Principles of environmental management are a set of rules and guidelines that help attain desirable environmental outcomes. Principles of environmental management refer to procedures that governments, industries, and people should follow. Environmental management principles have been drivers, in response to economic and social problems which may arise as a result of any economic undertaking. This includes agriculture, mining, industries, and natural disasters likely to damage the environment.
The main goals for principles of environmental management are to provide valuable information, community needs, and fundamental environmental setting of goals.
7 Key Principles Of Environmental Management
Below are the main principles of environmental management important for environmental decision making and any undertaking, likely to damage the environment. Scroll below within this article for 7 main principles of environmental management, which play a major role in economic, social, and environmental decision making, including policy formulation.
1. Polluter Pays Principle (PPP)
Most economists around the world suggested for many years that the only to ensure a clean safe environment was through this principle of environmental management. Experts suggested that firms producing hazardous chemicals and pollutants affecting the environment must pay. After many countries embarked on measuring damage, through environmental impact assessment (EIA). It was noted that pollution must be linked to damage and pollution caused, therefore prices must be according to damages caused to the industry.
Major organizations, such Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development called this poly a key base for environmental policy. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD, through its committee, suggested polluters must bear the cost without subsidy for damage and polling the environment.
Polluter pays principle, ensuring absolute liability for any damage and harm caused by the industry and firms. It makes the process and procedure for compensation easy in an event where their victims are affected. Another important aspect of this among principles of environmental management is that the cost gets shared and it’s easy to repair or reduce damages.
Therefore, it includes environmental costs and direct costs to the people, through compensation. Rising sustainable development has been one of the major contributors, ensuring organizations and companies take precautionary measures to avoid being fined and charged.
Its application and implementation depend on interpretations, region and damage caused. Despite causing controversial debates during held environmental discussions during Rio Earth Summit in the year 1992 1992.
Most countries have adopted this principle to ensure companies take up the responsibility and according to damage. Promotes compensation, sustainable development, and proper policy implementation through practical implications and during the process of allocation of economic activities. Its main goal environmentally has been to reduce damaging activities, by holding major entities take up the liability.
2. User Pays Principle (UPP)
This principle has been derived from the polluter pays principle which gives the responsibility to users for them to pay for any long-run cost and marginal environmental damage or pollution. It includes users bearing the costs for utilizing resources, services, and treatment services whenever the resources are consumed and used.
For instance consumption of water that comes from rivers, each household is required to pay a certain fee for the service. Farmers are required to pay land fees, of which part of the money goes towards cleaning and budgetary funding for developing EIA systems to help predict, protect and prescribe measures to protect the environment from economic activities.
3. Precautionary Principle (PP)
This proposes protecting the environment through precautionary measures, especially for heavy activities that might cause more damage to the environment. The precautionary principle has major objectives which include measuring primary and secondary activities posing a threat to the environment.
Then industries are advised on ways and methods to implement which will not affect the environment so much throughout their daily activities. Precautionary activity measures the impact of any company and its activities, prescribing methods and measures with a less negative impact on its environment according to environmental impact assessments carried out at the time. The precautionary principle has been essential to protecting the environment, people, safe environment, implementation of policies, and reducing degradation and soil erosion.
4. Principle of Responsibility
Among principles of environmental management, this states each person and firm needs to be held accountable and take responsibility to maintain safe, clean, and sustainable development. Ecological sustainability should be attained by ensuring the use of resources is properly managed and not wasted, people must go about knowing that one of their duties is to protect the environment, safe applies for firms and corporations extracting and committing gasses polluting the environment.
5. Principle Of Effectiveness and Efficiency
It is the responsibility of government in every country, city, or state to ensure, well-structured policies and procedures are put in place for essential waste management. Failure to properly mage waste can lead to diseases, soil problems, chemical build-ups, and water-borne diseases. Hence it’s essential that through the principle of effectiveness and efficiency, major agencies and councils do everything possible to reduce waste building up and control dump sites for garbage.
Encourages various organization bodies and agencies to decentralize, and implement new methods of management, proposed through new public management NPM to enable them to attain desired results when protecting the environment at a minimal cost.
6. Principle of Proportionality
This refers to striking a balance between development and protecting the environment. Building of basic essential infrastructure through development has been considered a major part of Human development, therefore, protecting the environment but so does development. Without the environment which provides for land, man would not have where to build homes.
But one important key point to take note of is that both must be fairly managed and balanced. Development should not hinder and destroy the environment and also environmental protection must happen while allowing development.
7. Principle Of Participation
Every citizen, person, government, and the firm has a responsibility to participate in environmental decision-making and protection policies. Through collective collaboration in the affairs of the environment, it’s easy to foster a shift and wave reflecting the need to protect the environment.
Every individual should take a major step and contribute to issues relating to solid waste management, garbage collection, construction, chemicals, gaseous omission, and demolition materials that are likely to affect the environment and how to reduce the impact.