34 REGIONAL POLICY MODELS FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Peerzada Raouf Ahmad

epgp books

     

 

 

 

 

LEARNING OUTCOME

 

. Understand the utility of resource location at regional level

. Explain the resource management model in a regional perspective

. Critically evaluate the regional policies in resource management from the stakeholders` perspective

 

KEYWORDS

 

Region, REC, SADC, corporate, state power

   

RESOURCE LOCATION AT REGIONAL LEVEL

 

Resource location is the first and major requirement for its management. Location and appraisal of the resources were done solely by the first identifier. But with the change in technology and mode of appropriation, resource identification and its subsequent management has become the task of the ruling arena in the society. The 18th century saw the emergence of nation states. These states with a well-defined political bondage maintains a strict sense of sovereignty. There lies a well-demarcated spatial set of state apparatus. The resources at the national frontiers are no more a cause of bondage between the humans and the resource. But it has acted as an ideological tool to manifest the idea of jingoism among the people residing far away from the frontier boundaries. The idea of dividing the earth in artificial cells have turned the humans incapable of being associated with the resources at the world level. The sense of alienation has created a fetish pride in resource depletion in a ‘enemy state’. The known history of humankind has seen rise of nationalism in disguise of having control over resources. The rampant war over resources is actually a war of hegemony which belittles the question of resource management and sustainable development.

 

FIG.I. REGION

 

Region is the area that have unique characteristics with regard to one of the natural or anthropological parameters. The attributes of the region can be both human made or natural like that of climate or atmospheric pressure. Even the language the power structure of government, the religion and other such socio-economic attributes can be the constituent of region. For example- India has the region of divergent nationalities in which people from different sort of nationalities establish their identity on a given geographical area and these identities create a different sort of political, cultural or social space

 

(https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/region/ n.d.).

 

As indicated in the figure above, regional level resource management is concerned with two or more states as such following problems may arise: –

 

–  Disputes among the states regarding the ownership of resource.

 

–  Resources at the frontiers are an exclusive possession of the state. These possessions are a sort of security guarantee of the state. Given this scenario the local control over these resources are belittled. Thus hampering the process of resource management at the regional level.

 

–  The institutions involved in the regional resource management have to face major bureaucratic procedures & clearance from all the states involved in the region. This makes regional level natural resource management a tedious task. This also repels environment friendly groups to work in the direction of resource management at this level.

 

–  The lack of indigenous knowledge in resource management has led to widespread bio-diversity loss. These losses are mainly due to excessive state control over the frontier resources.

 

–  Human resources at the frontiers have undergone a dramatic depletion. Disassociated from the cultural ties, the human becomes subject of a particular state. These associations build labor for the ‘national cause’. But in essence it has delinked the human interactions with the nature and its de-facto management (Padhi 2013).

 

Planning the Regional Spatial System

 

Resource system exists on a given geographical space that varies with time. In large part of the globe the pattern of resource distribution the techniques available with the state to harness the available resources determines the planning need of the state or non-state actor involved in resource management. But the planning for resource development is not available at each regional level. The need to develop regional bodies to cooperate for the resource planning and management have been felt by the developing countries and the countries like India have been developing integrated resource development models at the regional levels.

 

To implement the neo-liberal policies the governmental agencies at the regional level are planning the policies related to resources management. In contiguous with the neo-liberal policies certain corporations or NGOs also plans the resource management strategies of the third world states. This has facilitated the resource extraction policies of the imperial capital. This mechanism has made the policy makers to implement the industrial friendly methods of resource management. This aspect of development was less than successful since many such prescriptions were not amenable to direct transfer and others required careful adaptation to a new context. Moreover, not uncommonly, national spatial planning was beset by fads and short-lived experiments, by severe conflicts such as those between the proponents of centralization strategies and the advocates of decentralization policies, and by the near universal condemnation of the rate of Third World urbanization. That finally lead to “dissatisfaction with traditional theories of spatial development, based on the Western concept of center-periphery relationships, set in motion the search for alternative strategies,” particularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the circle of intellectuals, the program of rural development integrated with resource management can be the guiding light for the resource based sustainable planning.

 

Self-sustaining economic growth and an equitable distribution of the benefits of growth in geographic space cannot occur in the absence of a well-articulated hierarchy of widely dispersed yet closely integrated human settlements – metropolitan areas, intermediate (regional) cities, market towns, and villages – that perform specialized and diversified production, distribution, consumption and exchange functions. With no exceptions, the economic set up in the developing countries are incapable of working out any resource based developmental agenda. In those countries, human settlements “rarely constitute a functional hierarchy and for this reason they fail to provide an intermeshed system of exchange that will provide the requisite incentives for increased application of labor, capital and human skills” (https://bd.eionet.europa.eu/ n.d.). Instead of emerging as economic systems with dispersed market towns linking rural and urban centers, developing nations remain village, household and small group economies that do not provide large enough markets for commercial agriculture or a network of industrial production and exchange. The population scattered around different remote regions can be used to mobilize the resource concentration and the management policies. “There is little reason to save and invest; specialization and division of labor do not occur, and opportunities for market expansion and nonagricultural employment are few.”

 

The primary access to resources are made through social interactions of people. The improvised conditions of the people and the backward superstitious beliefs also acts as a hindrance to the resource management techniques. Besides the marginal area faces the spatial discrimination in terms of having less access to the technologies provided by the government. This hinders the development process of resource management. Further, their general lack of access to such urban based facilities and services asbasic health, education and social services is virtually universal. Their limited access to external market towns and larger regional centers, in which the services and facilities fundamental to sustained rural resource development are located, places marginal areas and their inhabitants at a severe disadvantage, as does their lack of territorial integration and cohesion. If marginal areas are to be transformed to satisfy basic human needs through self-reliant development, a balance must be struck between internal, territorial integration of renewable natural and human resources within a marginal area and the exogenous links that integrate it within the larger national and international economies.

 

    The third world countries have sidelined the imperialist agenda to control the resources of their countries. Redistribution alone would do little to overcome rural poverty of the magnitude found in Asia. The need to stress on the growth with equity through the guidelines of developed nation would be a cause of worry to the economy of the third world nations. This in turn would require extensive investment in physical infrastructure, services and productive activities in rural regions, located strategically in intermediate size cities, smaller towns and rural market centers. The growth of “rural service centers” that could link towns to rural hinterlands would also be encouraged in order to increase the access of the rural poor to basic services and facilities. The need to locate investors at the spatial location is for the interest of the imperial capital. The imperial capital expansion in the field of resource management has led to a change in the perspective toward the management procedures, but these has been attempted to be resolved by:

 

“(1) the extension of markets for increased agricultural production and other rural resources, thereby raising income for rural families;

 

(2)  more widespread distribution of services such as health, education, family planning, and vocational training, the technical inputs needed for increased agricultural production such as new seed varieties, appropriate technology, farm-to-market roads, and rural electrification, as well as communications and transportation;

 

(3)  the creation of new rural employment opportunities, especially in agro processing, agribusiness, small-scale manufacturing and cottage industries that use local resources as the primary inputs for production, and

 

(4)  a slowdown in the rate and alteration of the pattern of rural-urban migration” (Lawson 1970).

 

But the pattern and composition of spatial systems and the roles of various types of settlements differ drastically among developing nations, and any serious effort to shape spatial systems to promote more equitable and widespread development, especially in marginal zones, requires careful analysis and planning. Ruddle and Grandstaff point out the dangers of inappropriate development policies in marginal regions. They note that these areas are not necessarily ecologically marginal and that the ecological stability of more populated and developed regions often depends on the stability of marginal areas. Major disruptions of ecological systems in marginal areas could have adverse effects on more developed areas of the country. Moreover, if development is inappropriate or ill-considered it would likely leave people in marginal regions worse off and more alienated. “Marginal area populations are particularly susceptible to this because their resource systems and ways of life are often radically different from those of more developed areas,” they note. “There is, therefore, a real likelihood for increased poverty, alienation and cultural disintegration under conditions of radical disruption”(Grandstaff 1978). In the past however, spatial analysis for regional development had been constrained by three other problems: the failure to recognize the importance of spatial factors in national and regional resource development; the lack of an operational framework for integrated spatial analysis; and the paucity and unreliability of data in rural regions for formulating effective development plans. The human resource appraisal and its proper management can be done only after building a better regional spatial system.

 

REGIONAL POLICIES AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

 

At the regional level various management organizations exist. These organizations operate in concert with the state government at the state levels. Following are the major such institutions-

 

–(Eionet) European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity

 

-The Southern African Development Community (SADC)

 

-Regional Environment Center (REC)

 

 

 

(Eionet) European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity

 

The main purpose of the topic centre are:

 

–  “Assist the European Environment Agency in its task of reporting on Europe’s environment by addressing state and trends of biodiversity in Europe.

 

–  Provide the relevant information to support the implementation of environmental and sustainable development policies in Europe in particular for EU nature and biodiversity policies (DG Environment: Nature and Biodiversity)

 

–  Build capacity for reporting on biodiversity in Europe, mainly through the European Information and Observation Network (Eionet)”

 

(https://bd.eionet.europa.eu/ n.d.)

 

 

The Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The main purpose of the organization is to bring spatial justice to the people from the divergent nationality. Bringing of economic and cultural integration of the third world nations are to facilitate the resource management programs. The objectives of the organization are to be achieved through direct access to resource based on the principle of sustainability and equity.

 

FIG.2.SADC MAP

 

The objectives of SADC, as stated in Article 5 of the SADC Treaty (1992) are to:

 

“Achieve development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa and support the socially disadvantaged through Regional Integration;

 

Evolve common political values, systems and institutions; Promote and defend peace and security;

 

Promote self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance, and the inter-dependence of Member States;

 

Achieve complementarity between national and regional strategies and programs;

 

Promote and maximize productive employment and utilization of resources of the region;

 

Achieve sustainable utilization of natural resources and effective protection of the environment;

 

Strengthen and consolidate the long-standing historical, social and cultural affinities and links among the people of the Region”.

 

 

Regional Environment Center (REC)

 

The REC was established by US and the government of Hungary as co-founder. The organization was founded to assist with the transition process in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and to contribute to environmental democracy building and cooperative problem solving within the environmental sector.

 

The REC actively participates in key global, regional and local processes and contributes to environmental and sustainability solutions within and beyond its country office network, transferring transitional knowledge and experience to countries and regions. To be able to perform its mission-driven work, the REC needs continued political will translated into the following mandates: –

 

“Supporting the SEE 2020 Strategy – The REC is keen to explore opportunities to gain/regain a clear political mandate to coordinate activities for the implementation of the SEE 2020 Strategy under the Environment dimension. The REC would join other similarly mandated organizations working in SEE (for example the South-east Europe Transport Observatory and the Energy Community) and contribute its unique added value to the process. Under the SEE 2020 Strategy of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), the mandate of the REC as the coordinator of the Environment dimension may be to develop and implement new activities supported by the EU IPA II Multi-Country Instrument. Additional mandates under different secretariats hosted by the REC, such as the Themis Network for natural resources management and the combating of environmental crime, as well as the Regional Desk Office for the SEE region under the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC), may likewise be extended.

 

Supporting the transformation of Eastern Partnership countries – The REC will build on its experience and proven success in supporting the democratization process and strengthening local and participatory governance in countries that are in transition from centrally planned economies to democratic societies and free market economies. Support will be offered through flagship projects, for example through the promotion of local environmental and energy action plans (LEAPs) and the enhancement of civic engagement in municipalities in Eastern Partnership countries such as Ukraine.

 

Supporting the implementation of EU policies – The REC needs commitment from its founders, especially the European Commission as well as major donors and partners, to support the implementation of respective EU policies (on water, waste, the urban environment, biodiversity and sustainable transport) in the CEE and SEE regions and to facilitate partner countries’ participation in the respective financial instruments of the EU.

 

Supporting the transition to a circular and low-carbon economy – The added value of the REC for stakeholders in the CEE region will be in its support for the transition to a circular and low-carbon economy. This includes enhancing the region’s climate change mitigation and adaptation capacities and providing assistance with the planning and implementation of the transition. It also involves promoting the sustainable management of natural resources.

 

Promoting and facilitating the implementation of Post-2015 Development Agenda As adopted by UN development models are centric around the sustainable approach of the developmental agencies. The policies of REC have always facilitated the developmental policies across the globe. The agencies have linkage with different groups of both the national and international level so as to implement the agendas of the development projects. More specifically, the REC can offer its expertise in capacity building, multi-stakeholder dialogue and action at local level” (htt42)

 

 

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE POLICIES

 

The management policies at the regional level have the linkage of state and the stakeholder in the resource appraisal and management. The problems arising due to the inter-state conflict have threatened the resource capital of the humanity. The sense of state power and the bureaucratic apparatus attached to every source of resource management has turned every attempt of resource management into a futile exercise.

  • – The regional bodies are mostly corporate friendly and have a view of commercializing the resources rather than maintaining and sustaining the resources.
  • – The organizations like the GREENPEACE in India has been the victim of state corporate power, who acts in concert to exploit the natural resources for the expansion of imperial capital. (HINDU 2015)
  • – Regional level of policy making minimizes the concept collective community based interaction with the nature.
  • – The mismanagement of the resources by the state with no stake of regional institute in the resource appraisal has turned the resource management and the policy making for the same a state monopoly with no concern for its sustainability. The question of sovereignty has to be diluted and more power must be given to the institutions involved at the regional level for the management and the power to make and implement policies in this regard.

 

The need is to make policies which are more people centric and which mandates people participation at all level. It is only by the people’s movement that the power of sovereignty can be undermined.

 

 

SUMMARY: –

 

–The idea of dividing the earth in artificial cells have turned the humans incapable of being associated with the resources at the world level. The sense of alienation has created a fetish pride in resource depletion in a ‘enemy state’. The known history of humankind has seen rise of nationalism in disguise of having control over resources.

 

– The added value in the REC will be for the low carbon emission. This includes promotion of resource management. The institution also provides assistant for the resource appraisal and management.

 

–Sense of state power and the bureaucratic apparatus attached to every source of resource management has turned every attempt of resource management into a futile exercise.

 

 

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References

  • http://www.rec.org/.
  • Grandstaff, Kenneth Ruddle and Terry. 1978. “The International Potential of Traditional Resource Systems in Marginal Areas,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
  • HINDU, THE. 2015. “Greenpeace India’s registration cancelled.” http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/greenpeace-indias-registration-cancelled/article7613184.ece.
  • https://bd.eionet.europa.eu/.
  • https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/region/.
  • Lawson, G.W. 1970. Lessons of the Volta – A New Man-Made Lake in Tropical Africa.
  • Padhi, S.R. 2013. ‘The Kuki Tribes of Meghalaya: A Study of their Socio-Political Problems’,. Current
  • Tribal Situation: Strategies for Planning, Welfare and Sustainable Development.