Policies are formulated and implemented for the betterment of certain sector. Environmental policies are formulated for the conservation of basic life support capacities of ecosystem and cope with the circumstances of ecological problems that human system face in interaction with natural systems.
The criteria for effective environmental policy include coordination, flexibility and responsiveness to ecological distress signal and equity.
- Coordination:
A coordinated environmental policy process requires that the various decision making units are able to act in concert so that, for example, the solution to an environmental problem in the locality does not simply shift the burden elsewhere. The need for coordination is due to the interdependence properties of ecosystem in that way they have both material and energy exchange with other ecosystem.
- Flexibility:
The variability of ecological problems in terms of time and space requires that there must be flexibility in the policy making process. Flexibility is the capability of mechanism to adjust its own structural parameters to different and changing environmental conditions. Ecosystems are dynamic systems which mean that the context of one problem will not remain fixed.
- Responsiveness to ecological feedback:
It refers to the capacity of a policy making process to be sensitive to ecological distress signals such as determining the pollution levels rates of deforestation and boarder climatic changes. Sensitivity to ecological feedback is important because of tremendous uncertainty in ecological systems regarding the nature of present or future conditions and the consequences of human actions. So, the policy should be reviewed time to time so that people could be saved from serious problems.
- Equity:
Equity refers to the necessity of achieving representation of all affected interests in the policy making process. The more equitable the representation the more comprehensive the assessment of environmental effect can be. Equity also requires that benefits and costs of the environmental policy choices are fairly distributed.
