Romania, on Its Way to a Sustainable Society
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Regional Sustainable Society Index for Romania, RSSI-Romania-2009 a sustainable society to − RSSI-Romania-2009 Romania, on its way After the publication of the national level SSI-Romania-2008, now the Regional Sustainable Society Index for all eight development regions in Romania is available. It shows at a glance the level of sustainability Romania, in each region and the distance to full sustainability. Priorities for improvement on the way towards sustainability are thus clearly indicated. on its way to a sustainable society The RSSI is based on no more than 22 indicators, covering the main aspects of Quality of Life and Sustainability. These two have to go together: Sustainability without quality of life has no sense, quality of life without sustainability has no perspective. This publication outlines the RSSI for each of the 8 regions, shows the scores for all indicators and com- Regional Sustainable Society Index pares the regions, with special focus on North-West region. RSSI-Romania-2009 1 Life Expectancy 8.6 RSSI-Romania-2009 North-West region 2 Poverty Rate 5.8 22 1 2 3 Sucient to Drink 7.4 21 3 4 Safe Sanitation 6.0 20 4 5 Education Opportunities 7.8 19 5 North-West 18 6 6 Gender Equality 7.5 17 7 7 Air Quality 9.7 The Regional Sustainable Society Index – 8 Surface Water Quality 6.7 RSSI-Romania-2009 – as it has been presented 16 8 15 9 9 Land Quality 4.7 here, is a most welcome tool to support the way 14 10 11 10 Good Governance 5.2 to sustainability, for our region, as well as for all 13 12 11 Employment 5.5 development regions in Romania. We are glad 12 Population Growth 8.9 that North-West region was chosen as the rst 13 Income Distribution 7.4 region for developing its own RSSI. 14 Public Debt 8.5 15 Waste Recycling 2.1 We consider that the success of regional 16 Use of Renewable Water Resources 9.9 development policies depends very much on 17 Consumption of Renewable Energy 1.3 our ability of understanding the concept of 18 Forest Area 5.0 sustainability, the way we can evaluate and 19 Preservation of Biodiversity 3.6 monitor it and the way we communicate the 20 Emission of Greenhouse Gases 8.3 sustainable development progress to all the 21 Ecological Footprint 5.2 stakeholders. 22 International Cooperation 10 I strongly recommend the usage and the further development of the RSSI. ISSN 1844 – 9980 Claudiu Coşier, www.romaniadurabila.net director of RDA North-West www.sustainablesocietyindex.com SSF www.greenpartners.ro Ministery of Environment Regional Sustainable Society Index for Romania RSSI-Romania-2009 North-West region For all children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Romania A sustainable society is a society • that meets the needs of the present generation, • that does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, • in which each human being has the opportunity to develop itself in freedom, within a well-balanced society and in harmony with its surroundings. The earth offers enough for everyone’s need, not for everyone’s greed. Mahatma Gandhi Regional Sustainable Society Index for Romania RSSI-Romania-2009 with special focus on North-West region With a foreword of Nicolae Nemirschi Minister of Environment Ciprian Popovici Geurt van de Kerk Arthur Manuel SSF Sustanable Society Foundation Romania, on its way to a sustainable society The project is financially supported by the Social Transformation Programme (Matra) of the Netherlands Ministry of For- eign Affairs. Project organisation The development of the regional index is part of the project Romania, on its way to a sustainable society. It has been realized in only six months, thanks to the support and help of our project partners. They were of great importance for the collection of data and offered their guidance, assistance, advice and feedback whenever necessary. Ministry of Ministry of Environment Regional Development and Housing NIS NEPA 8 RDA’s 8 REPA’s RDA Repa Cluj EG Cluj North-West Green Partners Sustainable Society Foundation Project implementation team Ciprian Popovici, social and sustainability expert, Green Partners, Romania Réka Soós, environmental consultant, Green Partners, Romania Gyongyi Balint, junior environmental consultant, Green Partners, Romania Geurt van de Kerk, project director, Sustainable Society Foundation Arthur Manuel, senior advisor, Sustainable Society Foundation www.romaniadurabila.net www.sustainablesocietyindex.com Content At a glance 6 Foreword 7 Summary 8 Part I 1. Introduction 12 2. Regional Development in Romania 13 3. Sustainable Society Index 1 3.1 Sustainability 1 3.2 Sustainable Society Index 1 4. Regional Sustainable Society Index – RSSI 17 4.1. Concept of the RSSI 17 4.2 Data collection 17 5. RSSI-Romania-2008, main results 18 5.1 Calculation 18 5.2 Overall index 18 5.3 Categories 19 5.4 Indicators 20 6. Use of the RSSI-Romania-2009 22 7. Recommendations 24 Part II Indicators – description 26 Part III North-West region – a case study 74 Conclusions 106 Annexes 1. Abbreviations 108 2. References 109 At a glance Overall scores RSSI-Romania-2009 Romania 5.9 North-East 5.7 South-East 5.9 South 5.6 South-West 5.2 West 5.9 North-West 6.2 Centre 6.1 Bucharest-Ilfov 5.3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 RSSI-Romania-2009 North-West Region 22 International Cooperation 10 1 Life Expectancy 8.6 22 1 2 21 Ecological Footprint 5.2 21 3 2 Poverty Rate 5.8 20 Emission of Greenhouse Gases 8.3 20 4 3 Sucient to Drink 7.4 19 Preservation of Biodiversity 3.6 19 5 4 Safe Sanitation 6.0 18 Forest Area 5.0 5 Education Opportunities 7.8 18 6 17 Consumption of Renewable Energy 1.3 6 Gender Equality 7.5 16 Use of Renewable Water Resources 9.9 17 7 7 Air Quality 9.7 15 Waste Recycling 2.1 16 8 8 Surface Water Quality 6.7 14 Public Debt 8.5 9 Land Quality 4.7 15 9 13 Income Distribution 7.4 14 10 10 Good Governance 5.2 11 12 Population Growth 8.9 13 12 11 Employment 5.5 The spider web shows the extent of sustainability. The outer circle expresses full sustainability, a score of 10; the centre of the web expresses no sustainability at all, a score of 0. 6 I’m fully aware of the difficulties encountered when developing the RSSI. Many data were not available or couldn’t be used for this purpose. In view of the impor- tance of having an easy and transparent tool to measure Foreword the level of sustainability in our regions, I support the im- provement of data collection, as suggested in this report. I wish that the regional index will contribute – at national as well as at regional level – to develop the regions in a sustainable way. I strongly encourage to continue the work of developing, updating and implementing the Only a year ago the Sustainable Society Index for Ro- RSSI-Romania in each region. I look forward to the next mania – SSI-Romania-2008 – has been published. This edition in 2011. national index showed the actual level of sustainability of Romania and indicated what is going well and what needs further improvement. The SSI appeared to be a real asset. At that time the need for a similar instrument on regional level was strongly felt. I am happy to note that such instrument is already now in my hands: the Regional Sustainable Society Index for Romania, RSSI- Romania-2009. Nicolae Nemirschi, Minister of Environment In this one year there has been a rapidly growing aware- ness and concern about sustainability. However, on Coordinator of the implementation of regional level a concrete touchstone for the policy, pro- National Sustainable Development Strategy grammes and plans with respect to sustainability was still lacking. To meet this need the Regional SSI has now been developed, with a special focus on North-West region. I welcome the results. They show us very clearly where to put emphasis in the coming years. We have to find ways for improving Quality of Life without compro- mising Sustainability. The present economic crisis which has ruined expectations and plans of so many people, also offers us a great opportunity to make a definitive change. From now on sustainability will be both the guide and the touchstone for our work. 7 development regions of Romania, with a special focus on North-West region. The results of this project are pre- sented in this publication. Summary Main results Overall scores RSSI-Romania-2009 Romania 5.9 Mid 2008 the Sustainable Society Index, SSI-Romania- North-East 5.7 2008, was published. The SSI shows at a glance the level South-East 5.9 of sustainability of Romania based on the scores of 22 South 5.6 indicators. The indicators cover the main aspects of sus- South-West tainability, including quality of life, according to the defi- 5.2 nition of the well-known Brundtland Commission. West 5.9 North-West 6.2 Subsequently the need for a similar instrument on re- Centre 6.1 gional level was strongly felt by all stakeholders. Ideas Bucharest-Ilfov 5.3 for the set-up of such instrument where thus developed 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 during the first working meetings with our project part- ners, resulting in the current format of Regional SSI. SSF has transformed this idea into reality in close coopera- tion with its partners: Ministry of Environment, Ministry The overall scores for the regions, an aggregation of the of Regional Development and Housing, Regional Devel- scores of the underlying 22 indicators, vary from .2 for opment Agencies (RDA), National Institute of Statistics South-west region to 6.2 for North-West region, with an (NIS) and its regional offices, National Environmental Pro- average score for Romania of .9.