ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Concept Environment:
This the sum total of conditions which surrounds and literally environs man at any one point
on the earths surface. For example, in biography environment may be defined as the sum
total of all external forces/influence affecting life of an organism. The environment normally
falls in two components.
(a) The physical environment abiotic (non living) components atmospheric
constituents (pollutants); climatic elements; Rocks (minerals, soils, ions) and the
biotic living things
(b) Human environment population per se (total, its density, its structure i.e age sex,
dependent population consisting of young and old, independent, population, the broad
earners
- Racial and ethnic groupings
- Social and cultural characteristics
- Social society
- Culture indigenous science and technology
Man and his environmental links the concept of relations between man and his
environment is basic in the study of regional development. The relationships are no longer
merely those of the early man where the environmental conditions were largely natural and
hence highly deterministic and included such components as:
(a) Local weather and climate
(b) Local terrain or surface configuration involving surface topographic variation and
make-up
(c) Local phyto-geographical and zoogeographical characteristics
(d) The resultant pedo-edaphological components.
Today with the evolution of our young and crude civilization man has built himself artifacts
(temporary or long lasting). In the latter case due to great skill and apparent permanency
such structures/artifacts has become an internal part of mans environment hence cultural
landscape (eg the urban residence of a city such as Nairobi. Here environment is dominated
by fixed structures of urban life- such as tarmacked or untarmacked roads, railways, airport,
and many types of permanent and high buildings industrial commercial residential and
cultural areas. As a result the original Nairobi environment appears replaced almost
completely or radically modified.

Operational concepts
Ecological system(s) and/or ecosystem(s)
The concept of ecosystem may be regarded as equivalent to energy driven complex
comprising a community of organism and controlling environment.
The ecosystem bears in its magnitude from that which may be found within a drop of
water to the vast biomes of the world
The East African geological zones are good examples of ecosystems each geological
zone is made up of a combination of plants and animals surrounding very well knitted
communities.
A man has taken advantage of these to create his artificial national parks, game
reserves, control or conservation areas and a series of other areas.

Natural resources:
The organic natural resources are closely associated with the various ecosystems and other
natural resources
Geolo-topographical resources scenery etc
Petrological resources rocks themselves (for ornaments, building roads, cement etc)
some are also composed of minerals and are at the same time precious stones
Geo-thermal energy resources
Stream super heated below the earth
Pedological and edaphological resources
Soils and plants
Winds and tidal power resources
Climo-hydorlogical resources. These include altitude, sunshine, temperature,
precipitation, rivers and their basins and water supplies etc


Organic resources fall into 3 parts
Phyto geographical usually viewed in the form of vegetation
zoo geographical animals of various types e.g man as a dominant
Ecological regions and agriculture
Hence were due must have eco-development e.g
1. Crops international commercial crops
Local commercial crops maize, sugar etc
Staple food crops i.e research set of crops
2. Domestic livestock
Cattle bees fish
Wildlife ranching (domestic and wildlife)
Farming (replacement of wildlife)

Functional human resources
Population structure
Age use pyramid
Dependent section of the population i.e 0 14 765+
15 64 independent or brad earning population.
The huge part of the independent population is unskilled 80%
15% is semi-skilled labour
5% skilled labour which is divided into three:
High level
Middle level
Low level Manpower

Economic growth and development
Concept of growth
For example: growth without development
When a community of people make the same old goods in the same old ways and sell
these to their traditional (usual)customers except that the quantity made overtimes
increase, such process may be referred to growth without development
The above description is merely theoretical. Its doubtful whether its types of growth
may persist for long even in a developing country
For such non-developing traditional technology world impose absolute limit of the
level of our output
An unusual though persistent concept of development, for example during colonial period:
It is not impossible on the other hand for a developing country such as Kenya to
experience a constant change in production techniques over the years without any
aggregate change particularly in value of incomes accruing to the domestic sectors.
(i.e the colonial exploitation). For example the cases where the modern sector is
externally financed and controlled which is a common position of developing
countries due to change of internally generated savings and skills and incase where
the income generated doesnt generally mean a risenin income retained within the
economy, because a large proportion of the profits will be remitted to the foreign
share holders
For that reason large sums of money leave relevant developing economy. This was
typical during the colonial days but is still common with foreign multi-national
companies in developing countries.
In Kenya for example, until the K.T.D.A introduce the out growers tea industries, the
Kericho and Kiambu tea companys merely and still today separate their profits
overseas, this has been and is still true also in a section of the sugar, sisal and quite a
number of industries owned by the multi-national companys of over-seas.







ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
Sustainable development requires major changes in international economic relations. These
changes include an understanding that a healthy global economy must sustain the ecosystems
on which it is built and that economic relations be perceived as equitable by all parties.

In many current economic exchanges with Third World countries, neither condition is met.
First, these countries often are forced to rely to an unusual extent on exporting their natural
resources. Second, unstable prices, rising costs of debt service, and decline of new capital
investments increase pressure on these governments to opt for short-term profits over long-
term economic development.


DECLINE IN THE 1980s
During the economic slowdown of the early 1980s, population growth outstripped economic
growth in most developing countries. At the same time debt obligations rose, financial aid
stagnated and protectionist policies proliferated, causing severe external payment problems
in the Third World. The increased cost of foreign borrowing at a time when exports were
down plunged many poor countries into debt crises IMF imposed austerity measures
caused abandonment of many social reforms in health, unemployment and education,
eliminating the very changes that would help to prevent the current crisis form recurring.
These conditions have aggravated pressures on the environment in three ways:
Austerity measures have cut per capita incomes and increased unemployment, forcing
people to resort to unsound agricultural practices.
The small gains in social programs achieved in these countries have been cut back or
eliminated and
Environmental planning and conservation have all but vanished as governments
struggle to cope with economic crises

The African continent
Africa has suffered a series of economic and social setbacks in the last few years, including
poverty and hunger, falling savings and neglect of new investments, high infant mortality
coupled with high population growth rates, and accelerating migration from rural areas to the
cities. Higher oil prices, fluctuating exchange rates, and higher interest rates had serious
effects on the African economy. Debt service doubled as a percent of export earnings to
thirty-one percent from 1980 to 1986 while per capital incomes dropped by sixteen percent
over roughly the same period.

Widespread drought put 35 million lives at risk in 1984-85 resulting malnutrition reduced
productivity and resistance to debilitating diseases and reversed progress towards safer
drinking water and sanitation projects. Emergency food aid in short-term and only partially
effective response. Only economic aid that combines the full potential of economic
expansion with ecological awareness offers long-range progress

Latin American debt
The Latin American debt crisis is a threat to international financial stability. Roughly thirty
percent (30%) of the total world debt is owed by four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
and Venezuela. The debt crisis has forced these countries into austerity programs with
devastating results. In 1984, thirty-five percent of Latin American export earnings went to
pay overseas debt. Cuts in wages, social services, long-term investment and reductions in
consumption and employment have been the result, further aggravating social inequity and
widespread poverty. Latin Americas natural resources are being used not to raise living
standards, but to meet the financial requirements of industrial creditor-nations. The resulting
political and financial turmoil will continue to take its toll on industrialized as well as
underdeveloped economies.

Expansionary policies of growth, trade and investment such as additional lending, partial
debt forgiveness, long-term rescheduling and conversion to softer terms of repayment are
essential if sustainable development is to be realized.

ENABLING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Historically, developing countries have sought equitable economic and trade arrangements
with developed countries for economic reasons. Recent events require that these goals be
broadened to reflect increasingly important ecological considerations. Economic expansion,
lower real interest rates and a halt to protectionist policies are the keys to short-term
sustainable development. In the long term, changes are needed to make consumption and
production patterns sustainable in the context of more rapid global growth rates. We must
focus on areas where global cooperation already exists in some form; economic aid, trade,
transnational corporations and technology transfer.

Economic aid
In order to promote economic progress in developing countries, the industrialized nations
must look beyond merely increasing levels of aid. They must also recognize that poverty has
global economic implications and that a coordinated effort is required. Some proposed
measures:
Increase the flow of capital. The stringency of external finance has contributed to a
decline in living standards in developing countries. It is vital that there be a sharp
increase in resources available to the World Bank and IDA. Increased commercial
bank lending is also necessary
Lend for sustainable development. A larger proportion of development assistance
should go to investments to enhance the environment and natural productivity such as
reforestation and fuel wood development, watershed protection, soil conservation,
agro forestry, rehabilitation of irrigation project, small-scale agriculture, low-cost
sanitation measures and the conversion of crops to fuel. Sustainability should
routinely be taken into account by the World Band and other multilateral
development institutions in appraising loans to resource based sectors.

Trade
The links between trade, environment and development must be recognized. The main
deterrent to sustainable development in todays trade scenario is the use of non renewable
raw materials to earn foreign exchange. But there are others. If protectionism raises barriers
against manufactured goods, for example, developing nations have less opportunity to
diversify away from overused commodities and manufactured goods that are potentially
polluting. Each nation should designate a lead agency with a broad mandate to assess the
effects of international trade on sustaining the environmental resource base of economic
growth. Economic and trade measures such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) should address the impacts of trading patterns on the environment.

Transnational investment
Transnational corporations (TNCs) play a key role as owners and suppliers of technology in
many developing countries. This is especially true in such environmentally sensitive areas as
production of petroleum, chemicals, paper and automobiles. TNCs can have a significant
impact on the environment and resources of other countries and should pursue their profit
objectives within a framework of long-term sustainable development.


Broadening the technological base
Sustainable development will require new technologies in agricultural production, renewable
energy systems and pollution control. Much of this effort will occur through trade in
improved equipment, technology transfer agreements, research collaboration, and the like.
The procedures and policies that influence these exchanges must stimulate innovation and
ensure widespread access to environmentally sound technologies. Developing countries
must work together and individually to build up their technological capabilities. Creation
and enhancement of the proper setting for research is a precondition for such cooperation.
Cooperative research ventures such as dry land agriculture, low-cost housing, or tropical
forestry are some examples.

A SUSTAINABLE WORLD ECONOMY
If large parts of the developing world are to avert disaster, global economic growth must be
revitalized. This means more raid economic growth for both industrial and developing
countries, freer market access for the products of developing countries, lower interest rates,
greater technological transfer, and larger capital flows.

The commissions overall assessment is that the international economy must speed up world
economic growth while respecting environmental constraints. But for third world countries
to emerge from dependence, accelerated economic growth is not enough. The economies of
these developing countries must grow at a rate that outpaces their internal problems and
provides them with new momentum. Economic growth and diversification, along with
development of technological and managerial skills, will lessen the strains on rural
development, raise productivity and consumption, and allow for diversification in export
earnings. A new era of growth can then widen the options available to developing countries
and strengthen the world economy.

But this agenda requires a commitment by all countries to the satisfactory working of
multilateral institutions such as development banks; to the observance of international rules
of trade and investment; and to constructive negotiation in areas where national interests do
not coincide.

Unfortunately, the current trend has been toward a decline in multilateral cooperation and an
increasingly negative attitude toward dialogue on development. But failure to address the
interaction between resource depletion and rising poverty will accelerate global ecological
and economic deterioration.

CHAPTER THREE
POPULATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES
World population growth must be stabilized for many reasons. The largest is poverty.
Rapidly growing populations have needs that cannot be met, and poverty results. The
painfulness of that situation is clearly evident in disease, malnutrition, waste of human
potential and abominable living conditions. But what is not immediately apparent is the
effect that poverty has on the future and on the economic potential of the rest of the world.
The poor are forced to use whatever resources are available to them without considering how
to use those resources in the most appropriate way. When a family is cold in the winter, it
will cut down trees for fuel. When it is hungry, that family will farm whatever land it can
find with whatever crop seems most likely to ensure short-term survival. But improperly
chosen crops will deplete the soils nutrients, undermining future productivity. Further, that
family will not have the opportunity to let the land lie fallow, as is necessary every few years
to replenish the nutrients. And taking trees for fuel wood or clearing land fro farming may
leave the soil vulnerable to erosion.

In fact, the effects of survival oriented behavior are even more elaborate and interwoven.
Farmers not educated about farming and insensitive to the needs of their particular
geographic regions, or not able to respond to those needs, are likely to cause permanent or
long-term damage to the resources on which they depend. That contributes to further
poverty, and reduces the lands ability to sustain future human populations. When this
happens on a mass scale, resources on which other parts of the world depend can be
destroyed as well.

The solution calls for governmental and international policies that help the people of
developing countries meet their immediate needs and attain economic and social progress in
ways that will maintain and expand the resources that they and their children will need later.
This is possible. Indeed, it is the basis of sustainable development. Such policies will
involve improving peoples health, expanding agricultural and vocational education, helping
people share more equitably in economic benefits, and protecting resources. Once that
happens, human knowledge, creativity and capability can be put toward using limited local
resources effectively.

This strategy also will depend on reduced rates of population growth in developing countries.
Lowering population growth and changing consumption patterns are equally a challenge to
industrial nations, not only to alleviate pressures on their natural systems but to reduce the
disproportionate demand placed on global resources by each additional person in developed
societies. Human resources are our greatest asset; we must stop turning them into a liability.

MOMENTUM OF POPULATION GROWTH
The current acceleration of population growth started around 1950 with a sharp reduction in
mortality rates in the developing countries
Between 1950 and 1985, world population grew at an annual rate more than double
the rate observed from 1900 1950
Eighty-fiver percent of global population growth since 1950 occurred in the
developing regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. That trend will probably
accelerate in the future.
In 1980, thirty-nine percent of Third World populations were younger than fifteen,
just entering their prime child-bearing years.
The massive population of young people in developing countries will soon become a massive
population of parents, and the populations of those countries will grow substantially whether
fertility rates decline to the replacement level or not. The momentum of demographic
growth is highest of all in Africa.


POVERTY AND POPULATION GROWTH
High birth rates reflect many complex factors, but in large part are a response to inadequate
and inequitable economic and social conditions, and occur in areas where families have the
least security. Increased personal well-being and security tend to reduce a couples desire to
have more children. Economic development generates resources that can be used to improve
education and health, which in turn contribute to personal well-being. Thus, economic
development progressively leads to stabilization of population growth. The opposite is also
true. High population growth eats into surpluses available for economic and social
development and leads to further unchecked population growth.

In the past, emigration and international trade eased these pressures on local resources.
Those solutions are no longer available in many parts of the developing world.
Improvements in medicine and public health have lowered mortality rates while fertility rates
remain high. Population has grown dramatically, human potential is unrealized, and
economic development is stalled.

The pressures of increasing populations force traditional farmers to work harder on shrinking
farms and to move into marginal lands in order to maintain household income. In quickly
growing urban areas, economic and social problems threaten to make cities unmanageable.
Health, housing conditions, and the quality of education and public service are all
deteriorating, unemployment, urban drift, and social unrest are increasing. The family
planning information and materials supplied as aid by industrial countries are needed, but
developed nations have obligations beyond that. Current international policies that stall
economic development aggravate a developing nations population problem. Those policies
must be revised.

Only 1.5 percent of official development aid now goes for population assistance. Some
countries have comprehensive population policies. Others go no further than family
planning. Some do not even do that.
Plans to control population growth must be part of a broader program for economic and
social development in the developing countries. In the final analysis, the population issue is
about human progress and equity, not numbers alone. The well-being and security of the
citizens of each nation are the goals of development.

LOWERING FERTILITY RATES
Poverty breeds high rates of population growth; families poor in income, employment and
security need children initially to share work and later to sustain their elderly parents.
Fertility rates can be lowered by:
Provision of an adequate livelihood for poor households
Public financing of personal economic security measures
Improved public health and child nutrition programs that bring down infant mortality
rates, so parents do not need extra children as insurance against child death
Establishment and enforcement of minimum-age child labor laws
Programs that spread economic benefits equitably throughout the population
Integrated campaigns to strengthen social, cultural, and economic motivations for
couples to have small families, and to provide the education as well as the technical
means and services required to control family size
Broadening of educational and employment opportunities for women and
Integration of family planning services with such programs as nutrition, public health,
mother and child care, preschool education, and rural economic development

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
In the past, people migrated from overpopulated to under populated areas; today people tend
to flock from countryside to city. This urban influx causes a variety of problems. Another
recent phenomenon is the flight of ecological refugees from areas of environmental
degradation. For the most part, people move to areas of short-term advantage, not to areas of
long-term or sustainable development.
Government policies must encourage development in rural as well as urban regions. Chinas
effort to support village-level industries in the countryside is perhaps the most ambitious
program of this sort. Such programs can limit concentrated, rapid, and uncontrolled growth
in major cities. In this way, the potential of all regions can be realized.

IMPROVING HEALTH
The foundation of human potential is physical health. When human health improves people
live more productive lives and economic potential increases.
Generally speaking, national wealth buys national health. Some poor countries, however,
have achieved remarkable success by increasing health education, especially for women, by
establishing primary health clinics where there were none and by expanding basic health
programs.

The principal reductions in mortality rates in the industrial world came about before the
advent of modern drugs, mostly because of improvements in nutrition, housing and hygiene.
The same results can be achieved in developing countries, particularly because of the
resulting control of communicable diseases.

The incidence of malaria is closely related to inadequate waste water disposal and drainage.
Large dams and irrigation systems have led to sharp increases in the incidence of disease,
most notably of schistosomiasis (snail fever), because they expose people to unclean water.
Inadequacies in water supply and sanitation also cause other widespread diseases like
diarrhea and worm infestations.

Almost 2 billion people lack access to clean water, and more than 1 billion people do not
have adequate sanitation. Many critical diseases are best controlled not by therapeutic
interventions, but by improvements in rural water supply, sanitation, and health education.
The solution is developmental as well as medical. In the developing world, the number of
water taps is a better indication of the health of a community than is the number of hospital
beds.

When that development does occur, it must be integrated with health concerns, because
hazardous development projects raise health problems of their own. Organizations that make
health policy cannot think of medicine alone. The World Health Organization (WHO), for
instance, should broaden its Health for All strategy to cover health-related interventions in
all development activities. Links between development and health include:
Air pollution and resulting respiratory illness
Poor housing conditions and the spread of tuberculosis
Carcinogens and toxic substances and resulting malaise and
Hazards in the workplace and physical harm

Malnutrition is a shortage of calories or protein or both and it occurs in virtually all
developing countries. It can also result from a lack of specific critical elements including
iron and iodine. Policies that lead to production of the cheaper foods that the poor
traditionally eat-coarse grains and root crops-can improve nutrition

Within the narrow area of health care alone, the following measures are inexpensive and
particularly important:
An organized system of trained birth attendants
Protection against tetanus and other childbirth infections
Education and supply of oral rehydration therapy against diarrheas
Supplemental feeding methods
Immunization and
Encouragement of breast-feeding (which reduces fertility)

Health education is critical. Some parts of the Third World will soon face growing number
of illnesses associated with life-styles in industrial nations cancer and heart disease
especially. Few developing nations can afford the treatment required to deal with those
diseases, and they should begin efforts not to educate their citizens on the dangers of
smoking and of high-fat diets.


Additional health problems:
AIDS threatens to kill millions of people. Governments should overcome any
lingering shyness and rapidly educate their people about the disease and the wyas it is
spread. International cooperation on research and the handling of the disease is
essential.
Drug addiction distorts the economies of drug producing areas and destroys people
the world over. International cooperation is essential here, too. Some countries must
deploy considerable financial resources to halt production and traffic in narcotics nd
to promote crop diversification and rehabilitation projects.
Much of the research in pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and technological interventions
for disease management is directed at the diseases of industrial countries, because
those countries provide the most profitable markets. Today, research is urgently
needed on the tropical diseases that are a major health problem in the Third World.

EXPANDING GENERAL EDUCATION
Education improves productivity, earnings, and attitudes to health, nutrition, child-bearing
and environmental concerns. It also enhances the levels of tolerance and empathy required
for living in a crowded world. It is critical in maintaining and improving well-being and is
vital to the idea of sustainable development.
Education should promote self-reliance by focusing on practical and vocational skills.
Education should be relevant to local conditions, in rural areas. It should be
integrated with childrens daily farm work; in all areas, it should include management
of local resources like soil, water and forests.
Literacy must be made universal
The gaps between male and female enrollment rates in schools must be closed
The worlds religions should promote values of individual and joint responsibility for
living in harmony with the environment
Population, health and nutrition issues should be included in curriculums
Adult education, on-the-job training, television, and other less formal educational
methods must be utilized
Teacher training is critical to education, National and international programs must be
developed to support, train, and assist Third World teachers.

PROTECTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Environmental resources are not separable from human resources; indigenous knowledge of
sustainable survival is as important a resource as the trees, crops and earth itself.
Indigenous or tribal peoples remain in many areas. The isolation of these people has often
meant the preservation of a way of life in close harmony with the natural environment. Their
communities have vast accumulations of traditional knowledge and experience that link
humanity with its ancient origins. Much can be learned from their skills in sustainable
management of complex ecological systems.

It is a terrible irony that, as formal development reaches more deeply into rain forests and
deserts; it destroys the only cultures able to thrive in those environments. Their possible
cultural extinction means the loss of a global resource.

Development impinges on these people in many ways. Profound difficulties face them in
their task of integration with the larger world; at the same time, they are entitled to share in
all the benefits that come from integration.

Those who promote policies affecting indigenous peoples must tread a find line between
excluding them from what they deserve and destroying their ways of life.

The starting point for a humane policy toward indigenous groups is the recognition of
traditional rights to land and natural resources that sustain their ways of life even if they
define their land rights in different terms from those of prevailing legal systems. These
groups have their own institutions to regulate rights and obligations, and to maintain
harmony with the natural environment. We must protect these institutions instead of
insisting on our own.

Measures must be taken to enhance the well-being of these communities. Marketing
arrangements can ensure that community products sell for fair prices. Health facilities can
support and improve traditional health practices. Nutritional deficiencies must be corrected.
Educational institutions must be established. To stabilize world population growth, a first
step for governments is to abandon the false division between productive or economic
expenditures and social expenditures. Spending to improve the human condition by
helping people in need lets a nation fulfill its economic potential, which in turn lowers
population growth.

CHAPTER FOUR
FOOD PRODUCTION AND FOOD SECURITY
Disabled by malnutrition, more than 730 million people in 1985 lacked the physical or
mental stamina to lead productive working lives. Such people not only suffer, they act as a
brake on national economies.

The agricultural resources and the technologies needed to feed growing populations are
available. Agriculture does not lack resources; it lacks policies that ensure that food is
produced where it is needed and in a manner that sustains the poor. Governments,
organizations, industries and individuals must act to ensure the food security of all people at
all times.

CURRENT PROBLEMS IN GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
Government intervention can mean the difference between successful food production and
insufficient food production. Unfortunately, current patterns of government intervention
suffer three basic defects.

First, planning is dominated by short-term considerations and lacks ecological orientation.
Second, agricultural policy tends to be uniform for all regions of a country, rather than
reflecting different regional needs and opportunities. Third, incentives in industrialized
countries are misguided and incentives developing countries are too weak. In industrial
countries, incentives cause overproduction and encourage degradation of the agricultural
resource base. In developing countries, incentives lack organized structure, expose farmers
to uncertainty, and distort cropping patterns.

Subsidies
Subsidies are the most common form of government intervention, and their economic
consequences are major. North America and Europe have large surpluses of food because of
government subsidies and other incentives to produce food beyond the level of current
demand. Those subsidies are expensive. The cost of farm supports in the United States grew
from $2.7 billion in 1980 to $25.8 billion in 1986; in the European Economic Community,
the cost rose from $6.2 billion to 1976 to $21.5 billion in 1986.

It has become politically more attractive, and usually cheaper, to export surpluses than store
them. When these large quantities enter the international market, prices of commodities like
rice and sugar are artificially depressed. Many developing countries economies are based on
these products and their earnings drop significantly. Third prices become unstable because
of the sudden, politically motivated increased in supply of specific foods.

The environmental consequences of a heavily subsidized system are also becoming evident
within industrialized nations through:
Lower productivity due to intensive soil cultivation, improper irrigation, and erosion
Destruction of the countryside through clearing of hedgerows, park belts and other
protective cover and the cultivation of marginal lands and watershed protection areas
and
Pollution of groundwater as a result of the often highly subsidized use of chemical
pesticides and nitrate fertilizers
In recent years, some subsidy systems have begun to acknowledge the need for land to lie
fallow every few years and to promote other conservation measures. In the interests of all,
including the farmers, the financial and economic burden of destructive subsidies must be
reduced.

Neglect of small producers
The powerful new technology that has allowed increases in agricultural productivity requires
training, skills, maintenance, and commercialization. Many parts of Asia and Africa have
demonstrated success with new technology, once financial and structural support and
incentives were provided.

But support systems seldom take into account subsistence farmers and herders. These people
cannot afford the high cash outlays needed to bring in modern technology. Many do not
have a clear title to the land they use. They plant a variety of crops and are not helped by
methods designed for large stands of a single crop. Many herders are nomadic and difficult
to reach with education, technical advice, and equipment.

Women are responsible worldwide for between sixty and ninety percent of food production,
processing and marketing. In sub-saharan Africa in particular, most food is grown by
women. Yet almost all agricultural programs neglect the special needs of women farmers
and exclude women from decision-making processes. Governments must intervene to
correct this situation.

PROTECTING THE ROOTS OF DEVELOPMENT: NATURAL RESOURCES
Agricultural production can only be sustained on a long-term basis if the soil, water and
forests on which it is based are not degraded. In recent years, growing populations have
increased cultivation and moved into marginal lands prone to erosion. By the late 1970s, soil
erosion exceeded soil formation on about a third of U.S cropland, especially in the
Midwestern agricultural heartland. In Canada, soil degradation has been costing farmers $1
billion a year. Without conservation measures, the total area of rain-fed cropland in
developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will shrink by 544 million hectares
over the long term because of soil erosion and degradation.

Erosion makes it more difficulty for roots to take hold, takes nutrients form the land, and
makes soil less able to retain water. Land productivity declines as a result. Eroded topsoil
that is carried into rivers, lakes and reservoirs silts up ports and waterways. It also reduces
reservoir storage capacity and increases the incidence and severity of floods.

Poorly designed and implemented irrigation systems have caused water logging, salinization,
and alkalization of soils, FAO and UNESCO estimate that as much as half the worlds
irrigation schemes suffer from these problems, and that 10 million hectares of irrigated land
are being abandoned each year as a result.

Soil degradation erodes the overall resource base for agriculture. The loss of croplands
encourages farmers to overuse the remaining land and to move into forests and onto
rangelands. Those lands are often even more susceptible to soil damage that the original
lands were.

Constructive use of the soil
The use land to our advantage, we must begin by delineating land categories:
Enhancement areas, which can sustain intensive cropping and high levels of
population and consumption
Prevention areas, where agricultural development should be avoided, or farms
converted to other uses.
Restoration areas, where land has lost all or most of its productivity, and must be left
undisturbed to allow natural recovery processes to proceed.

Few developing countries have the information they need to categorized land and they should
develop their databases quickly by using satellite monitoring and other modern techniques.
Public boards or commissions could select land for each category according to the interests
of all people involved, especially the poor.

Policies are needed to restore damaged areas meet the individual needs of each region,
institutions must be established and funds provided. Human activities may have to be limited
to permit vegetation to regenerate. The cooperation and participation of the local people is
vital. One solution may be to declare areas national reserves, allowing the state to purchase
land or to give incentives to landowners for its restoration.

Water management
Where water is scarce, irrigation projects should maximize productivity per unit of water;
where water is plentiful, maximum productivity of land must be realized.

Improperly used water can damage the soil through salinization, alkalization, water logging
and erosion. Regulators must take drainage, maintenance, cropping patterns, water quantities
and rational water charges into account. Small and large projects alike revolve around
participating farmers and involve them in management.
In some areas, excessive use of groundwater is lowering the water table usually a case
where private benefits are being realized at societys expense. Regulatory or fiscal controls
become essential in these situations.

The impacts of chemicals
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides increase agricultural production. But they have draw-
backs
The runoff of nitrogen and phosphates from excess use of fertilizers damages water
resources
People suffer continuing, long-term exposure to pesticides and chemicals through
residues in food, water and air. The chemicals are particularly harmful to children
There are approximately 10,000 deaths per year in developing countries from
pesticide poisoning and about 400,000 more people suffer from related illness
Chemicals travel through the food chain and spread to areas distant form their points
of original use
Commercial fisheries are damaged as fish die from poisoning: bird species are
endangered
Insects that prey on pests are wiped out
Pest species develop biologically to resist the pesticides. The number of resistant
species worldwide has climbed drastically.
The variety and severity of pest infestations multiply, threatening production
In some areas where only small amounts of chemicals are used, response rates to the
chemicals are high and environmental damages are low. It is the areas where concentrated
use of chemicals is doing harm than demand attention.



Alternatives of chemicals
Organic nutrients can partially replace chemical fertilizers with no loss in production.
Government must encourage this practice. Pest controls must also be based increasingly on
natural methods. The legislative, policy and research capacity for advancing non-chemical
and low-chemical strategies must be established and sustained. Chemical fertilizers and
pesticides are heavily subsidized, particularly in commercial areas where they are the most
damaging and these subsidies should be reduced. Controls should be put on pesticide
exports, especially to prevent the export of hazardous chemicals banned in the country of
origin.

Destruction of forests
Forests maintain and improve the productivity of agricultural land. Yet agricultural
expansion, a growing world timber trade, and wood fuel demand have destroyed much forest
cover. This destruction has occurred worldwide, particularly in tropical forests.

Deforestation most severely disrupts mountainous areas and upland watersheds, and the
ecosystems that depend on them. The uplands influence precipitation, and the state of their
solid and vegetation systems influences how this precipitation is released into streams and
rivers and onto croplands of the plains below. The growing numbers and severity of both
floods and droughts in many part of the world have been linked to the deforestation of upland
watersheds.

Growing populations and the decreasing availability of arable land lead poor farmers to seek
new land, often in forests to grow more food. Some government policies encourage the
conversion of forests to pastures and others encourage large resettlement schemes in forests.
There is mothering inherently wrong with clearing forests for farming, provided that the land
is the best available for new farming, can support the numbers encouraged to settle upon it
and is not already serving a more useful function. But often forests are cleared without
forethought or planning.


Constructive use of forests
Undisturbed forests protect watersheds, reduce erosion, offer habitats for wild species, play
key roles in climatic systems, provide timber and fuel wood, conserve genetic resources, and
serve other functions as well. Sound forest policies are those based on an analysis of the
capacity of the forests and the land under them to perform various functions. Once analyzed,
forests can be put to the uses they can support and separated from the uses that will harm
them.

Programs to preserve forests must start with the local people they are both victims and
agents of the destruction and they will bear the burden of any new management scheme.
Their inclusion will mark a change in the way governments set priorities and will lead to
greater citizen responsibility in local governments and communities.

Agroforestry is the combination of one or more tree crop with one or more food crop, or with
animal farming on the same land. Well-chosen crops reinforce each other, and the system
increases productivity. This technology is particularly suitable for small farmers and for poor
quality lands. Agroforestry has been practiced by traditional farmers everywhere, and the
challenge today is to revive and improve the old methods.

Advancing deserts
Twenty-nine percent of the earths land area suffers some level of desertification and an
additional six percent is severely desertified. Each year, 21 million additional hectares
provide no economic return because of the spread of desertification.

The process of desertification affects almost every region of the globe, but it is most
destructive in the dry lands of South America, Asia and Africa. For these three areas
combined, 870 million hectares of productive lands are severely desertified. In 1984, the
worlds drylands supported some 850 million people, of whom 230 million were on lands
affected by severe desertification.
Desertification is caused by a complex mix of climatic and human conditions. The
conditions over which we have the most control include the rapid growth of both human and
animal populations, detrimental land use practices (especially deforestation), adverse terms
of trade and civil strife. The cultivation of cash crops on unsuitable rangelands has forced
herders and their cattle onto marginal lands. Unfavorable international terms of trade for
primary products and the policies of aid donors have reinforced pressures to encourage cash-
crop production at any cost.

A plan of action conceived by the U.N Environmental Program and drawn up at the 1977
U.N Conference on Desertification has led to some slight, mainly local, gains. Progress on
the plan has been hampered by lack of financial support from the international community,
by inadequacies of the organizations established to respond to the regional nature of the
problem and by the lack of involvement of grassroots communities.
Aquaculture
Fisheries and aquaculture are a major source of protein and livelihoods. They have increased
their combined production so that, by the end of the century, an animal catch of around 100
million tons should be possible. Still, this falls short of projected demands and there are
indications that much of the naturally available freshwater stocks are either fully exploited or
damaged by pollution.

Aquaculture the deliberate breeding of fish in controlled waters has grown to represent
about ten percent of world fish production. The strength of aquaculture is its adaptability. It
can be undertaken in paddy fields, abandoned mining excavations, and small ponds.
Aquaculture should be given high priority in developed and developing countries alike.

USING RESOURCES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD
Natural resources will be little value unless they are combined with technological resources,
human resources, agricultural and energy resources, and used to produced food

Technological resources
Promising new technologies that can be combined with traditional ones to improve food
production include biotechnology, microelectronics, computer sciences, satellite imagery and
communication technologies.

However, the major advances in technology in recent decades have been better suited to
stable, uniform, resource-rich conditions. Today we need technologies for areas with
unreliable rainfalls, uneven topography, and poor soils, like those of sub-saharan Africa and
remote parts of Asia and Latin America. Research must become highly sensitive to the
conditions and priorities of the farmers of all parts of the world. Research should take place
on the farms themselves, and farmers should help evaluate the results.

While commercial enterprises can help develop and diffuse technology, the essential
framework for agricultural research and extension must come from public institutions. These
institutions are underfunded, and they must be greatly expanded, especially in areas where
climate, soils, and terrain pose special problems. In low-income countries today, expenditure
on agricultural research and extension is less than one percent of total agricultural income, as
against 1.5 percent in the middle-income countries.

New see varieties are a high priority in all countries. At present, fifty-fiver percent of the
worlds scientifically stored seeds is controlled by institutions in industrial countries. These
institutions must ensure that their resources are readily accessible to research centers in
developing countries. All institutions must increase their inventories of material and improve
their storage techniques. Private companies increasingly seek proprietary rights to improved
seed varieties. Often, they ignore the rights of of the countries from which the plant matter
was obtained. This discourages countries rich in genetic resources from making them
internationally available and thus reduces the options for seed development in all countries.
International cooperation and a clear agreement on the sharing of financial gains are vital in
the critical areas of agricultural technology, including the development of new seed varieties.

Human resources
It is people who apply technological resources, and in the end, people are the most important
resource of all. Education must produce researcher more attuned to the needs of rural
peoples and agriculture, so that new technology suits the people who will use it. The
potential, the creativity, and the skills of people must be utilized. Literacy must be
established, and it should be functional literacy covering the efficient use of land, water and
forests.

Women play a critical role in agriculture. Their access to education and their representation
in research, extension and other support services must be greatly increased. Women should
also be given increased power to make decisions regarding agricultural and forestry
programs. Their roles in agriculture put them in a position to contribute enormously to
sustainable productivity, and their planning and decision-making abilities must be tapped.

Agricultural and energy resources
Todays agricultural inputs are more expensive than traditional materials. They are an
economic burden. With efforts, some of those costs can be reduced. Mechanical power for
irrigation, for instance is a major energy-related need that can be made less expensive.
Equipment producers and farmers will make water pumps more efficient if they are given
incentives and access to research. Wind generators, and conventional internal combustion
engines, running on biogas produced from local biomass wastes, can provide power. Solar
dryers and coolers can save agricultural products. Such energy-saving, less expensive tools
should be promoted.

The careful and economical use of expensive materials is as important as the types of
materials used. Nutrients are lost, for instance, when fertilizers are improperly applied. And
in many cases, the fertilizers leach away with the flow of water in a field and degrade local
water supplies. Similar problems occur with pesticides and other materials of all sorts. As a
result, new programs should emphasize training in the most successful methods of
application.

MAKING IT ALL WORK
Food security means not just increasing the amount of food produced, but also ensuring that
the rural and urban poor do not go hungry during periods of local food scarcity. It means the
systematic promotion of equity in food production and distribution so that people are not
hungry in any part of the world at any time.
Land reforms
As long as land is unequally distributed, policy changes meant to protect the resource base
can instead lead to greater inequalities of ownership. This happens because the poor are shut
off from the inputs and services needed to take advantage of new programs and technologies.
For protective policies to work, equality of ownership must be established so that people will
not be forced to violate ecological imperatives in order to feed themselves.

A universal approach to land reform is impossible, and in many areas land reform can be
exceedingly difficult. Each country should work out its own program of land reform to assist
the land-poor, taking into account its own regional needs and opportunities. Crucial
components include the reform of tenancy arrangements, security of tenure and the clear
recording of land rights.

Long-term food security is dependent on the recognition of womens roles in food
production. Women, especially those heading households, should be given direct land rights.

Subsistence farmers and pastoralists
Subsistence farmers, pastoralists, and nomads threaten the resource base when more of them
are forced to live in an area than it can support. To prevent this, the traditional land tenure
rights and communal rights of these people must be respected. On occasions when their
traditional practices threaten the resource base, their rights may have to be curtailed. In this
case, alternatives should be provided and they should be helped to diversify their livelihoods
by entering the market economy through employment programs and cash crop production.
Research should give early attention to this type of subsistence agriculture and extension
programs must become more mobile to reach shifting cultivators and nomads. Public
investment should be used to improve their cropland, grazing areas, and water sources.

Integrated rural development
Along with land reform, small farm holders must be supported by the distribution of
agricultural inputs and rural services. Smallholders, especially women, must gain access to
scarce resources, credit and services and they must be more involved in formulating
agricultural policies.

Integrated rural development must absorb the large increases in rural working populations
expected in most developing countries. This can be done largely through non-agricultural
work opportunities in service activities and small-scale manufacturing designed to meet the
demands of successful farming communities with growing family incomes. Public policies
should support this goal.

The number of smallholders and landless households will increase by about 50 million, to
nearly 220 million, by the year 2000. That is three-quarters of the agricultural households in
developing countries. Without adequate livelihood opportunities, these households will
remain poor and be forced to overuse the resource base to survive. With livelihood
opportunities, they can create communities that will support growing populations.

Food availability fluctuations
Environmental degradation can make food shortages more frequent and more severe;
sustainable development will make food shortages more rare. But in either case, the growing
dependence on only a few crops over large areas may amplify the effects of weather and pest
damage, ensuring that there will continue to be dangerous variations in food supply.

The traditional solution has been the creation of emergency food stocks. A major problem
with that approach is inequitable distribution. The industrial nations control about two-thirds
of the worlds cereal stock and the developing countries (mainly China and India) only one-
third. Provision of emergency aid is a precarious basis for food security. It should be
augmented by national stocks built up in developing countries during surplus years. To build
those stocks and make them functional, better public transport, more strategically located
storage facilities, and improved methods of distribution must be created. This kind of
infrastructure will reduce post harvest loss and provide an accessible base for emergency aid.

Similar measures should be taken at the household level. During food shortages, poor
households not only cannot produce food, but also lose their usual sources of income and
cannot buy the food that is available. Aid should enhance purchasing power as a means to
combat food shortages.
Food distribution must become more equal. Food production should be shifted away from
overproduction in developed market economies and toward production in developing
countries. Within those countries, food must be shared equitably. Policies must lead to
sustainable and informed use of all types of resources. Improvement in these areas will pay
itself back many times over in economic, social and human terms.

CHAPTER FIVE
SPECIES: LIVING NATURAL RESOURCES
Undisturbed areas of the world contain plants, animals, insects and microorganisms whos
genetic structures can serve as pages of an encyclopedia, from which scientists can derive
functional knowledge. The DNA of those organisms can be a sort of blueprint for innovative
commercial products. Genetic materials of wild species already contribute many billions of
dollars each year to agriculture, medicine and industry. For instance, half of all
pharmaceutical prescriptions dispensed have their origins in wild organisms and that amounts
to a commercial value of $14 billion a year in the United States alone. Because of those
contributions, a powerful economic rationale is emerging to bolster the ethical, aesthetic and
scientific arguments for preserving diverse natural species.

Further, genetic engineering techniques are just beginning to exploit the wealth of genetic
variability. Improved foods, new drugs and medicine, and new materials for industry will
soon magnify the economic benefits derived from living natural resources. But genetic
engineers need raw genetic materials to work with; they cannot make their own.

We know that the earth is losing multitudes of species every year. The real tragedy of that
loss, however, is that the planet is losing precisely those species about which we know the
least, and they are being lost in the worlds most remote areas. The body of scientific
knowledge is growing, but it is small and we simply do not know the extent of those losses to
business and science. Scientists have a substantial understanding of only one percent of the
earths plant species and a far smaller proportion of animal species.

Species extinction is not the only threat; varieties within species are also disappearing. That
loss within a species reduces its ability to adapt to environmental change and adversity and
this in turn, denies science the variety of genetic material that comes from adaptation.
Also critical are the contributions that organisms make to worldwide stabilization of climate,
protection of watersheds and soil, preservation of nurseries and breeding grounds and
numerous other natural processes. When a species is lost or disrupted an ecosystem can be
put off balance. Earthworms, bees and termites, for example, play productive roles in a
healthy ecosystem. Managing species and ecosystems together is the most rational way to
approach the problem. Numerous examples of workable solutions to local problems are
available.

The U.S corn crop suffered a severe setback in 1970, when a leaf fungus blighted croplands,
causing farmers to lose more than $2 billion. Then fungus-resistant genetic material was
found in genetic stocks that has originated in Mexico.
More recently, a primitive species of corn was discovered in a forest of south-central Mexico.
This wild plant is the most primitive known relative of modern maize and was surviving in
only three tiny patches covering a mere four hectares in an area threatened with destruction
by farmers and loggers. The wild species is a perennial; all other forms of maize are annuals.
Its cross-breeding with commercial varieties of corn opens up the prospect that farmers could
be spared the annual expense of plowing and sowing. The economic benefits of this wild
plant. Discovered when not more than a few thousand last stalks remained, could total
several billion dollars a year.

EXTINCTION
Extinction is an ordinary occurrence. The few million species that exist today are the modern
day survivors of the estimated 500 million species that have ever existed. The average
duration of a species is 5 million years. Estimates are that, over the last 200 million years,
one species has become extinct approximately every year.
Those extinctions were from natural causes; today, human activities are over-whelmingly the
main cause of extinction. The result is an extinction rate hundreds, or even thousands of
times higher than historical rates. Because most of the species vanishing are those about
which we know the least, such as insects in tropical forests, we have no accurate figures on
the current rate of loss.
Tropical rain forests contain by far the most genetic diversity. They account for only six
percent of the earths land surface but contain at least half the earths species. Those species
depend on the rain forest habitat for their survival; when that habitat is destroyed, the species
become extinct. Tropical rain forests are the geographic areas most threatened by current
human activities. By the late 1970s mature tropical forests covered only 900 million hectares
a loss of more than 600 million hectares from the amount that once stood. Every year, 20
million hectares were eliminated or severely disrupted. That was in the late 1970s, in the
1980s, the rate of destruction has accelerated greatly.

The health of local areas of a rain forest depends on the health of the forest as a whole. For
instance, if half the Amazonian forests were somehow safeguarded, but the other half were
eliminated or disrupted, there might not be enough moisture in the ecosystem to keep the
remaining forests moist. It would then dry up until it became more like an open woodland,
and most of the organisms there would be lost. There are limits to the amount of
development that the rain forests can sustain.

Cutting down the rain forests also contributes to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere and will lead to global warming. The consequences of that warming will be
felt in every habitat, from forests to cities.
Other habitats are important too. Arid and semi-arid lands harbor a relatively small number
of species, but because of their unique adaptations to harsh living conditions, these organisms
offer scientists many potentially valuable biochemicals. Unfortunately, such areas are
severely threatened, especially by the expansion of livestock herding.

Coral reef organisms engage in extensive biological warfare to ensure living space in their
crowded habitat. They have generated an unusual number and variety of toxins which have
been used in modern medicine. But the reefs are being depleted and they and their medical
value may be gone by early next century.

CAUSES OF EXTINCTION
Poor farming practices and overuse of resources destroy forests. Most forest soil, for
instance, is not well suited to the types of farming it is used for, and after a few years it often
turns to desert. Many tropical farmers practice forms of farming that lead to constant
movement and cause farming to spread into wildlife environments. If farmers are helped to
practice more intensive agriculture, they can make productive use of relatively limited areas,
with less damage to wild lands.

The problems in improving farming techniques are political rather than technical. In many
cases, government policies actually encourage the overuse of virgin areas in a bid for quick
profits or political popularity, or through a lack of thoughtful planning. Many countries have
provoked wasteful timber booms by assigning harvesting rights to concessionaries for
royalty, rent and tax payments that are only a small fraction of the long-term net commercial
value of the timber harvest. The damage caused by these distorted incentives is compounded
by short-term leases, requiring concessionaires to begin harvesting at once and by royalty
systems that induce loggers to harvest only the best trees while doing enormous damage to
the remainder. Migrants often see virgin lands as free lands available for unimpeded
settlement. And trade incentives encourage misuse and overuse of timber and many other
national products.

Other governments have under written the large-scale conversion of tropical forests to
livestock ranches. These ranches have proved ecologically and economically unsound. The
underlying soils are soon depleted of nutrients; wee species replace planted grasses, and
pasture productivity declines abruptly.




INTERNATIONAL ACTION
Several organizations are currently working to protect species, but their efforts are
underfunded and only partially successful. Nonetheless, such efforts can lay the groundwork
for future efforts and establish political responsibility.
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, operates a
clearing house for information on natural areas and genetic resources. It has also sought to
establish a global system of biosphere reserves harboring sample communities of organisms.
But most of the reserves have not been established because of a lack of funding. UNESCOs
World Heritage Fund supports the management of a handful of rare or unusually useful
ecosystems around the world, but it, too is underfunded.

The U.N Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.N Environment Program (UNEP),
and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) run programs concerned with
threatened species, genetic resources, and outstanding ecosystems.

The International Union for the conservation of nature and natural resources (IUCN)
provides data on species and ecosystems of all parts of the world. The service is available to
all and can help ensure that development projects are designed with full information about
the species and ecosystems affected. IUCN will also provide technical assistance for nations
and organizations interested in establishing local species databases for their own applications.

The tropical forestry action plan coordinated by FAO, attempts to put conservation on the
agenda of international development concerns. It proposes the formulation of national
forestry reviews, national forestry plans, the identification of new projects, enhanced
cooperation between development aid agencies at work in the forestry sector and increased
flows of technical and financial resources into forestry and related fields. The world charter
for nature, adopted by the United Nations in 1982, was another step toward this objective.

Establishing norms and procedures with respect to resource issues is at least as important as
increased funding. Precedents for such norms include the convention on wetlands of
International importance, the convention on conservation of Islands for science (both of
which safeguard prime habitats and their species) and the convention on international trade in
Endangered species.

The International Tropical Timber Organization based in Japan, links conservation and
development trade patterns. It was set up to implement the first commodity agreement that
had a specific conservation component.

Future initiatives
Many of the countries with the least capacity to make use of genetic resources are those
richest in species. Many of them recognize the need to safeguard threatened species but lack
the necessary scientific skills, institutional capacities and funds. Industrial nations seeking to
reap some of the economic benefits of genetic resources should support the efforts of Third
World nations to conserve species; they should also help those countries realize some of the
economic benefits of their own resources.

Governments should investigate the prospect of agreeing to a species convention. Similar
in spirit and scope to the Law of the sea treaty and other international conventions reflecting
principles of universal resources. A species convention, as envisioned by IUCN, would
treat the concept of species and genetic variability as a common worldwide heritage for
which we share a collective responsibility.

Collective responsibility need not interfere with concepts of national sovereignty. It would
not mean collective international rights to particular resources within nations. But it would
mean that individual nations would no longer be left to rely on their own isolated efforts to
protect species within their borders. Such a convention would require a plan of financial
support that would have the active backing of the community of nations. Any such
arrangement must assure that the nations that possess many of these resources obtain an
equitable share of the benefits and earning derived from their development.

One possibility might be a trust fund to which all nations could contribute, with those
benefiting most from the use of these resources contributing an appropriate share.
Governments of tropical forest nations would receive payments to support the conservation
of given areas of forest, with such payments rising or falling depending on the degree to
which the forests are maintained and protected.

The sums required for effective conservation are large:
Extensive land areas must be protected and their management must be sophisticated
and flexible. Additional funds will be required for conservation activities outside
protected areas; wildlife management, ecodevelopment areas, education campaigns
and so on. Much of this work can be carried out by citizens groups and other non
governmental means.
International development agencies the World Bank and other major lending banks,
U.N agencies and bilateral agencies should give comprehensive and systematic
attention to the problems and opportunities of species conservation. Possible
measures include environmental impact analyses of development project with
particular attention to species habitats and life-support systems, identification of
crucial localities featuring exceptional concentrations of species and exceptional
degrees of threat and special opportunities for linking species conservation with
development aid.

NATIONAL ACTION
Governments must take a new approach: they must actively anticipate the impact of their
policies and act to prevent damage to the ecosystem. Governments must review their current
programs and eliminate or revise those that harm the ecosystem
Governments should also determine how many additional areas need protection and
make further provision for protection of gene reservoirs. And governments should
improve management of protected areas, promote wildlife based tourism, and
strengthen anti-poaching measures
Countries could benefit from the establishment of a catalog of species information.
And they should support and expand public education programs that explain the
needs of natural species and their benefits.
Cooperation with neighboring countries sharing species and ecosystems can help
streamline programs and lead to the sharing of expenses for regional initiatives
Explicit preservation efforts will be possible for only relatively few of the more
useful or important species. Planners need to make choices on which species to save
and should take into account the impact of the extinction of a species upon the
biosphere or on the integrity of the ecosystem.
To help all species survive, tax credits can be given to farmers willing to maintain
primitive cultivars. Incentives to clear virgin forest can be ended, related research by
local universities can be promoted and basic inventories of native flora and fauna can
be prepared and maintained by national institutions.

CHAPTER SIX
ENERGY CHOICES
Future development depends on the long-erm availability of energy sources that are
dependable, safe and environmentally benign. But no single source or mix of sources is at
hand to meet this need.
Energy sources are divided into two groups; renewable and non renewable. Today, we use
mostly nonrenewable energy: natural gas, oil, coal, peat and conventional nuclear power.
Examples of renewable sources are wool, plants, dung, falling water, geothermal, solar, tidal,
wind and wave energy.

Each type of energy has its own economic, health and environmental costs, benefits and
risks. Choices among energy sources are enormously complex because they interact with
many other governmental and global priorities. Choosing an energy strategy menas also
choosing an environmental strategy, because energy use will dictate what measures are
needed to protect the environment and the environment will dictate which form of energy is
and will remain available.
The question must be approached from the standpoint of sustainability and the period ahead
must be regarded as transitional from an era in which energy has been used in an
unsustainable manner. Energy questions must now be addressed by the international
community with a sense of urgency and with a global perspective. There are many estimates
and scenarios about future energy use from many different organizations. Their findings
differ widely because of contrasting assumptions and methodologies, and because future
needs, technologies, and decisions are difficult to predict. But there is agreement on one
thing: world energy use will increase substantially.

This is disturbing for two reasons. First, meeting energy needs will become more and more
costly to national economies. Second, several environmental concerns are posed. In
particular, five stand out:
Climatic change, especially global warming through the greenhouse effect caused
by gases emitted to the atmosphere, the most important of which is carbon dioxide
from the combustion of fossil fuels.
Urban industrial air pollution caused by atmospheric pollutants from the
combustion of fossil fuels.
Acidification of the environment from the same causes
Risks associated with the use of nuclear energy, including nuclear reactor accidents,
problems of radioactive waste disposal, decommissioning of outmoded reactors and
nuclear weapons proliferation.
Growing scarcity of fuelwood in developing countries.

FOSSIL FUELS
The first three of these concerns are associated with the use of fossil fuels oil, gas, and coal.
In terms of pollution risks, gas is by far the cleanest fuel, oil is second, and coal a poor third.
Estimates are that, at present rates of use, world supplies of coal will last about 3,000 years
and gas over 200 years, but global oil production will begin to decline by the early decades of
the next century. Energy use decisions must take into consideration not only the supply of
each type of fossil fuel but its environmental impact; global climatic change, urban-industrial
air pollution, and long-range transport of air pollution.

Global climatic change
Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That carbon dioxide and
carbon dioxide from other sources, accumulates and forms a layer of gas that traps solar
radiation near the ground, warming the globe and ultimately changing the earths climate.
This is the greenhouse effect.

The pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide was about 280 parts per million parts of
air volume. In 1980, it was 340 parts per million and it is now rising faster than ever.
Carbon dioxide will probably cause about one-half to two-thirds of the climatic change that
will be experienced in coming years, with the rest caused by other gases. Current studies
project that temperatures may rise between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius by the middle of the
next century.

The rise in temperature would be most extreme at the poles and could lead to a rise in sea
level of twenty five to 140 centimeters. At the upper range of that projection, low lying
coastal cities and agricultural areas would be flooded, and economic, social and political
structures in many nations would be disrupted. Rainfall would also be altered, because rain
patterns are driven by the differences between equatorial and polar temperatures. Crop and
forest boundaries would shift to higher latitudes. And the effects of warmer oceans on
marine ecosystems, fisheries and food chains would be unpredictable but profound.

An additional warning came from the world meteorological organization (WMO), the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the international council of scientific unions
(ICSU). They noted that much planning is going on today based on the assumption that past
climatic data, without modification, is a reliable guide to the future. The planners of
irrigation and hydropower projects, drought relief plans, agricultural land use, coastal
engineering projects and energy planning must now take the greenhouse effect into account.
Of course, predictions of climatic change cannot be precise. But government action must not
be withheld until change actually happens. Long time lags are involved in negotiating
international agreements and countermeasures are slow to take effect. Governments must
start now with a four-tract strategy, including:
Improved monitoring and assessment of climatic phenomena
Increased research to improve knowledge about the origins, mechanisms and effects
of the phenomena
Development of internationally agreed policies for the reduction of the causative
gases and
Adoption of strategies to minimize damage and cope with climate changes and rising
sea levels. No single nation has either the political mandate or the economic power to
combat climatic change alone; action should be promoted by governments and the
scientific community through regional institutions as well as the WMO, UNEP and
ICSU.
Other related policy measures should be adopted as well. Efficiency of energy use should be
increase with urgency and energy use should b shifted toward renewable sources. These
measures need not hinder national economies and they will have positive economic and
environmental consequences beyond reducing the greenhouse effect.

The most important of the other gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect are
chlorofluorocarbons. They are also responsible to a large extent for damage to the earths
stratospheric ozone layer. CFCs, which are used as aerosol propellants, refrigeration
chemical, solvents and in the manufacture of foamed plastics, may be easier to control than
carbon dioxide. The chemical industry should accelerate its efforts to find substitutes and
governments should require the use of such replacements when found. Governments should
ratify the existing ozone convention, develop protocols for the limitation of CFC emissions
and systematically monitor and report implementation.

Further policy work, research and intentional discussion and cooperation must be devoted to
the problem of controlling the release of damaging chemicals into the atmosphere. The work
of the WMO, UNEP, ICSU, WHO and other relevant bodies must be encouraged and
accelerated.

Urban industrial air pollution
Air pollution has reached serious levels in the cities of several industrial and newly
industrialized countries, and some of the worlds most polluted urban areas are in developing
countries. The fossil fuel emissions of principal concern include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, carbon monoxide, various volatile organic compounds, fly ash and other suspended
particles. They can injure human health and the environment, bringing on potentially fatal
respiratory illnesses.

But these pollutants can be contained. Concern over air pollution in the late 1960s for
instance, resulted in the development of air-quality standards and cost-effective technologies
and greatly reduced emissions of some of the principal pollutants. Multilateral and bilateral
development assistance agencies and development banks should encourage governments to
require that the safest and most every-efficient technologies be used in new industries and
facilities.

Long-range transport of air pollution
High chimney stacks and many other measures that have controlled pollution levels in local
areas have unintentionally let pollution travel across national boundaries. That pollution has
contributed to the acidification of distant environments and has damaged lakes, soils, and
communities of plants and animals. Buildings, metallic structures and vehicles, ecosystems
and public health are also affected, resulting in billions of dollars in damage every year.
During transport in the atmosphere, sulphur and nitrogen oxides and volatile hydrocarbons
are transformed into sulphuric and nitric acids, ammonium salts and ozone. They fall to the
ground, sometimes many hundreds or thousands of kilometers from their points of origin, as
dry particles or in rain, snow, frost, fog and dew.

Many reports show soils in part of Europe becoming acidic throughout the tree-rooting
layers, particularly nutrient-poor soils such as those of southern Sweden. Root damage and
lead damage appear to interact, affecting the ability of the trees both to absorb water from the
soil and to retain it in foliage, so that they become particularly vulnerable to dry spells and
other stresses. Thousands of lakes in Europe and north America have registered a steady
increase in acidity levels t o the point where their natural fish populations have declined or
died out. The same acids enter the solid and groundwater, increasing corrosion of drinking
water piping. Central Europe is currently receiving more than one gram of sulphur on every
square meter of ground each year, at least five times greater than natural levels. There are
little evidence of tree damage in Europe in 1970. Now, an estimated 14 percent of all
European forestland is affected. Similar findings now come from many countries of Asia,
Africa, Latin America and South America.

Although there are many options for reducing sulphur, nitrogen, and hydrocarbon emissions,
no single pollutant control strategy is likely to be effective in dealing with forest decline. An
integrated mix of strategies and technologies, tailored for each region, is required.
Governments should map sensitive areas, assess forest damage annually and soil
impoverishment every five years according to regionally agreed protocols and publish the
findings. They should support transboundary monitoring of pollution, create bodies to carry
out that monitoring and communicate with each other to reduce transboundary air pollution.








A forest is an ecosystem that exists under certain environmental conditions, and if you change
the conditions, the system is going to change. It is a very difficult task for ecologists to
foresee what changes are going to be because the systems are so enormously complex.
The direct causes behind an individual tree dying can be far removed from the primary
pressure that brought the whole system into equilibrium. One time it might be ozone, another
time it may be So2 a third time it may be aluminum poisoning.
I can express myself by an analogy; if there is famine, there are relatively few people who die
directly from starvation; they die from dysentery or various infectious diseases. And in such a
situation. It is not of very much help to send medicine instead of food. That means that in this
situation, it is necessary to address the primary pressures against the ecosystem.
Alf Johnels
Swedish Museum of Natural History
WCED Public hearing. Oslo, 24-25 June, 1985




NUCLEAR ENERGY
Today, nuclear reactors supply about fifteen percent of the worlds electricity, or about two
percent of the global primary energy supply. In France, nuclear reactors supply sixty five
percent of all electricity; in Sweden, it is forty-two percent; in the Federal Republic of
Germany, thirty-one percent; in Japan, twenty-three percent; in the U.K, nineteen percent; in
the United States, sixteen percent; in Canada, thirteen percent; and in the USSR, ten percent.
Those industrialized countries together generate the great majority of all nuclear power.

When nuclear energy was first developed, it was expected to be the key to ensuring an
unlimited supply of low-cost energy. It was realized that no energy source would ever be
risk-free there was the danger of nuclear war, the spread of atomic weapons, and nuclear
terrorism. But intensive international cooperation and a number o negotiated agreements
suggested that these dangers could be avoided. However, after four decades of practical
experience with nuclear reactors, the nature of the costs, risks and benefits associated with
their use have become the subject of sharp controversy, today, nuclear power supplies far less
energy than was envisioned in its early years of use.

Here are some of the concerns with nuclear energy:
Safety
Since 1928, the International Commission on Radiological protection (ICRP) has issued
recommendations on acceptable radiation dosage levels for occupationally exposed workers
and the general public. The Nuclear safety standards (NUSS) codes of IAEA were
developed in 1975 to reduce nuclear safety discrepancies among member states. Neither
system is in any way binding on governments. If an accident occurs, individual governments
have the responsibility of deciding at what level of radioactive contamination pasture land,
drinking water, milk, meat, fish and produce are to be banned from consumption by livestock
or humans.

Different countries even different local government authorities within countries have
different criteria of judgment and some have none at all. States with more rigorous standards
may destroy large amounts of food or ban food imports from neighbor stat with more
permissive criteria. This causes great hardship to farmers who may not receive any
compensation for their losses. It may also cause trade problems and political tension
between states. Both of these difficulties occurred following the chemobyl disaster, when the
need to develop consistent contamination criteria and compensation arrangements was
overwhelmingly demonstrated.



Probability of disasters
Post-accident analyses of the three mile island (Harrisburg, United States) and Chenobyl
(Ukrain, USSR) disasters has shown that in both cases human error was the main cause, and
have provided data on the likelihood of nuclear accidents. Such analyses indicate that the
risk of a radioactive release accident is small, but that it is by no means negligible.

Radioactive waste disposal
Worldwide civil nuclear energy programs have already generated thousands of tons of spent
fuel and radioactive waste. Many governments have embarked on large scale programs to
develop ways of isolating these for the many hundreds of thousands of years that they will
remain hazardous. But the problem of nuclear waste disposal remains unsolved and the
technology we are using now has not been fully tested or utilized. There is particular
concern about future recourse to ocean dumping and the disposal of contaminated waste in
the territories of small or poor states that lack the capacity to impose strict safeguards. There
should be a clear presumption that all countries that generate nuclear waste dispose of it
within their own territories or under strictly monitored agreements between states.

Proliferation
The potential for the spread of nuclear weapons is one of the most serious threats to world
peace. It is in the interest of all nations to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons. All
nations therefore should contribute to the development of a viable non-proliferation regime.
The nuclear-weapon states must deliver on their promise to reduce the number of nuclear
weapons in their arsenals and the role those weapons play in their strategies. And the non-
nuclear weapon states must cooperate in providing credible assurances that they are not
moving towards a nuclear weapon capability.
Most schemes for non-proliferation mandate an institutional separation between military and
civilian uses of nuclear energy. But for countries with full access to the complete nuclear
fuel cycle, no technical separation really exists. Cooperation is also needed among suppliers
and buyers of civilian nuclear facilities and materials and the international atomic energy
agency (IAEA), in order to provide credible safeguards against the diversion of civilian
reactor programs to military purposes, especially in countries that do not open all their
nuclear programs to IAEA inspection.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES TO NUCLEAR CONCERNS
There is little doubt that recent difficulties with nuclear power have in one way or another
contributed to a scaling back of future nuclear plans, and in some countries have led to a de
facto pause in nuclear development. In Western Europe and North America, which today
have almost seventy five percent of world capacity, nuclear power provides only about one
third of the energy that was forecast for it ten years ago. Worldwide, earlier projections of
estimated capacity for the year 2000 have been revised downward by a factor of nearly
seven.

Because of potential transboundary effects, it is essential that governments cooperate to
develop internationally agreed codes of practice covering technical, economic, health,
environmental and political components of nuclear energy. In particular, international
agreement must be reached on the following:
Full government ratification of the conventions on Early Notification of a nuclear
accident, including the development of an appropriate surveillance and monitoring
system and on Assistance in the case of a nuclear accident or radiological
emergency as recently developed by IAEA.
Emergency response training for accident containment and for decontamination and
long-term clean-up of affected sites, personnel and ecosystems
Tran boundary movement of all radioactive materials, including fuels, spent fuels,
and other wastes by land, sea or air
Codes of liability for compensation
Standards for operator training and international licensing
Guidelines for reactor operation, including minimum safety standards
Reporting of routine and accidental discharges from nuclear installations
Agreements on site selection criteria as well as consultation and notification prior to
the sitting of all major civil nuclear related installations
Standards for waste repositories.
Standards for the decontamination and dismantling of decommissioned nuclear
reactors and for the development of nuclear powered shipping.
The commission recommends in the strongest terms the construction of an effective
international regime covering all dimensions of the problem of nuclear weapons
proliferation. Nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states should accept
safeguards in accordance with the statutes of IAEA. Additionally, an international regulatory
function is required, including inspection of reactors. This should be quite separate from the
role of IAEA in promoting nuclear energy.
The generation of nuclear power is only justifiable if there are solid solutions to the presently
unsolved problems to which it gives rise. The highest priority must be accorded to research
and development on environmentally sound and economically viable alternatives, as well as
on means of increasing the safety of nuclear energy.

WOOD FUELS
The rural poor in developing regions use scrap wood as fuel for heating their houses, cooking
food and even for lighting. With population growth, the demand for wood in rural areas has
far surpassed the supply and rural wood fuel supplies appear to be collapsing. If this
overharvesting continues at present rates, by the end of the century 2.4 billion people will
live in areas where wood is acutely scarce.
When fuel wood is no longer available, rural people are forced to burn such fuels as cow
dung, crop stems, husks and weeds. This can rob the soil of significant nutrients. In extreme
fuel shortages, the number of cooked meals that people eat is reduced and the cooking time
of food is shortened, which increases malnourishment.

Even families that can afford to buy wood are obliged to spend increasing proportions of
their income on wood. In Addis Ababa and Maputo, for instance some families spend a third
to half of their incomes this way.

In some areas, the problem is not a shortage of wood, but that the trees are owned by a few
people and not available to the rest. In other areas, the problem is that tradition forbids
women from playing any role in the cash economy and they cannot buy or sell wood, even
though it is the women who need it for their families. Organizations whose goals include
alleviating the fuel wood shortage must work harder to understand the social realities
governing its production and use.

Over the past few years, fuel efficient stoves that use between thirty percent and fifty percent
less fuel have been developed. These, as well as aluminum cooking pots and pressure
cookers that also use much less fuel, should be made more widely available. The
introduction of more efficient charcoal making techniques, such as brick or metal kilns,
would also help, because charcoal is a convenient and clean fuel.

Given the basic need for domestic fuel and the few substitutes available, the only way to deal
with this problem in the short and medium term is to treat fuel wood like food and grow it as
a subsistence crop. This is best done through generations old agro forestry techniques,
which mix food crops with wood crops.

RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY
Renewable energy systems are still in a relatively primitive stage of development, but they
offer potentially huge primary energy sources to almost all countries. If even a third of the
potential of such systems could be realized, it would make a crucial difference to future
energy supply

Renewable energy systems are ideally suited to rural and suburban areas where small and
medium-level quantities of energy are needed. This makes renewable energy especially
valuable to developing countries. In addition, they are generally labor-intensive, which is
beneficial where there is surplus labor. They are less susceptible than fossil fuels to rapid
price fluctuations and foreign exchange costs and their use can help nations move toward
self-reliance.
Hydropower is an energy source that has been gaining acceptance quickly. Hydropower now
provides six percent of the energy consumed worldwide, and its potential is huge. Interstate
cooperation between neighboring developing countries in hydropower development could
revolutionize supply potential, especially in Africa.
Solar energy use is small globally, but it is beginning to assume an important place in the
energy consumption patterns of some countries. For instance, solar energy is used in many
parts of Australia, Greece and the Middle East: the United States and Japan support solar
sales of several hundred million dollars a year. The cost of photovoltaic equipment has fallen
from around $500 600 per peak watt to $5 and is approaching the $1 2 level where it can
compete with conventional electricity production. And it provides energy to remote places
more cheaply than building power lines.

The costs of wind generated electricity have fallen dramatically in California in the last five
years, and may possibly be competitive with other energy sources within a decade. Many
countries have successful but small wind programs, and the untapped potential is high.
A fuel alcohol program in Brazil produced about 10 million liters of ethanol from sugar-cane
in 1984 and replaced about sixty percent of the gasoline that would have been consumed.
The cost per barrel is competitive at 1981 oil prices, but not a todays lower prices. But
ethanol saves the nation hard currency and provides the additional benefits of rural
development, employment generation, increased self-reliance and reduced vulnerability
crises in the world oil markets. The experience gained in the use of geothermal energy
during the past decades could provide the basis for a major expansion of geothermal
capacity.

The risks associated with most of these forms of energy production are substantially less
important than the public has thought them to be. However, hydropower, wood fuel use and
bio-fuel liquids are not without health and environmental problems. For example,
hydropower causes the flooding of large areas, which uproots homesteads, leads to the
generation of toxic gases from rotting submerged vegetation and soils, transmits waterborne
diseases such as schistosomiasis, prevents fish migration, and inhibits the movement of land
animals. The worst problem with hydro-dams may be the danger of catastrophic rupture of
the dam-wall and the flooding of human settlements downstream. Wood smoke from the
burning of wood fuel causes eye and lung irritation, and can release pesticides into the air.
Bio-fuel liquids compete with food crops for good agricultural land, generate large quantities
of organic waste and also produce irritating or toxic combustion products.
The technological challenges of renewable are minor, however, when compared with the
challenge of creating the social and institutional frameworks that will ease these sources into
energy supply systems. A major problem today, for instance, is the high level of hidden
subsidies for conventional fuels built into the legislative and energy programs of most
countries. These subsidies weight choices against renewable in research and development
funds, depletion allowances, tax write-offs and direct support of consumer prices. Countries
should undertake a full examination of all subsidies and other forms of support to various
sources of energy and remove those that are not clearly justified.

Renewable energy source development is inhibited by supply monopolies that electrical
utilities in most areas have on generation, allowing them to arrange pricing policies to
discriminate against other, usually small, suppliers. Requiring utilities to accept power
generated by small systems and individuals has opened up opportunities for renewable power
in some countries.
Every effort should be made to develop the potential for renewable energy, and renewable
energy should form the foundation of the global energy structure in the twenty-first century.
Large-scale technical and financial assistance should be provided to developing countries
because they have special potential to produce and use renewable energy.

EFFICIENCY
The most cost-effective and environmentally benign source of energy is greater efficiency.
Efficiency provides savings on costly supplies required to run traditional inefficient
equipment and it minimizes pollution and waste products.

About a quarter of the worlds population consumers three-quarters of the worlds energy. As
a result, small gains in efficiency in those industrial countries that consume the most can
have a magnified impact on conserving reserves and reducing the pollution load on all parts
of the world.

It is in poor countries, however, where the most progress is left to be made toward efficiency.
For instance, a person who cooks in an earthen pot over an open fire uses perhaps eight times
more energy than an affluent neighbor with a gas stove and aluminum pans. The poor who
light their homes with a wick dipped in a jar of kerosene get one fiftieth of the illumination of
a 100 watt electric bulb, but use just as much energy.
But foreign exchange difficulties make efficient energy conversation and end-use devices too
expensive for poor countries. And those countries often do not make