The land use are subject to human intervention and include a full range of management practices, through agriculture, urban sprawl, tourism or by changing the forms of use of rural areas etc… The magnitude of this artificial land in countries under strong natural constraint raises questions about the social value of land, and on the modes of public regulation that would protect them more effectively against human intervention.
The majority of countries have adopted policies for improved land management. Others countries have implemented land use practices, this takes many forms and can have negative effects on land management.
To limit the negative economic, social or environmental reactions induced by land use practices, the States have some tools related to:
– Regulatory instruments;
– Institutional instruments;
– Economic instruments;
– Social Instruments.
Generally, public intervention in land use is defined by a legal framework comprising national laws which often delegated to local government bodies on the one hand and international conventions on the other hand. These are tools that organize the right of land and soil and associated uses. The privileged instrument is the zoning. Present in most countries, governments are directly implementing an action planning (acquisitions for infrastructure) or a localized sector policy (some environmental zoning).
Land use legislation or planning law is a key component of any serious attempt to integrate
environmental objectives into a comprehensive public policy aimed at achieving sustainable development. In most cases in which countries have been successful in implementing environmental policies, the effective use of planning tools and land use legislation appears as a common feature, in conjunction with a mix of traditional “command and control pollution control legislation and incentives aimed at promoting and rewarding sustainable economic decisions.
In many developing countries, however, land use legislation is not fully integrated into the context of public policies aimed at promoting environmental quality and sustainable development. In some cases, this is due to the scant attention that has been paid at a conceptual level to the importance of land use regulation as a key instrument for implementing environmental policies. In other cases, where land use and planning laws do exist in theory, poor or nonexistent enforcement makes them a weak tool for the achievement of sustainable development goals.
However, the awareness of the importance of land use regulation as an instrument for environmental policy is growing throughout Latin America in general and Argentina in particular. This is evidenced by a growing body of academic papers, public policy documents, and studies carried out by multilateral aid agencies, and by the increasing amount and quality of legislation relating to land use and planning procedures involving public participation and long-term development strategies.
In terms of urban planning, regulatory instruments are created by laws of land and urban planning. These urban plans fulfill three functions: planning. programming and regulation. On this last point, there is a definition of rules that determine land use activities permitted or prohibited and which are applied obligatory by the administrative authorities and citizens.
Land use planning and zoning laws are important in wildlife management since they direct the manner in which important areas are to be utilized and thus have the potential to ensure that resources are sustainably managed. General land use planning laws fall into two categories, namely, those dealing with urban land and those dealing with agricultural land. In addition to these, there are laws on wildlife and forest conservation, which prescribe rules specifically for these areas.
Almost in all countries, they use urban planning to organize a large public control of land. These plans are hierarchical, compatible with each other and constitute zoning and specialized territories; their type is determined by the State. They encourage an urban concentration, development of the city and the preservation of natural areas; they oppose the anarchical construction. Almost in all countries, they have a similar arsenal of legal means defined by the State: urban planning, building permits, expropriation process, a legal system operations planning, property taxation. Moreover, the new technical possibilities of mapping, with satellite positioning systems and Remote Sensing are now powerful tools for planning. If we add to this the possibilities of the remote computer, there are new ways to solve problems of land systems.
Almost in all countries, specialized agencies support the management of land use. Their legal status is variable, the State itself, Agencies or public offices and private organizations with delegated public service through montages public/private.
The purpose of environmental law is to restrict human activities so that the land can be used without inflicting adverse effects on the environment and good environmental conditions can be maintained.
However, considering the wide range of stakeholders and the wide variety of human activities, the environmental law system should go beyond the conventional legal system of land use, which regulates only the activities of land users, which are mainly composed of landowners. Environmental law is a unique field of law in that it covers all stakeholders whose activities have impacts on the environment- these include national and local governments, businesses and companies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOS), and citizens. Environmental law can take appropriate legal measures to deal with actual impacts on the environment caused by the various activities of these stakeholders. As a legal system, environmental law should step over the concept of restricting land use to deal with such public property as air, quality of water, and ecosystems, or with such extensive and complex environmental conditions as climate change. As a result, environmental law is required to set up a new legal area with its own system and logic different from the conventional jurisprudence that has been dealing with individual human beings and property.
Currently, economic policies and environmental policies are not separable. It is necessary to achieve effective integration of the economy and the environment and to develop tools and strategies that meet the imperatives of sustainable development.
To achieve environmental objectives, the State act through various means: enact regulations with sanctions (for instance, set limits, impose bans on products), act by financial incentives (distribution of financial incentives or impose tax incentives), define objectives, which should be achieved through sector self-regulation.
The economic conception of the environment shows that the objective of a degree of environmental protection can be achieved at lower economic costs, using incentive instruments rather than regulations.
The tools developed for the use of land in different countries are similar. However, the concept of land use differs between countries and the impacts of the same policy can lead to different results depending on the country: society, the lifestyle and political systems are not the same. Some countries are not comparable because the land management practices depend on the behaviour of the people, customs and beliefs.
Whatever the factors of the effectiveness of the institutional framework, control system countries can be affected adversely by the strategies and land use practices of public and private actors.
Indeed, various factors cause adverse effects on natural resources, including inadequate planning, incoherent policies and institutions and inappropriate management tools.
Information on land use is often inadequate or nonexistent. Collecting data on land use is also an important tool for decision to support the control system. To manage properly land use, to be able to follow the process of valuation and devaluation of land, lack of both regulation and information are the major weaknesses. For example, it is the absence of a structure whose role is to provide reference points, possess comprehensive and reliable information on land uses, their types, and the flows between different actors, the mechanisms valuation and devaluation affecting the various spaces.
About regulations, States do not enact enough standards and rules. Sometimes, laws are created contradictory, too complex, and difficult to apply.
Also, many public initiatives have been taken in all countries to protect land. However, the frequency and magnitude of changes of land use reflect at least a relative ineffectiveness of current regulations, in view of the challenges of their protection. A proper analysis of the modes of regulation of land use is currently difficult, especially the lack of centralization and availability of aggregate or composite indicators on trends in land markets, the nature and location of pressure on land or on other aspects of land degradation.
For long time, the use of natural resources was not considered as major concern in the definition of development policies in general. For example, agricultural policies in some countries encourage the cultivation of new land and construction of dams as a means of increasing production. All these projects have in some way an impact on natural resources.
In most countries, institutions are responsible for the management of natural resources and land management, although few accomplish their mandate effectively. There are many reasons for this, but the main cause is the failure to appreciate the real economic and social importance of these various natural resources. Five main causes are listed :
– The sectoral organization of resource management; perception of the importance of resources varies depending on the types of users (farmers, fishermen, foresters, planners …) and each user considers relevant areas such as systems unique product, excluding any other value; Inappropriate management methods;
– Lack of qualified staff in addition to the problem of sectoral organization, the personnel engaged in natural resource management has rarely received adequate training enabling him to better manage natural resources;
– Development experts generally regard as primitive and traditional practices to be changed, rather than adjusted to the capacity of the natural environment;
– Inadequate legislation and weak implementation;
– Limited resources.
Some systems are characterized by an abundance of regulatory tools shared between different levels of public authorities. This plurality of stakeholders damages the transparency and effectiveness of policies which take place in practice outside the regulatory framework (direct intervention in the market through public institutions, Agencies …). The lack of consultation and coordination between different stakeholders is also a source of problem and obstruction for better land use.
The comparative analyzing of different systems of land urban planning highlights both:
– Major issues common to all countries, such as urban sprawl, spatial segregation, the financing of public facilities;
– The diversity of policies and tools implemented to address these issues.
Inappropriate urban planning practices and policies (including institutional inefficiencies
and lack of coordination among the key actors in urban development) are some of the underlying courses of urban environmental degradation.
Indeed, Urban sprawl refers to development on urban peripheries characterized by scattered low-density development, incomplete infrastructure, excavated ground, and vacant lots.
The problems associated with urban sprawl include inefficient use of land (that is, under-utilization of land or infrastructure); excessive energy consumption and air pollution due to greater use of motorized transport; and high costs for providing infrastructure. Critics of urban sprawl also cite its negative effect on aesthetic quality.
Although there is a general consensus among urban and environmental planners that urban sprawl is something to avoid, some view urban sprawl as a temporary phenomenon-the embryonic stage of an urban area before it becomes fully integrated into the surrounding urbanized zone. The size of the sprawl belt and rate of its transformation will depend on prevailing regulatory and land tenure systems as well as the proximity of infrastructure.
Face to the alarming threats related to land degradation, the earth’s resources has become a major challenge both for environmental reasons (stability of ecosystems, geochemical cycles) and socioeconomic (food, agriculture, fisheries, industrial application) that simply for ethical reasons, as to know the intrinsic value of life. The international community is gradually adopting an arsenal of legal and normative instruments designed primarily to regulate the exploitation of different forms of land use and preserving specifically elements of biodiversity. These policies seek to reconcile conservation of natural resources and economic development.
Conservative policies are aimed to protect natural and built resources, including built heritage, by limited access or by an outright denial of access. These policies usually lead to creation of conservation areas and spaces.
Governments take several steps and are equipped with various instruments relating to land use towards conservation of different forms of land use, including soil, water, vegetation and habitats.
By adopting land use plans based on scientific studies, as well as local knowledge and experience and capacity classifications of land use. In this context, agricultural policies and land reforms are essentially aimed to:
– Improve soil conservation including the introduction of farming methods and sustainable forest in order to ensure land productivity in the long term;
– Fight against erosion caused by the misuse and mismanagement of land that can cause a loss of soils and vegetation surface;
– Fight against pollution caused by agricultural activities, including aquaculture and animal husbandry;
Conservation policies relating to non-agricultural forms of land use (relating to public works, mining, waste disposal, etc.) are establishing standards and practices that do not support the erosion, pollution or other forms of land degradation.
Conservation water resources policies include the rational management of water resources to ensure:
– Maintenance of essential ecological processes and hydro-protection of human health against pollutants and waterborne diseases;
– Prevention of damage that may have harmful effects on human health or natural resources by the discharge of pollutants;
– Prevent excessive abstraction, to the benefit of downstream communities;
– Implement planning policies, conservation, management, use and development of groundwater and surface water, as well as collection and use of rainwater, in order to ensure to people a sufficient and continuous supply of suitable water;
– Rational management and water conservation in irrigated agriculture, to ensure greater food security and durable agro-industrialization.
Conservation of vegetal cover policies aim adoption of plans scientifically established, based on judicious traditions in conservation, use and management of forests, woodlands, grasslands, wetlands and other areas of vegetation, taking into account social and economic needs of populations and importance of vegetation to maintain the water balance of an area.
Other measures are taken to control fires, forest exploitation, land clearing, grazing by domestic animals and wildlife, and invasive species, and to create forest reserves and implement reforestation programs where they are needed.
Implementation of conservation policies of genetic diversity are made under land use plans and sustainable development, particularly the conservation of species and their habitats, with a social, economic and environmental value, or those found only in particular areas.
Several governments adopt stricter laws regulating all forms of collection, including hunting, trapping and fishing and the collection of plants or plant parts and the regulation of trade, possession and transport of specimens and products.
The Society for Ecological Restoration International defined ecological restoration as the process of assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged or destroyed. It is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity; sustainability and its physical capacity to support all living organisms and its connectivity with the surrounding landscape.
This requires a good knowledge of the functional and evolutionary ecology of targeted ecosystems, the history of anthropogenic degradation (due to man) and, finally, the choice of a reference ecosystem to guide planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the restoration project.
Like restoration, ecological rehabilitation uses historical or pre-existing ecosystems as models or references, but the two approaches differ at their goals and their strategies. Rehabilitation emphasizes the repair and recovery processes and, therefore, on productivity and ecosystem services, while the primary aims of restoration is to restore the pre-existing biotic integrity in terms of species composition and community structure.
Policies of restoration and rehabilitation aimed to limit and control access to space and resources in order to allow the natural processes to restore a balance that has been lost. They also focus on proactive practices to accelerate the process of restoring the balance of nature (such as watershed management, setting of dunes and fight against desertification, building dams, urban forestry, capture of ground carbon, etc.).
Protection and Prevention instruments policies aim to minimize the impacts of development or to mitigate the impact on land use and limit or eliminate the negative impact of human activities on the environment. Most governments are developing strategies and actions for protecting environment whose main similarities are:
– Integration of environmental policy in regional and sectoral policies (industry, energy.
transport, agriculture, tourism, urban planning, health, etc.);
– Implementation of development strategies, in the long run, in environmental fields and
regenerative and non regenerative resources;
– Strengthen the institutional capacity in the environment area, ensuring the financial and human resources at central and local authorities responsible for the environment and use of funds allocated transparently through national programs and international implementation of plans to protect the environment.
For example we can cite policies which aim to improve the quality of environmental factors in urban and rural areas that focus on:
– The quality of air (atmosphere protection, monitoring systems, inventory system of pollutant emissions):
– The implementation of integrated program management of waste (selective systems to reduce, reuse and recycle waste, proper handling of hazardous waste, adoption of legal provisions concerning hazardous waste in the industry, worn out vehicles, electrical and electronic equipment, etc.).
– Management of water resources in accordance with the regimes imposed by the national and international agreements, protocols and conventions (collection systems and treatment plants for wastewater).
– Control of industrial pollution, including the achievement of pollutant registers at national and local levels, finalization of the legislation on the limitation of organic emissions control of major accidents involving dangerous substances; introduction of management systems and environment self – monitoring of emissions.
– Urban land Management : In managing urban land so as to achieve environmental objectives, there are many crosscutting issues (i.e., managing development in hazardous areas requires, among other measures, provision of necessary infrastructure, and tenure security, special housing construction techniques, and
effective disaster planning: protecting cultural heritage involves, inter alia, strengthening environmental institutions, improved property taxation, and effective urban growth management). Therefore, one of the most important challenges is to achieve a proper balance between urban development and environmental protection, taking into account the inter-relationships among land use, poverty, and the environment. However, balancing environmental and urban development objectives will require a land management strategy that both protects sensitive resources and facilitates the urban land market. To implement this strategy, there is no one set of policies and policy instruments that will be effective under all conditions. Urban land managers will need to conduct an in-depth assessment of local land conditions(including natural features, land use, land conversion rates, land policies, land laws and regulations, land tenure, land institutions, land administration and formal and informal and market). To sum up, managing urban land to meet environmental and equity objectives requires a mix of policies and instruments to guide and motivate the behaviour of actors causing the land-related problems and those responsible for managing urban land so as to avoid those problems. To implement the land management strategies discussed above, some of these instruments will influence market behaviour (i.e., increasing supply by removing excessive land use controls, providing urban infrastructure, or by improving land titling systems); others will affect the land management process through improved regulation subsidies, or provision of critical information.
Moreover, the process of environmental impact assessment is the primary tool for environmental protection.
Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) is adopted by many countries as an instrument of environmental protection. Each country adapts to its needs, its specificities, its objectives and its means. However, everywhere the Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) has the same benefits and its definition does not change where it is used. Moreover, it occurs in a pattern essentially identical in all countries. It includes all procedures and documents for a project or facility, since the start of design, to the operating license, to assess the environmental impact of the project and its compatibility with requirements of environmental protection(ecosystem protection, forest conservation, landscape protection, water, hunting, fishing, etc.).
Generally, the planning documents of territorial planning and designate areas where impact assessments are mandatory for all applications for authorization of projects. Concerning the prevention, it takes many forms because all the instruments of environmental protection without exception have preventive effects. The prevention principle was consecrated by the Rio Conference, in its Principle 2. It also extends on instruments that were originally a redistributive function. Such is the case of strict liability regimes and environmental taxation.
Prevention policies are generally proactive, and result in several ways by prohibitions, controlling harmful activities, information and incentives.
It is the most drastic way to translate the principle of prevention. This may include:
– Prohibition of placing on the market a particular substance or product;
– Prohibition to implement or operate certain activities;
This is the case of prohibition to set up and operate a technical landfill, or a factory with radioactive effects, to accommodate a particular waste, etc.
This is a reasonable and conciliatory approach of conflicting interests. We may allow, for example, activities for economic and social reasons, but it will be mastered (this is the case with the choice of location in a processing plant wastewater, a dump, etc.).
This is particularly based on the self purification capacity of ecosystems that we translate the principle of prevention. Some consider that the solution to pollution is dilution, it is not necessary to translate the discharge of pollutants to zero, but we need that the level of rejection is authorized depending on the capacity of the environment to absorb it. This has led to the imposition of standards that can be general, sectoral (eg. standard of wastewater discharge per sector) or specific (authorization, specific regulation to a product). Also, you can prevent injury by imposing standards that non-compliance must be punished.
As we cannot prevent that what we know, the investigations to have better information of the environmental impact must be increased. This leads to evaluations and studies of risk that is becoming widespread in particularly sensitive areas (such as GMOS or soil pollution). Investigations may also take place afterwards. This can be done through monitoring activity by an auditing system, supervisory control, monitoring etc.
The prevention principle is introduced in the policies of environmental protection by mechanisms that encourage the potential polluter to take preventive measures. Direct incentives usually take the form of public support for a prevention policy. Indirect incentives include, for example, the generalization of mechanisms such as strict liability that would normally encourage them to take any preventive measure to avoid condemnation.
The mitigation policies aimed at reducing the intensity of certain hazards and vulnerability issues to ensure that the damage costs associated with the occurrence of geological or climatological phenomena bearable. They are specific to the prevention of major natural hazards. They push state and local governments to involve institutions and individuals who must act to reduce the vulnerability of resources.
These policies are aimed, in particular, heavy interventions, experimental and innovative in the territory so as to transform the environment based on the concerns and priorities of environmental (green belts, green plans agglomeration, urban forests, facilities pollution control, control of wind, pollution dispersion, etc..). They also reflect the ability of individuals, organizations and systems, to cope with and manage difficult conditions and emergencies caused by natural disasters.
The alarming state of land degradation, presented above, especially with increased competition over natural resources, in a holistic manner, and climate change presents a major challenge for the international community regarding the management of these resources that extend beyond the national level.
Therefore, international cooperation in this area is becoming increasingly necessary. It is in this sense that the earth has become a main focus of global environmental diplomacy, like other natural resources.
International cooperation in the field of sustainable land and water management is now the first priority for many institutions, because of concerns about food security, poverty reduction, protection of environment and climate change. Several international agreements invoking the principles of conservation of natural resources, especially land and water, but these principles have rarely been translated into actions, and no general agreement on the sustainable land and water management accompanied by a framework for action, has never emerged.
Since the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 by way the Rio Conference in 1992, global initiatives succeed to form a sort of world government environment.
International cooperation for the land use management requires an environment conducive, particularly with support at national level. The key elements for the implementation of international cooperation in this area includes an inventory of supply and demand of land resources, a toolkit of approaches for sustainable management of these resources, and a shared vision, especially, a strategy and an implementation framework for investment, which must be supported by a strong monitoring and evaluation.
Several organizations and programs, including the Global Environment Facility(GEF), have conducted actions of awareness and demanded that measures be taken for the sustainable land and water management, and some organizations have strengthened institutions and governance. However, it often happens that different organizations working in the same area, leading to scattered efforts and limit the impact of actions, while the approaches remain largely sectoral rather than integrated.
Moreover, international cooperation allows countries to call the resources (financial and technological) and the knowledge to reduce the uncertainty facing the more and more important challenges burden on the land and water, control risks, and therefore manage and sustainably use the shared resources.
In addition to international cooperation efforts, several regional programs have been developed, especially for Sub-Saharan Africa. Cooperation at regional and river basin was generally more active.
The United Nations Environment Program has identified more than 280 agreements and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAS) that are fully dedicated to environmental protection.
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