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Environmental policy integration is needed to ensure environmental policy goals are being realized, given their cross‐sectoral nature. Most of the published research has focused on integration and coherence of (inter)national policies, plans, and programs. The implementation practices for these policies, however, are at least as important. This paper therefore looks at policy implementation for the case of artisanal gold mining in Liberia. This is studied through a lens of frontline staff (street‐level bureaucrats) who operate in networks of local government agencies, civil society organizations, and communities. Results of interviews and field observations in Grand Gedeh county show how the policy context and local realities create specific dilemmas, resulting from the combination of limited resources of local frontline staff, low‐income security for local communities and traditional local practices around protected forest areas. In response local frontline bureaucrats use their discretionary power and network to mobilize support, pool resources, combine mandates, and find creative solutions to both regulate and support community residents. Although these implementation strategies are neither necessarily sufficient to realize the official policy goals, nor are guaranteed to have the desired effects, they do show how local frontline staff act as de facto policymakers. Recognizing frontline staff as environmental policy integrators therefore is a crucial element toward more successful policies for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major public health challenge facing local administrations is reducing the preventable burden of non-communicable diseases making cities more resilient against environmental threats. The objective of this work was to conduct a synthesis of scientific evidence relating to the local context and implement a translational process to support the Department of the Environment in order to improve integration with concurrent policy sectors to urban health and sustainability goals. The first phase reviewed the studies on the association between environmental risk factors and human health and on the contamination levels of the environmental matrices; the second phase synthesised the data in key messages according to the concerns formulated with the collaboration of the Environmental Department. A total of 31 studies were assessed: 21 investigated environmental risk factors, and 9 measured the presence of pollutants in the environmental matrices. The findings identified air and noise pollution as the most important threats associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, together with significant contamination levels of the urban environment from microplastics and hydrocarbons. Based on the review findings, a layman's report for the City Council and the citizens, explicitly addressing emerging issues, was made publicly accessible. A lack of specific, updated and exchangeable data for city health profiling in a deteriorated environmental context represented the main barrier to a resilient community. The suggested recommendation for the local administration was to adopt an environmental policy integration framework to strengthen the monitoring of the impact on citizens' health. • Systematic review in environmental health was promoted to improve local decision-making. • Air and noise pollution were identified as the most important environmental risk factors in Pisa. • Collaboration between researchers and policymakers leveraged the adoption of an EPI framework. • Scientific evidence drove the sustainable transition in urban governance. • Strategic environmental action should be based on citizen health-related indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of participation by indigenous peoples in Latin America in the political process of Environmental Policy Integration (EPI). Although the benefits of participation have been largely taken for granted, this article shows that participation makes the policy integration process even more complex. By selecting two cases of clean energy infrastructure projects (a wind power plant and a natural gas pipeline) in Mexico, whose policy processes included an indigenous consultation, this article traces the competing problem definitions in public policy debates and the resulting policy frame in relation to sustainable development. The goal is to assess the ways that indigenous consultation functions as a procedural EPI instrument aimed at boosting participation from a public that is largely composed by indigenous communities in the decision-making stage. This article contributes to the existing literature on policy integration in two ways: (1) it explores the role of participation by non-state actors in the policy integration process, especially in highly politicized policy areas such as energy and the environment, and (2) it identifies the limitations of applicability of policy integration literature, particularly in contexts where state–society interactions are radically different compared to Western countries, including Latin American countries inhabited by indigenous groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for sustainable development underscores the role and importance of integrating environmental concerns in non-environmental policies because it is evident that environmental regulations only are insufficient to manage all environmental issues. Law enforcement on environmental protection in Vietnam clearly demonstrates this situation. Vietnam's legal system of environmental protection is incompatible or overlapped with other sectoral laws and in fact many environmental matters have been implemented in accordance with sectoral laws while disregarding environmental considerations due to the lack of specific and explicit environmental provisions or requirements in sectoral laws and regulations. From that situation, the paper emphasizes the need to integrate environmental protection requirements into the sectoral laws of Vietnam and proposes some fundamental criteria and procedures to integrate environmental requirements into sectoral laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a suggested comprehensive framework for identifying, assessing and governing trade-offs and enhancing coherence in public policy decision-making. The framework is based on a simple three-stage model of policymaking: understanding policy interactions (input), integrating policy-making (process), and assessing ex ante policy decisions (output). The first stage is tackled with an interactions assessment framework, identifying how different sectors or ministries relate to each other in terms of their respective objectives, and on what topics negotiations are required to manage trade-offs. The second stage draws on approaches and experiences in environmental policy integration. It focuses on institutional procedures, structures and rules that enable integrated policy-making processes. The third stage draws on the longer-standing policy-analytical field of impact assessment applied to sustainable development. The article discusses the conceptual and theoretical foundations of each stage, as well as practical policy experiences. Discussing this in the context of 2030 Agenda implementation, the article suggests how trade-offs and policy coherence can be better governed using adapted policy-analytic methods and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional and local governments in Europe are often challenged with establishing suitable institutional practices to meet ecological targets within urban spatial development plans and address the ultimate goal of the Environmental Policy Integration (EPI). EPI has been proliferated by the European policy as the operational principle to sustainable development. Yet it is necessary to develop and apply suitable approaches that allow achieving EPI within the policy implementation practices of the local and regional authorities. Particularly in the field of urban planning, such EPI approaches are needed to more firmly integrate ecological considerations in the land-use planning process and safeguard the sustainability of urban developments. This is the case when implementing key nature policy objectives such as the development of national ecological networks (NEN) aimed at protecting biodiversity, and in which multiple actors and sectorial interests are involved. Among European countries, the Netherlands has been a forerunner in NEN development and has applied innovative approaches such as the Red for Green approach (RGA). The RGA aims to integrate ecological issues (green) in urban developments (red) and establishes a communicative platform for the actors involved in the urban developments. This study assesses the unique experiences with the RGA in seven regional case studies, identifies its key success factors and reflects on its role as a communicative practice towards EPI. The study concludes that the RGA can be a suitable approach to integrating ecological network objectives in urban developments. However, RGA's success depends on five factors, among which the two most important are the actors' communication and development of a shared strategic vision on developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Both in a national and global context, it is challenging to identify key conditions for the integration of sustainable tourism in public policy. By studying a number of recent planning processes pertaining to tourism development, this article aims to contribute recent insight into how sustainability may be integrated into tourism planning. The study was motivated by a publicized shift in the Norwegian government policy strategy on sustainable tourism, from a sector approach to an integration approach. Through case analysis, the concept of environmental policy integration is applied. Findings show that sustainable tourism is partially integrated in all cases and three key issues are outlined. First, although Norway is characterized by a high degree of sector organization, it has a weak structure for overall tourism policy integration. Second, the integration of sustainable tourism has been stimulated by national horizontal integration, bottom-up integration prepared by institutional changes, public participation, and by active use of the municipal system of planning. Third, this study could not find any evidence for the announced shift from a sector approach to an integrated approach to sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The destructive impact of antropic activities can no longer be ignored and all the human activities – from industry to domestic household - must impose a friendly behavior in relation to the environment. The environmental protection is an esential part of the enlarged reproduction and modern economic growth, aiming to ensure the dinamic ecological equilibrium, preserving and improving the quality of natural factors, the development of country's natural riches, ensuring better conditions of life and work for present and future generations. Thus, the whole activity for environmental protection in all of its components has a productive beeing creative of net income and value. On the long term, the achievement of dynamic economic equilibrium is illusory, without observing and respecting of ecological balance, the economic imbalances will cannot be resolved on the basis of creating some ecological imbalances, because these latter generate huge economic damage, a to which we can add a series of consequences, most often unpredictable.

The inclusion of environmental interest groups in policy-making is said to provide greater legitimacy (Bernauer and Gampfer, 2013), accountability (Feldman and Blokov, 2009), new policy preferences (Bunea, 2013) and, ultimately, pro-environmental outcomes (Bohmelt and Betzold, 2013). This paper focuses on the development of inclusive governance structures and processes (with regard to environmental interests) in waste-to-energy policy designed to facilitate pro-environmental outcomes in the generation of 'clean' renewable energy within the national context of France. Empirically, the paper argues that change in long-term exclusionary patterns in energy policy remains enduringly weak. Normatively, environmental 'inclusivity' (i.e. the construction of meaningful pluralistic structures and processes) as a mechanism for achieving the prioritization of environmental concerns should become a central objective for energy policy, and more generally in the environmental policy integration literature. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International environmental policy has evolved from a focus on single issues to more integrated approaches under the framework of sustainable development. This transition has been accompanied by a growing use of targets among international organisations. Targets have long been used in industry and corporate planning, but some have questioned their relevance in the ambit of environmental and sustainable development policy. This paper addresses the question of whether international targets help advance environmental policy integration in international governance. It explores whether the international target of significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2002, enabled co-ordination and coherence in international biodiversity governance. The effects of the Target on the cluster of biodiversity-related conventions and their implementation in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are examined. The analysis is based on official documents and interviews with secretariat officials, international experts and national focal points conducted between September 2011 and April 2012. A claim is made that the 2010 Biodiversity Target was, in essence, a conservation goal that did not fully honour the CBD's sustainable development mission. The Target triggered increased co-operation in the biodiversity cluster without bringing greater alignment of policies and implementation activities around the CBD's sustainability principles. The study suggests that, if targets are to advance EPI among international institutions, they need to be appropriated by relevant stakeholders and supported by implementation strategies that secure their continuous commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to spatial planning in Italy. We discuss SEA effectiveness by focusing on three main dimensions: sustainable development, environmental policy integration and democratic governance. The methodology includes the analysis of 27 SEA reports and interviews with key actors. Findings suggest that SEA is beginning to insinuate ecological rationality and improving environmental policy integration across planning levels and disciplinary boundaries. SEA also leads to progress in transparency and communication, whereas the actual involvement of the public in decision making is still weak. Future developments may address the potential contribution of SEA to focusing planning on long-term, shared, visions of socio-ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore how the capacity to integrate environmental sustainability in Swedish regional development programming has evolved over time, particularly focusing on what facilitates and restricts change in different stages of implementation. The study builds on focus group and individual interviews in four Swedish regions carried out in 2005 and 2011. The results suggest temporary and partial, rather than enduring and substantial, environmental policy integration (EPI). In 2005 the main challenges were to allocate support, focus and prioritise beyond the national policy rhetoric of regional sustainable development, to identify regional applications beyond singular ‘pockets of good practice’ and to spread ownership and engagement for EPI from specific ambassadors to organisational mainstreaming. In 2011 we found evidence of a more mainstreamed approach of regional sustainable development, but with new challenges of policy diffusion and sectorisation as well as a strong sense of projectification. There is a need to develop arenas and processes for inter-sectoral exchange, interaction and learning to achieve a more systematic change – which is, in essence, what policy integration is all about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The destructive impact of antropic activities can no longer be ignored and all the human activities - from industry to domestic household - must impose a friendly behavior in relation to the environment. The environmental protection is an esential part of the enlarged reproduction and modern economic growth, aiming to ensure the dinamic ecological equilibrium, preserving and improving the quality of natural factors, the development of country's natural riches, ensuring better conditions of life and work for present and future generations. Thus, the whole activity for environmental protection in all of its components has a productive beeing creative of net income and value. On the long term, the achievement of dynamic economic equilibrium is illusory, without observing and respecting of ecological balance, the economic imbalances will cannot be resolved on the basis of creating some ecological imbalances, because these latter generate huge economic damage, a to which we can add a series of consequences, most often unpredictable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Climate change is a complex cross-cutting problem that necessitates a high level of policy coordination. One proposed strategy for dealing with such issues is policy integration or mainstreaming. Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) was heralded as one of the key features of sustainable development. However, in recent years Climate Policy Integration (CPI) has come to the fore. This article argues that CPI is an emerging concept that has received insufficient attention in the literature, despite gathering increasing prominence in policy circles. In particular, the precise nature of the relationship between EPI and CPI is still unclear. This article compares CPI with EPI in order to systemically unpack what CPI means both conceptually and in practice. The article finds that CPI is less about ambitious and expansive integration across all policy sectors and more about engaging a narrower set of sectors to work together in particular ways to meet specific goals. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Intellectual Economics is the property of Intellectual Economics / Mykolas Romeris University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The principle of environmental policy integration (EPI) attracts great scholarly interest as well as widespread political backing. Political support is particularly strong in the European Union, where it enjoys a prominent quasi-constitutional status. However, the practical fulfilment of EPI appears to lag well behind these aspirations, although the evidence base of this widely held view remains rather fragmented. This article aims to review the ‘state of the art’ in EPI research and practice from the perspective of its conceptual meaning, processes of implementation and outcomes ‘on the ground’. It finds that the political commitment to EPI is indeed widespread, especially in industrialized states, but that deep disagreement surrounds its actual application. In terms of everyday practices, ‘policy integration’ is complex and contingent, and there are few ‘best practices’ that can be easily shared between jurisdictions. Finally, knowledge about policy outcomes is very sparse indeed, and policy-making systems seem very ill prepared to address this lacuna. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses environmental policy integration—a concept so far mainly applied to domestic and European politics—at the global level. The article distinguishes between integration of institutions, of organizations, and of their bureaucracies, and it addresses both internal integration (within the environmental policy domain) and external integration (between environmental policies and non-environmental policies). The overall focus is on one set of policy reform proposals that have been salient in the global environmental governance debate for the last decades: the question of whether the creation of a world environment organization would improve the effectiveness, legitimacy, and efficiency of global environmental governance. We revisit this debate and explore the options for organizational change, including clustering, upgrading, streamlining, and hierarchical steering, with a focus on whether the reform proposals can bring about environmental policy integration. We conclude that in the longer term, upgrading of the UN Environment Programme to a UN specialized agency, with additional and increasing streamlining of other institutions and bureaucracies, offers the most potential for environmental policy integration and does not appear to be unrealistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance for sustainable development requires policy coherence and Environmental Policy Integration, which are being hindered by difficulties coordinating the two separate impact assessment processes being conducted in the European Commission. One of them, the Commission-wide Impact Assessment process, looks primarily at EU-internal impacts, whereas the other one, Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) in DG Trade, looks outward to other countries and intergovernmental organizations. Ideally, the two processes should complement one another, especially as the two are set to continue being done in parallel. The paper uses a case study of the reform of the European sugar regime under a World Trade Organization ruling to demonstrate how the two impact assessment processes could better complement one another. Feedback from the experience had with existing trade agreements could then promote policy learning and inform the negotiations on new agreements. The number of new bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements is expected to continue rising, thus increasing the importance of the Commission-wide Impact Assessment process required for them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With the Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, as chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Norway became an early mover in politics for sustainable development (SD). The pursuit of SD goals has been expressed in several national policy documents, though it was not until 2002 that Norway adopted an explicit ‘National Strategy for Sustainable Development’. This was followed up by a ‘National Action Plan for Sustainable Development’ in 2003. Neither of these initiatives has been actively implemented, and both are now being evaluated and revised by the current ‘red–green’ coalition government. The article presents and assesses strategic SD initiatives from 1989 to the present day. The major conclusion of the analysis is that the Norwegian SD profile is ‘long on promise’ and ‘short on delivery’, and that one major reason for this is the influence of a booming petroleum economy on distributional politics. An exceptional growth in public revenues due to oil and gas fosters intense political competition over the dispensation of economic and welfare benefits – both between political parties and within governing coalitions – and undermines the ‘political will’ to pursue the SD agenda. Given the ability to also use the surplus for development assistance, Norway stands forth as an SD ‘frontrunner’ in international aid, and an SD ‘laggard’ in sustainable production and consumption at home. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]