Civil society plays key role in policymaking in a

changing climate
As the international climate negotiations are moving at a slow pace, developing countries are
creating new policies to deal with climate change; a new report by a coalition of NGOs
demonstrates that civil society is critical to policy processes that aim to tackle climate change
and protect the poorest and most vulnerable communities from its impacts.
Civil society plays key roles in pushing for new laws, programmes, policies or strategies on
climate change, in holding governments to account on their commitments; in identifying the lack
of joined-up government responses to climate change; and in ensuring that national policy
making does not forget the poor and vulnerable.
These are the findings of a report launched today at the UN climate talks in Bonn by a coalition
of more than 20 civil society networks in developing countries, with support from the
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and CARE through the Climate
Capacity Consortium.
The report Southern voices on climate policy choices: civil society advocacy on climate
change provides an analysis of the tools and tactics advocacy groups use to influence policy
responses to climate change.
The report highlights the importance to civil society networks of engaging with the media to
reach the general public and key decision-makers, and of having good relations with
governments to influence policy making and planning.
In Zimbabwe, for example, the Climate Change Working Group has successfully advocated for a
new national climate change strategy. And as a result of advocacy activities by the Cook Islands
Climate Action Network, a climate change unit has been established within the office of the
Prime Minister to ensure that the issue falls within the portfolio of the highest government
officials.
The report also describes how civil society advocacy efforts have influenced international
processes, donors and multilateral organisations such as the World Bank, and in some cases the
private sector.
Many of even the world's poorest countries now have active civil society coalitions that work
on climate change, and they are increasingly influential, says the reports editor Dr Hannah Reid
of IIED. These coalitions can play an important role as bridges between vulnerable
communities and those with the power to enact policies that can protect people from the impacts
of climate change. This report will help these coalitions learn from each other as many operate in
isolation.
William Chadza from the Civil Society Network on Climate Change in Malawi says: It is
interesting for us to see how colleagues in countries as distant as Vietnam work with vulnerable

communities as they adapt to climate change and strive to ensure their government can address
these peoples concerns.
While some governments in industrialised nations seem to ignore climate change, this report
shows how in the global Southern civil society organisations are working hard to promote
solutions and climate justice for those affected.
The report also describes some of the challenges experienced by these coalitions. Many
acknowledge that they lack the skills and resources they need to meet their advocacy objectives.
And where relations between government and civil society are weak, civil society involvement in
key policy making arenas has not been adequate.
The report includes contributions from more than 20 climate networks and their member
organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. The networks work together in the
Southern Voices on Climate Change programme, which is funded by the Government of
Denmark through the Climate Capacity Consortium, comprised of four Danish NGOs, Climate
Action Network International and IIED, with CARE Danmark as the lead agency.

Environmental resource management is the management of the interaction and

impact of human societies on the environment. It is not, as the phrase might
suggest, the management of the environment itself. Environmental resources
management aims to ensure that ecosystem services are protected and maintained
for future human generations, and also maintain ecosystem integrity through
considering ethical, economic, and scientific (ecological) variables. [1] Environmental
resource management tries to identify factors affected by conflicts that rise
between meeting needs and protecting resources. It is thus linked to environmental
protection and sustainability.

Environmental resource management is an issue of increasing concern, as reflected in its

prevalence in seminal texts influencing global socio-political frameworks such as the Brundtland
Commission's Our Common Future,[2] which highlighted the integrated nature of environment
and international development and the Worldwatch Institute's annual State of the World (book
series) reports.
The environment determines nature of every objects around the sphere. The behaviour, type of
religion, culture and economic practices.
Environmental resource management can be viewed from a variety of perspectives.
Environmental resource management involves the management of all components of the
biophysical environment, both living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic). This is due to the
interconnected and network of relationships amongst all living species and their habitats. The

environment also involves the relationships of the human environment, such as the social,
cultural and economic environment with the biophysical environment. The essential aspects of
environmental resource management are ethical, economical, social, and technological. These
underlie principles and help make decisions.
The concept of environmental determinism, probabilism and possibilism are significant in the
concept of environmental reasource management.
It should be noted that environmental resource management covers many areas in the field of
science: geography, biology, physics, chemistry, sociology, psychology, phisiology, etc.

Civil society[edit]
Civil society comprises associations in which societies voluntarily organise themselves into and
which represent a wide range of interests and ties. [50] These can include community-based
organisations, indigenous peoples' organisations and non-government organisations (NGO).[50]
Functioning through strong public pressure, civil society can exercise their legal rights against
the implementation of resource management plans, particularly land management plans. [43] The
aim of civil society in environmental resource management is to be included in the decisionmaking process by means of public participation.[43] Public participation can be an effective
strategy to invoke a sense of social responsibility of natural resources.[43]