MODEL FOR NEGOTIATIONS

IN MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS

FOR LOCAL GOVERNANCE:
ASHWINI PRASHANTH (1881)

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are only legal instruments to achieve shared
international environmental management and policy objectives. To make progress towards
the goals we need to take small practical steps. Our motto is "Think global, act local". But for
this we have to manage a host of interrelated systemic relationships involving many
stakeholders like business, industry, and civil society. Rather than the number of regulations
in place and the areas they address, they key problem is the limited or partial implementation
the framework. Although the government is supportive of MEAs, the implementation is
affected by a series of structural and underlying variables like poverty and immediate
subsistence needs of a substantial percentage of the population, lack of basic education and
awareness regarding the importance of environment (at all levels from schools to productive
sector), rampant corruption, perception among public institutions that biodiversity as an
integrating concept is "something new", and short-term state developmental policies.
Progress has been made to overcome these problems but they still play an important role in
influencing the implementation of policies. For example, the action plan following the
Convention to Combat Desertification called for objectives like irritation of small potentially
arable lands, reforestation and controlling soil erosion. But the evaluation process revealed
that although there was progress in achieving these objectives, most of the actions of public
and private institutions have been carried out independently from the action plan and with
limited interaction among the different actors involved. Many activities relating to combat
desertification are part of broader initiatives of public agencies (social programs and projects
to alleviate poverty) or of smaller more specific projects by NGOs, religious and educational
institutions

etc.

Therefore the action plans need to be updated keeping up with these in mind.
Coordinating the implementation of MEAs requires financial resources and personnel. The
bodies in charge of implementing have limited budgets and human resources available to
undertake the time consuming and lengthy efforts of coordinating MEA implementation. In
this regard, raising the profile of MEAs and developing a marketing strategy or awareness
raising program is a means to promote wider and more committed participation of public

agencies in general. When it comes to implementation at the local governance level, there are
plenty of considerations that have not been fathomed at the stage of starting of policies - and
lack of financial resources is one of them. This deficiency can be resolved by seeking funds
from the corporate sector. Corporate bodies in today's day and age play a pivotal role in
shaping the making and implementation of policies, be it governmental or otherwise, as part
of their corporate social responsibility, and their contribution would be greatly appreciated.
At the local governance level, we have been steadily developing the legal framework of
MEAs to support progressive implementation and the further development of state level
commitments. The system is evolving, but state level leadership and authority is still
indispensable. Ultimately, the two tracks need to be mutually reinforcing.
The negotiation session concluded in a positive outcome for the local governance. The state
government and the Ministry of Environment acknowledged the problems pertaining to
implementation of policies. In this regard, the local governance supports the state
government's proposal to obtain multilateral funding with the assistance of the Montreal
Protocol. The corporate governance agreed to contributing towards corporate funding for
policies of conservation of environment, in return for economic incentives, the details of
which shall be chalked out in later sessions and subsequent policies.