outcome of the transfer process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 34 years, David Pearce made major contribution to OECD work on environmental economic issues, with a particular focus on cost–benefit analysis, economic instruments, biodiversity and distributive issues. This article provides a brief review of David Pearce’s contributions. This work was particularly useful in enhancing the political economy of environmental policy which is at the core of OECD work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]