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S
ustainable
agriculture
,
wildlife
,
food
security
,
consumption
and
production
patterns
to equitably serve the local population. Stefan Buzarovski from
Oxford, UK, is one of the leading experts in South-Eastern Europe
on local environmental action planning. He believes that develop-
ing LSDPDs is in line with the idea of reconciling environmental
protection and social justice with economic development. Thus,
local communities simply need to make peace between the envi-
ronment, their social goals (or aspirations) and economic growth.
Some, who we will dare to be called optimists, will nod their
heads, roll up their sleeves and get to work. The Government of
Serbia sees itself as a member of this camp. The Serbian Government
decided after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) to initiate the development of the National Sustainable
Development Strategy (NSDS), which was adopted in 2008. The
NSDS was built on a number of broad working groups. One of these
dealt with the institutional framework for NSDS implementation,
thus deliberating on local-level actions for sustainability.
The Government has been assisting local administrations in
enhancing their capacities to manage their environment and, ulti-
mately, to embark on a path towards sustainable development. Apart
from being keen to teach people how to fish instead of
giving them fish, the NSDS follows the idea that local
governance is the closest to the people, and that it plays
a vital role in educating, mobilizing and responding to
the public to promote sustainable development. The
Government has done this by working on local develop-
ment or, more concretely, assisting local communities
to develop LSDPDs. In addition to working towards
sustainability, LSDPDs also work towards decentrali-
zation. To accomplish this, local governments need
to have a certain security in their existence, sufficient
resources and autonomy. LSDPDs aim to help authori-
ties make their actions more credible and transparent,
and to cultivate equitable relationships with higher
authorities.
Good catch or red herring?
LSDPDs seem to be a good catch in Serbia. They
incorporate public participation in environmen-
tal decision-making, take local circumstances into
account and provide a planning framework for poten-
tial investments. But even though they do all these
things, do they actually promote the larger aim of
sustainable development? In other words, are LSDPDs
just a red herring?
‘Traditional’ environmental planning methods,
including those for public participation, provide an
information base to support stakeholder decision-
making. But these methods often prove inadequate for
the long-term task of sustainable development plan-
ning. LSDPDs go a step further toward incorporating
the development agenda of societies and, therefore, of
local communities into the planning process. Other
methods and tools based on the traditional concepts
of environmental planning have also been redefined
and adapted in LSDPDs. This is especially true in the
areas of creating a common picture of current develop-
ment conditions and assessing systemic problems and
requirements.
A good example of how LSDPDs can improve the
overall planning process is Serbia – a country where
almost 25 per cent of municipalities have devel-
oped LSDPDs. The Serbian Ministry of Environment,
Mining and Spatial Planning and other institutions
started working towards introducing new practices in
local planning in 2001. So LSDPDs cannot be so easily
dismissed as a red herring.
But can anything else be done to make local devel-
opment planned through LSDPDs in Serbia more
sustainable? Ensuring functional vertical integration
and revisiting methodologies for LSDPDs are some of
the items on the top of this list.
Ways forward
Serbia’s NSDS relies on the principles of inclusive-
ness of all interested parties in the process of bringing
about sustainable development; intensity of decision-
making for sustainable development; and integration
of not only three pillars of sustainable development,
Image: Pavle Pavlovic, Serbia