Financing water supply and sanitation under Agenda 21

This paper assesses the financing challenges which have to be met by developing countries if water resources are to be managed efficiently, if the quality of the aquatic environment is to be improved and if water related services are to be delivered in a responsive, efficient and equitable way. This paper takes the view that attaching 'price tags' to water supply and sanitation, as was tentatively done in Agenda 21, is a misguided approach and that what is needed is articulation of clear principles which should underpin the financing of water supply and sanitation investments. To illustrate the approach the paper focuses heavily on experiences from World Bank water supply, sanitation and urban development projects over the past 30 years. The challenge is to develop appropriate institutional and financial arrangements. The essence of such arrangements is that they ensure that societies mobilize appropriate levels of resources for providing water related environmental services and that these resources are used in the most efficient and effective way possible .     

Design for environment: A new framework for strategic decisions

For most of its history of environmental protection, U.S. policy has concentrated on a pollution control strategy based on single medium emissions: air, water, or land. Efforts to mitigate environmental impacts to one medium often resulted in greater impacts to others. While much environmental improvement has occurred via this system over the last quarter-century, it is generally recognized that alternative strategies which address environmental impacts across all media in an integrated manner will be necessary for continued improvement. Increasingly, regulatory strategies that result in only passive compliance will be insufficient to meet these demands. This article demonstrates why new strategies which encourage proactive behavior are necessary. A new framework for making strategic decisions—design for environment—concerning the relation between our actions and environment is necessary to ensure a sustainable future.     

Training as a component of the consulting contract

Summary Expatriate consultants are employed in developing countries to perform assessments of the consequences to natural resources and the environment of projects for economic development. Eventually (and as soon as possible) the developing countries must be able to do their own assessments and provide continual guidance to economic planning and management. The presence of foreign experts offers an opportunity to transfer technology and skills during the course of consultancies. A training component can be added with appropriate additional compensation. Some of the barriers to successful training are identified and explored. Careful planning by lenders, host country governments, consultants and trainers will be necessary to realize this potential for building and strengthening indigenous capabilities to wisely exploit and sustain the renewable natural resource base. The following experts from developing countries contributed substantially to this report: W. D. Ailapperuma (Sri Lanka), Herman Haeruman (Indonesia), Noki Makap (Papua New Guinea), Somvonk Poshyananda (Thailand), Suh Junghyun (Korea) and Veronica Villavicencio (Philippines). Richard A. Carpenter M.A., Organic Chemistry, University of Missouri, 1949. Came to EAPI from the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council where he was executive director of the Commission on Natural Resources. Prior to establishing that office in 1972, was chief of the Environmental Policy Division of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Has contributed to the passage and implementation of legislation including the National Environmental Policy Act and has been responsible for a variety of studies interpreting and transferring technical information for decision-making. Began his career as a chemist and has obtained patents in the field. John A. Dixon Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 1977. B.A., Economics and Oriental Languages (Chinese), University of California at Berkeley, 1968. Previously worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia as agriculture programme economist where his main research interests were food policy analysis and natural resource management. At EAPI he is involved with environmental applications of benefit-cost analysis as well as economic aspects of the coal-fuel cycle.     

Ecological approach to resource survey and planning for environmentally significant Areas: The ABC method

A resource survey and planning method for parks, reserves, and other environmentally significant areas (ESAs) is presented in the context of a holistic balanced approach to land use and environmental management. This method provides a framework for the acquisition, analysis, presentation, and application of diverse ecological data pertinent to land use planning and resource management within ESAs. Through the independent analysis and subsequent integration of abiotic, biotic, and cultural or ABC information, land areas within an ESA are identified in terms of their relative environmental significance and environmental constraints. The former term encompasses wildlife, historic, and other resource values, while the latter term reflects biophysical hazards and sensitivities, and land use conflicts. The method thus calls for a matching of an ESA's distinctive attributes with appropriate land use and institutional arrancements through an analysis of available acts, regulations, agencies, and other conservation and land use management mechanisms. The method culminates with a management proposal showing proposed park or reserve allocations, buffer areas, or other land use controls aimed at preserving an ESA's special ecological qualities, while providing for resource development. The authors suggest that all resource management decisions affecting ESA's should be governed by a philosophical stance that recognizes a spectrum of broad land use types, ranging from preservation to extractive use and rehabilitation.     

Sweet for the sour: Incentives in environmental mediation

The siting of facilities with undesirable environmental characteristics often leads to public conflict. Efforts to resolve the conflict and make siting decisions frequently exacerbate the problem. Environmental mediation, the process of negotiating an agreeable settlement, is an accepted approach to resolving conflict. This paper explores the use of incentive systems as a means of achieving equity in environmental mediation. Obnoxious and noxious characteristics of facilities are discussed as the basis of conflicts. Four types of incentives—mitigation, compensation, reward, and participation—are discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility and application of incentives for solving environmental conflicts.     

Evaluation and valuation of wildlife resources

Issues of resource conservation and development are essentially about choice between alternative uses of land. Resource evaluation in rural planning has usually been based on assessments of land quality or capability in relation to a variety of alternative uses. In the case of wildlife, choices have to be made as to whether the wildlife resource is worth conserving at all and if so, which sites should be used. Considerable efforts have been made to rationalise, improve and make explicit the way in which choices are made, and this paper reviews the current position and draws attention to issues and developments which could lead to improvements in current practice.