ONE SPECIES, ONE PLANET

The report examines the symbiotic relationship between sustainable development and environmental justice, asserting that the former cannot be attained without the latter. It identifies three key legal nexuses: the right to a healthy environment, community-based property rights (CBPRs), and procedural rights to participation. The text highlights systemic failures where vulnerable populations, particularly in the Global South and minority communities in the US, bear disproportionate environmental burdens. It recommends shifting from market-based to rights-based approaches, strengthening corporate accountability, and ensuring the meaningful participation of indigenous and local communities in decision-making processes.

• Sustainable development and environmental justice are symbiotically related, with environmental justice serving as a necessary condition for the realization of true sustainable development.
• The right to life implicitly encompasses the right to a healthy environment, a principle recognized in the constitutions of over 60 nations and through judicial precedents in countries like India and Pakistan.
• Community-based property rights (CBPRs) are proposed as a strategic framework to help indigenous and local communities gain formal legal recognition of the natural resources they manage, contrasting with state-centric or 'common property' models.
• Procedural rights, including access to information, meaningful participation in decision-making, and access to justice, are essential for both environmental justice and sustainable development.
• Environmental injustices are often distributed along lines of ethnicity, skin color, and economic status, as seen in the 'Cancer Alley' region of the USA and oil exploration in Nigeria's Ogoniland.
• Women bear a disproportionate burden of environmental degradation, particularly in societies where they are responsible for collecting water, firewood, and food.
• Corporate globalization and the dominance of free-market ideology have eroded national sovereignty and created a need for stronger, non-voluntary accountability mechanisms for corporations and international financial institutions.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2002). ONE SPECIES, ONE PLANET. https://www.ciel.org/Publications/OneSpecies_OnePlanet.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. ONE SPECIES, ONE PLANET. 2002. https://www.ciel.org/Publications/OneSpecies_OnePlanet.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=ONE SPECIES, ONE PLANET |date=October 2002 |url=https://www.ciel.org/Publications/OneSpecies_OnePlanet.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2002one, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{ONE SPECIES, ONE PLANET}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2002}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ciel.org/Publications/OneSpecies_OnePlanet.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }