This volume is the most comprehensive textbook on sustainable development. It has been developed with students and professionals from around the world specifically for those who need a thorough grounding in the subject. Coverage includes: background to sustainable development and global environmental issues; measurement and sustainability indicators; environmental assessment, management and policy; approaches and linkages to poverty reduction; impacts and infrastructure development; economics, consumption, production and market failures; governance; participation; disaster management; international financial institutions; international environmental agreements; and the role of civil society.

The economies located in East, South and Southeast Asia have witnessed an interesting growth-sustainability trade-off over the last decades. While growth considerations have paved ways for deepened ties with growing trade-investment waves and increasing population pressure necessitated exploitation of hitherto unutilized natural resources, focus on environmental sustainability has been a recent consideration. The growth impetus still playing a key role in these economies, it becomes imperative that the countries effectively address the key sustainability concerns, e.g. air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, climate change issues like CO2 emissions etc. But how prepared is the governance mechanism of these countries, covering not only the legislative and administrative framework but also involvement of the judiciary, presence of spirited civil society and active engagement of stakeholders in policy-framing dialogues, to rise up to these challenges? The book seeks an answer to this question through the environmental governance mechanism and natural resource conservation policies in three vibrant regions within Asia. A holistic development dimension of sustainable development path emerges, through discussion of policies adopted by developed (Japan, South Korea), upper-middle (China, Malaysia), developing (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand) and least developed countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal).

Although it is commonly asserted that enhanced citizen participation results in better environmental policy and improved enforcement of environmental standards, this hypothesis has rarely been subject to testing on a comparative basis. The contributors to this book set out to study the extent to which citizens can and do exert influence over their urban environments through the legal (and extra-legal) 'gateways' in eleven countries spanning several continents as well as different climates, levels and type of economic development, and national legal and constitutional systems, as well as exhibiting a different set of environmental problems. One interviewee questioned about access to environmental justice, dryly remarked that in his city there was no environment, no justice and no access to either. Yet this view, as will be seen, requires to be nuanced. While few people will be surprised by the finding that legal gateways to environmental justice are largely ineffective, the reasons for this are revealing; but also the richness of detail and the comparisons between the different countries, and also the positive aspects which surfaced in several instances, were indeed both encouraging and sometimes surprising. This book presents the first comparative survey of access to environmental justice, and will be of considerable use to lawyers, policy-makers, activists and scholars who are concerned with the environmental issues which so profoundly affect and afflict our habitat and conditions of social justice throughout the world.

In humanitys struggle to find timely solutions to environmental problems, it is easily forgotten that access to our shared spaces has never been equal. This collection deals with the landscapes and places of rural, urban, and wilderness areas in relation development. Contributions examine the complex relationship that human beings maintain with their rural and urban environments and with other species in various places and spaces. Nothing is taken for granted: colonial history, globalization, localization, hybrid relationships, colonial or "shared"architecture, religious backgrounds, and claims to equal access all fuse with policy strategies. This volume discusses these issues within the framework of developmental discourse, while asserting the rights of access to the global commons for all world citizens as well as other species.

Annotation. Taking Back Edenis the gripping tale of an ideathat ordinary people have the right to go to court to defend their environmenttold through the stories of lawsuits brought in eight countries around the world. Starting in the United States in the l960's, this idea is now traveling the planet, with impacts not just on imperiled environments but on systems of justice and democracy. It has brought people back into the question of governing the quality of their lives. Author Oliver Houck describes the sites under contention in their place and time, the people who rose up, their lawyers, strategies, obstacles, setbacks and victories. Written for general readers, students, and lawyers alike, Taking Back Edentells the stories of a lone fisherman intent on protecting the Hudson River, a Philippine lawyer boarding illegal logging ships from the air, the Cree Indian Nation battling for its hunting grounds, and a civil rights attorney who set out to save the Taj Mahal. The cases turn on Shinto and Hindu religions, dictatorships in Greece and Chile, regime changes in Russia, and on a remarkable set of judges who saw a crisis and stepped up to meet it in similar ways. Spontaneously, without communication among each other, their protagonists created a new brand of law and hope for a more sustainable world.

“In the heart of this world, the Lord of life, who loves us so much, is always present. He does not abandon us, he does not leave us alone, for he has united himself definitively to our earth, and his love constantly impels us to find new ways forward. Praise be to him!” – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ In his second encyclical, Laudato Si’: On the Care of Our Common Home, Pope Francis draws all Christians into a dialogue with every person on the planet about our common home. We as human beings are united by the concern for our planet, and every living thing that dwells on it, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Pope Francis’ letter joins the body of the Church’s social and moral teaching, draws on the best scientific research, providing the foundation for “the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows.” Laudato Si’ outlines: The current state of our “common home” The Gospel message as seen through creation The human causes of the ecological crisis Ecology and the common good Pope Francis’ call to action for each of us Our Sunday Visitor has included discussion questions, making it perfect for individual or group study, leading all Catholics and Christians into a deeper understanding of the importance of this teaching.