Managing Mutual Exclusivity: Recognising Both Culture and Development in Environmental Regulation through Self Determination

Pearson, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0164-9499 (2014) Managing Mutual Exclusivity: Recognising Both Culture and Development in Environmental Regulation through Self Determination. In: Enacting Environmental Justice Through Global Citizenship. Inter-Disciplinary Press, pp. 17-28. ISBN 9781848883420

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Abstract

The inclusion of culture as a consideration in the regulation of projects with the potential to cause environmental damage is indisputably fraught with difficulty. Indeed the question of whether an approach based on cultural relativity or universalism in this regard is far from being answered. A variety of approaches have been attempted to achieve the delicate balance required to at least respect the plethora of stakeholders in something as integral as the environment. As a result of the innumerable potential factors involved in this endeavour, the paper will attempt to identify pertinent and successful practices from the field of legal regulation in achieving both cultural and environmental protection. Specifically, the piece will consider the notion of environmental self-determination, the choice of interested parties and peoples to exploit or to preserve environmental resources in a manner relevant and respectful to themselves and their social and cultural idiosyncrasies. In conclusion, the piece will assess whether by combining the aforementioned examples of good practice a model for regulation can be achieved which represents this aspirational notion of environmental self-determination. The focus of the analysis will be upon extraction industries, primarily the involved in the exploitation of hydrocarbon energy sources, the colloquial fossil fuels, and their interactions with indigenous and minority groups. These case studies will be utilised particularly owing to the acute clash between inimitable cultures and unparalleled economic and developmental benefits to wider society they represent. The adoption of these scenarios in particular is an attempt to suggest that should these fundamentally opposed and matchless interests be shown to not be mutually exclusive, a framework imposing environmental self-determination with the potential for broad application will have been discovered.