Summary

Just over two decades ago, research findings that environmentally hazardous facilities were more likely to be sited near poor and minority communities gave rise to the environmental justice movement. Yet inequitable distribution of the burdens of industrial facilities and pollution is only half of the problem; poor and minority communities are often denied the benefits of natural resources and can suffer disproportionate harm from decisions about their management and use.

Justice and Natural Resources is the first book devoted to exploring the concept of environmental justice in the realm of natural resources. Contributors consider how decisions about the management and use of natural resources can exacerbate social injustice and the problems of disadvantaged communities. Looking at issues that are predominantly rural and western -- many of them involving Indian reservations, public lands, and resource development activities -- it offers a new and more expansive view of environmental justice.

The book begins by delineating the key conceptual dimensions of environmental justice in the natural resource arena. Following the conceptual chapters are contributions that examine the application of environmental justice in natural resource decision-making. Chapters examine:

Choice Review

The roots of the environmental justice movement of the last 30 years can be traced to urban neighborhoods and rural southern communities, where illness patterns observed by epidemiologists in poor and minority neighborhoods were linked to business and public policy decisions that cast a disproportional share of environmental impact on those neighborhoods. This book shifts that discussion by applying the lessons learned from the movement to natural resource issues, particular in the North American West. The essays argue that the inequitable distribution of environmental costs and benefits reaches far beyond the industrial siting and pollution abatement focus of the traditional environmental justice movement to include natural resource extraction, public land management, and preservation. The essay authors were asked to address three integrating questions: (1) What claims are--and should be--the concerns of environmental justice? (2) What communities should have their interests championed under the banner of environmental justice? (3) How do we remedy existing injustices and prevent future ones? Specific essay topics include the social justice implications of devolved collaboration, tribal sovereignty, forest management, water rights allocation, wildland preservation, and mineral development. Recommended for lower- and upper-division undergraduate through environmental law, environmental policy, and civil rights collections. S. Hollenhorst University of Idaho