2. THEORIES OF ENVIRO MENT: CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT This chapter seeks to discuss and place in context some of the main concepts around
2.4 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
According to Kuye, Thornhill and Fourie (2002:128), increasing environmental disasters in the last decade (such as ElNino causing massive droughts, storms and hurricanes) have triggered imbalances in the natural environment and have brought global economic values to a crossroads in the 21Sicentury. There has also been an increase in the level of urgency of finding holistic and long lasting solutions. The search for solutions has shaped the contemporary international and national landscapes especially in areas of environmental management, conservation and development policies (Kuye et ai, 2002). There is a greater need for environmental management policy to respond effectively to the current crisis and bring balance into the notion of development. This challenge has informed the debates on sustainable development (Kuye, Thornhill and Fourie, 2002).
The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), published an influential and widely recognized report, 'Our Common Future', (also known as the Brundtland Report), which was adopted by the United Nations in 1987.Itpopularized the concept of sustainable development by identifying its underlying philosophy:
Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and the aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future. Economic growth always brings risks of environmental damage, as it puts increased pressure on environmental resources. But policymakers guided by the concept of sustainable development will necessarily work to ensure that growing economies remain firmly attached to their ecological roots and that these are protected and nurtured so that they may support growth over the long term. Environmental protection is thus inherent in the concept of sustainable development, as it is the focus on the sources of environmental problems rather than the symptoms (WCED, 1987: 41).
Bartelmus (1994), says that in 1987, the Brundtland Commission concluded that sustainable development entails integrating environmental concerns into mainstream policies, shifting the focus from weak and peripheral environmental management policies to socio-economic policy sources of environmental impacts. Bartelmus (1994: 61), says that originally, sustainability was an ecological concept and further explains that the quest
for sustainability seems to confirm the somewhat alarmist idea that ultimate limits of economic growth are about to be reached because not all natural resources are renewable (Bartelmus, 1994).
The 1992 World Conservation and Earth Development Summit (WCED), held in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro emphasized the need to integrate elements of environmental protection and preservation into the environmental polices and development process and it stipulated that all countries should establish programmes of integrated environmental and economic accounting for use in sustainable development, (Bartelmus, 1994: 72). Secondly, the Earth Summit also established that a global institutional framework was established. This global institutional framework is known as Agenda 21 (Kuye et ai, 2002: 136). Agenda 21 proposes a plan for environmental management and development that provides for a new and integrated policy framework for national and regional action to enhance sustainable development. Agenda 21 is an action plan that seeks to emphasize the importance of strengthening environmental and development and resource management policies and agencies in countries (Kuye, Thornhill and Fourie, 2002).
Sustainable development focuses on improving the quality oflife of all of the Earth's citizens without increasing the use of the natural resources beyond the capacity of the environment to supply them indefinitely. Itrequires an
understanding that inaction has consequences and that we must find innovative ways to change institutional structures and individual behaviour. This therefore demands that policy and practice methodologies be changed so that they can respond to the contemporary challenges.4
One of the important findings of the 1987 Brundtland Report was the identification of sustainable development problems in developing countries, such as those experienced by African states. This recognition or finding led to their inclusion in global agenda setting in areas of policy on environment conservation and sustainable development. This is perhaps
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most evident in the latest World Summit on Environment and Sustainable Development (WSSD), convention, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. At this convention, African states had an opportunity to participate and influence the global sustainable development and enviroIIDlent conservation policy agenda and to make sure that the resolutions reached would recognize the African conditions and problems.
One of the resolutions adopted at WSSD (2002), was the Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation (hereafter referred to as JPOI). The JPOI advocates for the protection and management of natural resources while achieving economic and social development. The JPOI also emphasizes that human activity is having an increasing impact on the integrity of ecosystems that provide essential resources and services for human welfare and economic activities. Managing the natural resource base on a sustainable and integrated basis is essential for sustainable human development. This is crucial because the major
contributors towards the realization of sustainable development are human beings, as a result they must be the key concern of sustainable development practice (JPOI, 2004).
The JPOI (2004: 15), further explains that actions should be taken to facilitate public information and participation, at all levels (including the poor and marginalized) in support of policy and decision-making related to conservation, preservation and development project implementation. This plan proposes that a variety of policy instruments must be used to achieve sustainable development. For example, governments can use policy
instruments such as regulations, monitoring and evaluation, land-use planning, information management, control of production and markets, imposition of fines for pollution, and so on. This means that an integrated environmental conservation approach should be adopted so that all institutions within the states can be subjected to a uniform practice. Itis also said
4www.edu.pe.ca.
that sustainable development should ensure that it addresses questions of sustainable human development, especially for communities adjacent to protected areas. This is crucial
because the communities are custodians of the natural resources, so they need to be empowered to sustainably use and protect their natural resources (JPOI, 2004).
Balancing the protection or conservation of natural resources while pursuing development in poor and underdeveloped countries presents a serious problem for policy-makers. Many African states are rich in a range of natural resources. They are often rich in minerals (like gold, copper, iron ore, coal and zinc) compared to other parts of the world. African states have an abundance of natural resources and biodiversity. Perhaps their most renowned asset is their wildlife, a resource that is increasingly being marketed by tourism agencies. Nature conservation in African states is complicated by citizens' dependency on natural resources to overcome poverty (Child, 2004: 11). Hunger is forcing many African states to resort to illegal poaching for income or makes people heavily dependent on natural resources to feed their families. In addition, some countries are overwhelmed by civil wars and diseases such as cholera, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. In Africa, conservation has to compete with all these problems (Child, 2004).
The JPOI (2004), reveals that there has been a global recognition that African states need to play their part in the struggle to curb environmental problems. A basic management tool available to any state is policy. However, states firstly have to realize that they are the key decision-makers and responsible for managing their natural resources. At present,
contemporary environmental and development policies tend to focus on the promotion or unleashing of tourism development as this offers a quick route to development and economic growth. The World Bank has identified tourism as the world's largest growing
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industry. However, whether or not tourism development initiatives are beneficial to the poor and environmentally sustainable remains to be seen.
According to the JPOI (2004), it is possible for governments (especially in poor African States) to encourage ecotourism, that will in return create benefits for the population in host countries. The argument even goes as far as saying that this will assist countries to maintain their cultural environmental integrity. To be beneficial, states the JPOI, such approaches must include education and training programmmes, affording access, providing information that will empower and enable the indigenous communities to benefit from the ecotourism activities. Ecotourism is a concept which claims to embrace a holistic protection of the environment, natural and culture resources or heritage for the purpose of development and which must inform environment management policy. The problem however, is its pre- occupation with economic value. The sustainable development theory is promoted as the responsibility of each nation to maximize its potential in a 'just' manner that will ensure sustainability (JPOI, 2004).
Bartelmus (1994), states that environmentalists and economists see sustainable development as a new paradigm for development. That this can help them achieve qualitative economic growth and development, which will allow human beings to live in greater harmony with nature. Cavalcanti (2000: 4), says that the first principle to be stressed in the context of policies for sustainable development is that, since growth always means some environmental degradation, the economic process has to use nature on a more enduring, sound basis than has been the practice up to now. More emphasis must be placed on the creation of mechanisms that will ensure that political, social and economic
dimensions are made part of the broader environment and development policy agenda (Cavalcanti,2000).
Itis crucial that developing states adopt integrated legislative and policy frameworks for environmental management that will ensure the inclusion of sustainability considerations in both decision-making and implementation (Cavalcanti, 2000: 12). This is crucial because human and economic processes directly and indirectly affect the environment. If
sustainability is addressed at the macro policy level (such as in a Constitution), then government can insist that further policies that emanate from it will be in line with the principles of sustainable development. In addition, government policies must provide clear measures or indicators for sustainable practices so that environmental degradation and resources depletion can be reduced and managed (Cavalcanti, 2000: 13). Therefore new ways of dealing with issues such as inefficiency, waste products, pollution, throughput, overuse or mining of renewable resources, and dissipation of exhaustible resources have to be found and implemented (Cavalcanti, 2000). However, as discussed in the first chapter, policies can be vague which make its implementation very difficult. The policy field of environment is by its nature very broad and all encompassing.