Sustainable Development

By: Ray Vincent Gomez Leoneil John Francisco

Definition Sustainable development  Development which meets

the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

 The term ‘sustainable development’

was used as early as 1974 in Cocoyoc Declaration during a special meeting of the two bodies of the United Nations in Cocoyoc, Mexico , UNCTAD and UNEP. The meeting was to discuss the effects of technologies which are destructive to the physical environment.

Brief History  In July 1970, an international

research team in the MIT started to study the effects and limits of continued world growth. The conclusions published in Limits of Growth are:

Brief History: Limits of Growth  If the present growth trends in the

world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.

Brief History: Limits of Growth  It is possible to alter these growth

trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.  If the world's people decide to strive for this second outcome rather than the first, the sooner they begin working to attain it, the greater will be their

Core issues  Population  Food security  Species and ecosystems  Energy  Industry  The urban challenge

Development: GNP is not enough  GNP measures 'productive' activity in a very

narrow way, excluding, for example, the productive activities of the household because many of these are undertaken by women and children.  A measure of 'formal' sector activity, whether in the primary sector or in manufacturing and services  GNP is a very blunt instrument for measuring economic development without considerable attention being given to demographic profiles  Economic growth measured through GNP is also an inadequate measure of how production is deployed.

Development: GNP is not enough

 GNP figures also fail to distinguish between

groups of people especially social classes, within a country

 GNP statistics record the productive utilization

of resources, whether or not theses resources are renewable

 From an environmental standpoint, then ,GNP, is

a particularly inadequate guide to development since it treats sustainable and unsustainable production alike and compounds the error by including the costs of unsustainable economic activity on the credit side, while largely ignoring processes of recycling and energy conversion which do not lead to the production of goods or

Grassroots Environmental Action  The participation of people of the

local level in meeting the challenge of sustainable development has the great merit of providing a mechanism for taking into consideration local conditions and social issues at every stage of the planning process.

Grassroots Environmental Action  Local level participation or the

grassroots environmental action is not sufficient by itself to prevent or reverse the environmental degradation in situations where national policies or global-level ecological changes create major destructive forces.

Grassroots Environmental Action  Redclift’s approach calls for a

substantial rethinking of the theoretical basis of sustainable development, which, he asserts should include not only economic, but also political and epistemological dimensions

Multiple Dimensions of SD  Political

 the weight of human agency and social structure in

determining the political process through which the environment is managed;  and the relationship of power and knowledge in

popular resistance to dominant world views of the environment and resources.

 Economical  we need to protect nature from

unfretted growth if we are to preserve human welfare before diminishing returns begin to set in

Multiple Dimensions of SD  Epistemological

 In the course of time much of the

knowledge possessed by people outside mainstream science, especially in developing countries, becomes encoded in rituals, in religious observations and in the cultural practices of everyday life.

Environmental Issues  Rural Poor and Sustainable

Development  Contested Resources: Power, Resistance and Social Change  Foundations for Sustainable Development: Participation, empowerment, and local resource management  Participation and Conservation Projects : Some Promising

Zanjeras as a case study  Zanjeras are organizations that build

and maintain irrigation ditches in Ilocos Norte. They are known in the Philippines and abroad for their enduring capacity to manage gravityfed communal irrigation system, and for their rules and regulations governing water allocation and distribution, system operation and maintenance, and conflict management. Other zanjeras had been operating for up to

Existing Envt’l Problems of Zanjeras’system  However, there exist environmental

problems associated with agriculture, such as soil erosion. Also, the changeability of the river’s course and characteristics which made the task of brush dam construction and repair increasingly difficult.

Intervention of the National Gov’t  In order to bring additional irrigation Institution

water supplies, NIA designed and created the INIP and its JICA-grant area to strengthen the inefficient,’ unlinked system of scattered zanjera brush dams.

 NIA or National Irrigation Administration  INIP or Ilocos Norte Irrigation Project  JICA or Japan International Cooperation

Problems arises such as:  The resistance of the zanjera to

join the project for the following reason:  They had enough water to sustain them without the help of the NIA project  They did not want to pay irrigation fees to NIA.  They did not want to give up their water rights or grant NIA the ROW. The tenants would lose their livelihood

Problems arises such as:  This resulted to apparent weakening

of voluntary labor system for repair, maintenance and operation activities in some of the members. They are now dependent on NIA equipment and staff to make major repairs to the dams and head intakes.

Problems arises such as:  INIP has aggravated existing

environmental difficulties, such as flooding, for the zanjeras in certain areas of the project; it has also caused and contributed to new problems – soil erosion and sedimentation – in other project location

Problems arises such as:  On several occasions it took NIA months

to repair major damages, due to lack of funds and materials, and to bad weather. This delay occur even when the project was in the midst of a full construction schedule with available funds to make the repair.  These delays on repair and clean-up activities by NIA interfered the delivery of the irrigation water in a timely fashion of the zanjeras.

Resolution  The thrust of INIP’s revised -

participatory planning approach is to preserve the integrity of the zanjeras’ organization by designing the irrigation project in a way which builds on the strengths of the original character of the traditional resource management systems rather than trying to change completely those traditional system.

Resolution  Sustainable agriculture refers

to the ability of a farm to produce food indefinitely, without causing irreversible damage to ecosystem health

Local Resource Management and Development: Strategic Dimensions of People’s Participation

Environmental equilibrium can be affected by:  the existence and strength of regulations governing access and use of resources  the existence of local organization which work in the interest of maintaining local livelihood  the choice of appropriate technology for resource management.

Sustainable Resource Management require the ff.:  Resource management which is area-specific in order to account for the characteristics of local ecosystem.  Allowance for a full participation of the local population  Making the best use of the local resource base: human, natural, institutional, technological

Applications  OPEC Nations and the Global

Dialogue on Sustainable Development  Agenda 21

OPEC Nations and the Global Dialogue on Sustainable Development  Dire need of human perspective

changes, not political dominance in business-oriented politics  Financial mechanism to combat drought and desertification, and replenishment of its resources at an increased level

Millennium Development Goals

 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger  Achieve universal primary education  Promote gender equality and empower     

women Reduce child mortality Improve maternal health Combat AIDS/HIVs, malaria and other diseases Ensure environmental Sustainability Developed a Global Partnership for

Agenda 21  Agenda 21 is a ‘comprehensive plan of

action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment’.  Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Statement for the Sustainable Management of Forest where adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

Agenda 21  Poverty alert  1.3 billion without access to clean

water;  about half of humanity lacking access to adequate sanitation and living on less than 2 dollars a day;  approximately 2 billion without access to electricity;

Agenda 21: Philippine Trends  Demographic Trends – 9th most

populous country in Asia and 14th in the world. The country’s population will double to 128 million by 2025  Cultural trends – inherent traits of Filipino culture – openness, freedom of expression, resilience, strong family orientation – continue to support social cohesion within the society. However some cultural values had undergone some erosion – commodification of indigenous culture, sexual tourism, consumerism and increasing materialism.

Agenda 21: Philippine Trends

 Science and Technology Trends – the

sector has its share of problems, such as the “brain drain” phenomenon: unfair monopoly of intellectual property rights; increasing use of technology as simplistic response to complex problems; poor quality of science education due to inadequate funding and facilities  Economic trends - despite the positive economic growth , challenges remain – high level of public indebtedness, low level of savings, large deficits, remaining distortion of the price and incentive system, rampant casualization of labor , indiscriminate land and ecosystem

Agenda 21: Philippine Trends

 Urbanization Trends – unplanned and

uncontrolled urbanization lead to pollution, water shortage, flooding, violence and other social ills  Human development trends – rampant substance abuse, break-up of families, economic exploitations and homelessness as evidenced by the growing number of street children.

Agenda 21: Philippine Trends

 Environmental trends – mine tailings,

deforestation, pollution, salt water intrusion  Institutional Trends – ineffective mechanism for enforcement and implementation, information inadequacies and continuing system graft and corruption destruct strong institutional building blocks for SD  Political Trends – the rich continue to dominate political processes as

Agenda 21 Philippines  Key Actors in SD

Civil Society

SD

Busines s

Governme nt

Societ y

Culture

Polity

Economy

Nature

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The three Essential Dimensions of Society in Relation to Nature, the Human Being and Sustainable Development Human Being

Conclusion: Poverty, Empowerment, and Sustainable Development 

Common argument is that poor people are forced to cultivate marginal lands, or to overexploit resources in spite of the fact that they threaten their future livelihood by doing so, because they will not otherwise be able to survive the present season.  The excessive wealth and overconsumption of industrialized societies is responsible for the vast majority of unsustainable resource extraction, and that wealth may

Conclusion: Poverty, Empowerment, and Sustainable Development  The poor communities not only have

high incentives for managing their resources sustainably, but they have historically often been able to develop a variety of effective and adaptable means of doing so.  This growing inability of communities to participate in resource management resources on which they depend, their traditional tenure rights and rights to exclude outsiders may be abrogated, or their ability to make their own decisions regarding resource management may be curtailed.