Turning the tide: Enabling sustainable development for Africa's mobile pastoralists

Sustainable development for Africa's mobile pastoralists is slowly becoming a reality. Success depends to a large extent on understanding the dynamics of drylands environments, accepting the logic of customary mobile livestock keeping, and enabling effective governance. Appropriate investment in pastoralism requires a clear understanding of the values that are attached to it and innovative approaches to marketing of the goods and services that emanate from the system. To make development truly sustainable it is imperative that the environmental services of pastoralism are recognised, rewarded and promoted. Constraints to sustainable pastoral development include low and misdirected public and private investment, weak security of resource rights, low human capital, weak pastoral voice and poor governance. Successful and sustainable development is observed in pastoral regions where customary governance has been legitimized, resource rights secured and economic development of the pastoral sector, as opposed to transformation of livestock keeping, has prevailed. This article presents state‐of‐the‐art knowledge on sustainable pastoralism, gathered through the GEF/UNDP/IUCN World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP), with data and case studies taken from three recently published WISP reports: “Global Economic Review of Pastoralism”, “Pastoralism as Conservation in the Horn of Africa”, and “Policy Impacts on Pastoral Environments”.     

Spatial systems approach to sustainable development: A conceptual framework

Even though “sustainable development” seems to have emerged as the development paradigm of the 1990s, a great deal of vagueness still surrounds the meaning, definition, and theoretical underpinnings of the concept. There is also a general lack of emphasis on the spatial dimension of sustainable development when developing relevant conceptual or environmental accounting frameworks. In clarifying the concept, this article proposes a definition that explicitly incorporates the temporal as well as the spatial dimension of sustainability. It also develops a logically consistent conceptual framework for the analysis and evaluation of sustainable development, following a spatial systems approach. Five interconnected aspatial subsystems or subsets of a spatial system are identified and their respective operational dimensions discussed. A proposed composite index calleddegree of stainable development (DSD) and its five component indicators are also outlined. The difficulties involved in operationalizing the DSD measure and the conceptual framework are noted, and the various tasks that need to be undertaken in this regard are specified. It is concluded that future research utilizing the proposed conceptual framework should not only foster the development of appropriate methodologies for the comparative evaluation of sustainable development at global, national, or regional scales, but also offer insights to appropriate decision makers at various levels regarding available options and alternative actions for the healthy development of their respective societies.     

An analysis of the himalayan environment and guidelines for its management and ecologically sustainable development

Summary The impacts of human activities on the bio-geophysical and socio-economic environment of the Himalayas are analysed. The main man-induced activities which have accelerated ecological degradation and threatened the equilibrium of Himalayan mountain ecosystems are stated as: unplanned land use, cultivation on steep slopes, overgrazing, major engineering activities, over-exploitation of village or community forests, lopping of broad leaved plant species, shifting cultivation (short cycle) in north-east India, tourism and recreation. Monoculture in forests, erosion and landslides have resulted in one–third of the total Himalayan land area becoming environmentally derelict. Cold desert conditions prevail in 41,500 km² of north-west Himalayas and are encouraged by traditional pasturalism. The geo-morphological conditions are major factors responsible for landslides which cause major havoc every year in the area. Other physical problems exist, such as eutrophication, drying up of the natural springs, the recession of the glaciers and changes in surface and ground water hydrology. Wild fauna, like musk deer (Moschus mischiferus) and the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), are now under threat partially due to changes in their habitat and the introduction of exotic plant species. Population pressure and migration are major factors responsible for poverty in the hills. The emigration of the working male population has resulted in the involvement of women as a major work-force. This work includes trekking for hours to collect fodder, timber and drinking water in addition to household duties. Guidelines, with special emphasis on the application of environmental impact assessments for the management of the Himalayas, are proposed.Drs Ahmad and Rawat are scientists, and Dr Rai is a research associate, at the Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development. Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Afroz Ahmad.     

Emergy accounting of the Province of Siena: towards a thermodynamic geography for regional studies

This research is part of the SPIn-Eco project for the Province of Siena, Italy, and applies an environmental accounting method to a region with reference to its population, human activities, natural cycles, infrastructures and other settings. This study asserts that the consumption of resources due to the human economy is a source of great concern because of the load it places on the biosphere. Environmental resources locally used, whether directly or indirectly, from both renewable energy fluxes and storage of materials and energies, are investigated. In this paper emergy analysis is presented and applied to the Province of Siena and to each of its municipalities, in order to evaluate the main flows of energy and materials that supply the territorial system, including human subsystems, with reference to their actual environmental cost. Therefore, the behaviour of the whole system and the interactions between natural and human agents were studied; in other words, the attitudes of the territorial systems toward resource use as revealed by their patterns of emergy consumption were observed. Once expressed in units of the same form of energy through the emergy evaluation, categories of resource consumption and systems of varying scales and organization are compared. Furthermore, indexes of environmental performance based on emergy are calculated. Flows of energy and materials are assessed, and their intensities, which vary throughout the area of the Province, are then visualized on maps.     

A framework for sustainable invasive species management: Environmental,social, and economic objectives

Applying the concept of sustainability to invasive species management (ISM) is challenging but necessary, given the increasing rates of invasion and the high costs of invasion impacts and control. To be sustainable, ISM must address environmental, social, and economic factors (or “pillars”) that influence the causes, impacts, and control of invasive species across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although these pillars are generally acknowledged, their implementation is often limited by insufficient control options and significant economic and political constraints. In this paper, we outline specific objectives in each of these three “pillars” that, if incorporated into a management plan, will improve the plan’s likelihood of sustainability. We then examine three case studies that illustrate how these objectives can be effectively implemented. Each pillar reinforces the others, such that the inclusion of even a few of the outlined objectives will lead to more effective management that achieves ecological goals, while generating social support and long-term funding to maintain projects to completion. We encourage agency directors and policy-makers to consider sustainability principles when developing funding schemes, management agendas, and policy.     

An integrative methodological framework for sustainable environmental planning and management

Sustainable environmental planning and management require effective integration of ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional elements. This paper presents an integrative methodological framework for sustainable environmental planning and management. The development of this integrative framework is accomplished by combining two complementary analytical approaches—Hufschmidt's conceptual framework for watershed planning and management and the ABC resource survey method. The combined methodological framework seeks to delineate and synthesize essential ecological information utilizing an integrative resource survey method. This method generates classifications of environmental significance and constraint. Areas of environmental significance and constraint are then linked to appropriate and acceptable resource management actions, implementation tools (e.g., education, technical assistance), and institutional and organizational arrangements. The integrative methodological framework was developed for application in the Rio Fortuna watershed in Costa Rica's Arenal Conservation Area. The watershed is characterized by a variety of land and resource uses, including biologically diverse and ecologically fragile protected areas, small-parcel agriculture, cattle ranching, and tourism.     

Influence of farm resource endowment on possibilities for sustainable development: a case study for vegetable farms in South Uruguay

In different parts of the world, there is an urgent need for redesigning and innovating farming systems. Such a process may be supported by model-based explorations that enable ex-ante evaluation of a broad range of alternatives. Since a variety of viable patterns of farm development exists related to farm resource endowment and farmer's strategy, model-based explorations should be able to capture the existing variation in resource endowment and strategies in order to have impact on strategic farm management. In this paper, we present an overview of the model-based explorative method based on the MILP model Farm Images, applied to explore options for sustainable development of vegetable farms in Canelón Grande, Uruguay. The method is used to gain insight into the impact of current farm resource endowment on the possibilities for sustainable development and on the resource use efficiency at farm scale. We maximized farm income for 128 different farm types in an environment-oriented scenario and in an income-oriented scenario. Farm types were defined by combining 4 farm sizes, 2 labor endowments, 4 irrigation endowments, 2 soil quality combinations and 2 mechanization levels. The results demonstrate a strong impact of farm resource endowment on possibilities for sustainable development, as well as synergy between labor, land and irrigated area on resource-use efficiency at farm scale. Farms with 10ha of land or less, representing 47% of the farms in the Canelón Grande region, could only achieve a family income higher than the average income of Uruguayan families when the irrigated area was ca. 40% of the farm area. The achievement of environmental targets was less costly in terms of income on farms with a low rather than high labor availability per unit area and on farms with irrigation facilities.     

环境会计初探

通过对环境会计的产生、必要性和目标的讨论，提出了环境会计在会计应用中的具体设想。     

The potential of public engagement in sustainable waste management: designing the future for biosolids in New Zealand

Strategies for beneficial use of biosolids in New Zealand and elsewhere are currently focused primarily on land application. The long-term success of these and other strategies is dependent not only on technical factors, but also on their environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability. This paper briefly reviews the situation with respect to biosolids management in New Zealand, where land application is not yet widespread; the rise in public opposition to land application in the United States; and the biosolids industry's approach to public engagement. We argue that, at least until recently, the industry has misinterpreted the nature and meaning of public opposition and thus substituted public relations for public engagement. We argue that genuine public engagement is necessary and that its purpose cannot be to gain public acceptance for an already-decided-upon strategy. It therefore calls for humility among biosolids managers, including a willingness to open up the framing of 'the problem', to acknowledge areas of uncertainty, and to recognise the role of values in 'technical' decision-making. We then present and analyse an example of the use of the scenario workshop process for public participation in biosolids management policy in Christchurch, New Zealand, and conclude that scenario workshops and related methods represent an opportunity to enhance sustainable waste management when certain conditions are met.     

On course for a sustainable future? European environmental policy and local economic development

Local authorities are increasingly faced with demands and pressures to become much more responsive to environmental issues. International agreements and national legislation all put an emphasis on the local level as the most appropriate scale for action and on local authorities as the most appropriate bodies to take such action. One area of local authority competence where environmental issues have made a limited impact to date is in economic development. Yet the concept of sustainable development which forms the basis of national and European legislation and policy necessitates the integration of economic development with the environment. In this paper the main features of European policy with regard to the environment are outlined and the implications for European funding of local authority economic development strategies are examined.     

Scarcity of natural resources and the implications for sustainable development

The idea of sustainable development has much popular appeal, but conflicts with centuries of economic theory about how limited land and natural resources constrain the growth of economies and populations. Much of that doctrine, especially that in the Malthusian tradition, is contradicted by historical experience, but the modern threat of environmental degradation raises new questions about whether growth can be sustained. Many of those new problems result from biases in economic organization and institutions against so-called environmental resources. Marketed resource commodities like minerals and timber are protected by the incentives of owners and suppliers to conserve them, enhance them and find new sources, and by the incentives of users to economize on their demands and find cheaper substitutes. Together, these forces have been sufficient to offset depletion and render resources less scarce over time. The same forces are not at work on environmental resources like water and air, so they are over-used and degraded as demands grow. However, promising opportunities exist to develop property rights and economic incentives to encourage users of environmental resources to protect and husband them, and these are likely to be more effective in harmonizing economic activity with the environment than purely regulatory policies.     

Environmental accounting as a management tool in the Mediterranean context: the Spanish economy during the last 20 years

Although human presence is one of the main characteristics of the Mediterranean identity since ancient times, a false dialectic between conservation and social-economic development has emerged in recent decades. On the one hand, an economic growth policy is taken as the paradigm of social-economic development; on the other hand, there is a multi-scale conservation policy, in which natural protected areas, as patches of preserved nature, are used as one of the main tools to deal with the challenge of sustainability. The Mediterranean Basin is the habitat of many unique species and one of the 25 main biodiversity hotspots in the world, and as a consequence a strong conservation policy has been used to protect environmental values. At the same time, Mediterranean countries are deeply involved in promoting strong economic growth policies, which are not always compatible with environmental ones. In this paper, Spain has been studied as one model of this situation. Due to political reasons, Spanish economic growth and conservationist policies were pursued together during the last 20 years. As a result, Spain owns one of the largest networks of natural protected areas in Western Europe, and at the same time it has experienced one of the strongest periods of economic growths in the European and Mediterranean context during the 1980s and 1990s. An historical series of resource use in five annual periods in the last 20 years of conservation policy, and the effects on the preservation of natural capital have been investigated by means of the eMergy (spelled with an 'm') synthesis approach, which was used to characterize the flow of environmental services supplied by ecosystems, but not in monetary terms. This study shows that Spain is becoming less self-sufficient and more inefficient in resource use, comprehensively measured in eMergy terms. A large part of Spain's economy depends on imported goods and services, and most economic activities are based on tourist services and associated construction, which promotes intensification in the urban use of the territory and more intense environmental impacts and resource use intensification of those countries supplying the raw materials. The consequence is a decoupling of the Spanish economy from local environmental services and the increase of Ecological footprint of Spain, measured by means of eMergy-based indicators. In spite of the increase in number, area and associated budget of the natural protected areas and other conservation measures, the general sustainability of the nation is decreasing.     

Indicators for sustainable energy development in Thailand

This article examines energy priorities for Thailand from the economic, social and environmental perspectives of sustainable development. The article uses a set of indicators devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency in partnership with other international agencies and research institutes in seven countries. Thailand's energy efficiency in the 1980s and 1990s are analysed using energy intensity indicators, and possible impacts on sustainable energy development are highlighted. The early 1990s in particular was an important period for Thailand, as the country was at the height of its economic growth, and a number of energy efficiency and conservation programmes were launched. Energy intensity indicators show continuing and faster growth in energy consumption relative to economic activity. The financial crisis in the late 1990s did halt growth in energy consumption, with positive consequences on environmental emissions, but only temporarily as Thailand's economy quickly started to recover in 2000. Notwithstanding the financial crisis, the other indicators show significant progress in economic and social dimensions.     

Indicators for sustainable energy development in Mexico

This article presents a summary of a study on the application to the Mexican energy sector of a core set of indicators for sustainable energy development (ISED), developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The study focused on the elaboration of socio‐economic and environmental indicators related to energy production and use, and was aimed at assessing Mexico's existing energy policies and identifying strategies and possible policies that could bring about improvements in major priority areas: energy intensity, atmospheric emissions, energy import dependency and use of renewables. While positive trends have been observed in relation to energy intensity and atmospheric emissions, Mexico is becoming more dependent on imports of gasoline, natural gas and other high‐value secondary energy sources, while exporting significant amounts of primary fuels, such as crude oil. Also, no significant increase has been observed in the use of renewable sources of energy. Social, economic and environmental policies need to be formulated for the energy sector and related investments (public and private) reinforced so that all economic sectors have access to energy from cleaner and more diverse sources.     

Indicators for sustainable energy development in Lithuania

This article summarizes some of the results from the application of the indicators for sustainable energy development (ISED) tool for analyzing Lithuania's energy sector, in terms of trends, setting energy policy goals and monitoring progress towards these goals. This experience illustrates the potential applicability of the ISED methodology for energy policy development in economies in transition, using Lithuania as an example. The article presents a summary of the results achieved and conclusions arrived at from the analysis of six priority areas in the context of the research project coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and provides recommendations for the development of sustainable energy policy using the ISED approach.     

Environmental management systems and sustainable development

The idea of sustainable development was first brought to widespread attention as a global issue; however, it is increasingly being applied at more local levels down to that of individual companies. This raises the potential danger that sustainable development will come to be predominantly identified with the preservation of the organisation involved. A likely outcome is that management decision-making will tip the balance too far in favour of people-centred interests as against environmental interests. An initial step in preventing this is to make any bias in the balance of interests transparent to management. To do this, a model of sustainability is set up in terms that provide a context for the implementation of a quality based environmental management system such as that specified by the International Standard, ISO 14001. In response to inherent uncertainty, a precautionary approach is adopted. The implications of this model for the structuring of critical environmental management system elements are then discussed and a way to generate an indicator of bias proposed. The content of an audit, which would measure the extent to which an organisation has a management system competent to measure and monitor this bias, is also discussed and proposed as another useful indicator.     

Sustainable development in the mining industry: clarifying the corporate perspective

This paper examines sustainable development in the corporate mining context, and provides some guidelines for mining companies seeking to operate more sustainably. There is now a burgeoning literature that examines sustainable development in the context of minerals and mining, most of which is concerned with sustainability at global and national scales. What is often challenging to ascertain, however, from these numerous perspectives on sustainable mineral extraction, minerals and metals recycling, environmental management, and social performance, is how sustainable development applies to mining companies themselves, and what steps a mine must take in order to improve the sustainability of operations. Since mining processes have the potential to impact a diverse group of environmental entities, and are of interest to a wide range of stakeholder groups, there is ample opportunity for the industry to operate more sustainably. Specifically, with improved planning, implementation of sound environmental management tools and cleaner technologies, extended social responsibility to stakeholder groups, the formation of sustainability partnerships, and improved training, a mine can improve performance in both the environmental and socioeconomic arenas, and thus contribute enormously to sustainable development at the mine level.