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.pdfдобывающие отрасли всё это в сочетании с ярко выраженной зависимостью от централизованного финансирования и принимаемыми где-то в центре решениями казалось бы делает устойчивое развитие Севера практически недостижимым. Тем не менее, элементы государственной политики, необходимые для устойчивого развития (соответствующие законы, программы освоения) разработаны в Канаде для освоения Севера лучше, чем для какого-либо другого района страны.
Причиной такого положения во многом явились приверженность северян, в особенности аборигенов, идее устойчивого развития и стремление правительства прислушаться к озабоченностям местного населения. Нынешнее положение регионов Заполярья открывает все возможности для установления международных связей, позволяющих усилить участие северян в формировании своего будущего.
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ТЕКСТ № 4
SUSTAI>ABLE DEVELOPME>T I> CA>ADA'S >ORTH3
Background
The World Commission on Environment and Development Report, better known as the Brundtland Report4, has had a major impact on public policy, both in Canada and internationally. The report calls on governments and industry to pursue forms of development that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.
The Canadian government has committed itself to the concept of sustainable development in various policy statements, most notably the Green Plan and the Arctic Environmental Strategy. The territorial governments and several northern based aboriginal organizations have also expressed their support for the concept of sustainable development.
International efforts to promote sustainable development at the global level provide a supporting environment in which to advance sustainable development both in Canada and the circumpolar North. Most notable among these is the follow-up to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also known as UNCED or Rio Conference) which took place in June 1992. UNCED yielded Agenda 21, a comprehensive action plan on sustainable development, as well as international conventions on biodiversity and global warming, the Rio declaration, principles on the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests and an agreement on high seas fisheries.
Two initiatives specific to the circumpolar Arctic also deserve attention. The first is the so-called «Finnish Initiative» which led in 1991 to the adoption of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strat-
3 This paper was prepared by George McCormick, Senior Environmental Advisor, Northern Oil and Gas Directorate, Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
4 World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future (Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1987).
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egy (AEPS) by the governments of circumpolar countries. The AEPS sets out four related initiatives:
(i)a State of the Arctic Environment Report,
(ii)the creation of the Arctic Monitoring and Assess-
ment Program,
(iii)an agreement on protection of the Arctic Marine
Environment,
(iv)an agreement on the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna including exchanges of research and management information, data, and coordination of research.
The thrust of action under the AEPS to date has been one of environmental protection. The AEPS recognises, however, the need for sustainable development in the circumpolar world. The AEPS therefore provides an opportunity for Canada to promote sustainable development at the circumpolar level.
The Canadian Context
The Canadian North, and the Northwest Territories (N. W. T.) in particular, is experiencing rapid changes. Over the last few decades the northern economy has been on a roller-coaster, the result of sharp fluctuations in resource prices. Culturally, northern aboriginal populations are making the transition from a subsistence to a postindustrial economy within two generations. The North is also being transformed politically through devolution of powers from Ottawa, the negotiation of comprehensive land agreements with aboriginal peoples and the division of the N. W. T. into two territories. Finally, even the environment on which northerners depend for their livelihood is changing as a result of the long-range transport of contaminants from the south and global warming. The pace of change in the North makes the achievement of sustainable forms of development a particularly difficult challenge.
Environmental Trends
Although once considered pristine because of its remoteness and small population, the Canadian Arctic has been subject over the last 50 years to some «point source» contaminants from local mining, oil and gas and community activities. Most important are pol-
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lutants transported over long distances from industrialized regions in the south. Soot, acid rain, PCBs, pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants are appearing in the Arctic, thousands of kilometres from their sources. The long-range transport of these contaminants is increasingly being viewed as the most significant threat to environmental quality in the Arctic.
>orthern Policy
As a result of continuing mineral exploration and development in the North and oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Sea and High Arctic Islands, the federal government passed legislation in the late 1960s and early 1970s to protect the northern natural environment.
The 1981 Northern Land Use Planning Policy represented an important step away from a purely regulatory approach toward environmental management. This policy recognized that hunting, fishing and trapping, and the conservation of certain areas constitute land uses that need to be taken more fully into account in decisionmaking. The current legislative base for environmental management has not altered greatly since the 1970s.
What is Sustainable Development?
The concern over sustainable development at the global level is very recent. For most of human history, sustainable resource use was not an issue: environmental impacts were small or localized; when resources became depleted, people moved on; finally, the rate of technological change was so slow as to be almost imperceptible. Now, in an era of rapid population growth, resource consumption and technological change, the opportunity for human response to change has been reduced to decades, if not often an even shorter period of time.
General Concepts
The Brundtland Commission did not invent the concept of sustainable development since the recognition that natural resources have to be managed on a sustainable basis can be traced back to at least the beginning of the century. Sustainable development is a
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concept with several dimensions. The first is clearly an economic one. It implies that renewable resources, such as forestry, wildlife and fisheries, must be managed to ensure their continued productivity over time.
Second, sustainable development also has an obvious environmental dimension: economic growth must be environmentally sustainable over the long term. The guidelines to gauge environmental sustainability are expressed most succinctly in the three objectives of the 1980 World Conservation Strategy. These are:
•the maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems;
•the preservation of generic diversity; and
•the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems.
A third dimension is a socio-economic one. Sustainable development will be unlikely where wide disparities in the distribution of wealth prevail, where communities disintegrate or where cultural values are ignored. Social equity, healthy communities and sensitivity to cultural values are therefore as much integral elements to sustainable development as environmental quality and economic prosperity.
In conclusion, it is important to recognize that sustainability is possible at various levels of economic activity and environmental quality and under different political, social or cultural conditions. No single definition of sustainable development is therefore universally acceptable or «correct». Since sustainable development is more a process than a condition, it implies continuous change rather than a static state.
Principles for >orthern Sustainable Development
Following many discussions about sustainable development in the North, we have developed a set of principles which would be used to provide general guidance, and not all of these would apply in every instance. The application of sustainable development principles does not obviate the need to make trade-offs between different options. Decision-makers will still have choices to make and
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justify. The most important criterion is the central involvement of northerners in all phases of decision-making. Sustainable development requires the reconciliation of sometimes competing environmental, economic, social and cultural values. In a democratic society, such a reconciliation should be the result of negotiation by all affected parties and should not be imposed by a distant decisionmaker. The principles are as follows:
PRIfCIPLES
ENVIRONMENT
• maintenance of key ecological processes and biological diversity.
SOCIAL PRINCIPLES
•Central involvement of northerners in all phases of deci- sion-making.
•Scale and rate of development as consistent as possible with the absorptive capacity of local communities.
•Consideration of development impacts on communities and traditional values.
ECONOMY
•Economic viability of development proposals.
•Opportunity to benefit from development for those who bear the financial, environmental or social risks.
•Expansion and diversification of the local economies.
PROCESS
•Consideration of transboundary and cumulative impacts.
•Transparent, accountable, inclusive, and rigorous deci- sion-making process.
All of these principles easily fall within broad policies such as economic development, the protection of traditional lifestyles, the preservation of cultural identity, the protection of environmental quality, and increased participation in decision-making.
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Circumpolar Considerations
It is safe to say that environmental issues know no political bounds, and this is particularly so in relation to the northern circumpolar world. Geography, climate, socio-cultural circumstance and natural resources uses, link the Arctic nations. In years ahead, bilateral and global initiatives may well be supplemented by agreements among the eight national governments of the Arctic countries.
Regional Arctic institutions are already emerging. Regional governments in the Arctic are now using the Northern Forum to promote economic development, and bring the Arctic more fully into the world's commerce. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference has brought together Inuit from Alaska, Canada and Greenland to address a wide range of topics, including those dealing with the power of aboriginal peoples resident in the Arctic to control their own affairs. This body now includes representatives from Russia, and is in close contact with aboriginal peoples represented by the Nordic Sami Council. An Arctic Council, first proposed by Canada in 1989, may be established within the year.
Sustainability has not always been the watchword, but most involved in northern development have been searching for ways and means to exploit the Arctic's energy and mineral resources without causing irreparable environmental and social damage. Blending the best of the old with the best of the new in a manner that serves national interests of developing energy and minerals, and regional interests of promoting environmental and social integrity, remains a key policy objective of Arctic nations.
To be achieved, this policy objective will require further collective action by Arctic states, for the circumpolar North could in the 1990s and beyond, undergo additional industrialization as a result of an increase in resource prices or the opening-up of the northern sea route linking Japan, eastern Asia and the west coast of North America, with western Europe. Operation of the northern sea route to general cargoes would promote further energy and mineral development within the Arctic.
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Conclusion
Northern realities pose unique challenges to the application of sustainable development approaches: a thinly-spread human population, a harsh environment and a resource-based economy, combined with a pronounced dependence on financial transfers and decisions taken outside the region would seem to make sustainable development difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, the institutional framework to pursue sustainable development (eg. laws, policies, strategies, etc.) is arguably better developed in northern Canada than anywhere else in the country.
The commitment of northerners, particularly aboriginal peoples, to the values of sustainable development and the willingness of governments to listen to community concerns are largely responsible for this situation. Now, developments in the circumpolar world provide an opportunity to establish international links which will strengthen northerners' control of their future.
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ТЕКСТ № 5
НЕКОТОРЫЕ СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ И ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ ПРОВЕДЕНИЯ В ЖИЗНЬ КОНЦЕПЦИИ УСТОЙЧИВОГО РАЗВИТИЯ
Введение
Ухудшающееся физическое состояние окружающей среды вызывает беспокойство уже в течение многих лет. В последнее время это беспокойство еще более усилилось. Для многих людей оно превратилось в уверенность в том, что, если характер экономического развития не изменится, то возникает реальная угроза жизни на нашей планете. И многие уже сомневаются в «устойчивости» экономического развития на современном этапе. Конечно, некоторые формы развития экономики необходимы и неизбежны. Но вместе с тем многие люди хотят видеть не бесконечное продолжение существующей практики, а действительно «устойчивое развитие».
В докладе Всемирной комиссии по окружающей среде и развитию от 1987 года (который также известен под названием доклад Комиссии Брундтланда) было предложено следующее определение «устойчивого развития»:
это развитие, которое «удовлетворяет потребности настоящего, не подвергая риску возможности будущих поколений удовлетворять их собственные потребности» (с.8)
Хотя существует множество разногласий по поводу точного значения приведенного определения, ясно одно: устойчивое развитие подразумевает такое развитие, которое позволит вечно поддерживать жизнь, если человечество сможет ею управлять. В то же самое время такое развитие должно обеспечить удовлетворение потребностей современного поколения живущих на планете людей.
Социально-политические аспекты проведения в жизнь концепции устойчивого развития
Вопрос, возникший из дебатов по поводу путей и методов достижения устойчивого развития, заключается в установлении
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существования связи между качеством окружающей среды и другими насущными социальными и политическими вопросами и, если такая связь существует, в установлении ее характера. Например, этот вопрос поднимался в связи с проблемой бедности. Многие изучавшие эту проблему исследователи считают, что бедность является как причиной, так и следствием деградации окружающей среды. Причиной потому, что повсюду в мире у бедных людей просто нет другого выбора, как эксплуатировать естественные ресурсы вредным для окружающей среды путем. Типичные примеры этого хорошо известны.
«Те, кто бедны и голодны, часто уничтожают окружающую среду для того, чтобы выжить: они рубят деревья, их скот уничтожает травяной покров, они интенсивно используют малопродуктивные земли и во все возрастающих количествах устремляются в перенаселенные города. Совокупное воздействие всех этих изменений настолько велико, что бедность сама по себе является величайшим бичом мира.» (Доклад Комиссии Брундтланда, с.28)
В самом общем смысле это высказывание означает, что «Когда потребности людей не удовлетворяются, они вряд ли будут благоразумно относиться к окружающей среде» («Глобальное мышление: роль социального равенства в устойчивом развитии», с.28)
Бедность также является и следствием деградации окружающей среды. По мере физической деградации природы, последняя дает все меньше и меньше ценностей, все больше и больше разоряя зависимых от окружающей среды людей. Это представляется ясным на интуитивном уровне.
Канаде повезло в том, что это достаточно изобильная страна. Крайняя нищета никогда не являлась для нас серьезным препятствием в деле зашиты окружающей среды. Но существуют другие социальные и политические проблемы, которые продолжают осложнять как развитие природных ресурсов, так и проведение в жизнь природоохранной политики в нашей стране. Одна из проблем, на которой я хочу сосредоточить внимание, заключается в сильном желании многих канадцев обеспечить контроль местных властей над принятием решений
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