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impacts, depletion or maintenance of resources, impacts on downstream rural communities as a result of water pollution)” (Koppenjan and Ensernik 2009). Geczi (2007) asserts that the terms “sustainability” and “sustainable development” have a broad range of meanings, and that anyone conducting research in this area needs to specify their definition of the term. Based on Sachs’ definition, Geczi (2007) emphasizes that the issue of development is the prime cause of the problem of sustainability, because it causes disempowerment in the global South and increased alienation in the North. The present global order threats the very existence of the indigenous and rural population since “water sources dry up, fields are lost, animals vanish, forests dwindle, and harvests decrease, the very basis of rural people’s livelihood is undermined, pushing them onto the market, for which they have no sufficient purchasing power” (Sachs 1997, p. 79). Environmental sustainability is a multidimensional construct, which has been conceptualized in several different ways (Gladwin et al. 1995). The World Economic Forum (Global Leaders 2001) has emphasized the quality of the environmental systems, the threat to the human population resulting from the degradation of the environment, and the social and political capacity to deal with the problems and global leadership (Global leaders 2001). Nelson (2016) emphasized the necessity of the ongoing rediscovery and perpetuation of public service, the public trust, and environmental and community stewardship in a democracy to serve as community.
The Evolution of Environment Policy The Earth Summit in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro endorsed sustainability as being the primary concern for development. It emphasized the necessity of equitable development and environmental needs of the present and future generations (Catron 1996). It requires the states to reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and promote appropriate demographic patterns (Grubb et al. 1993, pp. 87–89). In Rio de Janeiro, the Earth Summit agreed on a Framework for Climate Change. In 1997, at Kyoto, the participating countries agreed on a protocol that would establish targets and a timetable for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. However, this protocol did emphasize both cost-effectiveness and the importance of trade. In the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s richest countries agreed on legally binding targets to reduce the level of
