Public discussion on the need for a new scheme to reframe environmental authority within the ambit of the State empire has gained priority as a result of President García's statements about his intention to promote the creation of a Ministry of the Environment, prioritizing a porrazo, which could not be prevailed for more than a decade, despite the efforts of many, including some members of the Congress of the Republic.
Proof of the accumulated effort of more than a decade, are the very diverse institutional pronouncements, as well as the respective projects in Congress and the great reoccupation shown by the corresponding Congressional Commission. But, in one way or another, the issue is now happily on the front lines of the Public Agenda.
This juncture requires a slow approach. It is an opportunity where you can do a lot of good with the decision, or a lot of harm, if the decision is not the right one. This is a great opportunity and a great risk, because if the decision is not made well, so that another opportunity of this category is given, because it will happen a lot or simply, it will not happen in time.
I) The environmental problem is wide, serious and short-term
Pollution of air, water, soil and the environment in general. The treatment of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. The loss of glaciers and high snows, providers of fresh water, especially for the coast. Global warming and the loss of tropospheric ozone. Loss of forests and vegetation cover, desertification. Acid rain.
The loss of animal and plant species. Overfishing, overfishing, habitat loss. The technological threat linked to crops, with transgenics, monocultures, pesticides and in livestock, growth promoters. The threat posed by cloning, whose production and trade has just been launched by the United States, by approving the FDA, that is, the Food & Drug Administration, the trade in meat of cloned animals.
Poverty and gender inequality. The explosive population growth, insecurity and centralism. Environmental education. Health facing new threats (HIV, Cancer, resistant organisms, the "crazy cow", avian flu, etc, etc.)
Finally, the supply of energy from renewable sources, land use planning and the implementation of environmental management, only to finish a brief summary of some of the main environmental problems and objectives, which emphasize the wide and serious problem.
On the other hand, the deadlines deserve a special mention, since there is not enough attention to this important aspect. We have a tendency to believe that we have all the time in the world, and this is not so. It is rather a short-term tragedy that we are dealing with. A tragedy like the one outlined by Garrett Hardin in "The Tragedy of the Commons", and in the same sense as that raised by the philosopher Whitehead, when he says that "the essence of the tragedy does not reside in sadness, but in ruthless solemnity of the development of things, in the inevitability of destiny, in the futility of flight ”.
Yes, we will have serious impacts, which, being of a non-linear effect, threaten life itself on our planet. Impacts that will inevitably occur in the short term.
The United Nations Organization estimates that by 2015, there will be hundreds of thousands of people in Africa who will require external assistance to meet their water needs. The removal of glaciers from the mountain range that supplies the coast of Peru, allows estimating that in no more than 15 years, the water stress of the coast will prevent the population and projected business activity from sustaining. The accumulated damage to our closed and inexpandable ecosystem will already produce, yes or yes, very hard impacts to bear, and other worse if the trend derived from the production-consumption-accumulation pattern is not changed.
II) The State and its modernization needs
On the side of management incapacities in the State, the so often postponed and distorted Modernization Program, has never produced a fundamental change in the organization, interaction and capacity of state management. Simple patches and fireworks have taken not only the budget, but the distracted attention, pretending to sell that the modernization of the State is to minimize the time spent at the airport or reduce the cost of the passport; extend the hours of attention in a ministry or public agency, or merge social assistance programs.
Like so many other state agencies, which cannot even achieve their objective of creation, CONAM has become an insufficient entity to face environmental problems. Lacking the capacity to coordinate, regulate and sanction regarding binding environmental decisions and with marked limitations in leadership capacities, she has been wrecked without recovery capacity in the same organizational scheme of the State.
And now, President García announces that he will promote the formation of a Ministry of the Environment. What will be the ideas and proposals accumulated in more than a decade? What will the decision process be like at this juncture?
The already obsolete sectoral model and those who have control of the “convenient” mess, defend themselves by asking that the Ministry of the Environment not see mining issues. And it is that the capacities of objective coordination and therefore of management in the sectorial model that reigns in Peru, are insufficient to satisfy the very dynamic interaction of concepts and so many authorities, limiting the functional relationship of the State, which has to see it happen, because it becomes incapable of reaction and even more of action.
Peru would have sixteen ministries with the projected Ministry of the Environment. And if we add the DPOs and other different entities attached to the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministries and the Supervisory Bodies, we actually have several dozen entities with authority that supposedly must prevail as binding.
The framework of the Environmental Authority, whether or not with the creation of the Ministry of the Environment, needs to be addressed within the framework of the modernization of the State.
In an effort to modernize the State, it would not only be necessary to discuss if all the current ministries are justified, if they are sufficient or more are required, if the concept of OPD or that of the Supervisory Body is justified, etc., etc. It would also be necessary to discuss whether the sectoral order is still valid and whether there is no more modern one that improves the interaction of so many authorities.
No one imagines a Ministry of Economy whose economic and financial provisions are not transectorially complied with. Nobody could apply a budget that does not have or spend money that is not available, without incurring criminal grounds. The need to make aspects of state management binding across sectors is essential to maintain its orientation and sustainability, as well as the quality of life of its population.
There is, therefore, a clear distinction between at least two types of Ministry or state management authority, those of a sectoral nature, such as mining or health, and those of cross-sector action, which, having binding authority on their subject, should acquire a different position. in the organization of the State.
The action of the Environmental Authority must be cross-sectoral, and the sectoral model generates duplicated spaces that make the condition of judge and that of party coincide. The environmental situation and the need to modernize the State are two sides of the same coin.
III) The Matrix option
The creation of a Ministry of the Environment should entail the extraction of almost all the functions distributed in all the ministries and public dependencies that have environmental units, concentrating specialization in the new ministry. Likewise, the personnel involved should be evaluated, monitoring their training and the absence of sectoral bias, adapting all the procedures to the new order.
In addition and more important, there must be a cultural change, since it will have to be well understood not only that the polluter pays and that the terms are short, but on the environmental issue, all the productive and social sectors must consider the provisions binding. and environmental controls issued and supervised by the new Ministry of the Environment.
Thus, there are authorities of a sectoral nature and others of a cross-sectoral nature. Likewise, it is possible to distinguish first-level authorities that are permanent and others that are transitory, with a ministry being able to represent an example of a permanent entity and a decentralization or exporting mountain range program, being an example of a transitory entity.
Also, entities of a permanent nature can be distinguished, which acquire special importance in a transitional period, such as a national campaign in favor of education, with which the Ministry of Education, eminently of a sectoral nature, could acquire cross-sector status through the period of time that the campaign indicates.
A transcendental step for the modernization of the State could be to adopt a matrix organization, in parallel with the creation of the Ministry of the Environment.
The matrix organization would have sectorial ministries and located in the traditional way, that is, depending vertically on the Presidency of the Republic and the Council of Ministers. Likewise, it would have cross-sectorial ministries, cutting the functional line of the sectors and also depending on the Presidency of the Republic and the Council of Ministers, but with special powers that give it priority when the sector's objectives are opposed to those of the transector..
The following figure shows an organizational scheme like the one proposed.
In the proposal, two groups of ministries could be distinguished on the Sector side. The group of production ministries, such as Agriculture, Energy and Mines, Industry and Fisheries, Transport and Communications, Housing and Construction, and finally, Commerce and Tourism.
Likewise, another group of social ministries, such as Health, Education and Culture, Labor, Justice, and finally that of Women and Social Development, which could well be called the Ministry of the Family.
On the transectoral side, two groups of authorities could also be distinguished. The permanent cross-sectoral authorities, such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior and, finally, the new Ministry of the Environment.
Likewise, the authorities with a temporary cross-sectoral profile, such as the Ministry of Education, if there were a five-year program with objectives such as eradicating illiteracy, introducing computers in all schools and / or achieving the evaluation and training of all teachers. Likewise, how could government programs at the ministerial level be, such as the National Council for Decentralization should have been and how could the Sierra Exportadora Program or the FTA inward program be.
IV) Conclusions
The proposal to address the decision on the creation of the Ministry of the Environment in the environment of Modernization of the State, would allow to give the new ministry, the indispensable cross-sectoral characteristic that it requires and without which, the model of Ministry could well not serve the environmental objectives. that motivate its creation.
The proposal would formalize the condition that the Ministry of Economy and Finance actually has. Likewise, it would allow improving the State's interaction capabilities, specifying which issues are a priority over others, which although very important, could never be superimposed on others such as foreign relations, or internal order, or national defense, or stability. economic, or the environment.
It would also define the space for temporary programs that require the necessary authority not to be shipwrecked, as the CND did or is being done by Sierra Exportadora, and taking all the force required to implement the required changes, as might be the case with the FTA. into.
It is important to consider the relaunch that the Modernization Program could have, if it is given the temporary status of the ministerial level and trans-sectoriality.
Finally, this outline can constitute a base of analysis that, picking up the matrix concept, builds an organizational environment for the State, in which the ministry's alternative to the environmental issue does not fail and is another missed opportunity.
