Sustainable Development

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Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development

• The concept of sustainable development emerged as
  the means by which biodiversity and natural
  resources might be saved while allowing humans to
  prosper
• Was generated at the World Conservation Strategy
  (IUCN/UNEP/WWF 1980), from a UN conference in 1972

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Sustainable Development

• So what is sustainable development?
• It means many things to many people
• However, most are anthropogenic focusing on human
  aspirations and how the environment might provide
  them

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Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development vs. growth
• Growth is a quantitative increase in the size of
  a system development is a qualitative change in
  its complexity and configuration
• Thus, sustainable growth is an oxymoron
• We can however, have sustainable development

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Sustainable Development

• One of the problems we face is that of looking
  for technical fixes rather than recognize and
  look for natural limits
• Low fish populations, get better gear
• Low oil, get better drills

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Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development might also be known as
  integrated conservation and development projects,
  community-based conservation or community
  adaptation and sustainable livelihoods projects
• Many deal with sustainable agriculture,
  fisheries, aquaculture, or forestry

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Sustainable Development

• SD projects typically use a number of economic
  tools to promote sustainability, including
  incentives such as certification, subsidies, and
  grants, or job creation in sustainable
  enterprises, and sometimes penalties, such as
  fines or fees for continuing unsustainable
  practices

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Sustainable Development

• Importantly, SD projects often are par of a
  larger strategy for landscape- or ecosystem-scale
  conservation
• ICDPs are usually conceptualized as including
  protected areas and regions of sustainable
  enterprise (Fig. 16.1)
• Stems from concern PA are not sufficient to
  conserve biodiversity

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Sustainable Development

• The goal of ICDPs are to conserve biodiversity,
  particularly in protected areas by enhancing the
  benefits adjacent communities
  derive

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Sustainable Development

• Frequently these plans are from state or federal
  levels in hopes of protecting areas and
  simultaneously decreasing poverty
• There are many reasons governments may wish to
  pursue this avenuewhat?

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Sustainable Development

• How good are SD projects at conserving
  biodiversity?
• A study suggested that genetic-, population- and
  species-level diversity may be particularly
  vulnerable to increasing intensive uses
• Ecosystem processes and structure seem to be
  impacted later, when conditions further diminish

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Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development

• What if we made a comparison of the side-by-side
  options with various criteria (from Table 16.1)
• E.g. the Pantanal in Brazil
• Hidrovia would channelize the Paraguay R for
  barge traffic (with dams)

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Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development

• Unfortunately, there is a general tradeoff
  between the degree to which biodiversity can be
  protected and SD projects take place and succeed

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Sustainable Development

• Sometimes problems occur when local projects are
  attempted to scale-up to larger areaswhy?

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Sustainable Development

• The logic behind community-based,
  enterprise-based conservation projects that seek
  to enhance benefits from developing an enterprise
  that protects biodiversity and supports enterprise

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Sustainable Development

• Analysis of community-based conservation in Asia
  and the Pacific allowed researchers to develop a
  table of indicators for when a community-based,
  sustainable enterprise project is likely (or not)
  to succeed

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Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development

• Mexico has 300-480 community forest enterprises
  (CFE), which are community-owned and managed
  forest lands for producing commercial timber and
  other saleable goods
• Some CFEs have gone further and promote
  sustainable forestry and biodiversity (read CS
  8.3)

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Sustainable Development

• How to promote sustainability?
• A group of conservation organizations met and
  drafted a set of ecological principles of
  sustainability to promote sustainability
• 1) nature should be understood to be an
  irreplaceable source of knowledge, from which we
  can learn potential solutions so some of our
  problems

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Sustainable Development

• 2) we should understand that issues of
  environmental deterioration and human oppression
  and violence are linked in analysis and action
• 3) humility must guide our actions good
  stewardship begins with restraint

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Sustainable Development

• 4) we must appreciate the importance of proper
  scale. Place and locality are the foundation for
  all durable economies, and must be the starting
  oint of action to deal with our problems.
  Solutions are local and scale-dependent

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Sustainable Development

• 5) sufficiency must replace economic efficiency.
  Earths resources are finite, and this fact must
  be accepted in order for humanity to adopt
  limits. We must distinguish between need and
  want
• 6) community is essential for survival. The
  global community should reflect and encourage
  diversity while being interdependent

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Sustainable Development

• 7) biological and cultural diversity must be
  preserved, defended, and encouraged

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Sustainable Development

• What are the chances these will actually be
  adopted?
• Fisheries are using empirically based models and
  marine PAs are widespread
• Water supplies and watersheds are becoming better
  protected
• Greenhouse gases are actually being discussed, by
  some nations

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Sustainable Development

• What are some potential pitfalls for SD
• 1) wealth or the prospect of wealth generates
  political and social power that is used to
  promote unlimited exploitation of resources
• 2) scientific knowledge is frequently lacking
  (e.g. idiosyncratic nature of systems, lack of
  funding, scale, lack of replicates)

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Sustainable Development

• 3) when many stakeholders are involved, effective
  and timely communication is essential
• 4) organizations and governments tend to seek to
  maximize economic growth (short-term especially)
  rather than conserve for the future

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Sustainable Development

• What conditions need to change to expedite SD?
• 1) the value system that lie at the core of the
  human fabric and drive our collective behaviors
  need to change drastically (e.g. wealthy
  countries need to more towards long-term goals)
• This will require more knowledge about their
  relationship with the environment

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Sustainable Development

• 2) the growth-oriented economic systems that
  drive human existence must be replaced by
  steady-state economic systems that accept natural
  limits to our artificial economics
• 3) human population growth must slow, stop, and
  eventually reverse toward this goal, sustainable
  development projects must contain internal
  incentives to limit population growth

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Sustainable Development

• Homework for next Tuesday lab
• Read CS 16.1 (ecotourism), 16.2 (large-scale
  preservation and sustainability) and 16.5 (sea
  turtles in Australia)