By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

A group of agencies involved in international environmental issues has concluded that the way we make environmental decisions can contribute to or begin to solve environmental problems.

"How we decide and who gets to decide often determines what we decide," says "A Guide to World Resources 2002-2004," a report that is a joint venture of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank and the World Resources Institute.

A summary of the report outlined how environmental governance is linked to environmental issues. The full report will be available online in February at wristore.com.

The report seeks to define environmental governance and to argue that "better environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to reversing the world's environmental decline."

One of the problems in the past has been that decisions are often made based only on what produces the greatest yield, and not on the basis of related issues like what other impacts there might be, and how purely yield-based acts affect future production of resources, the report says.

Fisheries are an example.

In the case of many fisheries, there are more anglers using more effective gear, and agencies in charge have been unable to prevent the depletion of fish stocks.

"The fact that many fish stocks — such as salmon and tuna — move between the waters of two or more nations has led to conflicts and magnified the governance failure," the report says.

Another example is that deciding to build a dam or divert water upstream can have catastrophic consequences if the effects on water-users downstream aren't considered. In Hawai'i, conflicts between upstream and downstream users of water have led to protracted legal disputes.

The report recommends that decision-making be an inclusive process, in which the public has full access to information, has an opportunity to participate and has the right to challenge a decision. It argues that decision-making should consider impacts on the environment, and it suggests that sustainability be demanded in all economic sectors.

While there have been a few steps in the right direction, this kind of governance is not common today, the paper says.

"Since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the capacity of Earth's ecosystems to sustain us has deteriorated in nearly every category we have measured ... More often than not, we still fail to make environmental decisions that work for both people and ecosystems."

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and its science and environment writer. You can reach him at (808) 245-3074 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.