The Impact of Awareness Regarding Environmental Protection Laws on Ecological Degradation

Background

It is a matter of surprise that even at the International level attention to environment was not being given till the sixties. Very few people attached any importance to the Stockholm Conference which was held in 1972. However, some activities started in the field of environmental sciences, when Stockolm Conference brought the problems of deteriorating environment to the notice of the world leaders. Earlier to this the environmental problems were generally considered to be local problems. The developed and industrialized countries have been facing tremendous environmental problems on account of their unplanned industrialisation and growth in developmental activities (Akella and Cannon; Abessa et al., 2019). Consequently, they started turning their attention to environmental management much earlier: They also had enough resources to support these activities. The developing countries which on the other hand, had just started industrialisation and developmental activities did not face such problem so acutely. The environmental problems of the developing countries were generally related to under development, poverty and lack of resources (Dembach and Mintz, 2011). For them, demands such as drinking water, food, shelter, clothing and health were much more important, and for this reason they could not pay proper attention towards environmental management. Last two decades have witnessed dramatic rise in environmental concerns. Governments in various countries have enacted legislations to prevent pollution of natural resources such as air and water and to conserve and ensure sustainable use of forest resources. In India various Acts have been put in place to protect environmental resources. The United States, for example, preferred 'tradable emission permits' presumably because of its reliance on the allocative efficiency of markets while many countries in Europe seem to prefer fiscal approach to solve the pollution problem because of their commitment to the concept of welfare state (Linden et al., 1979).