The territorialization of environmental Governance. Governing the environment based on just inequalities?

Abstract

The territorial/local level of action appears to be a key level for making environmental protection decisions, as well as a valuable level of sociological analysis. Based on two very different examples (France, Quebec) involving the protection of drinking water, this article looks at justice-related processes that enable reflection on environmental problems and the ways they are resolved on a territorial scale, in other words, justice as a process of normative judgment. The article therefore shows that environmental actions are permeable to social power relationships. It is in this context of environmental decision making that the justice–environment relationship plays out. However, if the local appears to be the level at which environmental issues are addressed, it rarely produces solutions in favour of nature or natural resource protection. To the contrary, it generates decisions based on ‘just inequalities’ associated with local political and economic arbitration. In this context, two generic models of environmental governance seem to emerge: one ‘by withdrawal’ and the other ‘by obstruction.’ Both underscore the persistence of an unjust sustainability with respect to natural resources.

Keywords:

• justice
• collective choices
• territorialized governance
• public action
• environment
• water
• just inequalities

Notes

1. The first World Climate Conference was held in Geneva, but the first commitments were made in Vienna in 1985 and in Montreal in 1987. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit formalized the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was signed by 50 states and came into force on 21 March 1994. In Kyoto, Japan in 1997, during the 3rd United Nations Climate Change Conference, a framework convention was adopted that was expected to come into force in 2005. Emissions goals were drawn up at the time, but they were not easily achieved, as shown by various reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established in 1988.

2. Each case examined here has been the subject of empirical research conducted between 2013 and 2014 based on interviews and literature reviews (of the press and institutional communications) (Busca and Camus 2013; Lewis and Busca 2014). The object of the article is not to present a detailed portrait of these empirical cases, as this would entail a change in the focus.

3. On the history of wilderness and American national parks, it is interesting to consult Nass (1967).

4. While Muir advocated non-intervention, Pinchot, as a forester, defended a controlled management of resources.

5. For a synthesis, see Bowen (2002) and Walker (2009).

6. The Chambres d’agriculture are professional organizations founded in France under a 3 January 1924 act and exclusively made up of members elected by the agricultural profession. They are in charge of representing the agricultural world and guiding its development and can be called upon by public authorities in the event of land use, water protection or other problems.

7. In 2009, the ministries responsible for sustainable development, health and agriculture published a list of more than 500 ‘Grenelle’ catchment areas, i.e., those under the greatest threat of various forms of pollution, in particular nitrates and phytosanitary products from agricultural activities. These catchments, located across France, were identified following a local consultation process. They are deemed a priority focus for public authorities in terms of either protection or recovery. The action mechanisms put in place for these catchments come under the objectives of article 27 of the Loi de programmation relative à la mise en œuvre du Grenelle de l’environnement dated 3 August 2009 (known as the Loi Grenelle I).

8. That is, an administrative grouping of municipalities (between the municipal and regional levels).

9. For more on the links between pluralism, participation and environmental governance, see Bernard Reber (2013).

10. Agricultural pollution is the leading cause for the abandonment of catchments (41% of abandonment cases). Since 1994, and notably since the 2000s, ‘almost 400 catchments used to protect water destined for human consumption have been abandoned in France every year’ (Secrétariat d’État chargé de la santé 2012, 6).

11. The current Energy East project spearheaded by the company TransCanada Pipeline involves one of the most extensive pipelines in North America, spanning more than 700 km across the most inhabited regions of Quebec. In order to block such projects, the Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement has been called upon. The recent report on the Cacouna project gives a sense of the scope of this recourse (Desjardins 2014).

12. See, for example, Cardona, Lamine, and Hochereau (2012).

13. For some years Western countries have seen an increase in public mechanisms and discourse pointing to changes in individual practices and their aggregate effect as the main engine for the ecological transition. The many areas that are targeted include automobile trips, keeping energy demand under control, and moderating drinking water consumption. Although these ‘appeals to action’ may a priori sensitize everyday users to natural resource protection and environmental management, they also stigmatize individual practices only, sometimes at the risk of concealing the accountability (and key role) of production activities (industrial, agricultural, etc.) in environmental pollution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Didier Busca

Didier Busca is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès (France) and Researcher with the Center of Studies and Research for Work, Organizations and Power (CERTOP, UMR 5044 of the CNRS). He is also Co-Director of the CERTOP ‘Environmental Policy and Social Practices’ research team and Coordinator of the ‘Environmental Policy and Social Practices’ master’s degree at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès. Over the past 15 years, he has examined links between agriculture, the environment, public policy and territories in connection with issues of water protection and the ‘sound’ development of agricultural activities. He has directed and co-directed numerous studies in this field. Currently, under the ‘Concertation, Decision Environment’ program of the French Ministry of Ecology, he is leading research on public-private modes of governance and the standardization of environmental problems relating to phytosanitary practices in wine growing. He is also actively involved in a program funded by the National Research Agency of France to examine matters of environmental justice (NRA Effijie, led by Jacqueline Candau et Valérie Deldrève, IRSTEA Bordeaux).

Didier Busca ([email protected]), University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, Maison de la recherche, CERTOP UMR 5044 du CNRS, 5 Allées A. Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.

Nathalie Lewis

Nathalie Lewis holds a doctorate in sociology and a master’s degree in political science. She is currently Professor with the Department of Sociétés, Territoires et Développement at the University of Quebec at Rimouski (Quebec, Canada), where she is conducting research in political ecology. She is especially interested in the patrimonialization of the environment and in the impact of this new ‘prescription’ on inhabitants. Her research areas include links between (human) territorial communities and their environment, as well as the question of how to align issues of social and environmental justice. Her current research deals with the mechanisms at work in social relationships centred on environmental issues, and contributes to analyzing local participation in relation to various territorial levels. Other research interests include public goods and their inevitable conflict with other social imperatives. She is currently involved in studies on the social and environmental inequalities associated with natural resources, as well as research on marine protected areas and a project on the natural resource-related cooperation negotiated between First Nations, institutional and private players.

Nathalie Lewis ([email protected]), Department of Sociétés, Territoires et Développement, University of Quebec at Rimouski, 300 Allée des Ursulines, P.O. Box 3300, Branch A, Rimouski (Quebec), G5L 3A, Canada.