126

Geographical Research

March 2008

46(1):126134

doi: 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00498.x

Blackwell Publishing Asia

Original Acticle
Reviews

Reviews

East Asian Experience in Environmental
Governance: Response in a Rapidly Developing
Region

Zafar Adeel (ed.), United Nations University
Press, Tokyo, 2003, xiii + 246 pp, ISBN 92 808
1072 3 (paperback), US$21.95.
This book purports to deal with the critical issue
of environmental governance in the fast-growing
region of East Asia. Unfortunately, aside from
the introductory and concluding chapters, it offers
too much description at the expense of analysis
particularly analysis of why problems persist
in the face of existing legislation. Having said
that, the book is a useful source for background
on environmental legislation in ve East Asian
countries (Malaysia, China, Thailand, Korea,
and Japan), and for details on the environmental
responsibilities of various ministries and govern-
ment agencies. The book is comprised of 10
chapters, organised into sections of case studies
on pesticide management, case studies of water
resources, case studies of air pollution, and
prescriptions for environmental governance. Most
authors are based in East Asia.
Governance is usually interpreted as the way
in which a range of actors the State, the private
sector and civil society are involved in decision-
making procedures. Yet, most country chapters
in this book lack a conceptualised analysis of
the interactions among these actors, or the trade-
offs of environmental regulation by these different
actors. Instead, the information presented is very
empirical. Most of the country-specic chapters
come across as overly technical, providing detailed
information on emissions standards, regulations
and the structure of administration. There are 56
tables in the book enumerating, for example, legal
provisions for water supply, water control and
watershed management in Malaysia, or lists of
watershed classications, industrial estate waste-
water facilities, and names of watersheds approved
by the Thai cabinet. Much of these details might
have been instead included in an appendix. The
chapters on Thailand and Japan did not even
have any conclusion. This problem of writing
style may stem from the fact that only six of the
13 authors are based at universities, so for the
others (from government departments or environ-
mental agencies), technical reports may be more
familiar to them than academic writing.
As stated in the concluding chapter, the thesis
of the book is that governance structures and
institutions in East Asia should be designed
by carefully considering the local perspectives
(p. 217). Moreover, this chapter asserts that the
notion of industrial growth before environmental
conservation may dene the general paradigm
adopted by the East Asian nations (p. 224).
Overall, I would have liked to have seen a more
detailed discussion of these propositions for
various countries, in place of lengthy lists of what
policies are in place. The introductory and con-
cluding chapters made some efforts at bringing
together the disparate pieces of information from
the other chapters, but on the whole the book
offers little in the way of country comparisons.
This is disappointing since the countries proled
in the book were deliberately selected to repre-
sent highly industrialised, industrialising, and
developing economies, and a range of political
and historical contexts.
Global environmental problems are becoming
increasingly interlinked, calling for governance
at different levels, including sub- and supra-
national levels. But this issue of scale for co-
ordinating environmental governance is also not
dealt with in any depth by most authors. Zafar
Adeel and Naori Nakamotos concluding chap-
ter interprets the ineffectiveness of international
governance institutions in one paragraph in terms
of the higher priority of industrial and commer-
cial development over social and environmental
concerns; the perception of environmental issues
as being a Western ethic imposed on develop-
ing countries; and the difculty of identifying
funding (from the developed world) for imple-
menting international conventions and treaties.
The role of NGOs and civil society participa-
tion is addressed in a number of chapters. The
conclusion notes that the nature of activities
and effectiveness of NGOs in the ve countries
studied . . . varies considerably. This is reective
of the cultural diversity and different political
Reviews

127

2008 The Authors
Journal compilation 2008 Institute of Australian Geographers

scenarios and levels of economic/industrial
development (p. 228). Unfortunately, there is
no further development of this observation, here
or elsewhere. Most chapters merely provide a
description of the scope of activities of some
inuential environmental NGOs in the country.
Moreover, there is no reference to social move-
ments or to the politics of NGO efforts to lobby
for improved environmental regulations. A few
of the chapters do conclude with outlooks on the
future and recommendations for government,
industry, NGOs and the public. The concluding
chapter sums up a number of reasons for failures
in policy formation. Among these are low com-
pliance with, and enforcement of, environmental
regulations, and lack of political will. These are
linked to the historically close aligning of national
development policies with economic and industrial
priorities. As a result, environmental legislation
has been more piecemeal than systematically
designed. Poorly formulated or inappropriate
regulation can also be explained by the borrow-
ing of legislation from developed countries.
In Chapter 9, Glan Paoletto and Cindy Ter-
morshuizen note that overall, legal frameworks
for environmental protection and health in East
Asia are quite weak, or may be well established
on paper but are not enforced in practice. These
authors cite a lack of enforcement mechanisms
which is made difcult because of corruption
and poverty. Yet there is no further analysis of
these challenges, in this chapter or the rest of
the book. Despite this omission, this chapter is
the most analytical and conceptual. The authors
raise the question of how to govern, and analyse
a range of regulatory, voluntary and market
mechanisms for effective environmental governance.
The authors acknowledge increasing complexity
as governments move away from centralisation.
Paoletto and Termorshuizen also point to the
need for reforming command and control style
regulation such as a heavy emphasis on emis-
sions standards to govern corporate behaviour
which is not effective in a context of complexity
and change. Instead, they advocate better infor-
mation sharing and improved institutional
infrastructure for implementing environmental
governance measures. They then point out several
approaches for achieving this. In my view, this
chapter would have tted well at the outset of
the book, although it is not compliant with the
approach of the remaining chapters. The book
could have made a stronger and more coherent
contribution if elements of Paoletto and Termor-
shuizens analytical tools were applied systematically
in the country-specic chapters. Moreover, the
book focuses disproportionately on governmental
regulatory mechanisms at the expense of voluntary
and market ones the latter two having growing
importance in environmental governance around
the world.

Steffanie Scott

University of Waterloo
Canada

Territory: a Short Introduction

D. Delaney, Blackwell, Malden, MA, 2005, x +
165 pp, ISBN 1 4051 1832 6 (paperback), A$61.95.
David Delaneys

Territory: a Short Introduction

is a valuable contribution to the well-conceived
book series Short Introductions to Geography,
edited by Geraldine Pratt and Nicholas Blomley.
Introducing key geographical concepts through
concise and highly accessible books, the series
seeks to convey a sense of the intellectual liveli-
ness, differing perspectives, and key debates
surrounding these concepts. This is a noble ideal,
which Delaneys book largely fulls.

Territory

manages to communicate the sophistication and
diversity of thinking about territory, across time
and disciplines, in a way engaging to undergrad-
uates and scholars alike. That it does so in concise
and modular format, and at a reasonable price,
will ensure this books usefulness in and beyond
the geography classroom. Because students and
other interested readers are the targeted audience
of the series, I primarily review

Territory

as a
pedagogical tool.
The book is structured to introduce the concept
of territory, summarise its intellectual history,
trace the contours of contemporary debate, and
apply theories of territory and territoriality through
empirical examples. This interplay unfolds both
at the level of the entire book and within indi-
vidual chapters. In the process of reading this
book, whether whole or in part, the reader comes
to understand and situate various ways of think-
ing about territory in time and place. And though
the book does so primarily through the territori-
ality of State institutions, it does not conne
itself to these traditional objects of political geo-
graphic inquiry.

Territory

asks the reader to see
territorial process not only in expected places
like borders and checkpoints, but also in back-
yard No Trespassing signs. By approaching
territory as contested social process, debated in