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World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future; OUP In 1987 the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development (the Bruntland Commission) drew attention to the fact that economic development often leads to a deterioration, not an improvement, in the quality of people's lives. Just because it is new does not mean that it is better - or at least not for everybody! The Commission therefore called for a form of sustainable development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs . There are two key issues as part of this: Development is not just about bigger profits and higher standards of living for a minority. It should be about making life better for everyone and this should not involve destroying or recklessly using up our natural resources, nor should it involve polluting the environment. Rio - the Earth Summit (1992) In 1992 the United Nations held a Conference on Environment and Development (The Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro where the nations of the world agreed on an action plan for the next century - AGENDA 21 which recognises that humans depend on the Earth to sustain life there are linkages between human activity and environmental issues global concerns require local actions people have to be involved in planning developments for their own communities if such developments are to be sustainable. Checklist of Key Issues in Sustainability Dover S R & Hadmen J (1992) Uncertainty, Sustainability and Change; Global Environmental Change Vol 2 No 4 Dec 1992 The following checklist of issues in sustainability relates to the Bruntland Report's definition of sustainable development: Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Resource Depletion and Degradation Loss of biological diversity Land resources (especially soil) Water resources Fisheries Forests and timber Energy resources Mineral resources Pollution and wastes Atmospheric and climate change Air pollution Marine pollution Pollution of inland waterways Land and soil pollution Society and the Human Condition Population growth Food security and hunger Shelter Rapid urbanisation Health and disease The list usefully points out the two sides of what we are doing to the physical environment - we are living off our natural capital of non-renewable resources, and, in the process creating wastes and pollutants which are poisoning what still remains. It might be argued that the list relating to society and the human condition is incomplete in that it does not include local issues such as drinking water, employment, housing or energy or the bigger issues such as 'globalisation' and 'international governance' in relation to the international economic and political orders which tend to largely control local actions.
Three Viewpoints on Sustainable Development Based on Allen T & Thomas A (1992) Poverty and Development in the 1990s; OU/OUP The sustainability issue has two main dimensions: the continued production of raw materials for primary commodity production, and dealing adequately with the pollutants and wastes resulting from the industrialised processing of materials and their subsequent use. Bruntland Commission on Sustainable Development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The following set of views must be interpreted in relation to the interests of those concerned (local, national and international) and the manner in which they participate in the development process.
What is meant by ‘Sustainability’? Basiago A D (1995) Methods of defining 'Sustainability'' Sustainable Development Vol 3 109-119 (1995) Basiago (1995) reckons that sustainability can be "regarded as tantamount to a new philosophy, in which principles of futurity, equity, global environmentalism and biodiversity must guide decision making." It is a far reaching concept and has particular meanings in different disciplinary settings: In biology, sustainability has come to be associated with the protection of biodiversity. It concerns itself with the need to save natural capital on behalf of future generations. In economics it is advanced by those who favour accounting for natural resources. It examines how markets, as conventionally conceived, fail to protect the environment. In sociology it involves the advance of environmental justice in situations where some groups make decisions over the use of natural resources and other groups are affected in their daily lives. In planning it is the process of urban revitalization where there is a pursuit of a design science that will integrate urbanization and nature preservation. In environmental ethics it means alternatively preservation, conservation or ‘sustainable use’ of natural resources. This probes the domain where humans ponder whether they are part of, or apart from, nature, and how this should guide moral choice. "These ‘sustainability’ criteria act as constraints on untoward forms of development. They are premised on the belief that humanity will only succeed in a cosmic sense if it finds a way to meet human needs, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of biological systems, accounting for the loss of natural resources from the economy, working social equity, regenerating human settlements and conserving natural capital." "The very breadth of objectives to which ‘sustainability’ is put ... suggests that in ‘sustainability’ humanity has found a method to govern universal functioning about the Earth ‘island’." Are these issues with which Africans should be concerned or are they more of concern to the industrialized peoples in the North? To what extent are you, in your own thinking, able to go along with any or all of these points of view? To what extent are these sorts of issues raised in the school curriculum? Might there be a need to make them more prominent? Sustainable Development based on Pretty J & Sandbrook R (1991) Operationalising Sustainable Development at Community Level: Primary Environmental Care. Paper presented to DAC Working Party on Dev. Assist. and the Env. Sustainable development at the community or neighbourhood level has been referred to as Primary Environmental Care (PEC), a process by which local groups or communities organize themselves with varying degrees of outside support so as to apply their skills and knowledge for the case of their natural resources and environment whilst satisfying livelihood needs. The basic idea is not new; the novelty is in devising means whereby development and environment are integrated by focusing on the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for everyone. Success is fostered and influenced by the degree to which: local groups and communities are permitted to organize, participate
in and influence development priorities, and have access to both natural
and financial resources, and participate in the generation and extension
of productive and environmentally sensitive technologies and practices
give political, educational and technical support and translate this
into enabling frameworks are able to take an adaptive and flexible approach
which builds upon local knowledge and skills over long time frames. |
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