Center for Science and Environment (India)

THE CENTER FOR Science and Environment (CSE) was established in 1980 by a group of engineers, scientists, journalists, and environmentalists to increase public awareness of science, technology, environment, and development in New Delhi, India. The center became functional with a small group of writers in 1981, and, in its first year, it was involved in producing an information service on science and society-related issues such as energy, environment, health, human settlements, and the impact of science and technology at the grassroots level.

Anil Agarwal, an environmental journalist, advocate, and analyst, was its original founder. His biggest achievement has been to spread the environmental message in India and abroad. Also notable was his invaluable role in arguing for equity in global environmental management in the process that led up to the Rio Earth Summit. He worked to put environment on the global political and civil society agenda from a Southern Hemisphere perspective. Most importantly, through his writings and advocacy, he played a vital role in providing the answers for an environmentally sound development strategy for countries such as India. Sunita Narain, CSE's present director, has carried on with advocacy for the Global South, and has played an important role in climate change negotiations. The center has advocated for the Global South and developing countries. According to its briefing paper, “Equity is a prerequisite for any global agreement, particularly when dealing with the pollution of a global common property resource such as the atmosphere.”

CSE helps the public to search for solutions that people and communities can implement, and/or push the government to create a framework for people and communities to act on their own. CSE is considered one of India's leading environmental nongovernmental organizations specializing in sustainable natural resource management. Its strategy of knowledge-based activism has won it wide respect and admiration for its quality of campaigns, research, and publications worldwide. CSE promotes solutions for India's numerous environmental threats, including ecological poverty and extensive land degradation, and rapidly-growing toxic degradation of uncontrolled industrialization and economic growth.

In late 1981, the center embarked upon a major exercise, the State of India's Environment, the first citizen's report on the environment. It was a unique document that was prepared in active collaboration with concerned academics, activists, and citizens' groups across the country. The report had a critical impact on the unresolved worldwide debate on environment versus development. The cynics argued that northern India, already affluent, now also wanted clean air and water for their health, and nature parks for recreation. The report detailed how environmental destruction usually targets the poor, who survive on the resources provided by nature. Any development that destroys the environment exacerbates poverty and increases unemployment by destroying the survival base of the poor. This is particularly true of India, which has a large number of biomass-dependent [Page 183]people and a high population density; therefore, a developing country such as India has to take care of its environment even more than an industrialized country The report generated much debate and was widely read and reviewed nationally and internationally The United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi called it a model for all countries to

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