Transcript MPhil in Conservation Leadership

Critical Challenges: Sustainable
Development
Dr Bhaskar Vira, Department of Geography,
University of Cambridge
A Vicious Circle?
POVERTY
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
ENVIRONMENTAL
DEGRADATION
Brundtland Report (1990) - poverty as a major cause
and effect of global environmental problems
Millennium Development Goal 7 (2000) – Ensure
Environmental Stability
Views on poverty-environment
linkages

Conventional wisdom
–
Deterministic relationship: if one is poor, then one degrades
the environment
Poverty is negatively related to sustainable development short time horizons of the poor
Policy: need for economic growth to break the downward
spiral: World Bank World Development Report 1992
–
–
Poverty
Environmental
degradation
Alternative perspectives

Political economy
–
Why are people poor? Poor as proximate causes, but (global)
inequalities as the ultimate causes
Evidence that the poor can and do care for the environment:
effective environmental stewardship
The poor as environmental activists: new social and ecological
movements; grassroots political action
Policy - remove inequalities
–
–
–
Inequality
(power,
wealth)
Environmental
degradation
Alternative perspectives

Market/institutional failure
–
Price signals - perverse subsidies/taxes
Tenure policies/property rights
Lack of effective legal framework
Implementation capacity; administrative competence
Competing policy demands & development pressures
Policy – correct market/institutional failure
–
–
–
–
–
Policy
imperfections
Environmental
degradation
Alternative perspectives

Reversing the causality
–
Dependence of the poor on natural resources for their
livelihoods: studies showing that the ‘poor’ depend more than
their ‘richer’ counterparts on local (common) resources
Impact of internal and external pressures is to undermine the
sustainability of the local resource base
Policy - improved environmental sustainability as a
poverty alleviation strategy
–
–
Poverty
Environmental
degradation
Is there a choice between environmental
sustainability & economic development?


Depends on how we define development: green GDP
(adjusting for loss of natural capital) looks very different
to conventionally measured GDP
Commission on the Measurement of Economic
Performance and Social Progress (Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya
Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi) www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr


In addition to Green GDP, we need measures of ‘extended
wealth’ (Adjusted Net Savings) and ecological footprints
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)

Need for a more encompassing measure of societal well-being
that better reflects the position of society’s poorest: the ‘GDP
of the Poor’
GDP of the Poor: Evidence from TEEB
Indonesia
Numbers dependent on
ecosystem services
99 million
India
352 million
20 million
16%
10%
21%
Ecosystem services as a
% of classical GDP
90%
84%
79%
47%
25%
Ecosystem services as a
% of “GDP of the Poor”
Brazil
11%
53%
75%
Ecosystem services
Source:
Gundimeda and Sukhdev, D1 TEEB
21.07.2015
8
89%
Progress towards MDG7 & the role of
Parliamentarians

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

7A: Integrating sustainable development into country policies and
programmes & reversing loss of environmental resources
 Mixed picture, some progress: big challenges in terms of climate change
agreement, loss of forests/fish
 Key role for Parliaments: legislative support; measuring well-being
7B: Significant reduction in rate of biodiversity loss by 2010
 Missed the 2010 target; need for focus on new targets
 Need to show how biodiversity is ‘relevant’ to the lives of people to reverse
drivers – communicating this message; measuring well-being
7C: Halve proportion lacking access to safe drinking water & sanitation
 On course to meet 2015 targets on water, but not on sanitation; and, even in
the case of water, significant distributional challenges
 People already know this is important – monitoring, especially in rural areas
7D: Significant improvement in lives of 100 million (+) slum dwellers
 100 million target met, but failing to keep pace with urbanisation
 More ambition needed – raise expectations; hold government to account