In most (if not all) countries, there is a pervasive ‘territorial’ or power battle between government ministries, and often between national and decentralised levels¹, which inhibits the cooperation necessary to integrate consideration of environmental issues in their affairs. All too often, government institutions function without transparency and adequate accountability – and this contributes to the perception that environmental concerns are ignored and increases opportunities for corruption (CANARI, 2008). Mechanisms and timeframes for the public and advocacy groups to engage with politicians and government departments on environmental issues are frequently lacking or inadequate. In many countries, environmental legislation is drafted in camera without proper consultation with relevant stakeholder groups and with lower-level government (regional and local authorities), e.g. Croatia (Integra, 2008). This undermines the successful application of new laws (e.g. because of inadequate capacity to implement at local government levels).

There can also be an imbalance between the ability of the public and NGOs to engage in debate and lobby government and to have influence vis-à-vis industry and business interests (which are able to dedicate financial resources and skills for this purpose). In some circumstances, the public administration does not perceive the business sector as an important dialogue partner; rather as a source of environmental problems (e.g. pollution) – and this undermines their motivation to invest in environmental improvements, e.g. Croatia (Integra, 2008).

In most countries, line ministries see the environment as the responsibility of the Environment Ministry/Department, and thus don’t see it as their responsibility to think about it. At the same time, environment ministries/departments generally occupy a low position in the ministries pecking order, and thus tend to have only weak or no influence on others - so that they generally unable to coordinate or push other ministries to address environmental issues. But even when an Environmental Ministry is given a clear coordinating role across government for the environment, this is not always seen as beneficial. For example in Chile the existing National Environment Agency (CONAMA) is due to be transformed into a national ministry by the end of 2008. This may seem a good step, but not everyone agrees that this will necessarily provide a wider space for environmental mainstreaming initiatives. On the contrary,

”Some see this as a source of further difficulties for this task, basically because it will concentrate most environmental faculties and decisions in one institution, furthering the current distance between sectoral ministries and environmental responsibilities, and therefore making their integration of environmental considerations more difficult.” (RIDES, 2008)

The lack of a coordinated and synergistic system for policy-making and planning is a major constraint in many countries – so that environmental (and other cross-cutting) concerns cannot readily be taken into account. Procedures and institutional structures are weak or lacking, ineffective and inefficient, and coherence between different institutions/agencies absent (sometimes due to lack of foresight or attention, sometimes the deliberate result of pursuing differing interests and agendas. As a consequence, environmental integration is problematic.

“Mainstreaming requires revisions to planning processes within institutions to ensure that environmental sustainability is integrated early and systematically into standard decision-making procedures.” (DBSA, 2008)

“Some participants [in Kenya] mentioned that each sector, each ministry, has its own agenda, sometimes with overlapping mandates, and there is no incentive in the system to integrate cross-cutting issues like the environment. As Taye Teferi, Conservation Programme Director of the WWF said, ‘What is required in terms of mainstreaming the environment on national level is good planning that integrates the environment, not as an ad-on, but really integrates. Environment is in everything: in health, education, infrastructure, development, agriculture, fisheries. If you do not fully embed the environment, you just end up dealing with environment as a small component. So integrated planning at the national level is an important tool’” (Sandford & Vijge, 2008)

[There is] “an absence of consistent inter-sectoral collaboration and planning at the national level and/or the absence or weakness of integrated institution” [in the Caribbean]. (CANARI, 2008)

A closely-relate issue is the fragmentation of environmental responsibilities across different sectors, which can result in gaps or overlaps in implementation. For example, in Croatia, the poor management of the Adriatic Sea is seen as a consequence of the lack of a strategy and vision for the sustainable development of this important area – due, in part, to weak communication between different state administration authorities responsible for diverse issues such as navigation and transport, tourism, marine water quality and coastal wastewater discharges (Integra, 2008).

But the problems of poor coordination are not confined to government (Box 5.6). For example, in Caribbean countries:

“[There is a] lack of effective cooperation between civil society organisations in all countries…[which] means that consistent advocacy and lobby efforts of environment issues are near impossible.” (CANARI, 2008)

Sometimes there can be a stand-off or hostility between some NGOs and government agencies responsible for environmental issues – which impairs institutional collaboration.

A common system-wide constraint (which is not just a problem for environmental management) is corruption, although its extent and form differs from country to country.

The Caribbean survey report notes a view from the private sector that:

“Corruption in decision-making is commonplace; decisions are not based on what is appropriate or best, but often on what serves or provides economic gain for a small group. A fundamental lack of respect for each other influences decision-making: class interests override national interest.” (quoted in CANARI, 2008)

A number of country reports mentioned poor administration and lack of enforcement of environmental regulations and obligatory formal procedures and implementation of recommendations and outcomes of impact assessments as constraints. Where such enforcement is weak or lacking, this can lead to societal scepticism about the genuine commitment of governments to take environmental issues seriously and to ensure effective links between planning, decision-making and sustainability.

In the Czech Republic, it is reported that over-complicated environmental legislation and over-regulated environmental protection is one of the key obstacles for businesses and industries to achieve better environmental performance, especially in relation to complicated procedures (e.g. EIA, SEA, IPPC, various types of permits for environmental issues – waste, etc.). Public administrations face a similar problem, e.g. too many EIA screening procedures (or even pre-screening - to inform a proponent whether a specific project falls under the regime of the EIA Act) for projects with insignificant environmental impacts presents unnecessary workload which, in turn, prevents focusing human and expert resources to address environmentally significant projects (Integra, 2008).

Equally, governments and organisations are ‘bombarded’ by calls from many quarters to change their practices, including pressure to ‘mainstream’ a range of other pressing issues, e.g. gender, climate change², poverty, biodiversity³.