Introduction
Sustainable Development [SD] is ultimately a frustrating idea (when one tries) to turn it into a useable concept…. and to apply it to investment decisions or national accounts. This exercise that exposes some of its weakness, but as a broad goal, SD is useful in a sense. Like many important ideas, it is better than nothing. Sometimes, many call SD “Alternative Economics” not “An Alternative to Economics”.
“ALTERNATIVE ECONOMICS” – The concept has four benefits:
(1) SD has to crisscross economist and ecologists to look much more carefully at their models and their definitions;
(2) SD has to get some specific tools to measure the effects of human activity on the environment. Economic indicators, such as GNP have to include the depletion of natural resources and their degradation through pollution;
(3) SD has to develop a set of criteria into a development project to analyze and review wider policy implications and choices in terms of the ECONOMY, SOCIETY & CULTURE, ECOLOGY, and the ENVIRONMENT; and
(4) SD is on its way to becoming a philosophical concept that will infuse all work related to development, whether in developed or developing countries!
Overall, never have these two words (SD) been used so much with so much inconsistency!!…. It is fast becoming a landfill site for every environmental idea. For the most part, few seem to care about what the words mean, or whether they even have any real meaning!
Lecture Presentations
Read and understand the following slide presentations.
- Importance of Sustainable Forestry: From Yesteryears to 21st Century
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- The Onslaught on the Tropical Forests
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Additional Resources
Read the following article:
“Brooks, David. (1990). Beyond Catch Phrases: What does sustainable development really mean? IDRC Reports, October 1990”.
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Self-Reflection Questions
Please answer the following self-reflection questions. After formulating your answers, you may post them online at the Knowledge Café for this course as a way to share your ideas and glean knowledge from other students’ responses.
SrQ#1.1: How do you relate Sustainable Development to Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in the tropics? Elaborate your argument.
SrQ#1.2: Is it true that the loss or destruction of tropical forests alone should be blamed for causing environmental and social problems worldwide today? Please provide various perspectives and evidences to your argument.