MDG3-ch8.qxd 31/8/05 10:42 am Page 175 175 8 Implementing international procedural rights and obligations: serving the environment and poor communities

Document begins: MDG3-ch8.qxd 31/8/05 10:42 am Page 175 175 8 Implementing international procedural rights and obligations: serving the environment and poor communities Jona Razzaque(1) I. INTRODUCTION Environmental laws, such as those regulating forestry, fisheries and water resources, can play an important role in the life and livelihoods of poor communities. Environmental laws and processes can have positive impacts on the quality of the environment in which poor communities live and work. However, the same laws and processes can also deprive poor communities of their livelihoods if they are developed, implemented and enforced in a manner that fails to take account of those communities' interests. If, for example, a government's pollution control laws force the closure of small factories, the law will 1. Jona Razzaque, FIELD (the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development). MDG3-ch8.qxd 31/8/05 10:42 am Page 176 176 adversely affect factory workers for whom there might be no alternative livelihood available.(2) If a government prescribes a maximum residue level of pesticide in agricultural products without ensuring that the technical Chapter 8 capacity necessary to comply with the maximum residue level is available to small-scale farmers, that policy is likely to affect disproportionately those small-scale farmers lacking the ...