ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interactions between ideas of community and rurality and assesses the implications these have for a range of government or agency-led initiatives which ascribe environmental protection functions to rural communities. The Rio Earth Summit of 1992 lent new support to ideas of participatory governance in the promotion of global 'sustainable development'. The emphasis placed at Rio on the importance of locally-based actions, in addition to the role of major groups, has strengthened the renewed focus on 'community'-based actions. In 1994 the Environmental Protection Agency launched a Community-Based Environmental Protection initiative which covers both rural and urban areas. The Environment Agency has shown interest in community-based initiatives used in the US and Australia to combat diffuses pollution and soil erosion in rural areas. A local 'community' basis for action to protect the environment has been claimed to have a number of advantages.
