Environmental Policy and Law - Volume 51, issue 3

Authors: Desai, Bharat H.

Article Type: Other

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-215131

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 135-136, 2021

Authors: Desai, Bharat H. | Mandal, Moumita

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The advent of climate change era has been affirmed by various global processes including 21 May 2019 recognition by the Anthropocene Working Group of ‘human impact’ in bringing profound alterations on planet earth. It has emerged as the predominant ‘world problematique’. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. Due to their traditional roles, women are heavily dependent on natural resources. As already seen, as a consequence of natural disasters and during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, women have faced heightened real-life challenges specially being vulnerable to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). …They suffer from a lack of protection, privacy, and mental trauma. Women are exposed to SGBV due to weak or absence of social, economic, political security and the culture of widespread impunity to the perpetrators. There is double victimization of women both as human beings and because of their gender. Effect of SGBV is highly injurious and perpetual. A close study of four main areas of international law does not yield any international legal instrument that deals with SGBV against women during and after the climate change induced disasters. This is more ominous when growing evidence suggests role of climate change in exacerbation of SGBV against women and girls. Even texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 UNFCCC, 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement) do not address this issue. It has been given attention only through the decisions of the Conference of the Parties in recent years. Due to serious psychological and bodily harm SGBV causes to women, it needs to be explicitly factored in respective international legal instruments on climate change and disasters. Amidst ignorance, denials and lack of adequate attention as regards impact of climate change in exacerbating SGBV against women and girls from the scholars and decision-makers in the field, this study makes a modest effort to deduce and analyze – from scattered initiatives, scholarly literature in different areas, existing international legal instruments and intergovernmental processes – the growing causal relationship between climate change and SGBV against women and girls so as to suggest a way out for our better common future. It is a new challenge for international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner. Show more

Keywords: Climate change, women and girls, sexual and gender-based violence, eco-feminism, international law

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-210055

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 137-157, 2021

Authors: Richardson, Benjamin J. | Hamaski, Nina

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The rights-of-nature model is gaining traction as an innovative legal approach for nature conservation. Although adopted in several countries, it remains in its infancy, including in Australia. An important research question is whether rights of nature will offer superior environmental outcomes compared to traditional nature conservation techniques including creation of protected areas. This article investigates that question through a case study of the Tarkine wilderness, in the Australia state of Tasmania. It first identifies key lessons from existing international experience with affirmation of rights of nature, such as in New Zealand and Ecuador. The article then explores how rights of …nature could apply in Australia’s Tarkine region and their value compared to existing or potential protected areas and other nature conservation measures under Australian or Tasmanian law. Affirming rights of nature represents a major conceptual shift in how people via the law relate to the natural world, but whether the model offers practical benefits for nature conservation depends on a variety of conditions, in addition to the need to address broader societal drivers of environmentaldegradation. Show more

Keywords: Rights of nature, Australia, wilderness, nature conservation

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-201066

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 159-173, 2021

Authors: Desai, Bharat H.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) has now attained the milestone of 60 years (1960– 2020). It was registered by India with the United Nations on 16 January 1962. It has become a global role model of an international legal mechanism for shared transboundary water resources. It has withstood all the strains, conflicts and lows in the bilateral relations between the riparian states of India and Pakistan. The current trends of global climate change in the Anthropocene epoch have exacerbated the risk of conflict over the shared international freshwater resources under the IWT. The receding glaciers, scanty snowfall, changing land system …patterns, increasing demands for water to meet irrigation, industrial and domestic water demands, all have cumulatively made an impact on water availability in the Indus Basin. As the climatic changes induce decline in water flows in the Indus Basin rivers, this study seeks to analyze the actual working of the IWT, efficacy of the in-built conflict resolution mechanism and the sheer tenacity to stay course especially on the part of the large upper riparian country, India. It, in turn, has become an exemplar in a treaty-based mechanism as well as in making hydro-diplomacy work for governance of the transboundary water resources in the era of climate change. Show more

Keywords: Indus waters treaty, Indus Basin, shared transboundary resources, fair and equitable sharing, common hydrological cycle, water stress exacerbated by climate change, dispute settlement mechanism

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-210013

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 175-184, 2021

Authors: Abdulrahman, Salam Abdulqadir

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has more water resources than the rest of Iraq to the point that it can be water sufficient if water resources are well managed, nevertheless these resources are currently facing depletion and they are increasingly polluted. This paper reviews water use practice in KRI and its existing laws on water from the sustainability point of view. It finds that the current practice of water use is devastating to water sustainability and that the laws need further improvement and better enforcement on the ground.

Keywords: Kurdistan Region of Iraq, water, sustainability, law, practice

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-201011

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 185-195, 2021

Authors: Lopez Porras, Gabriel

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Despite international efforts to stop dryland degradation and expansion, current dryland pathways are predicted to result in large-scale migration, growing poverty and famine, and increasing climate change, land degradation, conflicts and water scarcity. Earth system science has played a key role in analysing dryland problems, and has been even incorporated in global assessments such as the ones made by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. However, policies addressing dryland degradation, like the ‘Mexican programme for the promotion of sustainable land management’, do not embrace an Earth system perspective, so they do not consider the complexity and non-linearity …that underlie dryland problems. By exploring how this Mexican programme could integrate the Earth system perspective, this paper discusses how ’Earth system’ policies could better address dryland degradation and expansion in the Anthropocene. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-201024

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 197-200, 2021

Authors: Nugraha, Adrian | Febrian, | Chen, Robert Lihtorng

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the progress and issues of Indonesia’s marine protected area establishment and control. It addresses the legal framework and issues, such as unclear mandates, lack of coordination, and local stakeholders’ involvement in their establishment and control. The legal framework discussion aims to explain the complicated issues of the new Local Government Act promulgation. Furthermore, it provides alternative solutions through amending several provisions of the new Local Government Act associated with marine and coastal control. Firstly, inserting provisions regarding the Archipelagic County. Secondly, altering several articles related to the authority to manage marine resources. Thirdly, inserting provisions …related to the jurisdiction of the Central Government in determining the classification and categorization of marine resource management. Fourthly, amending the articles in the new Local Government Act related to foreign affairs arrangement in the border area. In addition, this article concluded that a proper legal framework encourages sustainable marine and coastal management. Show more

Keywords: Conservation, control, decentralization, government, legal framework, marine protected areas

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-201029

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 201-207, 2021