Module title:

Environmental Planning &

1
Introduction

2
 Brief description of the module
The aim of this module is to provide
students with an overview of the
principles of environmental management
and the systems that can be implemented
to reduce an organization’s impact on the
environment especially in Rwanda.

3
 Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the module, students
should be able to:
• Explain the environmental management
concepts;
• Identify the main environmental threats;
• Describe and explain interactions between
development and the environment;
• Apply relevant legislation (policies and laws)
to protect the environment in Rwanda and
elsewhere.
4
 Module introduction
Defining environmental management
• Environmental management refers to the
management of modern human society with,
and its impacts on the environment.
• Because natural resources are finite and
limited, they can only support a certain
population within any species.
• Environmental management works on the
principle of conservation of the environment
in order to sustain human development.
5
Defining Environmental Management
(cont’d)
Factors:
• Because of the complexity of the environment and its
interconnected nature with all species,
environmental management incorporates both living
and nonliving components of the environment.
• In other words, both biological and physical aspects
of the environment are considered. Relationships
within the human environment, like social, cultural or
economic issues, are also factored.
• Environmental managers are affected by politics,
programs and "unnatural" resources (like money or
facilities) in their attempt to manage natural
resources. 6
Defining Environmental Management
(cont’d)
Standards:
• in order for environmental management to
remain effective, standards and systems have
been implemented.
• These standards attempt to measure the
success of management, as measured by some
objective criteria.
• ISO 4001 is a common standard for
environmental management put forth by the
International Organization for Standardization.
• Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are
usually based on the ISO 4001 standard.
7
Defining Environmental Management
(cont’d)
One Approach:
• Environmental Management System (EMS) is
a structured, documented approach to
respond to environmental challenges by
focusing on environmental regulations and
standards, and customer requirements.
• Environmental management involves
conducting a life-cycle assessment of the
process at hand, seeking ways to lessen
environmental burdens discovered, and then
optimizing the use of limited natural
resources utilized. 8
Defining Environmental Management
(cont’d)
Considerations:
• The goal of environmental management is to
find effective ways to use limited resources.
• When businesses are involved, products and
services are to be produced in an
environmentally conscious way.
• EMS attempts to create, reinforce and improve a
sound environmental policy through a cycle of
planning, implementation, checking (involves
monitoring and taking correcting action), and
review.
• The cycle moves towards continual 9
 Defining Environmental
Management (cont’d)
Planning:
• Within EMS, planning is considered an essential
counterpart of environmental management.
• Any good policy needs to start with a solid plan
that would consider all potential factors and
offer a way to optimize resources.
• Effective planning anticipates future
environmental changes or alternative scenarios,
and leads to preventive measures.
• After implementation of the plan, checking and
reviewing the results always lead back to more
planning for a better policy.
10
 The functions of the environment
• The natural environment renders many services to
man.
• It is a supplier of resources of great variety.
• We extract raw materials and energy from it.
• We are fed from it by cultivating its land and
harvesting its waters.
• We use it for recreation and enjoy its beauty.
• When an ecological system is too severely damaged
its life-supporting capacity is threatened.
• A severely polluted area may become uninhabitable.
• On a global level, damage to the ozone layer or
increasing carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere may lead to deterioration in man’s living
conditions 11
The functions of the environment (cont’d)
• Finally the natural environment is an
assimilator of wastes from human activities.
• Man’s production and consumption activities
generate residual of various sorts and some
of these, perhaps most, have to return to the
environment as waste.
• The environment has a certain capacity to
assimilate wastes without its quality being
affected, but when it is in quantities that
exceed this limit, this leads to deterioration
in its quality. 12
 The functions of the environment
(cont’d)
• There are three functions – resource supplier, life
support system and waste assimilator – of our
natural environment and there is a relationship with
man’s economic activities (i.e. consumption and
production).
• From the natural environment there is a flow of
resources in a very broad sense to production and
consumption.
• For production purposes raw materials and energy
are extracted from the environment, land is used for
agriculture, housing or industry, waters are used for
fishing and transportation and may provide electricity.
• The environment also provides goods and services
directly for consumption.
• People use it for recreation and they enjoy natural 13
forests, clean waters and rich wildlife.
Figure: environmental management
as an allocation problem

14
 The functions of the environment
(cont’d)
• Consumption and production activities generate
residuals such as smoke, noise, heat, smell and
waste materials.
• Some of these residuals go directly back to the
environment, some are exposed to waste
management activities where residuals are
treated, either to make recycling possible, or to
transform them into forms of waste which are
easier for the environment to assimilate or which
do less harm.
• Even if the environment has a certain capacity to
assimilate waste, modern society produces
waste in such amounts that environmental
15
The functions of the environment (cont’d)
• When its quality is affected so are its functions as a
resource supplier and as a life-support system.
• Water pollution may reduce or even destroy fishing
opportunities as well as recreational values.
• The productivity of agricultural land may be adversely
affected by air pollution.
• So the quality of the natural environment and its
ability to perform its three functions are part of the
activities within the economic system.
• But the contents of the economic activities, like costs
of production and consumption opportunities, in their
turn, are functions of the natural environment.
• It is thus clear that the natural environment is an
integral part of our economic system.
16
 The functions of the environment
(cont’d)
• Consumption and production activities generate
residuals such as smoke, noise, heat, smell and
waste materials.
• Some of these residuals go directly back to the
environment, some are exposed to waste
management activities where residuals are
treated, either to make recycling possible, or to
transform them into forms of waste which are
easier for the environment to assimilate or which
do less harm.
• Even if the environment has a certain capacity to
assimilate waste, modern society produces
waste in such amounts that environmental
17
The functions of the environment (cont’d)
• When its quality is affected so are its functions as a
resource supplier and as a life-support system.
• Water pollution may reduce or even destroy fishing
opportunities as well as recreational values.
• The productivity of agricultural land may be adversely
affected by air pollution.
• So the quality of the natural environment and its
ability to perform its three functions are part of the
activities within the economic system.
• But the contents of the economic activities, like costs
of production and consumption opportunities, in their
turn, are functions of the natural environment.
• It is thus clear that the natural environment is an
integral part of our economic system.
18
 Incompat. between various natural env
• Various uses of the naturaluses
environment may be incompatible
with each other.
• Many such examples involve a conflict between using
environmental resources for production or using them for
consumption.
• The exploitation of a river to built a power station or the
exploitation of a land area to extract minerals such as coal or
uranium have adverse effects on the recreational and scenic
values of these resources.
• Also, alternative productive uses of these environmental
resources, like fishing and agriculture, are adversely affected.
• These examples suggest that not only is the natural
environment an integral part of the economic system, providing
useful goods and services to man, but also man has to choose
the purpose and the way in which these resources are used.
• The management of the natural environment is a part of the
19
general problem of allocating the economy’s resources
 The role of the decisions taken by
consumers and firms
• The allocation of resources, including those
of the natural environment, which is realized
in the economy, depends on the decisions
taken by individual consumers and firms on
what to consume and what to produce and
how to do it.
• If we could expect the outcome of this
process to be in a certain normative sense
“good”, or, differently put, the resulting
allocation for resources to be efficient, there
would be little cause for concern about the
state of the natural environment. 20
 Efficiencies
• It has been one of the achievements of
economic theory to show under what conditions
we could expect inefficiencies.
• This identification of the allocative inefficiencies
then invites discussion of potential remedies or
policy actions.
• Policy actions are rarely costless.
• However, the gains or benefits of less
inefficiency should be weighed against the cost
of the policy measures.
• Such policy evaluation is one important
application of cost-benefit analysis.
21
 The role of decisions taken by public
authorities
• Public authorities also have a direct impact on the
utilization of the natural environment through many of their
decisions in matters not directly concerned with policy-
making for allocative efficiency.
• This is true for decisions such as building electric power
stations and water reservoirs, exploiting mineral resources
and creating national parks.
• In economies with an extensive public control over
production this is even more emphasized.
• Given the fundamental goal of allocative efficiency, public
authorities should aim at an efficient allocation of all
resources, including an efficient utilization of the natural
environment, in making these decisions.
• Evaluation of public projects is thus a second important
application of cost-benefit analysis.
22