...Conflict and the Environment The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) military escort for UNEP fieldwork near El Geneina, Western Darfur. Intense competition over declining natural resources is one of the underlying causes of the ongoing conflict. SUDAN POST-CONFLICT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Conflict and the Environment 4.1 Introduction and assessment activities 2. an overview of the role of natural resources in the instigation and continuation of historical and current conflicts, listing the major resources of concern and focusing specifically on conflicts involving rangelands and rain-fed agricultural land; and 3. a brief environmental impact assessment of the various conflicts, evaluating the direct and indirect impacts of conflict on Sudan’s environment. Chronic environmental problems are covered in other chapters, though it should be noted that at the local level, the boundary between chronic and conflict-related environmental issues is often unclear. Assessment activities The assessment of conflict-related issues was an integral part of fieldwork throughout the country. In addition, UNEP carried out a number of specific activities, including: Introduction Sudan has been wracked by civil war and regional strife for most of the past fifty years, and at the time of finalizing this report, in June 2007, a major conflict rages on in Darfur. At the same time, Sudan suffers from a number of severe environmental problems, both within and outside current and historical conflict-affected...
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...Name: Affiliation: Date: Environmental security Introduction An environment basically refers to the total surrounding of all organisms both living and the dead, including natural forces that come into place. All these factors provide conditions for development and growth of an economy whereas on the other hand security refers is a set of customs and rules that govern a society. Therefore environmental security simply means how our surrounding is being protected to avoid damage and depletion of the resources. Many of the natural resources include water, land, air, soil, energy, minerals and all those that are in the resources. Environmental security entails the basic protection of the most important resources that we have e.g. the ecosystem service and have a complete assurance that there will be a constant supply of the resource in the near future without depletion. The human society and its natural surrounding is being threatened by the new global pressures that have been posing challenges on degradation an depletion of the natural resources. The global pressures may include competition to access of water, land, minerals and other fundamental resources, increase in the population of various countries thus posing pressure in land, there has been an increase in the demand for energy due to increased number of people thus having many industries for provision of employment and manufacture of food. Thus our vital resources face danger of depletion and damage if no...
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...Who is most responsible for environmental degradation? Name: Yichang(Kathy) Chen Course: YUELI DY Instructor: Ben Collins Nowadays, environmental degradation has become the current greatest issue all over the world. Many scientists warn that if environmental degradation can not be prevented, one day the earth will suffer destructive disease such as natural diseases and the end of earth without any early warning. A great number of environmental problems now have a serious effect on our world. As globalization is booming, which causes the earth’s natural problems to change into international issues, all nations will suffer great damage and need to keep a watchful eye on environmental degradation. There are some urgent problems which are now affecting the world, and which we need to solve quickly, are acid rain, air pollution, global warming, hazardous waste, ozone depletion, smog, water pollution and so on. It is easy to see that environmental degradation is a serious issue for the whole international community. If we want to solve it, the most principle point we need to research is what causes it. As we know, human beings and nature itself need to carry on the responsibility of environmental degradation as two main parts in the world. Although environment can be changed over time by natural process, it is not ignorable that human activities have great impacts on environment. According to many scientists, compared with natural process, human...
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...widespread torture and brutality resulted in 500,000 to 800,000 (mainly Tutsi) deaths.[1] After over three years of civil war following an invasion of mainly Tutsi refugees from neighbouring Burundi, a series of negotiations resulted in the adoption of the Arusha accord, which called for the eventual sharing of power between the invaders (known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front or RPF) and the former regime of Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana, and his party, the Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND). The widespread killings, mainly committed by the interahamwe, a group of Hutu extremist militias, began after the plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down on the night of April 6, 1994. In the months that followed, the international community essentially turned a blind eye to the bloody massacre that was to unfold in the Rwandan anarchy. It seems no overstatement to portray the Rwandan genocide of 1994 as a “failure of humanity,” to use the words of the commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), Canadian General Roméo Dallaire.[2] There is a distinct danger, however, of oversimplifying Rwanda as a case of ethno-tribal conflict in remote Africa. Though it may be easier to accept as somehow being “unavoidable” if left in ethnic terms – as if to somehow vindicate the global failure to stop it from occurring – the international community has a responsibility to do its best to learn from the Rwandan case by understanding the various factors...
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...important to see its role in the society. While understanding thematic approach to international law, one should not completely link such a discipline using a commercial approach. This commercial approach is used in contemporary international law. While understanding international law, there is a need to understand the term “world order”. According to Richard Falk, “world order is a system that consists of a behavior for security and changes identified by states, the structure of authority, conflicts, violence and international mediation” This current order is based on the behavior of states and its people. Since behavior is concerned here, there is also what kind of life and styles are followed by the people resulting in a global evolution....
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...The concern of the relationship between international trade and the environment can date back to the United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment in early 1970s (UN,1972). As the international trading activities increase in both frequency and magnitude, the relationship between world trade and environmental conservation becomes closer and closer. The extent of globalisation is now spreading across every parts of the world. At present, human is facing an important yet complicated problem climate change. In order to address this problem and promote sustainable development, the globalisation becomes a key focus. As one of the drivers of globalisation, international trade receives more public awareness than before. Nowadays, whether or not the trade-driven globalisation conflicts with preservation of the environment and natural resources environmental is a controversial topic (Heywood, 2014). However, in this essay I will argue that promoting globalisation through international trade creates both conflicts and opportunities to conservation of the environment and natural resources. From an economic point of view, both world trade and environmental protection are important because they are the essential for promoting sustainable development, due to this reason it is possible to reconcile their continued levels. Hence, addressing the conflicting aspects and maximising the opportunities between them are necessary. After discussing the relationships, I will also give the relevant...
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...Introduction The Nile River is the longest river in the world, stretching approximately 6,700 km from its remote headwaters in eastern Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile and its tributaries flow through Eleven countries and the river basin drains over three million square kilometers (one tenth of Africa’s total land mass) and is home to more than 300 million people (many of them are among the world’s poorest). Because of its size and variety of climates and topographies, the Nile is one of the most complex river basins in the world. The Nile originates from its major source, Lake Victoria forming the White Nile that flows generally North through Uganda and into Sudan where it meets the Blue Nile at Khartoum, from the confluence of the White and Blue Nile, the Main Nile River flows northwards into Egypt and to the Mediterranean Sea. The Eastern Nile includes the countries of Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, and encompasses the sub-basins of the Baro-Akobo-Sobat, the Blue Nile, the Tekezze-Settit-Atbara, portions of the White Nile in Sudan, and the Main Nile. All flows in the Nile are the result of rainfall upon the Ethiopian highlands and the Equatorial lakes region. While this rainfall is usually plentiful, it is not always consistent from year to year. The annual average rainfall over the entire Nile basin is approximately 600 mm, ranging from 1200-1600 mm at the headwater regions to near zero at the most northern part of the basin. The seasonal fluctuations of rainfall...
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...TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 Q.1 MAJOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS RESULTING FROM ROADS EXPANSION INTO SUBURBAN AREAS 3 Q.3 THE LINK BETWEEN THE GLOBAL COMMONS AND EFFECTS OF DEPLETION 6 Q.5 UNSUSTAINABLE EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN KENYA AND RESULTANT ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES AND BEST PRACTICES FOR RESTORATION OF THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGITY 9 Commercial use 9 Land for Grazing 9 Demand for Fuel 9 Illegal Logging 10 Erosion of Soil 10 Loss of Biodiversity 11 Climate Change 11 Population Growth 12 CONCLUSION 13 REFERENCES 14 INTRODUCTION This essay paper is divided into three parts: The first part will discuss the implications of the rapid expansion of roads into suburban areas in Kenya with special focus on the major social and environmental impacts of concern. There is an appreciation that Kenya is experiencing unprecedented road and highway expansion in line with its Vision 2030 Strategic Plan. Mitigations that need to be put in place to reduce the severity of these impacts have also been discussed. The second part discusses the Global commons, their interactions and the effects experienced as a result of depletion of one or more of them. In this essay, “Global commons" refers to something shared in common by a community. Commons presupposes a community - its members can claim equal rights to the common ground. A global commons presupposes a global community. This essay will delve on...
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...WORKING PAPER USING ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION AND LEADERSHIP TO LEVERAGE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: LESSONS FROM GHANA Mr. Isaac Kwasi Egyir Human Ecology Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BELGIUM Email: iegyir@vub.ac.be CONTENT PAGE ACRONYMS 3 ABSTRACT 4 1. Introduction 5 1.1 The Definition and Concept of Communication 5 1.1.1 Concept of Environmental Communication 6 1.2 The Definition and Concept of Leadership 8 1.2.1 Concept of Environmental Leadership 9 1.3 Link between Environmental Communication and Leadeship 10 2. Statement of Research the Problem 10 2.1 Objectives of the Paper 11 2.2 Guiding Hypotheses 11 3. Conceptual Framework of the Paper 11 4. Materials and Methods 13 4.1 The Study Location 13 4.2 Data Collection Analysis 13 5. Results and Discussion 15 5.1 The State of Ghana's Environment 16 5.1.1 Perception of Environmental Problems in Ghana 16 5.2 Environmental Policy and Implementing Instituitions in Ghana 17 5.2.1 Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) 18 5.2.2 National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) 18 5.2.3 Ghana Environmental REsources Management systems (GERMS) 19 5.2.4 Forest and Wildlife Policy 20 5.2.5 Environment Sanitation Policy (ESP) 20 5.2.6 Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) 20 5.3 Environmental Implementing Instituitions...
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............................................................ 3 3.1 Who are the poor? ............................................................................................................ 3 3.2 Poverty as lack of natural resources and ecosystem services ........................................... 3 3.3 Poverty as lack of power .............................................................................................. 4 3.4 Poverty as lack of choice .................................................................................................. 5 4. Key environmental challenges and opportunities for development ................................... 6 4.1 Key environmental challenges and opportunities ............................................................ 6 4.2 External and internal factors influencing environmentally sustainable development .... 10 5. The government’s environmental commitments and actions ........................................... 11 5.1 Environment in the national strategy for development/growth ...................................... 11 5.2 Economic policy and environment ................................................................................. 13 5.3 PFM-system...
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...1. Introduction At the very basic level, Environment, trade, and investment are fundamentally linked as the environment provides various basic inputs of economic activity – forests, fisheries, metals, minerals and also the energy used to process those materials. Trade and I investment, are thus affected by environmental concerns, because producers and investors have to comply with environmental regulations and markets have to address the consumer demand for greener goods. Apart from these physical and economic connections, there are certain legal institutions which govern trade, investment and the environment. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and also regional & bilateral trade agreements include trade and investment rules. Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), regional agreements, and also the national and sub-national regulations encompass the environmental law. Fundamental goals of WTO are sustainable development and protection and preservation of the environment. These are included in the “Marrakesh Agreement”, which established the WTO, and also complement the WTO’s objective to reduce the trade barriers and eliminate discriminatory treatment in international trade relations. Though, there is no specific agreement which deals with the environment, as per WTO rules members can adopt trade-related measures aimed at protecting the environment, following a number of conditions to avoid the misuse of such measures. The WTO contributes in protection...
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...A State Intervention Approach to International Trade and the Right to Health in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas Sector of Nigeria Table of Contents A State Intervention Approach to International Trade and the Right to Health in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas Sector of Nigeria 1 Chapter 1 General Introduction 6 1.1. Background 6 1.1.1. Definitions 14 1.1.2. Trade Liberalization 14 1.1.3. International Trade Law 15 1.1.4. Right to Health 16 1.1.5. Human Right Laws 17 1.2. Research Questions 18 1.3. Justification of the Research 21 1.4. Research Objectives 30 1.5. Research Methodology 31 1.6. Research Structure 37 Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework and Literature Review 40 2.1. Introduction 40 2.2. International Trade Rules and Protection of People’s Right to Health 41 2.2.1. Sources of International Trade Rules 41 2.2.2. Trade Liberalization and the Protection of the Right to Health 44 2.3. Scope of the Right to Health 54 2.4. Brief Overview of State Intervention Theory 59 2.5. States Duty towards the Fulfilment of the Right to Health 65 2.6. Legislative and Institutional Regulations Protecting the Right to Health in Nigeria 73 2.6.1. The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966 76 2.6.2. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) 78 2.6.3. The International Health Regulations, 2005 81 2.6.4. The Nigerian Constitution 82 2.7. Conclusion 83 Chapter...
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...Environmental Sociology: Capitalism, Sustainability and Social Justice Paper to Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, ‘History of Postwar Social Science’ Lecture Series Peter Dickens[1] Society and Nature: a Developing Sociological Agenda There is a paradox to environmental sociology. On the one hand it is a discipline that has often used the natural and physical sciences as its model. Auguste Comte, usually recognised as the founder of sociology, referred to the discipline as ‘social physics.’ ‘Physics envy’ continued to be a feature of sociology and other social sciences such as economics; such admiration being in part an attempt to give credibility to the new and still-emergent social sciences. Durkheim’s and Spencer’s analyses of social development from relatively simple towards more complex forms were, in part at least, modelled on a Darwinian idea of evolution in the natural world - from more ‘simple’ organisms such as amoeba to more ‘complex’ organisms such as ‘man.’ The positivist agenda for testing and developing theories were also in part also based on ideas regarding the testing of theories in the natural and physical sciences. Yet, as Dunlap and Catton (1994) have pointed out, making these new social science disciplines resulted in the disconnection of the social and its natural its ecological conditions. This disconnection may seem surprising but it is perhaps understandable if seen as these disciplines trying to form themselves...
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...Marketing Plan for Nokia Mobile Phone. [pic] Introduction: Nokia’s Code of Conduct defines the company’s overall principles and commitment towards legal compliance, ethical conduct, human rights, anti-corruption work and environmental protection. These high expectations extend to Nokia partners, subcontractors and suppliers, whom we encourage to strive beyond merely fulfilling legal compliance. This Policy provides further clarification to the principles of the Code of Conduct and Nokia Human Rights Approach regarding illegal trade of natural resources. This policy has been approved by Nokia Corporate Responsibility Steering Group, chaired by Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Responsibility. We are concerned about the link between the illegal extraction and trade of natural resources, and associated human rights violations, conflict and environmental degradation. Currently these issues are acute in the Eastern provinces of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the extraction and trade of ores of tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, which flow to world markets through the DRC and adjoining countries. Once refined, these metals are commonly used within electronic products and by many other industries. Nokia does not procure metals directly and only a fraction of the world’s minerals produce originates from the DRC, but we are taking action to increase transparency, ensure responsible procurement by our suppliers and sub-suppliers, and drive positive...
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...closely intertwined in Kenya’s development. Environmental Action Planning is a tool that aims at enhancing the integration of environment into development planning. Meru North District faces many environmental challenges with some being unique to the District. Some of the challenges include; Poverty has lead to the over-use and destruction of environment. Continued reliance on trees for fuel and wetlands for farming and its resources has lead to deforestation and wetland encroachment. Annual flooding continues to destroy property and frustrate farming. The DEAP highlights priority themes and activities for the District towards achieving sustainable development. The report is divided into eight chapters. Chapter one gives the challenges of sustainable development and also describes the rationale for and preparatory process of the DEAP. The chapter introduces the district’s main profile covering the physical features, demographic, agroecological zones, and main environmental issues. Chapter two describes the District’s Environment and Natural resources of Land, Water, Biodiversity (forest, wildlife, and Dry lands biodiversity), wetlands and agriculture, livestock and fisheries. For each resource, major environmental issues, challenges and proposed interventions are identified. Chapter three discusses the Human settlements and infrastructure in Meru North District covering situation analysis, challenges and proposed interventions. Environmental challenges addressed include; waste management...
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