Ignacy Sachs - 1976 - Environment And Styles Of Development

Environment and Styles of Development Ignacy Sachs The merits of growth are today being questioned and, curiously enough, both the Left and the Right are dividing up mlo the opponents and champions of growth. The owr-simplifications of the debate notwithstanding, we should not fail to observe the emerging political practice which has several claims upon our interest. The long-term future is becoming operational, the notion of organising possible futures and choosing a desired future is gaining acceptance, an approach to planning which is both global and normative at the same time is beginning to take the place of extrapolation, and the systems approach is replacing the sectoral method legitimised by Cartesianism. The hope of achieving continuous economic and social development hand in hand with rational management of the environment presupposes a redefinitio,: of all objeccices and all methods of action. The environment is a dimensio,: of development, and must there/ore be internalised at et-ery dedsfon-making leuel. Problems of resources, energy, environment, populaJ.ion and development cannot, in fact, b.e correctly understood unless they are examined in relation to one another; and this implies planning within a unified conceptuar framework. AFTER the unti-novel ant.I counterculture, i:ero growth. These are tbtee srmpt-0ms, though \'efY different from one a111Jthcr, of the rc-e.umination oE values b~· a society in seaich of ne-w ideolog!c,al responses to problem, whjch ba"e relllaiDcd insoluble despite the Sptttacular progress o f material growth, or which have arisen as a result of that progress : the gencraUsed malaise of the young. the persistence of poverty, the aggressian against the environment, the frust:ratfon of the Third World wbi<.'h today i.s •V0ndcrin11 whether the very concept of develol)llloot:, founded npon efficiency, should not be replaced hy that or liberation,' centred on social justice and the creation of a new man. Onl), a profound sense of uneasiness can t>.xpla in why the theme of zero growth should ba\re so captured the public Imagination and why it should have been taken up by public opinion

within so &bort a time, despite the !act that i t rcpr~ a complete reversal of the Ideological outlook of the last two ccoluries and, still more, of the past fifty yeal'$. The fren1.y of the mass media, the abuse of the computer to give crediblUt y to this or that ide11 by im•csting it v.ith sc:ic:nti.Sc trapplng:., explain part of this phenomenon but not all. In a world traumatised by the c-risis of the 1930s, the appearance of tlie socialist camp and the emergence of the Third World, growth was in good stoodiog with capitalists and revolutionaril:$. profit-makers and lovsrs of justice alike, and the only ditl"ermoe-S of opinion related to the methods and uses of growth. Today, however, the merits of growth are being questioned ancl c:u.iously enough both the Left and the Right are dividing up into oppon,enrs :ind champiDns of growth.

The new awareness of environment problems 11ppcnrs to be both one of the causes and one of the symptoms of

this new outloolc. True, the degradation of the environment is reac:hI:ng unpleasant if not dangerous proportions here and there. But would this in itself have bt;.en sufficient cause for challenging the very objecth<es of society? Whatever the coul'Ses may be, the debate Is now open. Hs over-simplifications, not ta say my5tifie3tfoni;, tend to be tiresome. Man is presented, oow as the arrogant lord of creation :ind demiuriic, now a_s the prlsoner of a machine on a world sc:ale in which production and pollution arc con.o;piring to cmsh him and In which the only kind of hlstory is natural history, in the sense that the degradation of energy introduces an clement of ir-

reversibility. For 5ome, the quality or life is obtained at the prico of limiting

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEn.Y material production; for others It is, on the contrary, proportional to the aa.uidanoe of products. Beyond these clumsy elforts we should not fail to observe an emerging political practice which has sever.ii claim, upon our Interest : the lonit· term future is becoming operatioaal, the ootian of organising possible futures and choos.i ng o desired future is gain• Jng :ncccptoncc, nn approach to planning which is both g)oool and fl()m}lltive at the same time is heginnin~ to take and the the place of e~trapolation, ~te:ms npproach is replacCng the sect• toral method legitimised hy Cartcsianism. Tho hope of achieving continuous eore than ever in terms of original projocts of civilisetiori or of non-development, since to follow the path travelled b)' the industtia!ise
May 25, 1974

live international resources regarded as the common heritage of manlcind (e g, the s~-bed), the fmpact on poor counbics of policies initiated by the rich countries, and the creation of an international order capable of helpin& both to redc6no their styles of life.S There is enough hem to ocrupy a who!c generation of social scientists. l n fact, a n ew connection will have to be cstabHsbed btllwcen the humlln aod the natural sciences in order to achiiwe a bette: understanding of the interaction between natural aod social processes of which man is both the subject and the object: a subject, let us add, cooscious of bdonging to nature and of bis own sradual growth. Beyond an excesslvely posslbilJstic bum11n geograPh>· and an excessively determini&tic ecology, there is n new synthesis to be made in which the contradiction:; between anthrowlogy lllld history will be abolished,.i and models of ene,xy circulation will be link"4l wi th model~ of the production and clrculatfon or matter and commerc!a.l goods. In the meanwhile, the charting of the future must be ba:te
•

Hnw is the new awareness of environment ptoblems affecting the planner'11• tidd of vislon?

Let u5 begin with a lew ne<:e$Sa.ry d!stinctfons and definitions. The term "environment"' a,vers, on the one hand, the sum total of identified and i.neraily weaking. however, the distinction between these two groups of m.svurces remains valid and useful.

Let Ull now eo~der the mviron1ment proper. A more ambiguous con,cept has rarely beep known. Of the imultitude of proposed definitions, we :shall set aside two which are largely ,t:emplt'l:ntntary. F'or tbe systems approach a;peru, the environment Is made up of everything that does not form pa.rt of the purposive system under oonJ!derttion,

though rt does affect the I)e?formance of that system.' As the system endows itself with cnvfl"Onment PQlicles, so the environment is less in evidence, and 1tJJe suc_cess of these policies wilt eonse· quently be measured by the disappear.ance of the very conrept of ~vlrunment, whtch will in tl,c end he iritcr·nali~d by the system

Let us now abandon the game of

·par;idoxe1, and draw attention to one opcratiolllll advent.age of the above di;,• :flnftlon. lt invites to better ide-111:ify the ,ecological and societal impacts of the acttons undertaken fn order to aehleve the explicit objectives of the purposive :s~tem ainstiruted by development poli•cic.s. Such an analYSis should lead to 111 rede1lo1Uoo of development objectives with n view to more eKec:ti~·e control r0f the eoologfcal :ind social impacts of

proposed action. At II different level. the Unlred Nations Eovlrcnment P rogramme (UNEP) speaks of tho total habitat of m3ll, This ~cological defliiitlon of the human environment has the disadvantage of be· ing too oomp:reben.slve. But ft can be interpreted more restrlctlvely. Let us distinguish three subsyJtcm, within tb.e environment: -the natural environment --the man-made technostrucrures ·--the social environment,~ and let u, endeavour to study tho effects of each of these on the living .and worlciog conditions oI the diferent social agents' and on tbc operation of enterprises (this corresponds, .in an expanded form, to the problem o[ posiThe tive and negative externalities). quality of the environment will be described by means of "objective- indicators 0 od will, at the same time, be ap-prehcncled at the level of its perceptJon hy tho dilfcrent social agm~. Hence the need for a scl of indicato~ r11n11ing fn.xn physical o.nd chem.real measmemeots of the quality of water or &Ir to ~ycbo-.sociologicnl 5Ul'Veys ;ind including analyses of the availability and accesslblllty of collective facilities. housing and social services, whi ch will entail simultanoous reomme to statis• tics and to the time-budgets of the va.rlous agents.

As already stated. the two above definitions are not mutua!Jy exclusive. Toe former .stimulares the planner'~ awimencss of the inter-relations between nntuml and social processes. The l11tter conc:m trntcs on a more limited problem whkh is nevet theless or fu:od:unenlnl importance in the choice of development objectives - 1bat of the quali ty of the environment properly speaking. L<.'t u.. now trY to establish a relationship hctwcen the enviroo ment (M ) and the populatiou (P). tecliniqucs ('T1, natural resOurces (R} and the prod uct

Ficuu l

(Y).

The development econotnlst's traditional field of vision is rer>rcsrotoo ,11 Figure l. By means of lhc :iv:iilab!,! techniques. the: population lTnnsfonns th1! ro<>urccs into the npproprfate product for purposes of con.sumptitm and sodal reprod11ction. TI1c d ialectic between clcmo11rapb ic prcs5urn :ind resources fonn~ tht• suhj\-ct uf a large litrranrre dealJn q with tL~ hnological and SO(ial chani::c. Is it a so urce of progro'SS 01 of involution? Put in such general terms, the q11cstf0r1 cannot he answered. There t, no single model lo describe the nuinern u~ c-onfl~rations of th CS4! va riables. On the contrary, __systematic

Freon£ 2 .I

:mthrol)Ologists are co iled for to :inive at a typology of situations based on conc,-ete data. Le t us now illlroducc the orwironmcnt M. F IJ?ltre 2 Indicates the relevant 11ew relations hlJ'1'$ : R · > M and T , M, effects on the envu-ooment of methods of utilisation of the r<.'S ouret.'S and of the production techniques employed; Y -' M, imp:ict on the environment of the m<.1:hods of consumption of products: P , M. imp:1Ct of human settlements on the environment; ~f R., degrad.ition of natural re• sources due to pollutions; M ... Y, conditioning of prodn<:tion throt1gh the qualit}' of tho environmeril; ~I • P, environment as a c:omtxment of the QualJty of Ufo.

y

Figu1e !?. does not. of course, set out to do anything more than point out the relevatJ l relationships which, over llJld ahove thP. tl':!ditioo~l fae:tDrs used in planning, rnu~1 be tllkcn Into oonsithe frau1ework of a deroUon within btfalcgy aimed 11t makin~ d1Nc!opme:nt c.'Ompatihlc: wllh lbe management of 1he t"nvitonme nt. Al be!>t, the Diagrams presented nbove have 3 heuristic value aod wlll have to be modiAcd in every

838

M

ECONOMIC A~O POLITICAL WEEKLY

concrete cue. Likewise It would be [mpoSslble to Indfoattr once and for all the operational wriables for such a st.rateizy. On the other hand, it is .P()$liblc to identify the critical levels at which action will l'lllce place. We dlstl.ogulsh she such levels, a brief dettription of which is givm below: l l ) The consumption structure, whJch, In tum, depends on tho distribution of incomes and on th., totality of Vll.luet rerognised by the sodety in question; (2) The socio-political regime and, mom particu_larh·, its mamcr of dcaJing with social changc-s; In market economi<.-s, the rule is to let enterprises internalise profits and externalise C06t~, while ln sociali>t or mixed economies, the State may, ro theory, change this rule of the game; (3) The ted1niqucs employed, where a dis1inctioo bas to be drawn between, on the one hand, the adding of antl~ pollution mensures to the escalation of p roduction and of the resulting nuiswces and, on t hi, other htwid, the tnttoduction of techniques which are not destructive of tho cn~iro:nmcnt,10 i c, wht"rc the environment factor ha.s been internalised; (4) The methods or utilisation of na. tunl resources and energy, analysed from the viewpoint of wastage of rare r~uurc:es, po:5sible recyding of w;ute

products, and even of rontrolllng the olisoksoence rates o! certain durable goods and equipment wlth a view to reducing the utilisation or rare n:sour~

(5)

incorporated i_n thet11; 11 Land ooc:upatlon systems,

Mnoe

the same lyt>Cs of production and activltit:s le11d to very di:ffcrcnt effecl:$ dependfag on their localisat[on; (6) Lastly, the size, rate of growth and distrrhution of the population, it heing midersioo
few hu11dred mUlion Jn. habi tants of the rich cow1tries exercise much more pressure th.an the thousands of millions of inhabitants of I.bl! Third World. In view of the complcxi~y of the subject .and of the Ol!lllY ways in which the relevant opcrntional variables can be fitted together, tbere cau, of 00\ll'Se, be tto question of proposing a single development strategy, And so we i;omo b ac:-lc once more to the search for :iltem:iUve futures.

.sumpt:ion, the

• The forer,oing g1meral considerations ruwe led to the formulatfo11 of tha con cept of ero-devclopment.11 This

838

May 25, 1974

ooncept aims at deBnlng a style of developmeot p:irttcularly 1u.ited to the

rural regions of the

Third

World,

though th t, does not mean that it cannot be extended to Include toWti:S, as we shall sec In the case of New Bombay. Its mah, featl.tre:S or guidelines are as follows : (1) lo each eoo-rcg!on, efforts a1 e m11de lo cfovelop th-Ose of its resources which a.re specifically needed for thr. ~atlsfaction of the basic needs of the population in regard to food, hou.,ing, health and educatlon, the5e needs bein!? dcliuc..J realistically IJJld iudCJ)(.'O· dcntly so as to avoid the u~ir\lhle dtecu of COJ))'ing the consumption style of the ric:b c0unlries.» (2) A~ man himself is the most valuable resource, eco-development must ahove all contribute to h is ful6bTu:nt. J::mplo) ment, security, the quality of human relations, respect for the diver5lty of cultures - or, 1£ one pt"efers, the development oJ a sati.sfoctory social cco•systcm - arc all part of this oonccpt. A certain symmetry ls discernible betwt:t:n the potential t.-011trihuti0n of crology and S()cial anthropology to

planning. (3) The !dm tiBcation, exploitation aod management of natural resources'' is conducted from the standpoint or a forward-looking soHdarity with future ~enemlion.s. Depredation is strictly prohlbltcd and the exhaustion of certain non-renewable resources - which is inevitable in the long term - is milla:ated by tho
or

lo tropical and sub-tropical regions in particular, but everywhere else as well, eco-
.,

guidelines cannot in most cases be ap. plied without the development ol appropt'iate techniques. There are two comments to be made here. The clcvrlopmc:nt c-1 cco-techniques will pl:iy a very Import:int place in ero-de\'elop,r.ent strategies fOJ' the ol>v!ou.s reason that it is at this level thnt compatibility can be achieved between various objedives - ec.-onomk, 50cial and 'l()Ological - sin(;e technlc-'ll cha.nse wotald 11ppear to be the prlnciplll multi• dimeruional variable in planning, 13ut it would be wrong to aS:S!milate ccu-development merely to a teclmological style. It call, for certain social organisation procedlJles and a new ed\Jcation system. (7) The institutional framewoi* for ,·c.-o-development cannot be defined in Ihe abS-lrat-t without regard 10 the ~pccific featuTes of each case, any more thari c-11n the new forms of rural i:n.rtitutions prot>()$ed by the World Bank for achieving soine success at last in tho attack on absolute poverty in rural art'as and for ei't)lofting the potential of the impoverished masses of the Third World by providing the sm:ill peasant with pruductJon equipment and techniques suited to his economic and ecoloidcal oonditions.•a We ca.a how(•ver state three basic pri nci.PJes.

Eco-dt:velopmwt c.11lls for the estab lishment of a horiiX>nW authority which ts ropable ol looking beyond the intCI't"sts uf p articular · secto~. is conttmt'd hy all the facets of develop· ment and ls able constantly to control the oomplemcntarity of tho di.lfel'lint activiti~ undertaken. Such an authority cannot be efficient without the clfective participation of the DOJ)ulations concerned In the rea-· liutloo of eco-dcwelopmmt stutegies. Thi, p(lrticipation is essentL'II for the doBnition and ba.rmonlsatian of actual n<.
~

May 25, 1974 m;wh lnery o r participatory planning and manllgcmcmt is preparatory education. This argument applies " p0,wiori in the case of cco-devclopmeot, where it Is em:nllal also to mafrc people aware of the dlmension of the environment an
111 brid, eco-developmcnt is a style of deve!opment which, in each ewresion, calls for spedflc solutions to the particular p roblems of tht1 region in the light of cultural as well as ecologtc.il data and long- tenn as well a s lrn111e• diate ,i~ds. Aeccm:liog]y H ope.rates with criteria of pmgress wbjch are re• laced to each particular case, ond atlaptatl<>n to tht: environment, u postulated by the arithropologists, plays an fm• ()(lrtant part. Without d enying the im· portance exchooges - and we shall r(!vert to this matter later - It tries to react against the pre\'ill to create II last· io g ~ance betwt.-cn man and nature. The, sethnclcs and disasters 111 whkh certain societies have fowidered olfer equally eloquent evidence of the high

or

E CONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY price which has to be pa.Id for inahi· lity to org:mi.sc the relationships betwe..n man and n ature.

• With the assistance of some ex.wnplcs takc:tn from the llelru of production, (uod, housing, e nergy, indusbfalisation of renewshle n.uw-al resou.rces, oonscrvatioo of resources and orgoniffition of sodal services, we now pro(.)<»e to illustrate th-e srope of application vi e<.'o-devc:lopmen,t strategies, with speclol rcferesice to eco•lechnic,ues.

Food The ''gn,en revolution", at least

(1)

in

its first phase, is baSt.-d on a unlversa• H~t and dilfusionist p hilosophy o( Jevelopmcnt which places too much <·mphllSis on the virtue~ of transl't-rs of te<·hnology and the widespread me of certain "m!racle" varieties of wheat and rice. ·w e arc u nable here to exarruue the comple!f and controvcrsfal subject of its results, and )\'e sh11ll therefore mt.'Tely mention that many critical analyse11 insist that I.hero arc limits to its applic.1bility, since It assumes that the problem of irrigatiC1n is solved and it also call~ fo~ extensive Industrial inputs. In addition, it has ClOlltributcd to 11n rncreiling ~oclal l)Olarisation a.nd an cvffl mor~ ine<Juitahlc d istribution or in come in the countryside. Lastly, it involves ecologlt.,al risk both because of the reduction of gt'nclfc variety and because of the exlttufon of single-crop farming '"hkh is more vu!J1erable to epidemic disease than mixed formin11:. Is it nece-s:sary to conclude from this tha t cultural borrowings and '·modem"' agriculture sho\ll d be ruled out ? Though certain c-hampion, of co-called biologl~I a,irriculture may not agrl\e with us, we r\:jcc:t this conclus:ion, The mere list or the plants originating from America which are now being cultiv~ted by tbe n'St of the world is enough to demon· stmtc the nbsunlity of such ao approa<.'h, q nite apart from the fact that the ahMdoomCllt of chemical fertilisers and lnsccticid<.'S would le~ immediately to a decline in production with very serious consequences. Nl.-vr.rtht'less, it Is possible to take a stllnd agninst the views incorporatt-d !n the ''green revolut ion··, and to strei-s the specific PO· tentialiti~ o f each ec.'O-region In regard to food production. T h is le-ads us to draw attention. Jl~t of all, to the importance of c thnob!oh1dcal rese11rch in order to take adv8int.:ige - ff only as a ))Oint oJ dcputurc of local people's bowladge of their m1tural c.-nvironment, that uprac:tkal science" of p1im[tive peoples and peasant$ wh05e rfohne~s and .ic-

eurac.-y are oons~ntlY surprismg anthropologists and ethuobotanists.19 The s triking diversity of cypes or agriculture And cultural habits in the world may be analyst-cl from tho sland poiut either of tht-ir adaptation to natural cco-.systcim o.r of the tnuuformation nf thc.,e systems. A classic study hy Clifford Geerl7. draws a co1np:iriSOll bet...,-eeo the irrigated terraces of Java - veritable aquaria fash ioned by m an for rice cult!vaoon and nomadic agriculture practised on patches of bnm t M>il which ~;,n$ti tutes au imltatloo of the tropical forc5t. ~• These are t"'o e~hl'ffle cases in many respects - tllc degree of artfficial[ty, and suppurtable population densities (that of the Ti~ fields is a.s muc-h :i.~ 2,000 inhabitants pe r xm 1 }; they arc also two CUC$ of felicitous .idaptation to vr,ry different sets or ecological conditions. They reflect two v~ry dilfcrcnt orientations for agronomic research, the one relating to highl y lahour-inten!>ivc methods of productio11 inV()lving massive popola· tlons llviog in a small area, the otht-r pointing to the development of mixed fanning bllsed on the "chacr,u.. of the Amaw11ia11 Indians and the gardens of the indigcnow population of Polynesia. In the view of several experts, the ap• f).lrcnt d isorder of the latter conceal~ a profo1S1d rationality.21

lo g(:'ntlral, we have insufficient lmowlt..Jge about agriculture in humid tropical areas; and ptiority should therefore be given to. ec.-o-techniques applkohle in this area, on which a reasonable deve loprmmt pattern for Amaz.oola will to a large cxtoot depend. ThJs in itself is a h i,ghly controversml theme. Should Amazonia be J eveloJ)e(] or should it , on the contrary, be lcc:pt as a Mreserve", as ceTtsln peop le

advocate? Jn view of the programmes alrndy unclcrtalfen an
dudng oxygen is sdcnti6cally unsoun
ECO'.'IOM!C AND POLITJCAL WEEKLY new "1>lant life'' civilisation. Can lt be that the pessimism of Betty Meggers21 is ~ ue perhaJ)'J to the fact that she does not believe In tbe second posslbUity, while the optimism t."Vident in the last \vtitin gs or Gourou reflects p recisely " gooutne act of faith in hwnan creatM ty in planning, WhJchcver be the C11$C, it will of ccmrst: be necessnry, here as everywhere else, to make use 0£ method.~ which arc already kn-0wn and belong within the range of ''clas.~ical'" solutions, even though they may 11ot have been adequ:ttely used hitht".Tto. By way of examph:, we may mention the use o f cassava or stripped Argnrcaoe as fodd~r. But the hul k of the effort must be based on new approaches, of wh ich we shaU mention ol\lY a few.

First of all, forest-forming. which the Anglo<Saxons de~ibe as three-dimensional forestJ"')', using the forest a, a St>u1cc or industri11I materials and also of animal fodder and human foodstulTs. 21 A glance back tu the Eurorean Middle Asres will show that forests were long useQk c11 o f tfM: Nr;,hrwald tho forcht as n ~owc:e of fodder - whose value is calculatt:-d in tenns of thr. number of 1>igs II c~,n feed, u The same evidence ls provided by the study nf certain primitive !IOcicties. One example ii the a~tonishinit case of the lnhab,taots of Ukara Island ou Lak~ Victcrria in Ta,-,mnia, wLieh has a dense population of livc.~todc brced eri; whose a nimals arc kept in yards an
May 25, 1974

revolution") in all its upccts : the cultivation of aquallc plants and the hmeding of fish and animals in fresh water, lagoons Md the sea, instead of a continuous 6sl1-kill. Tilere are abundant c:,campfes of this. startfnit with the famJliar case of fish breeding in Jl()Ols, wht:re a judicious combination o f cultiv:itlon practices and fertili$ation produces \ "L'TY high yields with ecotechnlque:s wbk b require practically no l:3Pital iuwstma:it.u Mention may also be made or the l)OSSlbilitJes of breedini;: milk-ll,h In brackish-water lagoons, From certain lagoons fertilised h. sowers in Indoot$io it is pos!iiblt> to ol,~ln a yidd of 5,000 kg/ h:i/)'cilr. In T aiwan, fish breeding with fe1tillscrs produces yjdds of 2,000 kg/ ha/yeat; and It has bt:1t:n calculated that in South-E1ut Asia 350,000 Jant of wat<'r are suitable ror breeclini,i milkBsh. If they were put to use, they could produce 70 millroo tons of Rsh llt the Taiw:in productivity rnte, or the t.'quiva ll'nl of the world flsh catch.1 1 One more difficult but also p romising field ls the ramiog of certain species of aquatic mammllls which Feed on 11,e most l'IC)ql ble example plaats. might he the se.i-row, which unfortunately is almost entirely ex tlnct. Io tropical re)lions where the soil ls illsuited for the the crtmtioo of meadows, aquatic p lan ts offer i,,,-eat poosihilitics as foddcT for bulfaloes anJ other anim.als. Goin,g on a step further, we come to the producttoo of proteins from )eaves of variou$ kinds,12 lncluding weed.,. :m Under t-ertain conditions, the plant$ fof L'Still JC l.-ertain lam rould lilcewise become a raw matel'lal for the extraction of proteins, and eutrophication could be pn-veoted in thls way.~" It goes without .saying that biological pest eontrol methods, a,-,d alsa genetic research on loc-a! species wh ich might he exploited, both naturally come with in the framewon: an eco-
or

i;ie~ for

these areas as well,

Recent

~-t uclit.'s have point.e
or

research project which was originally undertaken with a view t.o desulphurlng the petroleum of the Persian Guff point.\ to the ll.k of asphalt injected beneath tht: surface of tho desert to prepare certain areas for the bydropinic cultivation of pbnts wbfch are geneticQlly suited to the brat•kish-wat:crs existIng in the region. It is essential to mention also the political importance of st11dies of this kind, as a pos.\ihle contribution to solvfng the MlddJe East eonllict by develop ing the resources of the dewrt. The national aspirations of the Palesllniam and Israelis CQu]d he ll'atislicd more easily if tbu ,eo;,logy of the region w«>re changed ; and the '' Great Petroleum Scare" and the consequent shlll'J) rises in priel!s havc m ade ft p os• siblc to envisage n machinery for rmancing such .in enterpri$e through a small surtax oo petroleum, long-term Joans advanct..-d by the petroleum producing countries and th P. conversion of the the n,ililill)• aid provided to the two opposing camps into a desert development fund, (2) H0t1oStng Every year, the housing shortage o n Uia world scale increases by some 4.5 miJlion ooits in uruan areas alone, 3 • The tltuatlon in the countryside is rar from being satisfactory. And yet, pua
the centucie.~ human societies have ve.ited dwellings of varying types accordi ng to the locality and culture, and well adapted to the eoo-syste:m and the climate," but ln which mlsunderstoo11lngs" reffecting a high degree of ingenuity in the choice of materials, the ti.st!' of solar and wf nd energy, water reHousing com~ within cycling, etc.a the f r.1mc,vork or eco-development under three closely linked a:q:,ects : -the use of building materials of focal origin, which are abundan t and cheap, rangi.ng from bamboo to mud; this is a p roblem which has been studied in .some detail, but much remaf ns to he done in practiOP~ s tarting with the rejection of an alim &)'Stem of values acrording to which an aluminium roof or a steel and cement h ouse Imported at great e ~ is regarded as a symbol of modemity even in the bush; - the adaptation of the dwcllfng itself to ecological COl'lditions; as we hove olrcady stated, this is the Reld f}Or axcdlente for the 4."Ultural creativity or tnim, in which It is necessary to take a deliberate step backwards to re-

ECOl'\OMIC AND POLITICAL \\>"EEJ..'LY

May 25, 1974 Tridwtrialisatlon of renewable

ex.amine traditional homing and possibly d,aw some inspiration from it. A rigid

(4)

attitude of a re ve1ence for traditiOn is, but architects should pay more attcnti(m to ar1lhropology and move beyond the falso univen:alisatioo with which their discip)f ne is at present tainted; n

Ono way of combating the ~sible 5hortagc of certain non-renewable reso~s might be to restore pride of place to the "plant life civilisations ' which iue ~ well described by P Gourou and whose importanre ts so evident in Far Eastern cultutts.•s We f'r and plan t 6bres, based on the latest advantt.'S in modem chemistry an.d nfforing fl ew outlets for certain products of tropical forests and agl"iculture, p rovide a 1,'00d illustrati0n of this c.-on~pt.

or course, undesirable;

- lastly, the integration of ecology an
t3) Energy

The dchate on the importance of non-cl3ssical ~ou:rc:es of energy is highl y charged and we have no intention here ol talcing a positlon o n this controvemal i-ubject. It is eDOugh merely to $late that the re<X!flt Increase in petroleurll prices hos II lready up$Ct many hard-andfa.~t £de.is. Wu sha ll not say anythinl! or the possible solu tions to the p roblem of large-scale energy production but, in the eontext of eco-devclopment ~ tegies, we rnust refer to the importance which might ho atta<:'ht'd to the climin~Uun of tho energy wastage wh ich occnr~ so oftm in the ronsump.tion style of th e indusWaliscd societies, and to the possible c0n tn1)11tion which m lgbt he mad e - in the ca~ of domestic eoergy uses :m11etgy (for the local l)toduction of clectricil)'), small dams and evPn the J)roductfon or methane from organic souroes.ci Th~e various p rocedures are justifiable in the conditions of isolation which e:liii.t ia many rural regions; and they a]5o have the ad, 'll.nt.-ige that they can be applied on an eveo more reduced scale, for eirnmple o n a sin.i;le fom1 . The possibilities of using geothermic energy should, of course, also 11<' carefully aisessocl where they exil.t. 8.34

rBSQW'Ce.,

(5) Conscreolion Qf rioturol -reaourc& As we have already indicated in regard to the d e 6uition of eoo-developm1>nt, the maintcna:n()(: of natural l't'.SOurc,es ir1 the nalll e o f a forward. looking soHdarity with future gene:ratiOl1$ is an integral part of this s trategy. II seem s tha t it is al~u an exccllenl 6elcl fur "human investme:nt",c.s sillL'e mal\Y soil and water oonservatioo activities, fi'Jorestatlon, e tc, are suJtal,le for thl' u~e of highly labour-intensive techniflues. Also, as spa re labour is often availabDc, l\t least outside the season o f major ag'Ticultliral activity, it is possible to envisage natural resources conse.rvatjon programmes whicli would not to a ny large e1ttent diminish the Cllpaclty of a ooun!fy to undertah, othe r
demonstrate.,;." (6) SQcitlL S1Jrou;es If, as bas been imgg~ted, the social cnviromnent ls lo be considered ll$ ~rt uf the glohal environment coocept, as mcanfns the total habitat of mati, an t.'CO·dcvclopment strategy must naturally includ e forms and techniques for p roYid fng soci;il. educational arid cultural

services wh ich are adapted to the specl6e c0nrtiary sector (domestic services and small business). Paradoxic,. ally, it is tha countries of the Third World IVhlch. have the best ch.'lnoe of cn:albig genuine welfare States. n

•

T he concept uf eco-d.evelovmeJJ t Is mleudeJ to be opc111tlonal. It conirtitu tl's a b'Uiddine for action (or, if one prefers, a ph ilosophy of deve.lopmcnt) whose vallte can be judged only in the h-sht of practice. Is rt merely a rctum l o the n:usions of oommunity developmen t? Nol necess!lrily so since, by cu111p.uisun with the commwiity development schemes for the rural areas of the Third W orld , i i is richer in two aspects : /mt, die re is the critical rdleclion on the failutts 0£ those scht'1Jles and accordingly the desire to do b' there ls the linlc with natural nnd social ecology which is re\'Olutionisiog the hahits of tho ught of

rhe devt'lopers. The application of the concept docs. however, requi,e a ,ustained reseuch effort acrompanietl hy pilot activities imbjcct to critical review, so that perm~nent feed.bocks are C$1ahlisbf:d bclween practice a,id nction-or!ented

research. In particular, it is essential to promote the gath1>ring and circulation of info~ tion on eco-dcve lopment experiments as idenUfled and described by anthropologists, hjstorfan.s and hwna.11 geographers, and also on eco-techniquL-s devdaped and applied by d.Hici-cnt indigenous [)ea.sant cultures and, to an increasing ~~tc-nt, by certain research laboratories. T he p urpose of this wiU ~ three-fold ; lo inspire the imagination of re,earch workers and persons respomible for regional planning, to ai.sist in the trafn-

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY Ing of cco·dcvelopers and, occadonaUy, to suggest experiments in ada_ptation, p:trticu!ady between similar eco-:z.ones. This will require a vust programme of OOfllparative a:od ioter-discipHruuy re-

search and voyages in Sl)aoe and time, undertaken through a network of scientific collaboration in which our c.-olJ~es of the Third World wnl have primasy responsibility, since encoungem~t must be given a bove all to exchanges within the 'I'hinl Wodd, on a Soutb· South a xis, by Insisting on cc-operation between eco-regi.ons which are similar but siluatc.-d in areas gr.ograpblc• ally dist.ant from one another. On the basis of these excharlgcs, supported by spedfic case studies, it would be po,st1ble to d elinc pol_nts of interest to serve as focJ for the collaboration of biologists, technologists and pl:uiners three professions which have in the past had too little contact with one nno ther. Their exchanges would le.ad lo tbe formulation of research prlorittes on 1:co-ter:hniques and organisational fomu of eco-de~·elopment..

Without waiting for the n?SUlt& or all these exchange~, it is possible even now to undertake certain pilot activitie.~, desJgned to show that regional or micro. regional development s trategies would be improved If th~ were oriented la the direction of ero-development. Tho elaboration of eoo-develol)Illent sccruui~ would make it possible, in a first stage, to take stock of actual knowledge or ga1>5 in lrnQw)edge - or1 this matter, to test the p31tidpatory an d uflfBed approach to planning and to train eccdevelopers, In a second stage, it is rom:e.tvnble that the eco-
May 25, 1974 See in t:lili connection tbc report o( the United Nations Symposium on Population. ResoW'Ces and the Enviromnent (Stoclcholm, SeptemberOctober 1973). 3 This social mm.science is postulated and practisecl by M Codeller. See Horizon, "Trajets marxlstes eri antluopologie", Paris 1973, pp 13-82, 4 See in tbi, connection our article .. Ristoire Globale ct Prospe-ctlve du Tiers Monde'', t)(ogene, Nwnber 73. S L Febvre, La Terre et l'Evolution H 1ml{tfne, Paris 1972. 6 1'be presmt piece of v.:orlc partJy rel)l't'"5ents our study "Emdcsarollo: un aporte a la de!enicion de estilos de clesarollo para America Latiria" prepared for the ECLA in July 1973. ''The Systems 7 W Cburch1nan, Approach'', New Y01ir 1968. 8 The human cnvironmCflt Is also course made up of men (see T MaldoOAd o, E11oiron11m8flt et ldeolngic, P aris 1972, p 15). 9 In this respect F EniJeb' work on the conditions of the worlcing cla~ in England stancls out as a classic of the litc-rati.ue on the envlron-

l

14

15

J(l

fll('Slt.

10 The c-alegory of non.Jcstmctivc e:nvll'01tmmra! tech11<1logies is bro:icler than that of "soft tech nologies", defined as ln.fiicting no dam,tJte to tho environment, as not calllni for a great d e.al of capital or for high qualilicntions and able moreover lD he applied on a small sc:ile. See In Ibis connection: P Harper , "Tecbr10logies Doud and critfQue of the Western model of development, Perspcctiaf!.f, Volume Ill, Number 2, 1973, and our article published in the s.:imc rev1ew under the title ''Tcclmiques Douces, Civilisatton Projects, l)eve)opment~. l l One cannot over-cmph tliise, in In this context, the importanc-c of settinit up a p:atrlmonial accounting system for nature In order to be in a position to detect the consumption entailed by the irreversible whittling down of the capiml of nature or, if omJ 1>re£e~s, the ra te of eiiploitation of the cnvironmeiit (for this last concept sec n G Wilkinson's 6:ne ooulr, "Poverty and Progress, An E cological Model of Economic Oevelopme.1t", l--omfoo 1973, and al$0 Das1-nllnn, Mrlton rl'P.cm11n, "Ecologic-al Principles for EcoJJ0111ic l)evelopmmt'', London 1973. 12

13

Maurice F Strong, ExccutJ11e J)Jn:clor of the Uoitecl Natmns Programme for the &vironmcnt, laund1cd the idea of ec-0-developm-.:nt at the first m,-ctin,1t of the Adrulnlstrativc Board of this ProJ p:romme, hel
poverty - p ots and pqms and bicycles a.od slmple co.osumpt!on hiihlts - without befng seduced by tbe life style of the rich'* tCr!sts in Development Strategl!:!$~, World Develo~ . Volume I, Number 7, 1973, p 29), It should never be forgotten that the ..,-ery oonccpt of natunal resou,~ is tied !n witll culture: as C O Sauer has wd, na.twal rea civlllsatlpn's ~timate5 sources of Its environment (quoted by P Courou , Poor tine geograp'hfe lrurM"'6 Pads 1973, P 240). See· in this oonnection the recc.nt nddross by Robert S McN amara. President of the W orld Banlt (Addn.-ss to the Board of Coverno~, Nairobi, SeJ,tember 24. 197:3) ond the work of the Urtited Nations O)mmittee for the Planning. of D evelopment and the U nited Natio,ns Research lnstitote for DevelQPment on the Unlfled Ap· prooch to T'lannin~ fkve1onm~t u it is tmdltlon.,lly <1e6ned always sumJ6cs ascrihin~ ;m unroncliti<mal prlo.r[ty to c:,,lturc over 11:iture. On the othet hand. as Is stressed hv Claude Levi· Straus~. a.monpi1t primitive pooplesd. the relation between culture .an nature assumes a certa.io amb!gwty: the Jattflr ls at one and tbe same time pre-eulture and sub-culture. hut above all, it ccmtalns a super. nahlrol comoonent (Amhn,r,cl,ott;46 Stfuctiuole ll, Paris 1973, P 274). Sec in particular J B R Whitney, "Eoology and Environrnootal Cl\ntrol In China's Development E ll· petlencc"', weclal issue of Th,An1111LJ of t he Ameriron Acadmn11 of Pol!tlcol and Social Sele~. March 1973, Volume :31, Number l.

am

or

Notes (This paper was written for thti United l\atlons Environment Programme.] D Goulet, "The Cruel Choice A New Concept in the Theory oE Developmeot-, Ne w York 1973, pp XII-XXI.

and to adopt a different style of life, seeldng a oonsumptton pattern more C01tsist<."llt with their own

2

17

llTJ

95-100.

18 This Englis h term consecrated by EmCJ'$0n, used agall'l in the conte~ which is of interest to us ~Y Ciindhi and mO'l'C recently again hy Nyerere ("Ujamaa: Essays on Soch1lism" , D ar-es-Salaam, 1968) h 11N connotation~ which !be usttol Prt."nch translation develot>· pcment autoccntfe" - renders very

imperfectly, 19 See amongst other~, C Le11i-StraU.$S, La 'Pensee S11u~11, Paris 1002, pp 3-47, and J B~rran, "Plante., et romportemcrits des bommes qul lcs t:ttl tivcnt. L'oeuvre ethnobioloitique d'Andrc Ilaudriccmrt··, La Perulls, Numhcr 171, Octohe-r 1973, PP

37-46. 20 C Gecrtz.,

2.1

"Two Types of Eco· systemsh, in A l' Vayda (ed), " Environment nod Cultural BehavtmLc'', New Yo rlc 1069, pp, 3-2.5. Sl"e for instance for the '' chacras" of ' rndiens, n J Meggers., "Amazonia: Mao and Cul ture in a C-Ounter, fcit Pan1.dlse'', Chic:igo 1971, and S Varese, "Au sujet du colonialitme coologique~, Le.t Tem,n Modernes, AprO 1978; fo-r the gardens of Polyn.eYla, R A RapGport, "The

835

May 25., 1974

ECONOMIC AND POLm CAL WEEKLY

Fluw 11f E11ctgy in atl Agricultur;il Society", Sci,mJi(ic Amerlcct,1, Sep,tembei- 1971.

techni<111e

'11le Iutematio11al Rice Rcs<:arcb Jn5tituto has just begun a re.search prog.ran,mo on "multiple croppin1;''

conceived as a carry-on from the "Green Revolu tion", keyed to the humble peasa11t \vho Jach capital and aooess to irrigated lan
which would

tlcpcnd

cssenfi ally on his Jabour and Otl knowledl{e of the environment and wo11Jd :ilford him II possibility of lncre::ising and divcl"$ifying his pmduction. (See C Conway, J Romm, " 11,cologv and ncsomce

22

l>cv,•lopmcnt in South-East Asia'', T he Ford FouMlalion Office for South-E11st ;\~;a, 1973). NaturalMs can be found who

iu,tify the culliui down of the forest by pseudo-sdentillo arguments. H as n