An International Legal Framework for Forest Management and Sustainable Development

This paper examines soft international law principles that regulate forest management. It proceeds from the 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment as a major source of international environmental law and surveys major international customary law norms that have followed. The article ends with the Rio Declaration as the latest source of soft international environmental law. The discussion of the paper hinges on the strength and limitations of soft international law principles in regulating sustainable development of forests

Emerging Legal and Policy Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation: Opportunities and Constraints for Action in Africa

The climate of the Africa is changing. When the climate started changing and when it will end is subject to endless debate. Climate is important for development in Africa but natural climate fluctuations from autonomous climate cycles (such as those linked to the El Nino phenomenon) disrupt ecological, economic and social systems. The causes of climate of change include: continued rates of high population growth, increasing reliance on fossil fuel-driven growth technologies, land use effects, (particularly urbanization, agriculture and deforestation) and increases in concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols. Climate change in Africa has several effects. There are some effects that are due to excessive rain such as: floods particularly in west, eastern and North Africa; sea level rise leading to coastal erosion especially around the Indian Ocean coastal zone; spread of diseases (such as malaria and cholera); and destruction of infrastructure (such as roads and bridges). There are also effects due to little or no rain such as drought and decrease in river basin run-off which affect hydropower generation. All the above effects cause poverty, lack of food security, loss of lives and biodiversity and conflicts over natural resources such as land and water. Climate change adaptation is one of the strategies that have been developed to cope with the effects of climate change. Adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts. Adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change is vital in order to reduce the impacts of climate change that are happening now and increase resilience to future impacts. Adaptation requires urgent attention and action on the part of all countries. Several strategies have been developed since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 up to the 2011 Durban CO 17 / CMP 7. The main objective of this paper is to analyze climate change adaptation opportunities and constraints in Africa. The paper specifically examines the policy and legal strategies relevant to climate change adaptation in Africa that have been developed since the UNFCC in 1997 up to the Durban Platform in 2011. The major conclusion of the paper is that climate change adaptation strategies are key to combating climate change in Africa because they can be appropriately implemented. However, their effective implementation requires active roles of African governments, the private sector, civil society, regional organizations, international organizations and donors and industrialized countries

Payment for Ecosystems Services: A Pathway for Environmental Conservation in Uganda

Ecosystem services are components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed, or used to yield human well-being. They occur wherever plants, animals and people have interdependent relationships within the context of their physical environment. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is a developing system which refers to payment for economic value of ecosystems. It is a scheme designed to provide incentives to individual landowners and local communities to conserve the environment. PES schemes seek to formulate a certain value to environmental services and establish appropriate pricing, institutional and redistribution systems that will lead to sustainable and socially optimal land use practices. These schemes tend to work best when the value of environmental services is high for beneficiaries and the cost of providing the services is low. The scheme provides opportunities for wildlife conservation partnerships around multiple zoning for food, medicines, firewood, handicrafts prototype carbon fund (PCF) operations for projects on emission reductions watershed management; ecotourism and supporting services especially soil formation and nutrient recycling. By making environmental conservation a livelihood opportunity, the scheme provides social and economic benefits as well as meeting environmental aims.There is an increasing interest in PES schemes because they reward individuals, communities and projects for conserving ecosystem services. Uganda is gifted by nature, its geographical location has endowed it with a range of geographical features which range from glacier topped mountains, tropical rain forests, and dry deciduous acacia bush lands, to vast lakes and rivers, wetlands as well as fertile agricultural landscapes. PES in Uganda is a relatively new practice and there is still much to learn about how the concepts and principles can be applied to benefit environmental conservation. There are pilot project schemes regarding wildlife conservation and forests partnerships, regulatory functions include PCF operations for projects on emission reductions and CDM and watershed management, cultural and touristic including ecotourism; and supporting services especially soil formation and nutrient recycling. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of the payment for ecosystems in environmental conservation in Uganda. The paper examines the PES schemes that are being implemented; the legal and institutional framework for their implementation, the benefits and challenges of payments for ecosystem services; and suggestions for implementing them

An International Legal Framework for Forest Management and Sustainable Development

This paper examines soft international law principles that regulate forest management. It proceeds from the 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment as a major source of international environmental law and surveys major international customary law norms that have followed. The article ends with the Rio Declaration as the latest source of soft international environmental law. The discussion of the paper hinges on the strength and limitations of soft international law principles in regulating sustainable development of forests

Promoting Sustainable Development of Cities Using Urban Legislation In Sub-Saharan Africa

African countries have been urged to reform their urban policies, practices and laws in order to turn urban areas such as cities and towns into more effective engines of economic growth and play a central role in economic transformation and national development. This chapter examines how urban legislationpromotes sustainable development cities in Africa. Specifically, it discusses the characteristics of cities in sub-Saharan Africa, reviews international legal and policy framework for urban governance and analyses how urban legislation addresses sustainable development aspects in four Africa cities namely: Addis Ababa, Accra, Kampala and Johannesburg

A legal framework for forest resources management in developing countries: issues and problems of sustainable development

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Editorial

Published: 10 January 2022[This Editorial focuses and] starts with the current COVID-19 pandemic, recognized as ‘the greatest challenge we have faced since World War II’ emerged in Asia in late 2019 and rapidly spread to Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. It undoubtedly represents the major global health crisis of our time still unresolved after two years, despite the wide range of measures adopted at all levels of governance to respond to it

Earth System Governance in Africa: knowledge and capacity needs

Traditional approaches for understanding environmental governance - such as environmental policy analysis or natural resources management - do not adequately address the gamut of human-natural system interactions within the context of the complex biogeophysical cycles and processes of the planet. This is perhaps more so in the African regional context where the complex relationships between modern and traditional governance systems and global change dynamics are arguably more pronounced. The Earth System Governance (ESG) Analytical Framework encompasses diverse systems and actors involved in the regulation of societal activities and behaviors vis-a-vis earth system dynamics. The concept encompasses a myriad of public and private actors and actor networks at all levels of policy and decision-making. The existence of, and interaction among, these diverse actors and systems, however, is under-researched in the African context. Various research approaches taken to address crucial global environmental change (GEC) challenges in Africa have proven to be inadequate because they tend to overlook the complex interactions among the various local actors, players, and indigenous conditions and practices vis-a-vis GEC system drivers and teleconnections. Similarly, the regional peculiarities in terms of governance typologies and sociocultural diversity highlight the need for nuanced understanding of the complex interactions and nexuses among multiple actors and interests and Earth system processes. However, this diversity and complexity has often been lost in generalized enquiries. We argue that examination of the governance-GEC nexus through the aid of the ESG Framework would provide a much broader and more helpful insight