The Orthodoxy And Sustainable Development A Potential For Broader Involvement Of The Orthodox Churches In Ethiopia And Russia

In recent years, churches across the world have become involved in dialogue on the theory and practice of sustainable development. A number of Western churches have expressed their concern about climate change and destructive living patterns, stressing the need for human beings to exercise the care for all creation based on a life of sharing and sacrifice. Some Orthodox churches, however, quite recently included the environmental issues in their agendas. While the Bases of Social Concept, a major doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted in 2000, for the first time emphasises the Churchs position in overcoming environmental crisis and presents a solid basis on which to build the future environmental strategy of the Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has not yet drawn up a programme document that might serve as a framework for the Churchs current extensive activities in the field of biodiversity conservation and sustainable forestry practices. Hence, despite certain closeness of both institutions, there is the potential for strengthening their roles in promoting sustainable development, based on the Biblical concept that the Earth belongs to the Lord and humans are responsible stewards assigned the duty to work for creation and care for it. This paper seeks to demonstrate by means of comparable analysis between the two Churches, Orthodox in nature but different in rites and religious practices, that traditional, highly conservative faiths may serve as powerful instruments of spreading out the ideas of sustainable development as the basis of spiritual revival in the situation of the two concurrent and interrelated crises – spiritual and ecological.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Cracking the code: the genesis, use and future of the Code of Conduct

This paper reflects on the genesis of the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief, on the tenth anniversary of its adoption. The origins, usage and future of the code are examined with respect to three debates, current at the time of its inception, namely: the debate about the core content of humanitarianism; the debate about coherence and the consensual nature of the humanitarian community; and the debate about the need for, and the ability to demonstrate, accountability. The paper concludes that although the Code of Conduct was very much a product of its time, its content remains relevant today. However, its future application hinges on the capacity of those who purport to follow it to realise true accountability, and on proving that the code, written essentially for natural disasters, is relevant to contemporary complex emergencies.     

Public Participation and Effective Water Governance at the Local Level: A Case Study from a Small Under-Developed Area in Chile

The concept of participation in rural development has been evolutionary for the past two decades with those involved, such as development agencies and governments, particularly in rural water supply, re-evaluating their active role. The move towards effective community participation has encouraged a shift from the traditional top-down to a bottom-up approach whereby there is a decentralisation of unevenly distributed resources and power to empower a community and allow mobility of ‘people participation’. The Molinos water project is the first large-scale development project of its kind introduced into the village of Molinos in an under-developed area of Chile, where there has been no tradition of people participation. The project objective was to implement a low technology, low budget water treatment plant to the village of Molinos. Various aspects have hindered the continued development of the project including both technical and financial. In terms of people participation, the initial approach used was the top-down approach. There was a failure to fully integrate the community or inform the community in a formal manner about the project and consult them regarding key project issues. This case study illustrates that the lack of comprehensive consultation and the low level of participation of the community on the participatory scale does not achieve much in terms of people-centred benefits. For governance at the local level to be effective, participation should be inclusive and communicative so as to enhance transparency throughout the project lifetime. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Economic Underdevelopment And Sustainable Development In The World:Conditioning Factors,Problems And Opportunities

This paper deals with the various factors that condition underdevelopment in the world. It suggests some alternatives and points out the potential opportunities that both the developed and the underdeveloped world will have in the coming years to change the gloomy prospects that we see today. The present paper outlines the trends in historical priorities in development, changing as they pass from economic development to social development to ecological conservation – the three pillars of Sustainable Development.The paper analyses the importance of geography, a very relevant and often neglected conditioning factor. Also, it analyses the role of socio-economic conditioning factors like political immaturity, demographics, land ownership and external debt.Furthermore, the current opportunities for economic take-off are presented, from cash surpluses to low interest rates, from natural resource management to tourism or migration, from the Information Revolution to liberalisation of agricultural markets. Current obstacles are also analysed. The paper, on the basis of current facts and figures, reaches the conclusion that there is a structural need for sustained development aid for most poor countries, but it must be distributed in a more rational way.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Re-emphasizing sustainable development — The concept of ‘Evolutionability’ On living chances, equity, and good heritage

The principle of sustainable development is now 15-year-old. There are a lot of definitions and models for its explanation — ranging from triangles and prisms to eggs — but still its sense is diffuse. Moreover, important aspects like equity are not sufficiently taken into account.The following article takes a critical look on sustainable development. It shows logical, systemic, philosophic and ethic reasons for the re-development of substantial parts of the principle of sustainability. Based on the proposed Principle of Good Heritage it provides a rough outline of a future Concept of Evolutionability, comprising a first tentative for a definition of evolutionable development, aiming at achieving a more appropriate and more workable mainstream view of sustainability.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

我国人口问题与社会持续发展

本文分析了我国人口的主要特点和人口问题，指出人口问题已成为我国社会、经济发展的重要制约因素，进而论述了人口与资源、环境、经济协调发展的基本原理和宏观对策     

试论改善发展的质量

本文结合中国国情，从经济发展的目标、边界、途径等方面论述了改善发展质量的基本内涵，提出经济发展应以满足社会基本需要为目标，经济发展必须与环境和资源的承载力相适应，依靠科技进步是提高发展质量的根本途径，同时须不断改善经济的内部结构，走资源节。     

可持续发展下的生态经济学理论透视

生态经济学是一门正在蓬勃发展的新兴交叉学科，可持续发展是生态经济学研究的中心问题。人类对可持续发展问题的极大关注推动了生态经济学的发展。本文从宏观角度分析了可持续发展问题的凸显和生态经济学的兴起，着重指出生态经济学是关于可持续发展的科学的认识；阐述了可持续发展条件与状态的生态经济学理论内涵；论述了生态经济系统的本质特征及其可持续发展评估的核心内容；概括了可持续发展评估与绿色国民经济核算的框架及其目标和衡量方法。     

矿山清洁生产示范研究

矿山清洁生产具有双重性。矿山生命周期决定了矿山清洁生产体系的特殊性。矿山清洁生产体系是由培训体系、生命周期清洁生产体系和监合与审核体系构成的一个系统，生命周期清洁生产体系包括从资源勘探-规划设计-开发-闭矿-后续土地利用与监测的各个阶段。与其他行业相比，矿山清洁生产难度大且明显滞后，开展矿山清洁生产示范研究势在必行。     

江苏省环境与人口、经济的协调发展分析——基于环境安全视角

协调发展既是国民经济乐观发展的客观要求,同时也是人类可持续发展不可或缺的组成部分。江苏省协调发展问题的研究有利于解决环境问题的定位,发现环境发展中的薄弱点与发展潜力,促进环境与人口、经济的协调发展。以环境安全理论为依托,以强调协调发展为出发点,建立江苏省环境与人口、经济系统的协调发展指标体系,应用改进的层次分析法（AHP）及变异系数法权重均值赋权,借鉴模糊数学中隶属度函数来计算协调系数。结果表明：2001~2010年江苏省环境与人口、经济系统的平均协调水平处于基本协调状态,并且有稳中上升的趋势,协调发展前景乐观;同时分析并提出了建立健全江苏省协调发展机制、探讨环境安全维护体系建设、制订缓解人口压力政策等建议