Welcome to the new edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

I am grateful to my distinguished colleagues and very promising young academics and researchers who have been instrumental in the success of this Bulletin, contributing fresh thinking, innovative ideas and insightful perspectives to the understanding of complex interdisciplinary issues of international law and policy, environment and development. This advanced knowledge is well disseminated and shared worldwide and the latest figures keep us realistically optimistic. The Bulletin’s website receives visitors from 159 countries worldwide which include academics, researchers, officials from public authorities, officials from intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, university students and private sector. Importantly, Bulletin’s articles and elaborated news are internationally quoted.

The Guest Article of this edition is authored by Peter M. Haas, Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Political Science, USA, who insightfully identifies the two distinctive features of international environmental governance, the multitude of actors and the range of distinct governance components collectively performed, and highlights the creativity impact of their effective interconnection, emphatically pointing to “the value of analyzing networks of non-state actors as determinants of collective action and environmental integrity.”

Welcome to the new edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

I am grateful to all those who have been instrumental in the continuing success of this Bulletin in times of crisis. According to the latest figures, there have been over 12.500 visits to the Bulletin’s website from 151 countries worldwide.

The vision of the Bulletin to provide a dynamic scholarly forum for inter-disciplinary and innovative knowledge on international environmental law and policy with a view to protecting and advancing international common interest is also served by this edition. Distinguished academic experts and scholars as well as of promising young researchers contribute new ideas and enlightening presentations of current issues and problems of international law and policy, environment and development. Together with the continuing flow of topical thematic news, this edition presents a document  of particular interest, the Rio+20 Declaration on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability adopted by UNEP’s World Congress on June 2012 and presented at the Rio+20 Conference, where, interestingly enough, the Principle of Non-Regression (continuity for more effectiveness of environmental protection and sustainable development) is specifically acknowledged, a principle of fundamental importance for sustainability governance capable of effectively and efficiently addressing contemporary challenges and threats.

Serving as a showcase for new knowledge-advancing books, this edition also presents a new insightful and interdisciplinary book “Environmental Governance of the Great Seas – Law and Effect” by Joseph F.C. DiMento and Alexis Jaclyn Hickman. The authors, adopting a comprehensive and contextual approach to the environmental governance of the great seas, shedding light on the function and prospects of selected six regional seas (The Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the East Asian Seas, the Mediterranean Sea, the West and Central African Seas, and the Wider Caribbean Region) evaluating the effectiveness of their complex and multilevel environmental governance regimes conceptualized as clusters. Perhaps, the most pragmatic theoretical lesson to be drawn is embedded in their “a word on causation”: “Our conclusions about activity in a cluster and outcomes are qualitative and general. It is not possible in the complex environments we are analyzing to describe convincing causal links between individual law and policy initiatives and actual outcomes (whether they be cooperation or improvement of the physical condition of the seas). Many other forces are at work in response of both physical and social systems. And even if elaborate modeling could describe pathways in a convincing manner, data challenges would be enormous, if not overwhelming.”

A Guest Article written by Maguelonne Dejeant-Pons, Head of Division, Policy Development, Democratic Governance Directorate, Council of Europe, provides an authoritative presentation of  the rural heritage  as a factor and a driving force for sustainable spatial development, viewing it as a living heritage with all its tangible and intangible aspects highlighting the importance of assigning to it “heritage value” and of taking action under the European Rural Heritage Observation Guide –CEMAT and the participative approach it advocates. As she concludes, “the rural world is a treasure trove of the cultural, natural and landscape heritage … It is our responsibility to recognize the value of the past, and to protect and promote this heritage, which is an essential factor for economic, social and cultural development”.