Environmental Justice Movement: Global and Local

Environmental degradation affects ecosystems, air quality, water resources, and biodiversity. Its impacts are not felt equally by all segments of society. As the environmental justice movement grows, rights-based approaches to use of natural resources and the environment are making their way into legal reforms. 

A series of legal and institutional measures have arisen to increase access to remedy and justice in environmental matters, enhance levels of accountability within decision-making processes, and empower local traditional communities through recognition of historic claims and customary norms on the use of natural resources and the environment. 

The Disproportionate Impact of Environmental Degradation on Marginalized Communities

A series of grievances are also increasingly being expressed in Xinjiang province, where local minority communities claim unequal benefits from use of natural resources and unequal protection against pollution from heavy industry. As a result of rapid growth of investments and industry, and fears of a ‘race to the bottom’ as ventures head West to less regulated areas, Tibet and Xinjiang have experienced levels of increasing citizen demands for access to and benefit sharing from resources as well as legal measures to prevent toxic impacts on the poor and vulnerable. 

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the natural resource sector is arguably the largest driver of environmental justice claims and actions, with a surge of extractive sector activity leading to a dramatic transformation of landscapes, pressures on arable land, destruction of ecosystems critical to rural livelihoods, and creation of highly toxic forms of air and water pollution which create lasting challenges to human health and ecosystem services. 

In South Africa, many of the structural causes of these injustices have remained in the post-apartheid era, owing to underlying systemic dynamics connected to the nature of resource governance, and the long-standing legacy of toxics from heavy industry, such as mercury poisoning of workers and communities, health impacts from asbestos mining, and waste dumping next to poorer townships. 

Nigeria has likewise been an important venue in the fight for environmental justice in the extractive sector. As in other top oil-exporting countries, energy exports account for the majority of public revenues and large social movements have arisen in recent years to address social and environmental risks. 

In Peru, recent years have seen a surge of community protests over planned mining investments, largely focused on potential environmental impacts on health and livelihoods including the right to clean water. Major protests in 2011 led to a number of deaths among protestors and cancellation of two mega-projects, the Tia Maria copper project by Southern Copper, the world’s second-biggest copper mining company, and the US$4.8 billion Conga gold-copper project, Peru’s biggest such investment. 

Achieving Environmental Sustainability and Justice: Solutions and Pathways between Global and Local 

In 2011 a set of regional guidelines were also issued by the African Commission on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requiring that States ensure ‘strict controls of the use and pollution of water resources for industrial purposes, and especially of extractive industries in rural areas’. 

The Mineral Resources Development Policy also passed by the Economic and Social Commission for West Africa the same year to promote prior, free and informed consent (PIC) and protection of customary resource rights, community access to information and participation, and access to systems of justice and remedy.

In the post-apartheid era, the opening up of South African politics created space for rethinking issues related to the use of natural resources and the communities that relied on them. A major step was catalysed by the Environmental Justice National Forum (EJNF), a nationwide umbrella organization established in the 1990s to coordinate activities of environmental organizations engaged in social and environmental justice. 

The movements took root after South Africa's highest court ruled in 2012 that miners had the right to sue mining companies for compensation in addition to that covered by a state compensation fund. In addition to victims’ compensation, the class action could set a legal precedent in the country for the use of the class action mechanisms as a tactic in achieving goals of environmental justice. 

Among various issues, the rapid expansion of hydro-dams is a trend in Ethiopia and across the African region that will shape many environmental justice concerns in the future. New plans for hydro power expansion, with hundreds of large dams being planned. Very little of the region’s hydro potential is used at the present, while converging needs for food, water and energy security grow. 

One expression of this has been the plight of local indigenous peoples in the Niger Delta, with increasing community claims of redress for toxic impacts and alleged rights abuses. The Ogoni are one among many indigenous communities in southeast Nigeria, rising to prominence in the environmental justice movement after a massive campaign against large oil multinationals in the Delta, under the umbrella of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). 

In the application of environmental justice in Latin America, countries have engaged in a dynamic process in which regional and national courts draw upon each other to support judgments over environmental rights. Part of the region’s special context is the role of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), both of which have issued recommendations and decisions in support of environmental justice.

In Mexico, a 2012 General Law on Climate Change now stands as one among a handful of climate laws in the developing world which addresses climate change from the perspective of the poor. It establishes a comprehensive, cross-sectorial legal framework to coordinate national, state and local initiatives to address climate change. 

Conclusion

Achieving environmental justice requires a comprehensive approach that addresses the root causes of inequality, promotes equitable access to resources, and ensures that marginalized communities have a voice in environmental decision-making processes.