Agenda 21 and Climate Protection: The Development of Global and Local Governance for Environment and Development – Observations from Research in Namibia

Abstract

It was due in particular to the difficulty experienced with achieving tangible results in the worldwide efforts to deal with the deterioration of the climate that challenged scholars in political science, legal sociology and related disciplines to brainstorm what is called the architecture of governance for sustainable development in a globalising world. Various attempts at using the architectural approach to re-determine the role and function of sub-and suprastatal social levels and institutions have been submitted, leading to theoretical consequences with respect to the role and function of the state and its relationship to the said non-statal levels and institutions. In practical political terms, the architectural approach results in the empowerment of the non-statal levels and institutions, de facto through the recognition of the pertinent role and function these levels and institutions hold, de jure by calls to extend the existing recognition through legal reforms.In exploring and employing the architectural approach, this chapter relies on research done in Namibia. The focus is on findings from empirical research done within the legal component of the Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa (BIOTA) and its successor The Future of Okavango (TFO) Projects, both administered under the University of Namibia's Faculty of Law.

Makongoro are the Hafumu of water and we respect them, or the ethno-philosophical foundation of customary water law in the Kavango Region of Namibia

“…Hinz; Mapaure 2012). 8 Hinz (2008);Hinz (2012);Hinz (2013b) and the author's presentation to the international conference on Sustainable Land Management organised held in Berlin from 17 to 19 April 2013 (Hinz 2013a) and generally Ruppel (2008a) and Hinz;. 9 To this and the following, see: Hinz (1998); on the concept of ownership in Roman-Dutch law, see: Hosten; Schoeman (1995): 630ff.…”

“…including the broader political anthropological context of the understanding of ownership of water and the Kavango River. In Hinz (2013b), I looked more specifically at the issue of ownership, the perception of ownership by the people and the consequences of these perceptions for development policies and, with respect to these, for water law (including statutory water law). 19 All the interviews were conducted by Mr Christian Mukuve Thapa under the instruction and guidance of the author who also drafted the interview guides and questions.…”