Framework for Assessing and Improving Law for Sustainability: A Legal Component of a Natural Resource Governance Framework

Abstract

Governance of natural resources poses a significant challenge to achieving sustainable development. Human consumption of resources exceeds renewable production by 1.5 times (Global Footprint Network 2015). The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) indicates that (f)or more than 40 years, humanity's demand has exceeded the planet's biocapacity - the amount of biologically productive land and sea area that is available to regenerate these resources. This continuing overshoot is making it more and more difficult to meet the needs of a growing global human population, as well as to leave space for other species. Adding further complexity is that demand is not evenly distributed, with people in industrialized countries consuming resources and services at a much faster rate.' If this continues, humanity will not be able to maintain its current level of welfare, let alone accommodate the ambitious targets for development and poverty reduction outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. Managing resource use to achieve these goals will require effective governance. Governance is a system for shaping behaviour to socially useful ends, involving many participants serving various roles. Those involved in this system include government officials, legal authorities, self-governing organisations and non-government actors such as citizens, industry stakeholders, those being governed and those who are affected by governance. The actors involved in natural resource governance can also pursue objectives that are inconsistent with environmental sustainability and social justice, such as advancing harmful economic developments or socially exploitative activities.