How To Enforce Public Participation In Environment Management

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How To Enforce Public Participation In Environment Management

How To Enforce Public Participation In Environment Management

Environmental Management has become has major issue of global concern and as a result adopted among the pillars of Sustainable Development Goals adopted in the Paris Agreement, of 2015.

Environmental Management recommends the application of integrated mechanisms in utilizing local, regional, traditional and scientific knowledge in the identification, assessment and prioritization of problems relating to the environment and proposing effective solutions to the problems.

Participatory environmental management has entered the scene and is currently used to mean the active and full participation of local communities and the indigenous people in the adoption and application of decisions related to the use and management of the environment for sustainable development.

Its philosophy underscores the fact that the participation of all sectors optimizes human, economic and social resources and therefore contributes to proper resource management, reducing poverty and improving quality of life.

Participatory Environmental Management has been adopted in many global conventions such as; the 8th meeting of the convention on wetlands in Valencia, Spain, Johannesburg Declaration on Environment and Development, and Rio De Janeiro on Sustainable Development.

Locally, public participation has backing in Kenya’s Constitution 2010 which guarantees public participation in any decision-making process at every level of governance.

A true public participation exercise is not only observed in the decision-making process but also at a point when a development scheme is proposed, formulated and during implementation. Involving persons both at the national and grassroots assures broad-based results and ownership.

The Participatory Environmental Management method involves many social actors (e.g. public and private sector, non-governmental organizations, local communities, etc.) Electing or appointing people to various institutions and committees is one way of ensuring public participation in environmental management.

Further, the public participates through barazas aimed at addressing environmental matters; and also enforcing community-based environmental activities closer to them.

Every community-based organization (comprising of women, youth, men, and welfare and self-help groups) should elect one of its members to the Locational Community Joint Self-Help Group.

The self-help groups should have their own constitution and run affairs independently under the direction of the Social Services Department.

Communities have both the right and the responsibility to be involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes that directly affect them. Community participation for the involvement of people in active and decisive roles to combine the vibrancy and first-hand knowledge in designing and implementing projects- in this case, environmental management programmes.

Kenya’s forest cover currently stands at 6% against the accepted internationally 10% forest cover. This indicates the extent to which the environment has been destroyed, thus the need to incorporate communities in environmental education and promotion with a view to attaining sustainable development.

The government institutions mandated with the task of environmental management must do what it takes to reverse environmental degradation by enforcing environmental laws and changing peoples’ attitudes towards the environment.

It also calls for concerted efforts by all at every level to reverse the situation. Indeed, many people hardly visualize how their villages looked like some decades ago.

How To Enforce Public Participation In Environment Management

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