Environmental Management Tools A Training Manual Edited by Jayant K. Routray In association with Anurupa Mohanty Environmental Management Tools A Training Manual Edited by Jayant K. Routray In association with Anurupa Mohanty School of Environment, Resources and Development Asian Institute of Technology P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang Pathumthani 12120, Thailand Environmental Management Tools A Training Manual Copyright: 2006 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) & School of Environment, Resources and Development Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Km 42 Paholyothin Highway, Klong Lunag Pathumthani 12120, Thailand Published by: School of Environment, Resources and Development Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Km 42 Paholyothin Highway, Klong Lunag Pathumthani 12120, Thailand ISBN: 978-974-8257-43-3 This publication may be reproduced in whole or part in any form for educational and non-profit purposes without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is accurately done. Both AIT and UNEP would appreciate of receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. This publication is strictly prohibited for resale for any other commercial purpose whatsoever without prior permission in writing from the UNEP and AIT. Cover design and photograph (AIT gulf course and Queen Sirikit Arboretum Garden) by Pravakar Pradhan DISCLAIMER: The content of this volume do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of either the UNEP and AIT, or contributing organizations. The designations employed and the presentations do not imply the expressions of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the UNEP or contributing organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authority, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Distributed By: United Nations Environment Programme & School of Environment, Resources and Development Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand ii Foreword Achieving environmental sustainability is the current goal of all nations in the world for sustainable living and human security. Human activities for rapid economic gains without rational utilization of available resources and inadequate conservation practices create multiple environmental problems of complex nature that need to be addressed and managed effectively and efficiently at all levels (local, regional, national and global), and by all sections of the population. Managing environment is the greatest challenge that societies face at present. Understanding, adaptation and application, as well as dissemination of environmental management tools in this respect are very crucial to build and create healthy world relatively free from environmental degradation and pollutions. Therefore the need arises to expose and educate the officials, decision and policy makers working at the ministry level for downward dissemination and implementation of management tools in each and every country. The individual and collective actions taken by the nations will certainly rejuvenate and enrich the global environmental quality and situation step by step. AIT and UNEP’s International Environmental Governance process have continuously recognized the need to develop a strategic plan for capacity building for the developing countries. Following the adoption of the Bali Strategic Plan (BSP) for Technology Support and Capacity Building, it was emphasized to provide systematic, targeted, long and short-term measures, taking into international agreements based on national and regional priorities and as well as felt needs. One of the areas identified for the capacity building is on environmental management tools (EMT) including legal, fiscal and technological for the SAARC member countries, recommended in a meeting of Experts held in October 2004 in New Delhi. With this backdrop, it was prompted by the UNEP-ROAP to organize a training program on “Environmental Management Tools” to strengthen the environmental community in South Asia, including the governments, civil societies, intergovernmental agencies and business. This training was attended by senior officials from 8 South Asian countries, SACEP and SAARC. The training program was designed and implemented by the School of Environment, Resources and Development of Asian Institute of Technology during 27-31 March 2006. The EMT Training Program at AIT provided the common platform to share the current national environmental situation and experiences with selected management practices, to familiarize the participants with varieties of environmental management tools and techniques with case studies and applications, and exposed field visits in Bangkok to demonstrate few best practices. UNEP and AIT hope to organize more of similar events in future in close collaboration to benefit the governments, non-government organizations, private, regional and intergovernmental organizations, institutes and individuals in pursuing better environmental quality management. Said Irandoust Surendra Shrestha President Regional Director and Representative Asian Institute of Technology UNEP-ROAP iii Preface and Acknowledgements Environmental Management Tools: A training Manual is the product derived from a training program organized by the School of Environment, Resources and Development of Asian Institute of Technology during 27-31 March 2006. This training program was conceptualized by the UNEP – ROAP following the needs assessment of the SAARC member countries held at New Delhi in October 2004. Mr. Surendra Shrestha, Prof. S. Kumar and Dr. Subrato Sinha were instrumental in shaping this training program. I was given the responsibility of organizing this program on behalf of the School of Environment, Resources and Development. The participants were from eight South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives), SACEP and SAARC. All the participating members were key and high level functionaries responsible for implementation of environmental programs and projects, policy formulation and decision making process. The resource persons were drawn from AIT and UNEP-ROAP, and few others were taken externally. The resource persons were professionally rich and knowledgeable in their respective areas of specializations to deliver the best in assigned topics. The training program covered different aspects of Environmental Management Tools (EMT). Within the limited time frame of five days, few selected but key areas were chosen from legal, fiscal, and technological tools with overview of environmental issues of Asia, regional and trans- boundary impacts and influences, and policy instruments of EMT for deliberations. Presentations were made sequentially by the resource persons following a schedule. The presentations were comprehensive with case studies and illustrations from Asia and other countries. Two field visits were planned and conducted on ‘solid waste management’, and ‘eco-house’ in the periphery of Bangkok city. In addition, the participants also made country paper presentations on environmental situations of their respective countries with focus on specific practices of management tools. This training manual is the outcome of the reading materials prepared specifically for this purpose and undergone further revision and editing. There are six sections of this manual. The first section presents an overview of global and regional environmental situation with focus on Asian issues. The second section deals with environmental data, environmental indicators, environmental accounting, GIS applications, spatial and planning tools. The third section explains the legal tools such as Environmental Law, Multilateral Environmental Agreements, EIA, Environmental Auditing, and Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment. The fourth section makes an overview of fiscal tools covering topics such as policy instruments and Clean Development Mechanism. The fifth section concentrates on water quality and waste water management, solid waste management, industrial management tools, and Montreal Protocol. The sixth and last section focuses on environmental security, air quality with trans-boundary issues, climate change and institutional mechanism for environmental management. I would like to express my thanks to many individuals and institutions who have sincerely contributed their time and energy for preparing the training program as well as documenting the training outputs through this manual. They include Government Departments, Intergovernmental Organizations, and Academic Institutions. A full list of contributors, resource persons, and participants are included in Appendix. Special thanks are extended to Prof. Said Irandoust (President of AIT), Prof. Peter Heddawy (Vice-President for Academic Affairs), Prof. Vials (Vice- President of External Relations), Prof. S. K. Rakshit (Vice-President of Research) and Prof . S. Kumar (Dean, School of Environment, Resources and Development), Mr. Surendra Shrestha, v Regional Director and Representative (UNEP-ROAP), and Dr. Subrato Sinha (Environmental Affairs Officer) for their support and cooperation in making this project a success. Finally, the financial support from the UNEP-ROAP is highly appreciated without which it had not become possible. The assistance extended by Anurupa Mohanty, Leena Divakar and Pravakar Pradhan for conducting the training program and finalizing the training manual for printing in its present form, are duly acknowledged and highly appreciated. I