THE HIMA SYSTEM HOPES AND IMPEDIMENTS

1. THE HIMA SYSTEM HOPES AND IMPEDIMENTS A commentary on Global Trends

2. Sustainable Development & the Hima System - I • System thinking helps us to understand our world and us • The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) extends this idea of systems thinking to the concept of sustainable development • The problems we face are complex and serious and we can't address them in the same way we created them • That is, the thinking that produced the problems cannot produce the solutions

3. Sustainable Development & the Hima System - II "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". It contains within it two key concepts: • The concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given • The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs • No recognition is given to the limitations imposed by the carrying capacity of the planet as this over rides the state of technology and social organization.

4. Sustainable Development & the Hima System - III Given current technology and socioeconomic organization, has human ingenuity made today's population sustainable? NO! 1992 World Population 5.5 billion 2012 World Population 7 billion

5. Sustainable Development & the Hima System - IV Being maintained only through the exhaustion and dispersion of a one-time inheritance of natural capital [ ], including topsoil, groundwater, and biodiversity. The rapid depletion of these essential resources, coupled with a worldwide degradation of land [ ] and atmospheric quality [ ], indicate that the human enterprise has not only exceeded its current social carrying capacity, but it is actually reducing future potential biophysical carrying capacities by depleting essential natural capital stocks

6. Critical thresholdsGlobal Environmental Outlook 5 GEO 5 - UNEP July 2012 • Changes to the Earth System are unprecedented in human history • Several critical global, regional and local thresholds are close to or have been exceeded • Irreversible changes are likely to occur with significant adverse implications for human well-being • Responses need to focus on the root causes, the underlying drivers of environmental changes, rather than only the pressures or symptoms

7. Securing Recovery, Anchoring FutureINTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND Policy Agenda - October 2012 • Growth in many emerging market economies has weakened • The spectre of a protracted stagnation remains • Concerted action is needed, including policies to restore growth

8. AT LOGGERHEADS NO AGREEMENT BETWEEN TWO MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES UNEP PROMOTES CONSERVATION IMF PROMOTES GROWTH Sustainability however flawed does not figure in the IMF scheme

9. ROOT CAUSES Human behaviour Two different world Views in our relations with natural world

10. THE SECULAR APPROACH DOMINATION The assault on the natural world The acquisitive society Consumerism and it outcomes Human alienation from nature

11. ALIENATION FROM NATURE • Adorno and Horkheimer, critique of the Enlightenment – • Humankind establishing their sovereignty over everything they see, hear and touch. • Men control men’s lives by sets of rules determined by men • Mankind is apart from nature and nature becomes an object that is manipulated, controlled and exploited • This is done for the benefit of mankind. The result of this confrontation with nature is alienation of the human from his own nature. The struggle to control external nature results in the struggle turning inwards on the species itself.

12. The Islamic approach - SUBMISSION وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ‌ۚ وَڪَانَ ٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىۡءٍ۬ مُّحِيطً۬ا But to Allah belongs all things in the Heavens and on the earth: And He encompasses all things - An Nisa- 4:126 لَخَلۡقُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ أَڪۡبَرُ مِنۡ خَلۡقِ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَڪۡثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَ The creation of the heavens and the earth is far greater than the creation of mankind. But most of mankind do not know it – Ghafir- 40:57 وَلَا تَمۡشِ فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ مَرَحًا‌ۖ Do not strut arrogantly on the earth – Al Isra17:37

13. The Islamic ModelInstitutions Hima – conservation zone Harim – conservation zone Iqta – land grants Ijara – Land leases Waqf – charitable endowments Hisba - adjudication

14. Impediments • The Shari'ah is marginal even in Islamic states • The decline of the hima system in line with the general decline of the Islamic model • The Hisbah is now virtually non-existent • The apparatus of government now separate from the ulema •  Economists and environmentalists work in opposition to each other • Economic development considered as highest priority. Coping with environmental change is much lower down the scale

15. RESPONSES • Make the shariah responsive to environmental concerns • Bring Islamic scholars, bureaucrats and scientists together on a common conservationist platform • Produce national environmental policy guide lines setting down achievable objectives • Give environmental education priority