Ecological Principles and Sustainable Development

To what extent is an understanding of ecological principles necessary for sustainable development?

To what extent is an understanding of ecological principles necessary for sustainable development?

Introduction:

What is Sustainable Development?

The concept of sustainable development was introduced by the Brundtland Report, the first report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, established by the United Nations in 1983. It advocates the integration of social, economic, and environmental considerations into policy decisions by business and government. Particular emphasis is given to social, cultural, and ethical implications of development. Sustainable development can be achieved through environmental management and is a feature of a socially responsible business.

The theory of sustainable development incorporates all those factors that come together to define a concrete change in the social and economic spheres of the society. At first, areas like ecology were ignored and all the emphasis was placed on rapid development and resultant growth.

The impact of these policies and their adverse effects on various areas of the social fabric was felt. Environment and ecology were the major areas that were hit by these policies.

Recently, ecological principals have attained great importance and their connections with the economic and social structure of a country are being investigated by many authorities. The following have become the main areas where an understanding of ecological principal has become important for sustainable development (Bailey 1990):

The value of biological diversity;

Ecological limits of human activities;

The intimately intertwined and systemic nature of the planet's a biotic and biotic components;

The thermodynamic irreversibility of natural processes; and

The recognition of the dynamic, constantly evolving, and often unpredictable properties of natural systems.

Relationship between Ecological Principles and Sustainable Development:

Sustainable development is not a standalone concept. It exists in relationship with a number of factors that directly or indirectly affect other subsystems present in the sphere of reference. Ecology is perhaps the most important of these subsystems.

All ecological systems are self sustaining to the extent of the availability of nutrients and photosynthetic abilities. According to (Rees 1990b), our economic activities have started to exceed these biological levels of sustainability.

These excesses are the real cause of the friction between the idea of sustainable development and principles of ecology.

Example of the relationship between Ecological Principles and Sustainable Development:

Every society exists with its surrounding ecosystem. It may disassociate itself from it, but it is connected and in most cases dependent on the ecosystem that surrounds it. Consider the case of rain forests that are increasingly being depleted to free up land for agricultural use. The practice has been going on for a long time. The pace has increased to an alarming rate during the recent years. The first step is the cutting down of the trees for timber. The area is then set on fire. This burns away all the foliage, leaving the land fertilized for agricultural use. This practice has been supported by many economists as the only viable alternative for increasing the food supply in the third world ...