The protection of soil and the sustainable management of soils is a precondition for sustainable development, food security and the survival of humankind. Africa is the continent with the least land degradation. Yet, the pressure on soils is already enormous and continuously increasing due to a range of factors, including poverty, over-exploitation, population growth and climate change. Drivers of unsustainable soil management include overstocking, overgrazing, water erosion, landslides, and over-application of agro-chemicals. In light of this, the underlying legal, societal and political conditions have been comparatively analysed in “African Soil Protection Law”. Distinct country studies from Kenya, Cameroon and Zambia serve to comparatively expose the serious impediments of soil in Africa. While mapping out options for model legislation for improved sustainable soil management in Africa, the publication addresses intertwined, interdisciplinary and complex questions pertaining to soils, which may also be of comparative interest to other continents and jurisdictions.

Reducing pesticide use has become a goal shared by several countries, Uganda inclusive and a major issue in public policies since the adverse impacts of pesticides on environmental media such as soil and on human health have been clearly demonstrated. The main environmental concerns related to pesticides are soil, water pollution and damage to non-target organisms including plants, birds, wildlife, fish and crops. On one hand, pesticides can control pests and diseases, and increase agricultural productivity, which is essential for food security and economic development. However, the positive effects have proven to be short-lived. Moreover, the indiscriminate and injudicious use of pesticides without proper regulation and awareness, more so by small-scale farmers, can lead to detrimental effects on soil health and long-term sustainability. The challenge is exacerbated by pesticides that can persist in the environment and accumulate in the soil over time, leading to soil degradation. Accordingly, regulation of pesticide use then becomes more critical if the adverse effects of pesticide use are to be mitigated. Indeed, Uganda recognizes the importance of sustainable agricultural practices and the need to regulate pesticide use to protect soil health and ensure long-term agricultural productivity. This is manifested in the existing regulatory framework on pesticide use, although challenges and threats to soil sustainability still abound especially from the highly fragmented and sectoral-based approaches. This paper examines the implications of pesticide use regulation on soil sustainability in Uganda, a country heavily reliant on agriculture for food security and economic growth. Suggestions are proffered on some interventions that align with soil sustainability.

The idea of “sustainable development” was first recognized in 1972 at the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm. The Conference did not make reference to the concept explicitly but recognized that the concepts of “sustainability” and “development” that were previously addressed separately could be addressed together to create more benefits. The Conference recognised the importance of environmental management for the purposes of sustainable development. In the years that followed the 1972 conference, terms such as “environment and development,” “development without destruction,” “eco-development,” and “environmentally sound development” became common in publications and the works of the United Nations. This article examines the international legal framework on sustainable development and evaluates the extent to which these laws ensure environmentally sustainable development. The article argues that although the legal framework on environmentally sustainable development is quite extensive and steps are being made to engender them, there is still need to move beyond formal equality and substantive equality to transformative equality. The paper draws on feminist perspectives and calls for engendering the legal framework so as to make environmental sustainability a reality.

Although Kenya has elaborate gender equality and climate change legal and policy frameworks, these laws and policies continue to side-line women and face implementation challenges because they are characterized by incongruences between the so-called formal and informal legal contexts and norms. As a threat multiplier, climate change impacts both women’s livelihoods and their participation in decision-making, limiting their freedoms and options in mitigation and adaptation measures. Assessing risks and threat levels relating to climate change and ensuring gender equality requires considering location-specific patterns. This chapter argues that efforts to adapt to and mitigate against climate change cannot exclusively centre on formal laws and policies but must also engage informal legal systems. These are the legal systems in which many women live their lives. In Kenya, all its legal systems - formal, informal, living customary, and religious - must engage in climate justice and do so to contribute to women’s equality and empowerment and mitigate climate change.

Science, technology, and innovation (STI) are generally accepted as major drivers of growth and can help address poverty and directly improve the well-being of different groups in society. However, under certain circumstances, STI can reinforce social exclusion and inequalities. This book explores discourses around directionality and the importance of Innovation for Inclusive Development (IID) in addressing policy questions that explore the relationship between IID with inequalities in income and opportunities. It seeks to unpack the concept of IID and what it means in a country such as South Africa – a country characterised by endemic poverty, deepening inequality, and high levels of unemployment. The book is largely original and based on a critique of existing literature to expose specific issues or bolster specific arguments about the role of IID in equitable and inclusive development. This book has been written by various scholars who understand the various notions of IID and how it can possibly be applied and the relevance of such knowledge for policy, programmes and practice.

Although Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, Gender Equality, references many international law provisions and principles on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, nevertheless, like their precursor, the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs do not integrate gender as a cross-cutting issue across all the SDGs. The adoption of the gender mainstreaming approach endorsed by the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action during the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995 compromises the implementation of SDG 5. This chapter argues that by adopting a formalist approach to equality, SDG 5 does not fully recognize the differences among women - differences of class, race, disabilities, ethnicities, nationalities, religion, and those brought about by colonialism - and thus falls victim to the classical criticism of international law's genderedness and essentialism.

Science, technology, and innovation (STI) are generally accepted as major drivers of growth and can help address poverty and directly improve the well-being of different groups in society. However, under certain circumstances, STI can reinforce social exclusion and inequalities. This book explores discourses around directionality and the importance of Innovation for Inclusive Development (IID) in addressing policy questions that explore the relationship between IID with inequalities in income and opportunities. It seeks to unpack the concept of IID and what it means in a country such as South Africa – a country characterised by endemic poverty, deepening inequality, and high levels of unemployment. The book is largely original and based on a critique of existing literature to expose specific issues or bolster specific arguments about the role of IID in equitable and inclusive development. This book has been written by various scholars who understand the various notions of IID and how it can possibly be applied and the relevance of such knowledge for policy, programmes and practice.

The increase in population has resulted in innovation to increase human productivity. While innovations are useful, they can also be a threat to natural resources including the soil, which presents a wide range of natural habitats and environmental ecosystem services to humans and wildlife. The use of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in industrial and agricultural production has had great impacts on the soil and resources thereon. POPs long-range effects, bioaccumulation and attendant impacts on the environment and human health calls for rethinking of soil governance structures. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 has given new impetus for re-envisioning soil governance, which has been largely addressed through diverse sectoral laws and policies. Using Kenya, the chapter analyses the local, regional and international laws governing the use of POPs and concludes that the legal framework does not give the necessary attention to the integrity of soils. It also notes that there is need for a comprehensive regime for the protection of soil as a natural resource. Such a regime will effectively improve soil governance by defining entitlements, permissible uses, public and private good elements in soil. The author concludes that PoPs regulation should be an integral part of a soil governance regime at the international, national and local levels.

The protection of soil and the sustainable management of soils is a precondition for sustainable development, food security and the survival of humankind. Africa is the continent with the least land degradation. Yet, the pressure on soils is already enormous and continuously increasing due to a range of factors, including poverty, over-exploitation, population growth and climate change. Drivers of unsustainable soil management include overstocking, overgrazing, water erosion, landslides, and over-application of agro-chemicals. In light of this, the underlying legal, societal and political conditions have been comparatively analysed in “African Soil Protection Law”. Distinct country studies from Kenya, Cameroon and Zambia serve to comparatively expose the serious impediments of soil in Africa. While mapping out options for model legislation for improved sustainable soil management in Africa, the publication addresses intertwined, interdisciplinary and complex questions pertaining to soils, which may also be of comparative interest to other continents and jurisdictions.

The concept of environmental integration offers a viable paradigm for realisation of sustainability through incorporation of environmental protection considerations in policy and legislation. Pursuing optimal environmental integration between various levels of governance – a concept known as vertical environmental integration (VEI) – is contingent on effective and adequate intergovernmental coordination. Using municipal solid waste management (MSWM) as a reference case, this paper explores the pursuit of VEI through intergovernmental coordination in Kenya. The paper argues that the prospects of entrenching VEI are undermined by inadequate and incongruent intergovernmental coordination mechanisms and strategies as well as by the lack of clarity in distribution of regulatory responsibilities in MSWM between the national and county levels of government. This is despite the adoption of a transformative Constitution in 2010 with a focus on devolution that emphasises coordinated and consultative relationships between the two levels of government. Lessons from South Africa offer prospects for improving intergovernmental coordination to achieve sustainability in MSWM.

Species loss around the world, and in the developing world specifically, has become a key concern of law and policymakers. The greatest threat to species and their habitats remains human interventions in ecosystems as well as use of resources. The competition for resources between humans and wildlife pits conservation against people's welfare, and conservation is perceived as compounding poverty by taking land that would otherwise be available for use. This chapter looks at wildlife conservation and land rights. It argues that there is no natural co-relation between secure land rights and sustainable wildlife management. It further emphasises that the scale and level at which the rights are allocated determines the capacity of land rights to promote wildlife management as does the elimination of contradictory rules being applied which could fan unsustainable harvesting or decimation of wildlife resources.

Kenya has made significant strides in overhauling its legislation to better deal with gender discrimination. However, the legislative steps taken seemingly understate the environment of legal pluralism that characterises the Kenyan state where, for instance, customary law is still pervasive and operates side by side with formal laws. The traditional approach generally gives premium to formal laws while treating customary law with scepticism or altogether disdain in the hope that all individuals will ultimately transition to formal laws. Yet, this has not necessarily been the case. Customary law continues to survive and thrive. Accordingly, this paper argues for a departure from the jaundiced view that customary law only serves to further gender inequalities. The paper argues for a more balanced approach that recognises that customary law has aspects that could be harnessed to foster gender equality and thus complement formal laws on gender equality. In rooting for an appreciation of the role and place of legal pluralism in promoting gender equality, the paper contends that formal laws in and of themselves are not enough to effectively deal with gender discrimination; the two must operate side by side, not necessarily one below the other, as has been the case.

Kenya has sought in recent years to digitise its land information system in order to increase reliability and accessibility, both of which are critical to securing land rights, minimising land disputes, and increasing investment in the sector. This thematic report argues for deployment of drone technology in order to increase the reliability of Kenya’s digital land records.

The Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) is a diagnostic tool to assess the status of land governance at country level using a participatory process that draws systematically on existing evidence and local expertise rather than on outsiders. The analysis covers nine themes: land tenure recognition; rights to forest and common lands and rural land use regulations; urban land use, planning, and development; public land management; process for transfer of public land to private use; public provision of land information (land administration and information systems); land valuation and taxation; dispute resolution and review of institutional arrangements and policies. The assessment follows a scorecard approach and produces a matrix of policy priorities matrix. The LGAF process helps to establish a consensus on (i) gaps in existing evidence; (ii) areas for regulatory or institutional change, piloting of new approaches, and interventions to improve land governance on a broader scale (e.g. by strengthening land rights and improving their enforcement); and (iii) criteria to assess the effectiveness of these measures. This report presents the result for Kenya.

Abstract This chapter describes the roles of the forty-nine least developed countries (LDCs) in the international climate change regime and climate change law. It investigates the following questions: How has the historical role of the LDCs evolved in relation to the climate change regime? What are the key legal challenges facing these countries? In order to address these questions, this chapter examines the role of the LDCs through five phases of the climate negotiations thus far: Pre-1990 (Phase 1), 1990—1996 (Phase 2), 1997—2001 (Phase 3), 2001—2007 (Phase 4), and 2008—2013 (Phase 5). Together, they have contributed the least to the climate change problem, but experienced the highest climate change impacts, because of their higher levels of vulnerability and lower adaptive capacity. The chapter also discusses how the LDCs are caught in the cross-fire between the emerging economies, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and developed countries.