This paper focuses on local environmental governance and decentralized natural resource management. It has overlapping and complementary objectives: to review the lessons learned so far from past and ongoing UNCDF projects; to better understand current thinking and debate on environmental issues; to position UNCDF in the context of the environmental policies adopted by major funding institutions and define its niche; and, finally, to provide directions for further action-oriented exchange and debate.

As the focus on the degradation or destruction of the earth’s resources has sharpened, environmental issues have taken centre stage, particularly in developing countries. One of the aims of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an agenda established by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit and adopted by the General Assembly in September 2000, is to ensure environmental sustainability; with the specific target of integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reversing the loss of environmental resources.

By reaffirming the principle that governance and sustainable development are closely intertwined, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg highlighted the importance of a viable, acceptable and sound institutional framework, from local to international levels, as the basis for development that focuses on future generations. The World Summit Implementation Plan emphasized the role of local governments in the implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the Summit, and strongly encouraged partnerships within and between local authorities and other levels of government and stakeholders as a means of advancing sustainable development.

In accordance with its mandate to reduce poverty in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is fully committed to implementing the recommendations of the World Summit and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

UNCDF currently specializes in two areas, supporting decentralized public investments (through local governance) and small-scale private investments (through micro-finance). In local governance, UNCDF projects aim to promote good governance at the national and local levels, reinforce human and institutional capacities, reduce the vulnerability of the poor and protect the environment.

One goal of its strategic results framework specifically aims “to increase sustainable access of the poor to basic infrastructure and public services as well as to productive livelihood opportunities, through good local governance and enhanced natural resource management”. UNCDF has a comparative advantage in piloting small-scale decentralized public investments and paving the way for their replication on a larger scale by other development partners.

This book – which should be read in parallel with the UNCDF book on local governance and poverty reduction, ‘Empowering the Poor’ - adopts a ‘learning by doing’ approach: reviewing and analysing current thinking and debate on environmental issues in order to build a coherent policy framework, and identifying a number of appropriate strategic measures. The essential elements of this paper were presented at a workshop in Cotonou, Benin, in 2000, and discussed by UNCDF technical advisers, programme managers and coordinators of UNCDF projects in West Africa and Madagascar. LGU members and external resource persons subsequently commented extensively on a revised version of this paper. The approaches presented here have already provided a conceptual framework to a number of new UNCDF projects.

At UNCDF we are fully committed to the political declaration of the 2002 World Summit, which states that “poverty eradication, changing consumption and production patterns, and protecting and managing the natural resource base for economic and social development are overarching objectives of, and essential requirements for sustainable development”. We also fully endorse the opinion that the failure to adequately protect the environment and support human development is largely due to a lack of coherent and integrated global-local frameworks for sustainable development.

At the local level, through support to local governance, UNCDF contributes to the search for a more balanced and comprehensive approach that embraces political, economic, social and ecological concerns. UNCDF projects are likely to have a considerable impact by consistently applying the principle of local environmental governance and instituting sound environmental paradigms in order to sustain local livelihoods and reduce poverty.

Kadmiel Wekwete
Director,
UNCDF Local Governance Unit

This paper argues that good, local-level mechanisms for environmental governance are not only likely to lead to productive natural resource management practices that improve the productivity of local rural economies and increase economic growth, but also to increase awareness of the importance of environmental issues, enhance local responsibilities and accountability and, finally, strengthen local democracy.

Part I analyses the main elements of the current debate on environmental issues and sustainable development. Chapter 1 argues that environmental degradation and natural resource depletion are both the cause and the result of a number of complex factors. Ecological factors, such as water shortage, deforestation, soil nutrient depletion and the like have a profound impact on local livelihoods, threatening the survival of the rural poor who depend on the resource base. Rural people’s relationships with their productive renewable natural resources are also affected by legal and legislative frameworks. By asserting the pre-eminence of the central State over land, these have reduced incentives for users to protect their resources, destabilized existing land use systems and increased general land insecurity. In a situation where poverty and the environment are closely intertwined, the development of serious conflicts over the control and use of natural resources makes local producers increasingly vulnerable.

Chapter 2 reviews a number of cross-cutting issues that inform current debate on the sustainable use and management of natural resources. This chapter also analyses certain aspects of the environmental approach adopted by major international funding agencies and the governments of developing countries. The importance of the concept of ‘local environmental governance’ is stressed: as an integral part of the wider notion of ‘local governance’ or ‘democratic governance’, this concept defines the capacity of local stakeholders (more particularly, freely elected local authorities) to manage their relationships with the physical environment in accordance with the principles of participation, transparency, efficiency, equity and accountability. The last decade was marked by growing recognition of the fact that many environmental problems have their roots in institutional failure and poor governance, and that decentralized and democratic governance is the key to sustainable development and poverty reduction. However, despite a favourable legal environment supporting the direct involvement of local communities in environmental management and defining new environmental roles for local governments and communities, the devolution of environmental management responsibilities to local authorities and communities has had a mixed record. There is a need for new approaches that reflect a more balanced understanding of the complex, multi-faceted dimensions of environmental problems and adopt a more holistic approach guided by cross-sectoral strategies.

Part II reviews the main aspects of UNCDF environmental policy and perspectives, and identifies the challenges ahead. Chapter 3 presents the environmental dimensions of the Local Development Programme (LDP), a comprehensive and flexible strategic tool developed by UNCDF to support local development and decentralized planning and finance. A number of lessons may be drawn from previous approaches, such as the need to create local social and institutional conditions that permit the application of technical solutions. For UNCDF environmental issues are not a separate concern, but a horizontal theme that has to be integrated into a comprehensive process of strategic planning and decision-making. In terms of local environmental governance, LDPs combine three distinct but complementary components - institutions, regulatory frameworks and technologies – in order to address the complexity of current environmental issues. Because institutions are crucial assets in the development process, LDPs will strive to help legitimize local institutional stakeholders (local government bodies as well as village associations, user groups, non-governmental organizations and the private sector) within the framework of decentralization policies. They will contribute to give them a legal basis, provide them with the necessary discretionary powers and make them more efficient and accountable stewards of the environment. UNCDF faces the major challenge of supporting the formulation and implementation of local legislative provisions and regulatory frameworks that will promote the devolution of authority and transfer effective responsibilities for natural resource management issues to local authorities and civil society organizations. LDPs will assist local government bodies by providing them with information on technologies and practices that are appropriate to their environment.

Chapter 4 presents the UNCDF institutional perspective, focusing on two distinct but complementary institutional issues: the need for adequate organizational architecture (institutions/organizations) and sound institutional arrangements (institutions/norms). The general objective of LDPs is to define and implement a coherent, sustainable institutional strategy that will give local governments greater responsibility and provide them with incentives for collective action and operations. In the area of institutions/organizations, LDPs can efficiently contribute to the creation and/or consolidation of formal and informal entities capable of defining, negotiating and implementing coherent environmental initiatives. LDPs will necessarily involve different stakeholders and focus on the processes of change that will define the interactive roles and functions of these institutions. In the area of institutions/norms, LDPs will support the institutionalization of environmental procedures and mechanisms, and promote the incorporation of democratic principles into the regulatory frameworks governing local land systems. This chapter also discusses the component of LDPs concerned with building the capacities of local stakeholders. The basic assumption is that any transfer of powers and resources to decentralized local governments must be accompanied by significant efforts to build local technical and management capacities.

LDPs support the idea that the planning of measures aimed at protecting, rehabilitating and managing natural resources is part of a more comprehensive and coherent system of planning and designing strategies to secure livelihoods and reduce poverty. Chapter 5 focuses on local development planning procedures and the Local Development Fund (LDF), a financial facility intended to support local government investment in rural development and poverty reduction. Local governments can only receive this facility if they meet certain conditions, which include the participatory preparation of coherent, tailored local development plans (that should ideally include a specific section on the environment). Armed with appropriate procedures and mechanisms, and supported by LDPs, local government bodies (at district and/or sub-district levels) with local communities (farmer organizations, user groups, etc.) will be able to plan, finance and directly supervise a series of activities that will better protect, rehabilitate and manage the resource base while increasing its productivity. LDPs either provide local governments with a single financial facility that covers all their investments, or with a parallel environmental fund - a green or environmental window – that specifically addresses issues related to environmental governance and natural resource management. (The latter option is favoured in the case of particularly degraded ecosystems or fragile natural resources, and/or where local populations are unlikely to prioritize environmental investments due to their poverty and lack of basic social services and infrastructure). LDP environmental planning systems promote bottom-up communication mechanisms that can voice local government and community concerns and influence regional and national policy orientations.

The conclusion highlights UNCDF’s total commitment to working towards sustainable livelihoods and lasting progress in poverty reduction. More detailed information on policy and current research findings can be found in the insets, which also provide examples of ongoing UNCDF projects. LDPs support the idea that natural resources can make a significant contribution to sustainable growth when they are properly managed. Interventions related to natural resource management (NRM) will be an essential part of a sustainable process of poverty reduction, since improved productivity will increase rural livelihoods, food security and market participation.

The annexes provide examples of sustainable NRM-related technologies designed to support local economies and reduce poverty. LDPs will support the dissemination of these technologies and facilitate their adoption, provided they are appropriate to poor farming communities, adapted to seasonal labour demand and resistant to risks. The most likely targets for major investment are water supplies and water resource management, watershed management, soil fertility, anti-erosion measures, agricultural intensification, livestock production and health, rangelands, non-agricultural rural activities and forestry, fish farming, eco-tourism and biodiversity.