Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
can be reined in. I have questioned the viability of identifying a hard core of
places and species whose conservation can be objectively justi
ed on
grounds of environmental need as the sole basis for ecological protection.
The signi
cant uncertainty over how our activities affect ecosystems
requires that the focus should be on the progressive reduction of their
collective impacts. At the same time, the setting of
rm constraints on the
development and exploitation of ecosystems where this may undermine
their functionality is an essential feature of ecological planning. It is clearly
consistent with a system of governance whose objective is to support
ecosystem health that proposed uses should be assessed and approved or
refused according to their anticipated effects on the components of ecosys-
tems with which they may interact. It also supports the prioritisation in
ecological governance of reducing consumption by making it clear that
capacities for exploiting spatial and natural resources are
nite, and by
doing so not through setting numerical limits that the economy will inevi-
tably expand towards, but by raising the potential that any proposal may be
refused if it is judged to be incompatible with the systemic goal of supporting
ecosystem functionality in itself or with the conditions in which it is to be
conducted. Employing regulatory approaches that are suf
ciently restrictive
to deny
'
easy access to a ready supply
'
is, in Rydin
'
s view, essential if
attention is to be shifted away from spatial
xes and towards managing
demand.
121
Cowell and Owens also suggest, in the context of minerals
exploitation, that establishing strategic constraints on development by refer-
ence to environmental conditions would provide a means of forcing the
state-driven extraction programme to concentrate more on managing
demand and on the careful management of existing sites.
122
A requirement for proposed actions that fall under a statutory de
-
nition of
to secure prior authorisation for their lawful
conduct would create an opportunity for assessing and, if necessary,
preventing ecologically harmful uses of spatial and natural resources.
Environmental assessment should be mandatory for development pro-
posals. Its conduct would not be limited, as is the case under the EU
'
development
'
s
Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, to circumstances in which
a likelihood of signi
'
cant effects on the environment is anticipated.
123
121
Rydin,
'
Land Use Planning and Environmental Capacity
'
, 755.
122
Owens and Cowell,
, 1st edn, p. 130.
123
Council Directive 2011/92/EU of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of
certain public and private projects on the environment [2012] OJ L 26/1, Article 2.
'
Land and Limits
'
