The Environment Sphere Environment is the common denominator ...

he word 'environment' has become a catch-all that has driven social, economic and ecological agendas at all levels of governance: from global to local to individual. Its ascendancy to the top of developmental agendas has also been symptomatic of the industrial age and its impacts/consequences on the global environment due to uncontrolled development - resources consumed and wastes generated.

The Environment Sphere of GDRC's activities focus on the specific themes of environmental decision-making, sustainable development, and oceans, coasts and small islands. Besides these three themes, the urban environmental management programme, overlaps with GDRC's Urban Sphere.

Themes under the Environment Sphere

Environmental Decision Making So what decisions are needed to preserve the environment? How can support systems be set up to facilitate such decisions? Description Keywords Taking the right decision at the right time, at the right level, and by the right person/group is critical - along with the realization that any and every decision has a direct or indirect impact on the environment. This GDRC webtheme explores the issue of environmental decision making from local to global levels environmental decision making, subsidiarity, conflict resolution, mediation, risk assessment, participation, problem solving

Sustainable Development So what do we do with the sustainability concept, especially at the local level? What should we all be doing? Description Keywords The objective of the GDRC programme on Sustainable Development is to function as a repository of key online information on the theme and help in contextualizing all other programmes of GDRC within the perspective of sustainability. sustainability, sustainable development, indicators, concepts of sustainability, poverty, human security

Oceans, Coasts and Small Islands So what influence do oceans have on our life? And we on the oceans? Why should we care?? Description Keywords The human interface with oceans can easily be categorized as negative - not only have we taken indiscriminately from the ocean for raw materials, food and transport, but have given back only pollutants and other dangerous toxins as waste back to the oceans. With three out of five people living within 60 kms of a coast line, we need to rethink the way in which we look at oceans, coasts and small islands oceasn, coasts, small islands, integrated coastal area management, runoff, marine pollution