CLASS PROJECT

Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the

natural environment on individual, organizational or
governmental levels, for the benefit of both the natural
environment and humans. Due to the pressures of
population and technology, the biophysical environment
is being degraded, sometimes permanently. This has
been recognized, and governments have begun placing
restraints on activities that cause environmental
degradation. Since the 1960s, activity of environmental
movements has created awareness of the various
environmental issues. There is no agreement on the
extent of the environmental impact of human activity,
and protection measures are occasionally criticized.
Challenges
The main issues for developing countries like Brazil and
Mexico are that the protected areas suffer from
encroachment and poor management .In Brazil, protected
areas are increasing but there are significant challenges
caused by human impacts. Logging and mining are
potentially huge threats to protected areas. Between
1998 and 2009, 12,204 km2 of forest within protected
areas was cleared, with 1,338 mining titles being granted
and 10,348 awaiting approval. Certain people feel that
developing countries need to allocate more money from
their budgets if they hope to address these problems.
African governments face several challenges in
implementing environmental protection mechanisms. In
Tanzania for example these include lack of financial

resources to manage protected areas, poor governance

and corruption, and significant illegal logging and
hunting.[11] Also with such large allocations of land to
national parks, indigenous people have been forced to
relocate what resulted in a lack of local participation in
environmental decision making processes. As a result of
these factors recent calls have been made to allow parks
with people as a mean to encourage the support of
better overall management and care of the land.[47]
Due to the Australian climate being dominated by deserts
and semi-arid regions, most of the environmental
protection challenges focus on availability and
management of water resources.[48] Even though this
will continue to be an issue in areas of great demand,
such as the Murray-Darling basin, several events were
pivotal battles in environmental protection.
Recycling is a process to change (waste) materials into
new products to prevent waste of potentially useful
materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials,
reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from
incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by
reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and
lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to plastic
production.[1][2] Recycling is a key component of modern
waste reduction and is the third component of the
"Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" waste hierarch
Waste minimization is a process of elimination that
involves reducing the amount of waste produced in
society and helps eliminate the generation of harmful and
persistent wastes, supporting the efforts to promote a
more sustainable society.[1] Waste minimisation involves

redesigning products and/or changing societal patterns,

concerning consumption and production, of waste
generation, to prevent the creation of waste.[2]
The most environmentally resourceful, economically
efficient, and cost effective way to manage waste is to
not have to address the problem in the first place. Waste
minimisation should be seen as a primary focus for most
waste management strategies. Proper waste
management can require a significant amount of time
and resources; therefore, it is important to understand
the benefits of waste minimisation and how it can be
implemented in all sectors of the economy, in an
effective, safe and sustainable manner.[2] To reuse is to
use an item again after it has been used. This includes
conventional reuse where the item is used again for the
same function, and new-life reuse where it is used for a
different function. In contrast, recycling is the breaking
down of the used item into raw materials which are used
to make new items. By taking useful products and
exchanging them, without reprocessing, reuse help save
time, money, energy, and resources. In broader economic
terms, reuse offers quality products to people and
organizations with limited means, while generating jobs
and business activity that contribute to the economy.