Integrating restorative justice into sustainable natural resources management: findings from the omo-turkana case study

• Pages: 369-396
• Author: Francesco Semeria

INTEGRATING RESTORATIVE JUSTICE INTO SUSTAINABLE

NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: FINDINGS FROM

THE OMO-TURKANA CASE STUDY

Francesco Semeria

Ph.D. candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di

Torino (Italy). Master’s Degree Environmental and Land Planning Engineering

1. INTRODUCTION1

1.1. The WEFE Nexus

Sustainable development is a complex issue which necessitates the

integration of different disciplines to ensure its successful implementation.

The management of natural resources is one of the most pressing challenges

facing our world: water, food and energy are basic human needs and are deeply

connected elements. A symbiotic relationship exists between water and energy:

water is a prerequisite for food production and is employed directly or indirectly

in the vast majority of energy generation mechanisms. Furthermore, energy is

indispensable to the distribution of water and the processing and transportation

of food. Moreover, by-products of food production can be utilised for energy

generation. Finally, it is crucial to recognise the pivotal role of ecosystem services

in human well-being, a notion that has been extensively documented (Costanza et

al., 1997). These vital services are frequently contingent upon water availability

and human activities that exert a demand on the ecosystem. Environmental,

social and economic perspectives must be carefully integrated to respond to

existing challenges regarding natural resources and to mitigate potential future

risks. The requirement for such a multi-faceted perspective is a widely accepted

1 Note: Some of the content in this chapter is adapted from an earlier (unpublished)

work by the author, archived at https://hdl.handle.net/10589/165348 (access is restricted to

members of the university).

370 FranCeSCo Semeria

concept within the eld of environmental sciences and engineering: over the

past two decades, the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus paradigm

has emerged as a comprehensive and advanced framework for balancing

competing interests on some of the most critical natural resources (Albrecht et

al., 2018; Carmona-Moreno et al., 2019). This paradigm provides a transparent

and systematic approach to decision-making by recognizing the intricate

interdependencies between water, energy, food production and ecosystems.

Acknowledging that actions undertaken in one sector can have signicant

effects on the others (e.g., the development of hydropower infrastructures

can impact downstream ecosystems and food security), the Nexus paradigm

would evaluate feasible management alternatives across a broad spectrum of

indicators, thereby representing the different interests involved.

1.2. The PIP procedure in natural resources management

Participation is at the core of this process: all interested stakeholders should

be involved from the outset of any project addressing the management of

natural resources. In particular, we will focus on a state of the art, transparent

and participatory approach developed to deal with the complex and integrated

nature of the WEFE Nexus. This procedure is called PIP procedure (Figure 1), for

Participatory and Integrated Planning procedure (Soncini-Sessa et al., 2007).

Figure 1: Scheme representing the PIP procedure, as presented in Soncini-

Sessa et al., 2007.