3.1. íàóêîâ³ ïóáë³êàö³¿
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ïîäàºìî äëÿ îçíàéîìëåííÿ ÷èòà÷à ñòàòòþ àâòîðà, îïóáë³êîâàíó
íà îñíîâ³ éîãî äîïîâ³ä³ íà ì³æíàðîäí³é êîíôåðåíö³¿
â óí³âåðñèòåò³ Ãîôñòðà ó êâ³òí³ 1992 ð. Ñòàòòÿ ïóáë³êóºòüñÿ
ìîâîþ îðèã³íàëó.
3.1.1.
Ecological Federalism in the Context
of Regional and World Development
Prof. Dr. Yuriy Tunytsya
The reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia, two large European federations, was that
the purpose for their creation was not a necessity
of life. That purpose did not reflect the vital interests
of nations that were forcibly drawn into artificial,
exceedingly ideologized totalitarian federal states.
Possibly this is the very reason for the existence
of today's very acute problem of keeping the Russian
Federation itself from collapse.
The causes for this are clear: the East European
“socialist” countries were created
mainly by means of dictatorship, not through voluntary
unification as a federation. Dictatorship was the
basis of the official theory of socialism. An important
1915 work by V. I. Lenin entitled “On the Slogan of
the United States of Europe” states:
“Unevenness of economic and political development
is an absolute law of capitalism. It follows that
a victory of socialism is possible initially in a
few or even one separate capitalist country. After
its victory, the proletariat of this country, having
expropriated capitalists and organized socialist production,
would rise against the other, capitalist world,
drawing in oppressed classes of other countries, exciting
uprisings against capitalists in these countries,
even coming out with military force if necessary against
exploiter classes and their states. The political
form of the society where the proletariat wins by
way of overthrowing the bourgeoisie will be a democratic
republic that is progressively centralizing the force
of the proletariat of a given nation or nations fighting
against states that have not gone over to socialism.
Annihilation of classes without dictatorship
of the oppressed class, the proletariat is impossible.
Free unification of nations under socialism
without more or less stubborn struggle of socialist
republics with states lagging behind is impossible”.
The ideological struggle
of the U.S.S.R with states “lagging behind” went on for more than 70 years. That struggle
involved great expenses and losses from both sides.
Finally, ideological barriers have fallen. An absolute
majority of the world countries, with the exception
of a few, have freed themselves from political dogmas.
Fundamental reasons for confrontation have disappeared.
A time has come to jointly solve problems of survival
and social and economic development. Suddenly, everyone
on this planet has become closer to each other. Even
though the planet is not united in solving many global
problems of today's world, it is much closer to unity
and to understanding those problems than it used to
be.
Problems of protection and improvement of the natural
living environment, of rational use and reproduction
of natural resources (that is, ecological problems)
are among priority problems that require immediate
solution by common efforts. Environmental protection
and rational use of natural resources are an integral
part of economic and social development. This was
pointed out in the address of the International Commission
for the Environment and Development prepared under
the leadership of G. H. Brundtland. In 1987, this address was approved by the
General Assembly of the United Nations. “Regional
Strategy for Environmental Protection and Rational
Utilization of Natural Resources in Member Countries
of the European Economic Commission for the Period
up to the Year 2000 and Later”, adopted in 1988, is
based on the same conception of fundamental unity
of natural environment and development. The strategy
of the European Community agrees with the World Strategy
for Nature Protection announced in 1980, which also
consists of stable development while ensuring protection
of natural resources.
The topicality of federalism problems that are being
considered today is based on the fact that a number
of new independent states that used to be members
of the U.S.S.R will build their state systems on federal
principles. This applies to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia,
and some other states, which is going to raise
many new questions. In addition, the problem of purposeful
ecological federalism is objectively put on the agenda
along with the traditional classic federalism.
The term “ecological federalism” itself has not been
encountered until recently. The issue of state, intergovernmental,
and public organizations, along with unions, associations, political parties,
and other bodies joining efforts to protect and improve
the environment as a factor of economic and social
development has undoubtedly been in existence for
a long time.
Even though the science of nature preservation is
a this
specific area of human activity that have a long history,
ecological federalism is
essentially a phenomenon of the twentieth century.
In 1913, at the First I International
Congress on Issues of Nature Preservation in Switzerland,
the issue of ecological federalism was raised, subconsciously,
for the first time. This event may be viewed as the
aspiration of nature defenders of that time to combine
their efforts for the cause of preservation of separate
species of living organisms, plants, and separate
components of nature on Earth. Later, in 1922 the
International Council for Bird Preservation was created
in London. In 1923, the International Association
for Nature Preservation began to function in Paris.
In 1930, the International Hunters Association also
was founded in Paris. In 1948, in Switzerland, a new
nongovernmental federation, the Inter-national Union
for Nature Protection was formed-later renamed the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources (IUCN). Today it comprises of
more than 300 national, governmental, and public organizations
from 90 countries. A specialized international body,
the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), headquartered
in Nairobi, Kenya, has been functioning since 1973,
along with many other international ecological organizations.
It
is very important today that processes of transition
to sustainable development (regional and global) should
be under common control of all countries of the world.
The community of human needs demands creation of an
efficient intergovernmental system that, while respecting
the democratic principle of consent, would at the
same time recognize the unity of our planet and the
need for common coordinated actions in the preservation
of our natural living environment.
The
experience accumulated by the world society for 20
years from the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment of 1972 (Sweden) to the 1992 United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (Brazil)
supports a movement to a higher organizational level
of ecological federalism. In the past 30 years, many
important environmental documents have been adopted
that ought now to become equally binding, like the
World Strategy for Nature Preservation (1980) and
the Regional Strategy for Environ- mental Protection
and Rational Utilization of Natural Resources of the
EEC Member Countries (1988).
The
problem of ecological federalism is a general problem
of our time. It will remain a topical problem for
a long time. Common ecological problems exist in all
countries. Regardless of political system, state system,
or the level of economic development of a country,
ecological problems cannot be solved by anyone country
acting alone. The common ecological space, intercommunication,
and interdependency of different components of the
natural environment (even in geographically distant
regions) demand consolidation of efforts for common
solutions to protect and improve the natural living
environment. Ecological federalism is an objective
process of creation, functioning, and perfection of
various governmental, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental
(political, public, scientific, production-and-commercial,
etc.) associations with the object of purposefully
solving the problems of nature preservation, rational
use, and reproduction of natural resources on both
regional and global scales. All other political, social,
ideological, and economic issues are subsidiary to
the fundamental question involved in ecological federalism,
which is the survival of humankind.
It
is thus necessary to draft a World Ecological Constitution
as the main law of contemporary
international society, provisions of which should
be mandatory for
every country with no exceptions. In fact, basic conceptual
provisions of the future World Ecological Constitution
have been already developed. They are included in
Section 12 of the report of the International Commission
for the Environment and Development and in Annex 1 to this report. The
World Ecological
Constitution should be adopted by the UN General Assembly
after broad discussion of its draft.
According
to the World Ecological Constitution, an international
executive body under the aegis of the United Nations
should be created. It could be called the World Ecological
Confederation. The main tasks of such a body should
be the control of adherence to the ecoconstitution's
requirements and coordination of activities of national
and international organizations in the area of preservation
of the natural living environment and social and economic
development. Satisfactory
performance of the World Ecological Confederation's
functions should be secured by International Ecological
Police, which, using modern technical means for monitoring
the natural living environment, will continuously
control the condition of the natural environment on
our planet. Ecological violations discovered by International
Ecopolice should be considered by the specially created
International Ecological Court. And finally, there
should be established an International Ecological
Bank, which will receive
fines for ecological violations and
funds from other sources, as well as finance priority measures on natural environment
preservation and provide help to underdeveloped countries
for special purposes.
Similar federal ecological bodies should be
created in different areas of the world (for instance,
a European Ecological Confederation) and in every
separate country.
For
example, there were proposals in Ukraine to draft
and adopt an Ecological Constitution (or Ecological
Code) as the principal law to define the main principles
and requirements for both commercial activity and
nature preservation on its territory. In addition,
proposals were also made to draft and adopt a set
of direct nature preservation laws that would enable
a plaintiff direct access to court that would establish
an arbitration body and an Office of the public prosecutor.
In Ukraine, an Ecological Code should be developed
to define provisions of the Declaration of State Sovereignty
of Ukraine, to agree with provisions of the future
Constitution, and to comprise ecological requirements
mandatory for all laws and other directive documents.
All laws adopted earlier should also be brought into
compliance with an Ecological Code. Only then may
a real solution to acute interdependent ecological
and economic problems be meaningfully addressed.
An Ecological Code for Ukraine should not be
voluminous and should reflect at least those legal
regulations that are recommended by the UN General
Assembly for all of its member countries.
These
regulations include the principal right of all people
to have a natural environment favourable for life
and economic development. The correlative duties of
the state would include the following:
-
to
ensure preservation and rational use of the environment
and natural resources in the interests of the present
and future generations;
-
to
support ecosystems and processes necessary for the
functioning of the biosphere;
-
to
preserve biological diversity and follow principles
that ensure steady optimal productivity when using
natural resources and ecosystems;
-
to
establish rules for environmental protection (this
is exactly the purpose of a purely nature protection
legislation);
-
to
monitor changes in the quality of the environment
and in the use of natural resources and to publish
monitoring data;
-
to
make preliminary ecological estimates and demand their
observance when carrying out new types of activities;
-
to
provide timely information on possible effects of
commercial activities on the environment, while granting
all citizens equal rights to protect their lives in
administrative bodies and courts;
-
to ensure that preservation of the environment is
considered an integral part of planning and of all the activities
in the area of economic development;
-
to show goodwill and cooperate with other countries
in order to exercise those rights and perform obligations;
-
to stop all local and global activities that violate
the above-mentioned obligations;
-
to ensure compensation of ecological losses.
An Ecological Code that is essentially different
from the current Law on the Nature Preservation is
particularly needed in Ukraine in view of the transition
to a market economy, because many ecological mistakes
were made under the centrally planned economy. The
independence of Ukraine and its social and economic
development depend to a considerable extent on finding
solutions to the deep ecological
and economic crises, which were inherited from the
previous command and administrative system. The principal
causes of the ecological and economic crises are as
follows: an unnatural economic system that by inertia
still remains antiecological; technological backwardness in virtually every
area of material production; imperfection of the national economy's structure;
ecologically ungrounded distribution of productive forces; interference
of the state in the sphere of production; predominance
of the economy and ecological requirements by politics;
excessive militarization of the economy; imperfection
of economic and nature protection legislation; lack
of integration with the European and world economic
processes; and complete ecological illiteracy. However,
nature protection alone, even if conducted perfectly, cannot solve the problems
coming out of this ecological crisis because of the
related economic crisis in Ukraine. Account must be
taken of the casual relationship between the economy
and the quality of the natural living environment. It is
also necessary to redirect the entire economic system,
however weak it may be, to integrating the criterion
of ecological and economic efficiency, instead of
the conventional direction toward the criterion of
economic efficiency alone, which does not allow for
accompanying (mainly
separable) ecological effects of various production
and economic activities. Only through complete ecologization
of the economy is there
a real way out of the deep crisis in Ukraine.
Transition
to a market economy without properly taking into account
ecological requirements creates a real threat of further
worsening the ecological and economic crises. The
most simple, cheap, and efficient way of solving the
problem of introducing ecological requirements into
the economic system of Ukraine would be to adopt the
world experience – in
particular of the American and West German systems
of economic protection of the environment – to
our conditions. These systems have been accommodated
to market conditions for a long time. Help from the
world society in solving ecological problems of Ukraine
must be accompanied by demilitarization of the economy
and ecologically grounded conversion of the defense
industry.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
agreed to undertake a joint Ukrainian-American project
entitled Economical Protection of the Natural Living
Environment of Ukraine Under Market Conditions (“Ecomarket-2000”). The government
of the independent Ukraine should take this opportunity very
seriously and do everything to realize it.
The concept of economic protection of the environment
should be based on the principle of ecological losses,
which is well grounded in scientific literature, as
a component of necessary operating costs in every
field of the economy, regardless the form of ownership
of means of production. Standard ecological losses
should be included in costs of production (services),
and losses above an agreed standard should be compensated
for from companies profits.
The government of Ukraine has recently directed the
Ministry of Environmental Protection to prepare an
experiment to introduce the American system of selling
licenses for environmental pollution (“bubble
principle”) and
other market mechanisms used in the area of environmental
protection. This is the Ecomarket-2000 project. Companies
taking part in the experiment should be granted tax
and other benefits. Economic incentives should not
be less important than economic sanctions.
A system of incentives and
sanctions should be well grounded and clear for companies
and local governing bodies to arouse their economic
interest in introducing environmental quality control
methods, which are primarily market methods and not
administrative ones. Particularly dangerous pollutants,
however, should not be subject to control by market
methods. If there is a choice between ecologization
of production (preventing pollution) and installation
of purification facilities, the incentive for the
first option should be much greater. Elements of the
“bubble principle” (adopted to the
Ukrainian conditions) should cover not only air pollution,
but also pollution of water, soil, and other components
of the environment.
The Ecomarket-2000 project implementation should
be based on an appropriate resolution of the Council of Ministers
of Ukraine and intergovernmental agreements between Ukraine and
the U.S.A. (at the first stage), and Ukraine, U.S.A., Poland, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary, and Germany (at the second stage).
These European countries, owing to their geographic
location, similarity of ecological problems, and interrelationship
of their radical solution, are interested in joint
improvement of their systems for environmental protection
and rational utilization of natural resources.
An unprecedented experiment on international sales
of licenses (or shares), giving the right to pollute
the environment in Central Europe, and coordinated
measures on improving the use of natural resources
would be of a great scientific and practical importance.
Such an experiment could be conducted with the participation
of the International Institute/Association for Regional
Ecological Problems (IIAREP), which was founded at
Lviv I. Franko State University in 1991 to consolidate
the scientific expertise of universities, other establishments
of higher education, and research institutions to
solve complex territorial ecological problems in different
branches of industry. Partners of IIAREP are universities
and other educational and scientific and research
institutions of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Germany, France, Romania, Bulgaria, and
the U.S.A.
IIAREP is a flexible scientific organization that,
acting in accordance with its bylaws, creates temporary
teams of highly qualified experts (production specialists
from different branches of the economy, chemists,
physicists, mathematicians, economists, lawyers, physicians,
etc.) on a contract basis for carrying out specific
assignments, which cannot be provided by any conventional
scientific institution. For the purposes of research
and for making expert conclusions, IIAREP uses, on
a contract basis, equipment of educational and research
institutions of Lviv and other cities, including equipment
of partner organizations abroad. The program of IIAREP's
activity includes theoretical (fundamental) research,
applied research including aprobation of results,
and problems of ecological education and training.
In November 1991 IIAREP held the First International
Regional Scientific and Educational Conference on
Issues of Ecological Education and Training (“Ecoeducation-91”) with the participation of representatives from
Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, England,
and the U.S.A. Proceedings of the conference are planned
to be published. The first collection of scientific
works of IIAREP is also being prepared for publication
in English.
Two international projects
are scheduled to begin in 1992: Economic Protection
of the Natural Living Environment of Ukraine Under
Market Conditions (Ecomarket-2000) – jointly with the Environmental
Protection Agency of the United States; and An Alternative
Concept of Power Supply for the City of Lviv (“Lviv-Ecopower–2000”) – jointly with the Institute
for Applied Ecology, Freiburg, Germany.
Returning
to the issue of ecological federalism, it is necessary
to point out that not every country of the world has
acknowledged and included in its constitution the
first principle of the Ecological Declaration, which
was announced in 1972 by the UN Conference on the
environment: “Man has the fundamental right to
freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life,
in an environment of a quality that permits a life
of dignity and well-being.”
Humankind
is gradually, step by step, accepting the existence
of close causal relationships between the condition
of the environment and the real present and future
economic development at both regional and global levels.
Today,
conventional limits of ecological federalism as a
form of the state system founded on the principles
of federation (union) should be mandatory. Federations
should become efficient tools for settling not only
political, military, and economic questions, which
have been the primary purpose of their creation, but
also an organizational (legal) form for reaching common
ecological goals.
Ecological
federalism should be considered at least on five levels:
(1) the level of the idea of federalism and its moral,
ethical, and philosophical comprehension; (2) the
level of a political slogan that should be debated
among diplomats, other state representatives, and
in international organizations; (3) the level of theoretical
and methodological and scientific and practical problems
involving development of conceptual and methodological
issues and conducting scientific and practical research;
(4) the level of a specific legal science and practice
that is supposed to produce grounded recommendations
to create ecological federations and confederations
of different hierarchical levels (state, interstate,
world) as well as the drafting of legislative documents;
(5) the level of assessment of the efficiency of ecofederations
and international ecological laws.
The issue of ecological federalism
as a tool for collectively solving of acute environmental
problems deserves close attention from representatives
of legal and economic sciences. Today, this issue
is gaining a special importance in the context of
regional and world development, because development
is impossible without a safe and healthy environment.
The search for appropriate ecofederal regional and
global structures will be exceptionally important
for the social and economic development of society,
for ensuring living conditions adequate for all human
beings, and will contribute to the strengthening of
peace and mutual understanding among all nations of
our planet.
(Contributions in
Political Science, Number 357 GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut. London, 1995, pp.296-303).
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