Environmental management refers to a systematic approach to reducing negative environmental impacts and conserving resources like water, energy, and materials. Achieving national sustainable development goals through environmental management strategies can be difficult for several reasons. First, there is a lack of education and awareness about sustainability issues among the general public in many countries. Second, developing countries often face financial constraints that limit their ability to plan and implement sustainable practices. Third, corruption can reduce funds for sustainability projects. Achieving truly sustainable development requires strategies that consider many interconnected factors, are adaptable to changes, and have some redundancy to withstand disruptions.

1. Environmental management and achieving sustainable
development goals by means of national level strategies in
environmental management.
H.M.N.P HERATH
What is environmental management? Explain the difficulty in achieving sustainable
development goals by means of national level strategies in environmental management.

2. Instructions
● The first part of the question involves definitions of environmental
management. Since there is much such definition you need to select one best
suit the developing countries. You need to justify your choice.
● The second part is for you to be creative in figuring out the right answer to this
question. Your own thinking should go into this. You can argue both ways.
1. Definition - What does Environmental Management mean?
Environmental management is a systematic approach to finding practical ways for saving
water, energy, and materials, and reducing negative environmental impacts.
While development opens up and advances economies, creates new wealth, and ushers
many people to a richer lifestyle, millions are forced to struggle to make meaning of the
darker side of development that is not environmentally sustainable. Poverty continues to be
a major challenge facing mankind in many parts of the globe. This has been attributed to
inefficient allocation of natural resources, capital, labor and time; underutilization of
resources and inequitable distribution of incomes. Education for sustainable growth
should be obligatory for all young people, as this represents the primary vehicle
available for catalyzing the cultural changes necessary for continued subsistence.
Bioethics in particular should to serve as the main stage for instruction about
sustainability. Adequate and dependable water resources are also a major issue facing
many people. In developed countries, diseases related to poor water quality and
inappropriate wastewater disposal account for illness and loss of productivity. In closing,
in business and economics, an increasing number of companies have started to act and to
communicate based on their triple performance in the areas of economics, and
environmental and social factors.
Building sustainable firms and organizations also requires a commitment to people’s
development. In addition, decisions should be made collectively, through negotiations. The
relationship between economic developments, environmental management and human
health is a complicated process, affecting both the quality and sustainability of the society
in which we live. There is a rising comprehension that a synchronized approach is
necessary to solving the major environmental and sustainability problems facing the
developing as well as developed regions of the world.
2. Difficulty in achieving sustainable development goals by means of national level
strategies in environmental management
According to the national environmental policy the environmental strategies in the different
sectors, if implemented, will go a long way towards ensuring that environmental care and
sound environmental management are exercised. Nevertheless, matters of policy, planning,
and regulation and control relating to the natural resources, and issues relating to natural
resource management that cut across many sectors, cannot be fully addressed through sector-

3. based action alone. These matters will have to receive the attention of the ministries in charge
of the natural resources concerned. The recommended strategic approach to dealing with the
key environmental resources is as follows.
• Land
What is needed is a firm policy on land use for state controlled land, with suitable
guidelines and the necessary legal instrument(s) for its implementation, that would
inter alia
(a) Give high priority to the conservation and enhancement of environmental quality,
(b) ensure that selected areas are set apart for maintenance under natural conditions
so as to conserve biodiversity, soil and water, and that such areas that are already
degraded are suitably rehabilitated,
(c) Ensure that land is allocated and used primarily on the basis of suitability of the
land for identified purposes,
(d) Increase efficiency of resource use, and
(e) Ensure that special protection is given to highly erodible land and areas subject to
landslides and other severe hazards. Practices that lead to land degradation should be
prohibited even in private lands.
The Ministry of Land is the institution that should take the lead role in developing a
National Land Policy and obtaining government's endorsement of it. Taking into
account the fact that land is one of our key resources, that most of the land is under
state control, and that there is a pressing need for a rational scheme of land
allocation, the declaration of a land policy should be land allocation, the declaration
of a land policy should be accorded the highest priority and should not be delayed
any longer. In the development and implementation of the policy, environmental
considerations are paramount, and the Ministry of Environment and Natural
Resources should be an active partner in the process.
• Water
Water is required for all aspects of human activity. It is needed for drinking,
sanitation and a host of other domestic uses; it is needed for industry; it is an
important source of power generation; and it is vitally important for sustaining the
nation's agriculture. Nearly all sectors of development are in need of this key
resource and have a role to play in its sustainable management.
The Ministry in charge of water resources – the Ministry of Irrigation and Water
Management – will have to play a lead role in developing water management policies
and the supporting legislation and regulatory bodies. Being a basic environmental
resource, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources will have to ensure that
environmental concerns are reflected in the national policies and plans for water
management.
• Atmosphere
The atmosphere, the medium through which the earth receives life-giving solar
radiation, is equally important as the two other non-living resources, land and water,
for the sustenance of life. Atmospheric pollution takes place primarily through the
emission of pollutants from industries and transport vehicles. Actions to combat
atmospheric pollution are the responsibility of the respective sectors. However,
because of the magnitude of the problem in the city of Colombo and the surrounding
areas and the need for special and concerted action to address it, a Strategy and

4. Action Plan – Clean Air 2000 was drawn up in 1992. The Plan failed to meet
expectations, mainly due to the absence of an institutional mechanism to implement
it.
In order to deal with issue relating to air pollution, the Air Resources Management
Centre (AirMAC) was set up in 2001. This is a partnership organization functioning
under the aegis of the ministry of environment. The programme of activities of
AirMAC should receive the fullest support of all participating organizations. A
formal institutional mechanism needs to be put in place in order to ensure long term
sustainability of this arrangement.
• Biological Diversity
The national focal point for the Convention on Biological Diversity is the Ministry of
Environment and Natural Resources. The Ministry has developed a Biodiversity
Conservation Action Plan (BCAP) and set up the institutional structure (the
Biodiversity Secretariat) for its implementation.
While many biodiversity conservation issues would be addressed through the
environment sectoral strategies, there are other major national issues relating to
biodiversity that have to be addressed through the initiative of the Biodiversity
Secretariat. These issues could be identified through the BCAP, with support from
the National Biodiversity Experts' Committee.
While the state organizations, non-governmental organization, and the private sector have a
major responsibility there is also as important a responsibility on the general public. It is the
biggest difficulty the society faces. The role of civil society in maintaining a healthy
environment is very much lacking in Sri Lanka. This is clearly evident, for example, in the
manner in which litter is thrown into roadside drains and water bodies. The lack of
Education, awareness and communication programmes is also a difficulty in achieving
sustainable development goals. In addition there will always be people who will disregard
their responsibilities
Lack of financial resources to carry out and plan sustainable development, is a difficulty in
developing countries .Sustainable development is also not possible in countries affected with
wars. Natural occurrences, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, can pose a threat to
sustainability as they can shift the flow of water and destroy certain elements of
infrastructures, Corruption. (Funding to developing countries is usually provided through
foreign grants, due to bureaucracy and corruption reduction of funds slow down processes)
Achieving sustainable development has become established as a goal. Continued interest in
sustainable development is arguably the most important paradigm shift of the late
twentieth/early twenty-first centuries. However, many pay it only lip-service and making it
work is a huge challenge. Sustainable development strategies must consider livelihoods,
supplies of essential resources, waste disposal, biodiversity conservation, managing
institutions in a workable fashion, and much more. The strategies must also be adaptable,
robust and resilient .Ideally, initiatives should be diverse, duplicated and widely spaced.

5. Then, if one element/strategy is damaged or destroyed there may be inputs and skills
somewhere safe, which can be used to recover. When there is a need to set up a new
element/strategy practice, inputs from elsewhere may be imported and adapted, and if faulty
substituted. Some elements/strategies will dovetail in symbiosis with others, exchanging
wastes or offering some service. It may well be that a given locality has several sustainable
development elements/strategies close together or overlapping; effective overall co-
ordination is vital.
Poverty, environmental degradation and sustainable development are linked, so it makes
sense to address them in a co-ordinated way. When people suffer poverty they are unlikely to
give much attention to environmental issues. Sustainable development demands investment
of some current resources into maintaining things in the future, and for poor people with little
to spare this can be a dilemma (and one they will need aid to deal with). Before 1992 a
number of countries saw environmental management as a luxury or even a conspiracy to hold
back their development. There is less suspicion now but lack of funding often slows progress.
Today the expectation is for poor people to get something out of environmental care, which
counters their poverty. Poverty reduction and environmental management/sustainable
development should, whenever possible, be dovetailed to be mutually supportive. However,
there may also be occasions where the two demands interfere. It is difficult to oppose poverty
and social development demands – citizens can exert pressure. However, some environmental
degradation cannot be undone and some losses have huge long-term implications for human
well-being on a wider scale. Care must be taken in such cases that local poverty reduction
does not have widespread negative results which outweigh it. There must be careful, just,
dispassionate assessment.
The tendency has been to focus on human-caused environmental change and less on natural
threats; many assume technology and modern governance have reduced vulnerability –
population growth and complex interdependent lifestyles may have had the opposite effect.
According to the above facts there are many Difficulties to achieve sustainable development
goals by means of national level strategies in environmental management.