Managing resources in a sustainable approach with people in
mind should be based on a thorough understanding of the ecosystems and the
impacts of our decisions and actions on those ecosystems, Environment &
social justice are two essential pillars of sustainable development.
Progressive& innovative methodologies of sustainably developing communities
should not be a “to do list” or a manual of guidelines imposed rather than an
inclusive process understanding the diversity & variety of ecosystems &
communities.
As an example mostly calls from socialists & activists
regarding labor rights & minimum rates of wages…etc does not foresee that
in a country like Egypt for example –which is applicable for many other MENA
countries- even if you gave an employee minimum of 1200 EGP per month after
struggling all his/her life to save an acceptable amount of money, He/She will
eventually spend most of it on curing a disease caused by pollution and
environmental deterioration in the first place. This is an ineffective,
disappointing scenario that urges us to revise our approach and understanding
the social & economical impacts of environmental deterioration. There are
even few studies linking the Arab spring uprisings in MENA with the environmental
deterioration, climate change and their impacts on increasing the prices of
food & commodities. Among those studies was : The Arab Spring and Climate
Change,A Climate and Security Correlations Series,By Caitlin E. Werrell,
Francesco Femia, and Anne-Marie Slaughter | February 28, 2013 http://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/climatechangearabspring-ccs-cap-stimson.pdf
,which argues in one of its chapters that the Chinese drought, global wheat
prices & the revolution in Egypt are related in what could be called as
“hazard globalization”, a once in a century winter drought in China reduced
global wheat supply and contributed to global wheat shortage and skyrocketing
wheat prices in Egypt ,the world largest wheat importer. Protests in Egypt
focused on poverty, bread & social justice.
In the poorest village in MENA we can introduce some
sustainable ideas that can generate income for the residents like planting roofs,
installing PV modules on rooftops and buildings to generate electricity for the
village, generating electricity from waste, recycling ….etc. Feasible incentive
programs should be studied & developed by governments to apply such ideas
& developing communities that can sustain themselves & meet the basic
needs. As of 2010, feed-in tariff
policies had been enacted in over 50 countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed-in_tariff#Description. Trainings & awareness
campaigns should be provided; even the income generated from such activities
can be used in improving the infrastructure of such villages if applicable. It
does not have to always be a mega investor coming to recycle some stuff or to
generate electricity from waste without involving or generating any benefit to
the local community. Unfortunately CSR & corporate environmental activities
in most scenarios are just “Greenwashing” a practice which causes lots of harm
to the environment & results in dramatic social injustice a good study
about this named “When do companies greenwash” by Christopher Marquis &Michael
W. Toffel
In order to name a couple of examples for case studies of
sustainable development of communities vs. environmental degradation &
social injustice. A study in Egypt for the city of Fayoum as the “Fayoum
ecotourism development plan 2005-2015” http://www.cissong.org/it/press/news/il-piano-ecoturistico-del-fayoum involving the whole community with many job
opportunities in sustainable activities like the famous
handicrafts,birdwatching…etc such plans are usually opposed by “big visions”
and mega projects that in most cases have very negative impacts on the
environment with no benefit to the local community.
The second example for sustainable development of
communities vs. environmental degradation & social injustice is the
displacement of millions of Egyptian Nubians from their community to several other
places all over Egypt, the problem is not merely in the geographical
displacement rather than taking a heritage & culture from its roots with
severe negative impacts on the environment and ecosystem. This genuine Egyptian
heritage & culture can be sustainably developed through a holistic
inclusive plan as in the first example. This can benefit the local community
and conserve the environemt.
Air & water pollution in MENA is already generating a
long list of diseases with dramatically rising rates; Studies in Egypt show
scary statistics stating that annually 17,000 children die of intestinal
infection & diarrhea caused by Nile pollution*. climate change is already
badly affecting the Nile Delta in northern Egypt & some other parts through
MENA.Studies states that if the Mediterranean sea level increased by 0.5 m this will lead to
destroying 1800 square kilometer of fertile agriculture land & displacing 3.8
million residents from Nile delta , if the Mediterranean sea level increased by 1 m this will lead to destroying
4500 square kilometer of fertile agriculture land & displacing 6.1 million
residents from Nile delta http://www.grida.no/publications/vg/climate/page/3088.aspx.Rising
food prices is yet another effect noticed by every single individual. And
unless we understand the roots of the problem, how to manage the ecosystems and
handle this environmental deterioration, those effects & even more will
keep alerting us that we need to act. Social justice cannot be achieved without
environmental justice.
