Environmental Justice And Sustainable Development In Central And Eastern Europe

The deterioration of the environment in Central and Eastern Europe during the past fifty years has very often been linked to the communist regimes then in place. Indeed, in the region, the ideologically led attempts of governments to achieve industrial development and to glorify the role of work and the worker alike left little room for environmental considerations. The authorities effectively refrained from enforcing existing environmental legislative norms, because they were portrayed as a barrier to development. As the former regimes collapsed, there was much hope for the emergence of economic development that would respect both environmental and social concerns. The implementation of legal and political reforms and the adoption of a market economy, however, have imposed new constraints on the state and have altered the very fabric of society and citizens' expectations. Against this background, environmental protection seems once again to be perceived as second to economic growth. The aim of the paper is to examine, in the light of the Central and Eastern European experience, whether and how environmental protection and social justice can be reconciled with economic development. The paper concludes that this can only be achieved by fostering civil society and environmental justice and adhering to principles of good governance, in addition to adopting legislative reforms.

Europe remains divided between east and west, with differences caused and worsened by uneven economic and political development. Amid these divisions, the environment has become a key battleground. The condition and sustainability of environmental resources are interlinked with systems of governance and power, from local to EU levels. Key challenges in the eastern European region today include increasingly authoritarian forms of government that threaten the operations and very existence of civil society groups; the importation of locally-contested conservation and environmental programmes that were designed elsewhere; and a resurgence in cultural nationalism that prescribes and normalises exclusionary nation-building myths. This volume draws together essays by early-career academic researchers from across eastern Europe. Engaging with the critical tools of political ecology, its contributors provide a hitherto overlooked perspective on the current fate and reception of ‘environmentalism’ in the region. It asks how emergent forms of environmentalism have been received, how these movements and perspectives have redefined landscapes, and what the subtler effects of new regulatory regimes on communities and environment-dependent livelihoods have been. Arranged in three sections, with case studies from Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Serbia, this collection develops anthropological views on the processes and consequences of the politicisation of the environment. It is valuable reading for human geographers, social and cultural historians, political ecologists, social movement and government scholars, political scientists, and specialists on Europe and European Union politics.

This book examines the obstacles to achieving environmental justice in the context of neo-liberal economic systems founded upon deregulation, privatization and the use of market mechanisms as a policy tool. The book explores definitions and policy dimensions of environmental justice and market mechanisms. For some, environmental justice, social justice and ecological sustainability represent the new yardstick against which all concepts of environmental law and policy are to be measured. For others, the market economy, whether free or regulated, marks the starting-point for any strategy of environmental protection. This book is the first to investigate the link between these two approaches, measuring market-based tools of environmental law such as tradable permits and ecotaxes against the requirements of environmental justice. Based on papers delivered at a major international conference held in March 1998, at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, the book outlines the global context of the tensions between environmental justice and market-based instruments, focusing on the issue of international trade liberalization. It reports on experiences in a range of countries and regions: the United States, the European Union, Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Despite the variety of approaches and experiences, all the countries have been trying to adjust their environmental policies to the challenges of deregulation on the one hand and environmental justice on the other. The book concludes with a call to transcend the dichotomy between regulation and the market, and suggests it might be more realistic to perceive environmental policy as a `new deal', a combined effort of the state and the market in which environmental justice provides the overall normative framework.

This volume presents reflections on a variety of environmental issues in South-Eastern Europe from diverse contemporary scientific disciplines. The contributions address many crucial issues including national environmental policies, economic instruments for preventing crimes against the environment, international waste trafficking, threats to air, water and soil due to mining, management of dump areas, environment protection and food safety from a perspective of public health. The book will be a useful resource for researchers, developers and decision makers interested in the stability and sustainable development of the South-Eastern European countries.

An examination of the awareness of environmental and social justice issues in the former Soviet republics--from the Western-style democracies of the Baltic region to the totalitarian regimes of Central Asia--and the resulting activism in those states. The legacy of environmental catastrophe in the states of the former Soviet Union includes desertification, pollution, and the toxic aftermath of industrial accidents, the most notorious of which was the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. This book examines the development of environmental activism in Russia and the former Soviet republics in response to these problems and its effect on policy and planning. It also shows that because of increasing economic, ethnic, and social inequality in the former Soviet states, debates over environmental justice are beginning to come to the fore. The book explores the varying environmental, social, political, and economic circumstances of these countries--which range from the Western-style democracies of the Baltic states to the totalitarian regimes of Central Asia--and how they affect the ecological, environmental, and public health. Among the topics covered are environmentalism in Russia (including the progressive nature of its laws on environmental protection, which are undermined by overburdened and underpaid law enforcement); the effect of oil wealth on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan; the role of nationalism in Latvian environmentalism; the struggle of Russia's indigenous peoples for environmental justice; public participation in Estonia's environmental movement; and lack of access to natural capital in Tajikistan. Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union makes clear that although fragile transition economies, varying degrees of democratization, and a focus on national security can stymie progress toward "just sustainability," the diverse states of the former Soviet Union are making some progress toward "green" and environmental justice issues separately.

Consisting of 12 chapters, the book presents the rise and development of environmentalism, environmental history as a discipline, and the history of environmental movements in the Central and South Eastern European region from an international point of view. The chapters—written by scholars from Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Greece and Turkey—cover a wide range of topics including the creation of protected areas, increasing environmental consciousness, the evolution of humanity’s relationship toward the environment, and perceptions of environmentalism by different disciplines. This international approach highlights the region’s complex development from the end of the eighteenth century through the twentieth century, with its unique blend of traditions. Three historically different traditions—the Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian—converge in Central and South Eastern Europe, and this book emphasizes the subtleties of these sometimes intertwined traditions. The focus of the book varies according to both the different geographical environments characteristic of the region and the protagonists who actively participated in changing relationships toward the environment. However, what does not vary and is common to all the chapters is the historical approach, since the process has continuity, which the book accentuates. In geographical terms, the region that is the focus of the book, Central and South Eastern Europe, is the contact zone of the Alps, Danube, Adriatic and partially the North Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Throughout history, it was also the contact zone of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian traditions. Those realities have resulted in a unique blending and intertwining of traditions and, therefore, relationships with and perceptions of the environment.

This volume examines the idea of civil society in its historical and contemporary dimensions. It provides a comprehensive and critical mapping of the idea, the burden of expectation that it has carried, and the intellectual and political dimensions that surround it.