Advocating Systems

Session Objective: to evaluate the role of community consultation and the environmental right to information in governance

Unit 3 of this course focused on recognising underrepresented stakeholders, an aspect of procedural justice. The course’s fourth unit builds on that to address Public Participation, scrutinising mechanisms and identifying strategies for civic engagement in environmental policymaking. By the end of Unit 4, you will have achieved Learning Objective 5: you will be able to apply problem-solving techniques and collective action theories in order to design effective community campaigns that redress environmental racism.

This week’s Learning Log asks you to consider why participation is an important aspect of environmental justice as you explore some formal mechanisms for public participation in environmental decision-making.

Question: what ‘participation’ means for environmental justice through this article that considers why it is so important to engage in equitable decision-making – not only about environmental policies, but also around our fundamental assumptions.

This paper critically examines trends in environmental justice scholarship by using decolonial theories and insights from Latin America to critique how Western researchers approach and analyse case studies and movements. It is freely available online.

Additionally, one of the co-authors delivered this paper at a conference on Environmental Justice held by the Sydney Environment Institute. If you’re a more visual or auditory learner, you’re welcome to watch Brendan’s presentation instead of reading the article.

Lina Álvarez is a researcher at the Centre de Philosophie du Droit, Université Catholique de Louvain. Lina’s scholarship examines economic history and its relationship with (de)coloniality. Her doctoral work explores physiocracy, an economic theory from the Enlightenment that emphasises agriculture, land, and development – a view which heavily influenced French and wider European colonialism.

Brendan Coolsaet is an Associate Professor at the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL) in France, where he teaches courses on environmental politics, food studies, and agrobiodiversity governance. He is also a member of the Global Environmental Justice Group at the University of East Anglia, an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in the linkages between social justice and environmental change.

Brendan holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the Centre for Philosophy of Law (UCLouvain) on environmental justice and biodiversity conservation.

Learn: about one of the primary tools for environmental decision-making, environmental impact assessments, through this overview from the Convention on Biological Diversity. Then watch this video from Thailand discussing legal EIA mechanisms for public participation (often referred to as ‘stakeholder consultation’) in the process.

optional but recommended -

Read: this article that learns from anti-gold mining movements in Esquel and Pascua-Lama to understand how activists navigate the participatory mechanisms that do (and don’t) exist to support communities during resource conflict.

Urkidi and Walter.pdf

Leire Urkidi is a Basque researcher, journalist, and professor. Leire’s work explores ecology and economics, with a focus on the capitalistic exploitation of the environment.

For Leire, the conflict around the Pascua-Lama mining project in Chile is a strong example of the conflicts that arise from corporate action against the environment. Urkidi is interested in how the movement – which began with the defence of endangered glaciers – has become ‘glocal’, with both international attention and locally-led action.

Mariana Walter is a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). She is an environmental scientist working on ecological economics and political ecology. Mariana is interested in social metabolism, resource extraction conflicts, environmental justice, knowledge co-production and institutional change.

Welter is part of ENVJUST, a project mapping environmental conflicts around the world. She has also served as Scientific Coordinator of the ACKnowl-EJ Project: Academic and Activist Co-production of Knowledge for Environmental Justice.

Understand: the risks taken by environmental defenders as you read these articles.

For indigenous protesters, defending the environment can be fatalA quarter of the world's indigenous environmental defenders suffered physical violence over the past decade, according to a new study.

As loggers destroy the Amazon, this ‘guardian’ stood in their way. Now he’s been killed.With his fellow “guardians” in Brazil, Paulo Paulino Guajajara protected his province’s last bit of forest.

Guatemala mine's ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader's murderMynor Padilla pleaded guilty over death of Adolfo Ich, a Maya Q’eqchi’ teacher who opposed nickel mine in El Estor, in 2009

Celebrate: the entry into force of the Escazú Agreement by reading these articles and listening to Nemonte.

The Escazú Agreement creates mechanisms to create open access to environmental information, support public participation in environmental decision-making, and promote justice in environmental matters, which includes realising environmental rights and protecting environmental defenders.

Optionally, you can read the full Agreement and learn more about its creation and adoption from La Comisión Económica para América Latina (CEPAL or ECLAC, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean).

The Escazú Agreement: A Leap Forward for Environmental and Human Rights Protection in Latin America and the CaribbeanAlessandro Rollo is an associate at Omnia Strategy in London specialising in public international law, international dispute resolution, and human rights. Photo Credit: Maik Kleinert Introduction …

The Escazú Agreement: environmental democracy and human rights - Talking HumanitiesDr Domenico Giannino looks back at the the Escazú Agreement, the world’s first legally binding treaty on environmental democracy.

Appreciate: the contributions of – and burdens faced by – communities leading environmental justice work through Sonaksha’s visual campaign.

Sonaksha Iyengar's painting. The painting shows seven women doing essential household work in what appears to be a river or some body The top left corner is a brown color, depicting the land. The water is a deep turquoise. At about the midpoint of the painting is a woman in pink and yellow catching fish. Below this a red streak flows to the bottom the painting and a pink streak slightly to the right does the same. At the bottom of the painting are three women, one in green holding a red basket and holding a black cane, another in green and yellow reaching down into the red, and a final woman in black with pink drifting from her skirt.

Environmental Justice for Women and Trans* People

This piece was created for Women’s Fund Asia’s (WFA) Environmental Justice thematic meeting in Chilaw. The objective was to highlight WFA’s focus on supporting the leadership of women and trans* people in the decision making process of policies governing access to distribution of land, water, food and other natural resources.

Sonaksha Iyengar is a queer South Asian illustrator, graphic recorder and book designer. Sonaksha’s work examines ideas of care, body image and gender to address subjects like mental health and intersectional feminism. Sonaksha uses art as a tool to contribute to social justice movements across the world, working with organisations at the intersections of gender, sexuality, reproductive rights, environmental justice and digital rights.

Complete: your Learning Log for this session via the form below.

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