Environmental Governance and Development Cooperation – Achievements and Challenges

Helle Munk RavnborgDanish Institute for Institute for International Studies

Rasmus Kløcker LarsenSwedish Environment Institute

Mikkel Funder, DIISDanish Institute for Institute for International Studies

The context:

Low ecological footprint in developing countries

Source: WWF Living Planet Report 2012

World

High-income countries

Middle-income countries

Low-income countries

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Hectares per person

% of GDP

Significant costs of environmental degradation to developing countries

Source: World Bank, Country Environmental Analyses; Courtesy of Rohit Khanna

- nevertheless

“A march against nemagon by Nicaraguan farm workers – 2005”Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos

The achievements:

Out of 103 developing countries:

1986:9 had general

environmental legislation

2008: 86 had general

environmental legislation

19

81

19

86

19

91

19

96

20

01

20

06

20

08

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Sub-Saharan Africa (n=45)

South Asia (n=8)

East Asia and Pacific (n=22)

Latin America and the Caribbean (n=28)#

of

cou

ntr

ies

Source: Ecolex.org, own processing

The achievements:

21 developing countries

22,917 environmentally oriented aid

activities

1992-2009:>60 aid

activities per year per country

Source: AidData, own processing

1972

-198

1

1982

-198

6

1987

-199

1

1992

-199

6

1997

-200

1

2002

-200

6

2007

-200

9

Year

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

General environemental objective Rio convention-related objective

# a

id a

ctiv

itie

s h

avi

ng

en

viro

nm

en

t as

pri

nci

pa

l/sig

nifi

can

t ob

ject

ive

The challenges: Environmental governance as

a new policy field Enforcement capacity is

still low Blind spots and the

political economy of environmental governance

inhibit that problems are addressed

International environmental

conventions as legal

and legitimate platform for local and global

environmental governance and for claiming environmental

rights

Courtesy to

Courtesy to Mikkel Funder

Courtesy to David Francois

Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos

The recommendations:

Support efforts to strengthen enforcement capacity – district-level and horizontal

integration Support efforts to strengthen

claim-making capacity of citizens through support for

accessible authorities and CSOs

Participate in efforts to strengthen international

environmental conventions as a legitimate platform for international environmental (development) cooperation

Courtesy to

Courtesy to Mikkel Funder

Courtesy to David Francois

Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos

“Without international support, we would never have been able

to address the environmental problems we have in my district”

– district environmental officer, San Pedro de Lóvago, Nicaragua, April 2012

For more information please visit: www.diis.dk/recom

Courtesy to

Courtesy to Mikkel Funder

Courtesy to David Francois

Courtesy to La Rel Agrotóxicos