8.0 Management Domain and Manager's Roles

Global sustainability demand is a constant

While the world and its citizens have changed consistently over time, the awareness of the need for global sustainability arose only in the 1970s. It has become more urgent since then as population grew and industrial activity increased exponentially along the with the collateral environmental impacts. The damage has been mitigated only by the persistent efforts of the many people who decried the recklessness of some entrepreneurs and formed groups to prevent pollution, running down the ecosystems and destroying the health of its consumers. Not only but the rise in population is so great that consumption is exceeding the capacity of the planet. In short there is now a permanent continuing need to maintain and sustain the planet on the world agenda.

Participation

There is already a huge number of people who are active in sustainability either as individuals or as part of non-government organization (NGO) else through government and other institutions in health, social benefit and/or environmental fields.

"Non-governmental organizations play a vital role in the shaping and implementation of participatory democracy. Their credibility lies in the responsible and constructive role they play in society. Formal and informal organizations, as well as grass-roots movements, should be recognized as partners in the implementation of Agenda 21. The nature of the independent role played by non-governmental organizations within a society calls for real participation; therefore, independence is a major attribute of non-governmental organizations and is the precondition of real participation."

Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), Chapter 27: Strengthening The Role Of Non-governmental Organizations: Partners For Sustainable Development

The number of internationally operating NGOs is estimated at 40,000. National numbers are even higher: Russia has 277,000 NGOs; India is estimated to have around 1-2 million NGOs.

At ECOSOC (UN) the civil society organizations listed in their database is over 13.000 entries.

The NGO sector is now the eighth largest economy in the world — worth over $1 trillion a year globally. It employs nearly 19 million paid workers, not to mention countless volunteers. NGOs spend about $US15 billion on development each year, about the same as the World Bank. But while the NGO movement has been growing rapidly since the 1980s, the union movement has been in decline. Why, and what does this mean for unions and public services?

The rise and rise of NGOs, By Peter Hall-Jones, PSI Communications Officer, Public Services International

Since 1992 many governments have committed to Agenda 21 and have put in place instruments to carry out the agenda. For instance in Canada:

Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Act, 1998

Sustainable Planet Manager

Given that there is so much going on already it woud appear that there isn't much left to do. However, it is the duty of every citizen to insure that the next generation inherits a better world and because of this one has to understand what makes it so, and act on it.

The understanding can be had by reading The Culture of sustainability and the Three-pillars of Sustainability on this site. Acting on it will be accomplished by means of the planet managers' toolkit in the management section.

Scale issues are critical in integrated responses, and cross-scale responses are necessary. Integrated responses are often deemed successful at a small-scale, or in a particular locality. However, their effectiveness is limited when constraints are encountered at higher levels, such as in legal frameworks and in government institutions. There appear to be limits to scaling up, not only because of these higher-level constraints, but also because of so-called ‘‘leakage’’ problems. These occur when interventions at a local level address only direct, rather than indirect, or underlying drivers of change. Examples might be where integrated conservation and development projects cause increased migration into buffer zones, or where a carbon forestry project shifts deforestation to another location. In these cases, the problems of ecosystem degradation are merely shifted from one location to another. Cross-scale responses may be better able to deal with both the higher-level constraints and leakage problems, and simultaneously tackle the regional and national, as well as, local drivers of change. Examples of successful cross-scale responses include some co-management approaches to natural resource management in fisheries and forestry, and multistakeholder policy processes.

Ecosystems & Human Well-Being: Volume 3: Policy Responses, findings of the Responses Working Group of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment / edited by Kanchan Chopra . . . [et al.].(The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment series ; v. 3)

The point is that sustainability is in principle evenly distributed. What is done in New York, Paris, London, Beijing and Tokyo must be the same techniques and methods as used elsewhere. Almost any city, large or small has common management functions—providing electricity, waste reduction, water works, reducing environmental footprint. Refer to the early work "World Resources 1996-97: The Urban Environment, World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank, April, 1996".

A farmer in Africa and one in rural Russia must likewise deal with the same problems—soil condition, pest, blight, bad weather, their common concern. This is the point of the planet manager mindset. To have global awareness and yet to act locally, internationally or in the intermediate zone. Getting the big picture is important—this even while continuing with recycling, saving energy, or protesting an environmental blight.

Concider the following, a quote from The Environmental Food Crisis, UNEP, 2009.

The surge in food prices in the last years, following a century of decline, has been the most marked of the past century in its magnitude, duration and the number of commodity groups whose prices have increased. The ensuing crisis has resulted in a 50—200% increase in selected commodity prices, driven 110 million people into poverty and added 44 million more to the undernourished. Elevated food prices have had dramatic impacts on the lives and livelihoods, including increased infant and child mortality, of those already undernourished or living in poverty and spending 70—80% of their daily income on food. Key causes of the current food crisis are the combined effects of speculation in food stocks, extreme weather events, low cereal stocks, growth in biofuels competing for cropland and high oil prices.

Nellemann, C., MacDevette, M., Manders, T., Eickhout, B., Svihus, B., Prins, A. G., Kaltenborn, B. P. (Eds). February 2009. The environmental food crisis — The environment’s role in averting future food crises. A UNEP rapid response assessment. United Nations Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal, www.grida.no

The diligent activist must certainly want to cut speculation and limit the growth of biofuels based on corn. Along with this he/she would be adding his/her energy to resolving the climate crisis, and also questioning the burgeoning consumption of beef world wide. Biofuels can be better produced from cellulosic biomass (like cornstocks, grasses, hay, even brush) which doesn't affect the food crops.

Solving this problem is within the scope of planet management. Notice that this is a scaling problem.

This is likewise a scaling problem:

"Indonesia's Minister for the Environment has approved a decree that will allow the conversion of carbon-rich peatlands for oil palm plantations, reports The Jakarta Post."

http://www.mongabay.com/

Although Indonesia has enhanced its productivity it has pushed carbon sequestration down, pushed climate change up and raised the biodiversity loses.

Manager Roles

So far the planet manager is an ideal type with a virtual position. The concept is of an individual (or group), acting as consultant or advocat, working with the earthmodal package can enhance decision making, program and process formation, best practice, and so on, in many roles that are currently installed in, or a part of, governments, businesses or NGOs. Most of the G20 nations have already incorporated Agenda 21 into their federal, provincial and municipal governments. Businesses are required to register environmental impact reports, are often sustainability conscious and promote themselves as responsible companies.

Nevertheless non G20 nations are falling behind, some bordering on collapse.

(to be continued)