Ganguly - Deliberating Environment Policy in India: Participation and the Role of Advocacy

As one of the worlds largest and most bio-diverse countries, Indias approach to environmental policy will be very significant in tackling global environmental challenges. This book explores the transformations that have taken place in the making of environmental policy in India since the economic liberalization of the 1990s. It investigates if there has been a slow shift from top-down planning to increasingly bottom-up and participatory policy processes, examining the successes and failures of recent environmental policies. Linking deliberation to collective action, this book contends that it is crucial to involve local actors in framing the policies that decide on their rights and control over bio-resources in order to achieve the goal of sustainable human development.

The first examples of large-scale participatory processes in Indian environmental policy were the 1999 National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan and the 2006 Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act. This book explores these landmark policies, examining the strategies of advocacy and deliberation that led to both the successes and the failures of recent initiatives. It concludes that in order to deliberate with the state, civil society actors must engage in forms of strategic advocacy with the power to push agendas that challenge mainstream development discourses. The lessons learnt from the Indian experience will not only have immediate significance for the future of policy making in India, but they will also be of interest for other countries faced with the challenges of integrating livelihood and sustainability concerns into the governance process.

Sunayana Ganguly is a Research Associate, Industrial Ecology Group, University of Lausanne, Switzerland and Post-Doctoral Fellow, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, India.

The role of Asia will be crucial in tackling the worlds environmental problems. The primary aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality, research-level work by scholars in both the East and the West on all aspects of Asia and the environment. The series aims to cover all aspects of environmental issues including how these relate to economic development, sustainability, technology, society, and government policies and aims to include all regions of Asia.

1Climate Change Governance in Chinese Cities

Qianqinq Mai and Maria Francesch-Huidobro

2Sustainability in Contemporary Rural Japan

Challenges and opportunities

Stephanie Assmann

3Deliberating Environmental Policy in India

Participation and the role of advocacy

Sunayana Ganguly

First published 2016
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2016 Sunayana Ganguly

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ganguly, Sunayana, author.

Title: Deliberating environment policy in India : participation and the role of advocacy / Sunayana Ganguly.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge studies in Asia and the environment | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015021311

Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policyIndia. | Environmental policyIndiaCitizen participation. | Sustainable developmentIndia. | IndiaEconomic policy1991 | IndiaEconomic policyEnvironmental aspects.

Classification: LCC HC440.E5 G37 2016 | DDC 333.70954dc23LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015021311

ISBN: 978-1-138-81943-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74447-6 (ebk)

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I would like to start with expressing my most sincere gratitude to everybody who has been part of this journey. This book has emerged from the doctoral research I carried out at the Freie Universitt Berlin, and it has been a true experience of bridging East and West, with all its contradictions, frustrations and joy. While it is impossible to detail the contributions of every individual, and many have remained unacknowledged by name, I would like to thank this large ecosystem of people spanning several countries for their unflinching support and generosity. I hope this study does justice to their contributions.