OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL ACADEMY

Natural resources law governs how people can use the parts of the environment that have some economic or societal benefits. Generally, these benefits include air or wind, light, water, soil and plants, animals that occupy the land, and underground minerals or oil. The first major task natural resources law & governance performs is to decide who has ownership rights to the resources on the land. The landowner typically has these rights, particularly in regard to soil, plants, light, wind, and animals that are present on the land at the time of capture. A landowner may technically "own" the trees on her land, for example, but due to environmental concerns, may be legally prohibited from removing the trees. Natural resources law also governs how people may extract the benefit from the natural resource. Wind by itself is not very useful, but it is important for maintaining air quality and for providing energy. Technically, landowners may have rights to the wind and air around their house, but probably would not be allowed to erect a windmill on their property because it would become a nuisance to the neighbors. These types of decisions are very important to resources that are scarce in a particular region, such as oil and water. States in wet climates often allow private landowners to own water that touches their land; whereas arid States may decide that no water can be privately owned and that all water should be owned by the public. Once a public organization has the rights to water, natural resources law helps policy makers decide who may use the water. Natural resources law also helps define how natural resources may be bought or sold. Once someone has rights to a resource, she may generally sell those rights in any manner she chooses, although there are exceptions for some public policy initiatives.

Global Academy on Natural Resources Law & Governance

This 10-days global training course examines the linkages between natural resources and legal instruments, legal tenets of managing natural resources, and governing the resources for sustainable conservation. Depicting on case studies and case laws from a wide range of the current natural resources across the globe, the course considers how different social, political, economic and gender aspects influence the legal implications surrounding the natural resources. The course also examines how environmental activists and their interventions conserved parks, water, forests and land in the face of the commercial threats from extractive industries and destructive projects. The course will consider how the current international and development system elaborates and processes to sustainably manage the available natural resources. The course aims at equipping lawyers, researchers, students, practitioners, professionals and teachers seeking refined knowledge and skills for meeting the challenges of sustainable use of natural resources globally. This 10-days international training program will be executed in partnership and collaboration with various academic and practice-oriented organizations. The course will take place in Turin (Italy) by streamlining a fine and competent expertise of African, European, Asian, North American, South American and Pacific region professors, lawyers, researchers and activists.

The natural resources are diverse and most valuable for human development in contemporary times. Moreover, more and more national governments, provincial governments, regional councils and local governments have started recognizing the economic, ecological and social values of the different natural resources existing within their respective territories. A large number of commercial ventures want to grab the natural resources for exploiting and earning profits. Hence, interagency, interstate and international stakeholders have a competition and conflicts to acquire, own and exploit the productive natural resources. Therefore, in modern contexts, a greater number of legal experts and policy workers are required to handle effectively the complex legal issues involved in managing, protecting and conserving the natural resources, apart from ensuring the rightful distribution to the weaker stakeholders and the local communities within the framework of UNSDGs. Hence, a global training, namely Global Academy on Natural Resources Law & Governance, is essential to overcome regional and global gap of truly trained legal manpower required to support juridical affairs involved in natural resources management and governance.

This international training program is a hybrid of training and symposium modes. It will consist of moderation and facilitation by the Moderator Faculties side by side the short lectures by Faculty Speakers. The participants or delegates will not act as mute listeners or learners, but they will be given at least 50% time to speak and present their papers and articles through oral presentations using appropriate (audio-visual) aids. Such a hybrid combination (model) of capacity building in scientific domains rarely exist. Unlike conventional conferences, symposia or seminars, this innovative program will NOT conduct parallel sessions; instead, all sessions will operate in one lecture hall where all participants/delegates will listen and attend all faculty members and all delegate/participant speakers.