33 UN POLICY MODELS FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT :Way to Sustainability

Dr Seema Mehra Parihar

epgp books

   

 

 

Learning Objectives:

 

After studying this unit you should be able to:

  • Discuss the role of models in resource management
  • Critically analyze the UN policies for resource management
  • Be able to explain the political ecological linkage of resource management Understand the relevance of Sustainability

 

KEYWORDS

    Models, management, conflicts, political ecology

 

 

1.  ROLE OF MODELS IN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

There is an urgent need to preserve natural resources

Figure 1: Symbolic Funnel of Models

 

A model is the abstraction of reality. It is formal description of any system of interest. Models are simplified versions that helps us to understand the ‘what if’ questions. Models have its role in both natural science study and also for the study of various anthropological issued like that of political and social structures. Models are tools to elucidate our understanding of the process and concepts involved in a phenomenon. What one needs is to sieve and make use of an existing model (Figure 1) or create a new model individually or through a particular institution as per the requirement.

 

Figure 2: Natural resource management hypothetical model created by Zimmerman (1951)

 

Natural resource management models address several hypothetical problems (Figure 2). The management context and objectives of the model address the problems of natural resource management and also gives an opportunity to explore the possibilities of the potential areas in natural resources management. Various computers models developed to assist natural resource management (Figure 3).

 

Figure 3: Base scenario from 1972 “Limits to Growth”, printed using today’s graphics by Charles Hall and John Day in “Revisiting Limits to Growth After Peak Oil” Source: http://www.esf.edu/efb/hall/2009-05Hall0327.pdf

 

Some of the models’ applicable areas in the field of natural resources management are:

 

Figure 4: Some Applications of NRM models

 

 

1). Wildlife management: – The central activity in wildlife management is habitat improvement and the major causes of decline in wildlife populations. Changing patterns of land use have fragmented the habitat of many animal species. The general objective of the wildlife management is to simulate the effect of different habitat management and land- use decisions on population dynamics. Specific objectives are to assess the impact on the wildlife management. The main objective of wildlife management was to improve the habitat for enhancement of breeding habitat in patches and protective cover in spatial areas. The other objective is for further habitat fragmentation of the area.

 

2). Fisheries management: –The central activity in fisheries management is the process to increase sustainable yield. It is also to simulate the effect of different strategies on total harvest from the fishery and profit to each of two different user groups within the fishery. Specific objectives are to examine the effect on harvest and profit of the restriction of fishing effort in (1) the bay fishery and (2) the ocean fishery.

 

3). Rangeland management: – The rangeland management is to simulate forage production in a rangeland ecosystem under different cattle stocking densities and frequencies of brush control. Specific objectives are (1) to identify combinations of stocking densities and frequencies of burning that result in sustainable forage production and (2) to evaluate the influence of the month of burning on the effectiveness of brush control.

 

4). Forest management: –The forest model helps to simulate the effect of different harvesting strategies on the sustainability of production and the abundance of wildlife. Specific objectives are to examine the manner in which (1) the length of cutting cycle and (2) the size and spatial patterns.

 

5). GIS: – It is a powerful analytical tool as it is capable of overlying data sets to identify links. This software plays an important role in the branch of geography for analysis and data generations. Thereby helps in formulating different models for the problem specific solutions. Models based on GIS have been useful in designing several conservation programs like that of the forest resource management (ZaletoMedeo n.d.).

 

 

2. The UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programs Support (BPPS) develops all the programs relevant for UNDP (UNITED NATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM).

 

 

It provides technical support, represents UNDP at various platforms and facilitates dialogues between civil society, corporate and government actors. It encourages UN engagement in various thematic projects. To see that the issue of risk is fully integrated into the UNDP projects is also the responsibility BPPS. The bureau helps the member countries to be more cooperative and it tries to establish the roots of sustainable development policies in the countries. For this it recommends the following pathway: –

 

Figure 3 : UNDP & Focus on Biodiversity and Ecosystem

 

 

Focus on Biodiversity and Ecosystem. Nature is critical to our own wellbeing and a sustainable future and provides the ecosystem services that underpin development and sustain our lives, including water, clean air, fertile soil, food, medicine, and spiritual and cultural wealth. Healthy ecosystems also help to buffer the adverse impacts of climate change and natural disasters from which the world’s marginalized communities suffer disproportionately. These services are particularly critical for many of the 700 million women and men living in or vulnerable to poverty who directly rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. Sustaining ecosystems services and biodiversity represents an essential pillar of the world’s efforts to achieve the SDGs. Smart investments in and effective management of natural resources contribute directly to all of the SDGs, The BPPS Sustainable Development Cluster oversees the work of the Global Environmental Finance Unit and Environment and Natural Capital Team, which represents the equivalent of approximately USD 640 million of programs delivery per annum. This work is aligned with UNDP’s Strategic Plan and corporate strategies on Ecosystems and Biodiversity, Oceans and Water Governance, Climate Change, and Energy.

-Extractive Industries. Non-renewable natural resources such as metals, minerals, oil & gas, (extractive industries) also contribute to sustainable development in numerous ways, including by generating revenues that governments can invest in development and by catalyzing economic development and job creation through the investments made in the sector. However, many countries are unable to fully realize the benefits from their natural wealth. UNDP supports the countries to reduce the environmental risk to resource extraction and helps the state to have an integrated sustainable oriented model for resource extraction (UNDP n.d.).

 

UN POLICIES AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

 

A NRM (Natural Resource Management) working framework would most probably contribute toward the resource management program and also address the sustainability issue if the power in the working of the body is decentralized among the various stakeholders. For this a government that is not corrupt, that which works for the interest of people, the lesser bureaucratization of government agencies and the need also is of a civil society that is in position to act as a check and balance, to restrict the unlimited power of the sovereign besides it should also be cooperative with the government pro people schemes. Forces external to a given regional set-up of resource interest groups can help to solve the resource disputes. But the third party should be a neutral one. But there is an impediment to the third-party intervention and the decision making by it. It has been seen that the third party is not a neutral especially created body that looks into such issue but it also is a governmental body of some other state or is that state itself sometime the third party is also in the form corporates and their agents which can hamper the interest of both the conflicting parties and would produce a scenario in which the interest of third party is placed at fore front in deciding the disputes between the parties. Under these circumstances the principal challenge before the bodies of UN is to promotes non-violent means of negotiation and cooperation for the settling of disputes related to natural resources. Transformation of natural resource in a way that creates jobs for the people ensures the tribal control over their indigenous means of production besides it doesn’t hamper the state sponsored industrialization of region is a major challenge to UN for which its various organ claims to be at work. The economic structure that can create more resource based sustainable development models can be more resilient to the development to conflicts. While an economy that perpetuates resource concentration in the hands of elite, creates unlimited access to non-renewable energy source is likely to experience conflicts and negative growth rate (UNDGM n.d.).

 

It is worth noting that natural resource and its management never is the sole issue for conflicts among the countries but adding to the crises in natural resource management programs the political social or economic structure that surfaces through such management process can result in serious conflicts between the various stakeholders. Various UN based research work are surfacing out that helps to look into the matter of resource disputes from a socio-political framework. Key policy frameworks at the world level are:

 

–The 2005 Security Council Resolution 1625 highlights the need to adopt a strategy of conflict that should address the root cause of conflicts. This program or approach has been successful in African countries. The resolution proclaims the Security Council’s “determination to take action against illegal exploitation and trafficking of natural resources and high-value commodities in areas where it contributes to the outbreak, escalation or continuation of armed conflict.”

 

–The 2007 statement of the president of the Security Council on natural resources and conflict stated that “the exploitation, trafficking and illicit trade of natural resources have played a role in contributing to the outbreak, escalation or continuation of armed conflict” (Council n.d.). in the situations of conflicts, it talks of empowering the local governments with more means to handle the disputes in a peaceful manner.

 

–In 2009, the Secretary General’s landmark report, Peacebuilding in the Immediate Aftermath of Conflict, outlined five recurring areas where international assistance is frequently requested as a peacebuilding priority: “safety and security, political processes, basic services, core government functions and economic revitalization (UNGA, UN General Assembly. (2009). Report of the

 

Secretary-General on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict, 2009). NRM is a cross cutting theme related to these various areas. Increasing attention is paid to the central role of natural resource management underpinning economic revitalization and basic services (water, sanitation, waste), providing fiscal revenues and strengthening the rule of law.” (UNGA, UN General Assembly. (2009). Report of the Secretary-General on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict, 2009)

 

–  In 2010 a follow-up report came into being that states that natural resources are the “area of increasing concern where greater efforts will be needed to deliver a more effective UN response”. It asks “Member States and the UN system to make questions of natural resource allocation, ownership and access an integral part of peacebuilding strategies” (UNGA n.d.). In

 

2011, the review of “Civilian Capacities in the Aftermath of Conflict” by an independent senior advisory group reporting to the Secretary General proposed a cluster system to clarify who delivers what kind of responses in the frequently requested areas (UNSC n.d.). NRM is sub grouped with various economic development programs and agencies of UN. Finally, in 2011 the

 

World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) on conflict, security and development argued that “to break cycles of violence and escape fragility, low-income fragile and conflict-affected countries need to focus on restoring confidence and transforming institutions that provide citizen security, justice and jobs” (BANK 2011). The effort at international level to address such issues have to be brought through integration of political reform at the governmental level with the international norms on development. Several programs are underway in UN that link resources with several priority sectors that affects the livelihood of several people across the globe. As suggested by UN the following programs are underway in this regard: “1) In the field of safety and security, the UN system has developed Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS) (IDDRS n.d.). There is reference to the importance of natural resources and land tenure in the revised edition of the IDDRS Module 4.30 on Socioeconomic Reintegration. UNDP and UNEP have established a Joint Initiative to further identify the linkages between DDR and natural resources, in order to increase understanding of the risks and opportunities posed by natural resources for programs success. A new IDDRS module on DDR and natural resources is forthcoming. 2) The United Nations Policy for Post-Conflict Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration (2009) highlights the importance of NRM in its aim to scale up and maximize the impact, coherence and efficiency of employment support. It highlights the challenges that root causes of conflict, such as inequitable access to natural resources present and offers recommendations for addressing such challenges through job creation that links short-term and more sustainable long-term employment, income generation and reintegration programs. 3)The Secretary General’s 2009 report on climate change and its possible security implications identified five ways through which climate change could potentially affect security, the last three of which involve natural resources. The Security Council has also expressed concern that possible adverse effects of climate change may, in the long run, aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security. In July 2011, it requested the Secretary-General to report to the Council when the security implications of climate change contribute to conflict or threaten peace.” (Nations 2011)

 

–The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (Voluntary Guidelines) were prepared through intergovernmental negotiations held at Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and officially endorsed in May 2012 by the Committee on World Food Security. The Voluntary Guidelines are based on an inclusive consultation process that was started by FAO with partners including both UN agencies (UN HABITAT, UNDP) and key international financing institutions (International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Bank) in response to growing interest in an international instrument to help improve the governance of tenure. The quality of the governance of tenure is a fundamental factor in the success or failure across a range of critical efforts including to: improve gender equity in access; manage tenure related disputes and conflicts; provide access to land and shelter following violent conflicts; facilitate land reforms; recognize and implement indigenous, customary and community rights; and improve land administration and management services. The Voluntary Guidelines provide practical guidance, in line with international principles, for government authorities, the private sector, civil society and citizens to improve the standards of governance of tenure.

 

 

 

–   The Secretary-General’s report on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding highlights the critical role women play in transitions and in peacebuilding, and the importance of utilizing their capacities for effective and equitable peacebuilding. The report notes the importance of  women’s equal access and ownership over productive land, in large part due to their contributions in ensuring family and community food security, and the relationship between food insecurity and conflict. The report calls for, inter alia, “1) women’s inclusion in post-conflict mediation structures, 2) women to participate in land management bodies and 3) women to be supported in maintaining their rights over their natural resources, for example, through the provision of legal services”.

–  The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights establish an authoritative global standard on the respective roles of businesses and governments in helping ensure that companies respect human rights in their own operations and through their business relationships. The principle aim of the body is to ensure the human right regime over the business transactions. Which is akin to the bourgeoisie concept of human right that which feels that both human right and resource accumulation model that go parallelly. This principle was sponsored by UNHRC. In the context NRM the principles assure that business is not done at the cost of human rights this set of principle also has the potentiality to protect the control of indigenous population over the resources (A/HRC/17/31. (2011) n.d.).

 

UN &the Need for Sustainability

 

After the broad overview of the optimistic and pessimistic models in terms of the relationship between resource development and their impact on environment, one cannot deny the need for sustainability. Sustainability as an approach of understanding ecological relationships banks at integrating society, economy and environment. It works on the principle of maintaining and utilization of resources in a way that does not compromise the need of future generations. The 1987 definition of the United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development (WECD) explains sustainability “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own demands”. As reported,

 

“1.Sustainable development requires the promotion of values that encourage consumption standards that are within the bounds of the ecologically possible and to which all can reasonably aspire; Meeting essential needs depends in part on achieving full growth potential, and sustainable development clearly requires economic growth in places where such needs are not being met;Though the issue is not merely one of population size but the distribution of resources, sustainable development can only be pursued if demographic developments are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem; Sustainable development must not endanger the natural systems that support life on Earth; the atmosphere, the waters, the soils, and living beings;Growth has no set limits in terms of population or resource use beyond which lies ecological disaster but ultimate limits there are, and sustainability requires that long before these are reached the world must ensure equitable access to the constrained resources and re-orient technological efforts to relieve the pressure; Most renewable resources are part of a complex and interlinked ecosystem and maximal sustained yield must be defined after taking into account system-wide effects of exploitation; Sustainable development requires that the rate of depletion of non-renewable resources should foreclose as few options as possible; Sustainable development requires the conservation of plant and animal species; and Sustainable development requires that the adverse impacts on the quality of air, water and other natural elements are minimized so as to sustain the ecosystem’s overall integrity” OSEM,1989.

 

Sustainability is a vague concept that builds on the acknowledgment of limitations of resources and human needs with a possibility of improving human capacity and standard of living and equal distribution of resources for present and future. Sustainability issues can be classified into three categories, social/political, environmental and economic issues.

 

Moreover, sustainability is a dynamic concept. It requires flexibility of approach and demands willingness to modify our growth trajectories according to environmental challenges, human needs and wants and technological advancements.

 

 

Agenda 2030 “is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity, to strengthen universal peace in large freedom, and recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and169 targets seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development” Agenda 2030 Report

 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underlines a global commitment to “achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions—economic, social and environmental—in a balanced and integrated manner”. Table 1 provides an overview of the interlinkages between the goals, simply highlighting the focus areas that each goal links to.

 

Table 1: Overview of thematic interlinkages in the United Nation’s Open Working Group ( OWG) ’s proposal for SDGs

 

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE POLICIES

 

The ways in which resource management projects can lead to conflicts are quite distinct. None consideration of various and all interest groups in the process would further alienate the people from the government. Policies framing are to be done in such a way as to cater the needs of all the stake holders besides it should also have provisions to sort out conflicts in a peaceful equitable manner if it all arises. A peaceful managed resource project can lead to sustainable and equitable development people and their resources in the region and it can also lead to growth in economy of the region. Assessing the overall context towards improving NRM, priority areas to consider include:

 

1. Establishing if there is a dependence on natural resources: higher the dependence of population on natural resource more would be the vulnerability of NRM projects to be faced with a conflict. But there can be a delinking of the human dependence on the natural resources any policies to look away from the dialectics of relationship between human and nature would severe the human concerns in the NREM projects.

 

2. Understanding political economy linkages – a good policy framework should look at the resource management project as the extension of political economic matrix of the system. Such perspective as would be the cause of conflicts should be included in the agenda for resource management. Natural resource and the control over them as the greatest potentiality to create power inequality and would also create a space for the monopoly exercise of power if the resource control remains unchecked by the system. At the various level of political power several sorts of conflict arise which may vary from being totally undemocratic to a community based managerial resource management.

 

3.  Understanding the governance systems and capacities: Transition settings often provide unprecedented opportunities for transforming or building institutions anew. Where natural resources are the assets that the country depends on, the potential to reinforce good NRM governance through all sectors is paramount. Natural resources capacity building projects that target national, regional or international stakeholders are critical for enhancing overall capacity as well as governance systems. These efforts should be based on a mapping of the key stakeholders and an analysis of their characteristics and structure, interests and expectations, potentials and deficiencies, mechanisms for information sharing, motives for collaboration, as well as the extent of their involvement and participation throughout and as early in the process as possible.

 

Natural resource conflicts and levels of analysis

 

“Natural resource issues interacting with conflict arise at multiple, often interacting levels:

 

1.  Local: the intra-household/family, the village or community level, or the county/provincial level, where competition over and sharing of resources may provide the spark that leads to communal forms of violence;

 

2.   National: within a national territory, e.g. control over the revenues generated in an individual province feeds into frictions between that province and the capital, potentially feeding demands for secession;

 

3.   Regional / International: Inter-state or regional (multiple states) can come into conflict over issues such as riparian rights (e.g. the Nile Basin) and mineral rights (e.g. offshore oil reserves).

 

Each of these levels can, in principle, be analyzed and addressed by the United Nations through the tools discussed in this guidance. For UNCTs, the national and local levels are usually the principal entry points for engagement. Equally, other parts of the system – such as the United Nations Regional Offices – are well placed to engage at the inter-state level. Given the propensity for natural resource issues to cut across these levels, especially in conflict, the UN’s analysis and response should always be informed by a multi-level perspective.” (UNDGM n.d.)

 

BOX.NO.1

 

The policies discussed can help in changing the status quo of the present situation of resource availability but the unjust distribution and ownership of the resources remains an unabated challenge for the resource managers.

 

SUMMARY: –

 

A model is the abstraction of reality. It is formal description of any system of interest. Models are simplified versions that helps us to understand the what if questions. Models have its role in both natural science study and also for the study of various anthropological issued like that of political and social structures. Models are tools to elucidate our understanding of the process and concepts involved in a phenomenon.

 

United Nation’s NRM (Natural Resource Management) working framework would most probably contribute toward the resource management program and also address the sustainability issue if the power in the working of the body is decentralized among the various stakeholders. For this a government that is not corrupt, that which works for the interest of people, the lesser bureaucratization of government agencies and the need also is of a civil society that is in position to act as a check and balance, to restrict the unlimited power of the sovereign besides it should also be cooperative with the government pro people schemes.

 

The  2030  Agenda  for  UN  driven  Sustainable  Development  underlines  a  global commitment to “achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions—economic, social and environmental—in a balanced and integrated manner”. Therefore, their interlinkages will strengthen their cohesiveness, and can be used as a “filter” to assess the completeness and robustness of the future goals and targets.

 

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  • References

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