区域贸易协定中的多边环境协议所涉问题浅析

区域贸易协定框架下的多边环境协议涉及的主要问题可以概括为RTAs的环境条款类型、制度基础与制度选择问题,RTAs环境影响评价问题,RTAs的环境合作问题,RTAs环境标准、环境法实施与争端解决机制问题以及RTAs的公众参与环境保护问题等。贸易与环境问题的结合一直具有争议性,区域贸易协定在文本上达成的环境标准与贸易的结合要得到真正的实施,后续的努力至关重要,这些努力包括环境对话与合作、环境保护资金来源、公众参与等。     

Agriculture in environmentally sensitive areas: implementing the ESA measure in Denmark

Implementation of the environmentally sensitive areas (ESA) measure in Denmark as part of the EC Structures Regulation is described. Immediate effects and the way the agreements are expected to influence landscape development are evaluated. Of the 915 designated ESAs, agreements have only been signed in two‐thirds of the areas. In those areas in which ground water protection is an objective, ‘agreement coverage has been particularly low, whereas relatively more agreements have been signed for coastal areas dominated by salt meadows. More than 3000 agreements have been made, most of them comprising existing grassland such as meadows, salt meadows and dry grasslands. Landscape protection is the most important function of the ESA measure. The effectiveness of the programme towards environmental protection and landscape improvement is evaluated as being limited. Even though a large proportion of the agreement areas, according to the farmers, would be managed in the same way without an agreement, it is not possible to make definite conclusions about the effect on landscape protection before the five‐year agreement period has ended.     

环境治理与地方政府——以日本公害防止协定为仍

1964年,日本横滨市政府率先和企业签订公害防止协定,由此揭开了政府和企业签署协定的序幕。协定主要涉及大气污染、水质污染、噪声、振动、恶臭和损害赔偿问题。经过多年实践,公害防止协定在很大程度上解决了公害问题,由此可见地方政府在治理公害问题上的重要性。当前我国正面临严重环境问题,各级地方政府需认真学习日本的做法,不仅要转变政府职能,更要积极主动地行动,从而加快建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会的步伐。     

The multi-disciplinary evaluation of a national agri-environment scheme

With an increasing amount of public funds being spent on agri-environmental schemes effective methods have to be developed to evaluate them. As many schemes have multiple objectives there is a need for a multi-disciplinary approach to any evaluation. A method was developed to assess the degree to which ecological, landscape, historical and access objectives for the Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) in England have been met. The method used a sample of 484 agreements for which data were collected from surveys, a desk study and an interview with the agreement holder. These data were then evaluated by an expert team of an ecologist, landscape architect, landscape historian, and a social scientist specializing in rural affairs. The team were subsequently brought together with a Chair to discuss their findings for each agreement, allocating scores for each of five criteria: agreement negotiation; appropriateness, environmental effectiveness, compliance and side effects. The additionality that each agreement was likely to provide was also assessed. The results of this process suggest that in the majority of cases the CSS agreements should maintain or enhance the environment in terms of ecology, landscape, and landscape history and increase public enjoyment of the countryside. Thirty-six percent of agreements showed high additionality and 38% medium additionality which demonstrates that the CSS is likely to provide a benefit to society. Agreement negotiation, predicted environmental effectiveness and predicted compliance all improved significantly over the period 1996-98. Recommendations made from this project have been implemented by the Government department to improve the CSS. The multi-disciplinary method was successful and, with further development, could be used for assessment of any agri-environment scheme, or potentially any conservation project or broader 'rural development' scheme encompassing environmental, economic and social objectives. A key to success is the need for the criteria to be tailored for the project concerned and clearly established at the beginning.     

Non-governmental organisations and public participation in local environmental decision-making in the Czech Republic

This paper examines the extent to which institutional provisions for participation were implemented in Czech communities during the transition period, the types of participatory practices that emerged and the role that NGOs played in fostering community involvement in environmental decision-making. The results indicate that there was virtually no relationship between community action and the presence of active social, cultural, professional and religious organisations. In contrast, participation and mobilisation were more likely to emerge in communities where local, national or international environmental organisations were active. These patterns suggest that specialised NGOs may be instrumental in promoting public participation in local environmental policy and planning processes in states that historically have not had a non-profit sector.     

Industry Agreement Acts and environmental management in Australia

In Australia many major developments are authorized by agreements negotiated between companies and the state government and ratified by Parliament as Agreement Acts The means by which these are negotiated and ratified, their terms, and their legal status are thus of great importance to Australian resource and environmental management These aspects are examined, revealing a lessening of the tendency to provide special rights and privileges and a trend towards the inclusion of more resource and environmental management provisions in the Acts It is argued that major developments require special conditions beyond the scope of general laws in order to control their social and environmental side effects, and that Agreements Acts could be a valuable means to this end Ways of improving them from this point of view are discussed     

Non-governmental organisations and public participation in local environmental decision-making in the Czech Republic

This paper examines the extent to which institutional provisions for participation were implemented in Czech communities during the transition period, the types of participatory practices that emerged and the role that NGOs played in fostering community involvement in environmental decision-making. The results indicate that there was virtually no relationship between community action and the presence of active social, cultural, professional and religious organisations. In contrast, participation and mobilisation were more likely to emerge in communities where local, national or international environmental organisations were active. These patterns suggest that specialised NGOs may be instrumental in promoting public participation in local environmental policy and planning processes in states that historically have not had a non-profit sector.     

Taking away David’s sling*: environmental justice and land-use conflict in extractive resource development

Exploring cases of gas and coal extraction in Australia and the U.S.A., this paper considers instances in which legal and political frameworks have been used to prioritise development interests and minimise opportunities for community objection. Two case studies illustrate the role of law and the influence of politics on environmental conflict, conflict resolution, and participation in decision-making associated with resource extraction. A range of barriers to meaningful community participation in land-use decision-making are exposed by combining legal and non-legal concepts of equity and justice with ideologies of democracy and representation. These include asymmetry in information and resources available to parties; instances of misrecognition of weaker participants; and examples of malrecognition, where community attempts to engage democratic rights of public participation were thwarted by the strategic and deliberate actions of both industry and government. This paper illustrates the limits of current legal approaches to addressing land-use conflict and contributes to the developing scholarship of environmental justice as an analytic framework for addressing complex environmental and social justice issues.     

Beyond the Requirements: Improving Public Participation in EIA

Virtually every environmental planner at some time deals with environmental impact assessment (EIA). Public participation is required in most environmental impact assessment programmesaround the world. However, citizen involvement is often reduced to a procedural exercise instead of a substantive process to include the public in environmental decision making. This paper examines public participation in EIA and provides ways to improve its effectiveness. We first examine the rationales for public involvement and its institutionalization through EIA. Next, we analyse the shortcomings and strengths of common approaches to public involvement. Our analysis, supported by two case studies, suggests that going beyond the minimum requirements can benefit the public, the project proponent and the final plan. We conclude with practical steps to improve public participation programmes in environmental planning and decision making.     

Evaluating public participation in environmental decision-making: EPA's superfund community involvement program

This article discusses an 8-year, ongoing project that evaluates the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund community involvement program. The project originated as a response to the Government Performance and Results Act, which requires federal agencies to articulate program goals, and evaluate and report their progress in meeting those goals. The evaluation project assesses how effective the Superfund community involvement program is in promoting public participation in decisions about how to clean up hazardous wastes at Superfund sites. We do three things in the article: (1) share our experience with evaluating an Agency public participation program, including lessons learned about methods of evaluation; (2) report evaluation results; and (3) address a number of issues pertaining to the evaluation of public participation in environmental decision-making. Our goal is to encourage more environmental managers to incorporate evaluation into their public participation programs as a tool for improving them. We found that written mail surveys were an effective and economical tool for obtaining feedback on EPA's community involvement program at Superfund sites. The evaluation focused on four criteria: citizen satisfaction with EPA information about the Superfund site, citizen understanding of environmental and human health risks associated with the site, citizen satisfaction with opportunities provided by EPA for community input, and citizen satisfaction with EPA's response to community input. While the evaluation results were mixed, in general, community members who were most informed about and involved in the cleanup process at Superfund sites generally were also the most satisfied with the community involvement process, and the job that EPA was doing cleaning up the site. We conclude that systematic evaluation provides meaningful and useful information that agencies can use to improve their public participation programs. However, there need to be institutionalized processes that ensure evaluation results are used to develop and implement strategies for improvement.     

The Politics of Participation in Watershed Modeling

While researchers and decision-makers increasingly recognize the importance of public participation in environmental decision-making, there is less agreement about how to involve the public. One of the most controversial issues is how to involve citizens in producing scientific information. Although this question is relevant to many areas of environmental policy, it has come to the fore in watershed management. Increasingly, the public is becoming involved in the sophisticated computer modeling efforts that have been developed to inform watershed management decisions. These models typically have been treated as technical inputs to the policy process. However, model-building itself involves numerous assumptions, judgments, and decisions that are relevant to the public. This paper examines the politics of public involvement in watershed modeling efforts and proposes five guidelines for good practice for such efforts. Using these guidelines, I analyze four cases in which different approaches to public involvement in the modeling process have been attempted and make recommendations for future efforts to involve communities in watershed modeling.     

The new regime for managing US—Mexican water resources

United States-Mexican transboundary water resources management is presently experiencing significant reform resulting from long-term demographic processes in the border region and greater economic integration. The recently concluded North American Free Trade Agreement and supplementary environmental accord modify existing agreements and provide old institution with new mandates. Particularly affected is the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), long the lead agency in binational water management. This essay reviews the development of the new water management regime against the two preceding phases of management reform and considers its implications for improved water management in the border region.     

Evaluating Environmental Public Participation: Methodological Questions

Increasingly, environmental agencies are engaged in public participation activities. Unfortunately, the limited evaluation of public participation programmes also makes improvement of such programmes more difficult. To encourage further thinking about the evaluation of environmental public participation programmes, this article discusses some of the basic issues raised by evaluators of social programmes (e.g. unemployment and housing, etc.) that have served as methodological proving grounds for evaluation. These issues include why evaluate and what and how to evaluate, as well as questions concerning the role of evaluators. To illustrate ways in which evaluators of environmental public participation programmes have grappled with these issues, examples of different methodological approaches are included. Finally, based on this review, recommendations are made to improve evaluations of environmental public participation programmes, such as increasing evaluation aimed at making mid-course corrections, which includes involving participants in evaluation and assessing a variety of participatory goals.     

Advocates for environmental justice: the role of the champion in public participation implementation

That segment of the community I would say is just in general pretty disenfranchised. We found that if you want participation you have to go to them. I mean there are days when you just need to go knock on the door.

Brownfields developer in a poor urban neighbourhood

This article considers the role that champions play as advocates for socioeconomically disadvantaged community member involvement in environmental management decision-making. Six case studies of brownfields redevelopment projects located in poor urban neighbourhoods are examined. Analysis of these case studies reveals how champion behaviour, which has typically been studied only in the context of technological innovation, is enacted in public participation efforts in the service of environmental justice. The study finds that champions who emerge in these settings lead the development and implementation of non-standard public participation process innovations.     

Public Participation Mechanisms in Environmental Disasters

This paper examines the role of public participation mechanisms in certain major environmental disasters. It examines situations in which people’s lifestyles or their lives have been directly threatened, and thus elicited citizen participation. Threatening issues often seem morally, physically, socially, economically, religiously, and otherwise unacceptable to a group. As will be presented in this paper, citizens voluntarily participate in a community activity when they see that their way of life has been threatened. An introductory historical perspective, the legal framework upon which it is based, and background information on the participatory mechanisms, all emphasizing the importance and need for empowering citizens with participatory skills so as to bring changes in the existing educational, legal, and social systems are presented. The major environmental accidents/disasters of Minamata, Japan; Bhopal, India; Seveso, Italy; Chernobyl, Ukraine; and Exxon-Valdez, Alaska are discussed, mainly to indicate the reaction, and the participatory mechanisms used by the affected communities in each of the sudden disasters that occurred. If citizens worldwide had been active participants in the environmental issues, it is quite possible that we would have experienced fewer environmental accidents.     

Indigenous Resource Rights and Mining Companies in North America and Australia

A Contrast is made between indigenous resource rights in North America and Australia. The extent to which the indigenous people of these two continents may prevent mining and exploration on their land is examined. It is demonstrated that whereas some Australian Aboriginals have recently acquired limited veto rights to prevent development, the veto rights of the indigenous people in North America are long-standing and unqualified. In addition, the terms and conditions of mining and petroleum agreements which have been entered into by indigenous people in North America are discussed. These agreements are shown to be better than agreements signed with Australian Aboriginals.     

Emergent publics and affects in environmental governance

Drawing on the wide social scientific literature on emotions and affects, we highlight the value and potential contribution of the affect theory for understanding public engagement in environmental policy and planning. We suggest that such theorization complements political ontologies that envision concerned publics to arise as citizens are attached to objects and other beings in their everyday life. Focus on emotions and affects enables in-depth exploration of the corporeality of these attachments, increasing understanding about how affected publics get driven for action and how new sensibilities and horizons for action are created. Based on the discussion of affect theory and case examples, we argue that emotions and affects should be treated as crucial carriers of knowledge about transformation of political subjects and their concerns. They also direct analytic gaze beyond public participation procedures and encourage the development of novel, more inclusive settings for public engagement.     

Meeting Consumer Concerns for Food Safety in South Korea: The Importance of Food Safety and Ethics in a Globalizing Market

As the issue of food safety became one of the important public agenda, consumer concern for food safety became the general public concern. The Korea U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) completion allowing import of U.S. beef to Korea has turned into a massive public uproar and a series of demonstrations, revealing widespread concerns on the part of Korean producers and consumers about government food safety regulations and mishandling of the beef trade requirement. The mishandling of public concerns for BSE on U.S. beef import by the administrators led to a breakdown of the relationship between the public and the government and a loss of consumer confidence in Korea’s food safety system. The KORUS FTA beef crisis raised the issues of government accountability and the importance of understanding moral and ethical aspects of food safety management that pose perceived risk for BSE by the Korean citizen. The aim of this paper is to address the importance of understanding consumer concerns, food ethics and of appropriate risk communication in dealing with politically and publically sensitive food safety issues. This is achieved by assessing the factors that contributed to the conflict between the Korean government and the Korean public over the KORUS FTA beef agreement.     

生态文明建设背景下绿色社区创建的思考——以杭州市西湖区为例

西湖区区级以上绿色社区50%的覆盖率与城镇化趋势和生态文明建设的高目标还不相适应。与省市绿色社区指标相比,区级指标倾向于公众参与和居民自治,建议从区域环境质量、节能减排、生态文化、"三产"等方面进行补充,并提出量化指标、设置否决指标、动态管理和复查退出机制、绿色示范工程、环境认证管理及碳汇林试点等对策。     

公众参与环境执法角色关系探析

环境是公共的,环境利益具有公众性。在环境执法中积极吸纳公众意见,是国家民主管理社会的体现。公众参与环境执法的角色定位即：政府在环境执法中处于核心地位,拥有最终裁量权;企业是环境执法的对象;公众是环境执法的最终受益者。政府、企业与公众的沟通协调是公众参与环境执法的有效机制。