Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sustainable development
Development which meets
the needs of the present
without compromising the
ability of future generations
to meet their own needs
The term ‘sustainable development’
was used as early as 1974 in
Cocoyoc Declaration during a special
meeting of the two bodies of the
United Nations in Cocoyoc, Mexico ,
UNCTAD and UNEP. The meeting was
to discuss the effects of technologies
which are destructive to the physical
environment.
Brief History
Population
Food security
Species and ecosystems
Energy
Industry
The urban challenge
Development: GNP is not
enough
GNP measures 'productive' activity in a very
narrow way, excluding, for example, the
productive activities of the household because
many of these are undertaken by women and
children.
A measure of 'formal' sector activity, whether
in the primary sector or in manufacturing and
services
GNP is a very blunt instrument for measuring
economic development without considerable
attention being given to demographic profiles
Economic growth measured through GNP is
also an inadequate measure of how
production is deployed.
Development: GNP is not
enough
GNP figures also fail to distinguish between
groups of people especially social classes, within
a country
Poverty alert
1.3 billion without access to clean
water;
about half of humanity lacking
access to adequate sanitation and
living on less than 2 dollars a day;
approximately 2 billion without
access to electricity;
Agenda 21: Philippine
Trends
Demographic Trends – 9th most
populous country in Asia and 14th in the
world. The country’s population will
double to 128 million by 2025
Cultural trends – inherent traits of
Filipino culture – openness, freedom of
expression, resilience, strong family
orientation – continue to support social
cohesion within the society. However
some cultural values had undergone
some erosion – commodification of
indigenous culture, sexual tourism,
consumerism and increasing
materialism.
Agenda 21: Philippine
Trends
Science and Technology Trends – the
sector has its share of problems, such as
the “brain drain” phenomenon: unfair
monopoly of intellectual property rights;
increasing use of technology as simplistic
response to complex problems; poor
quality of science education due to
inadequate funding and facilities
Economic trends - despite the positive
economic growth , challenges remain –
high level of public indebtedness, low level
of savings, large deficits, remaining
distortion of the price and incentive
system, rampant casualization of labor ,
indiscriminate land and ecosystem
Agenda 21: Philippine
Trends
Urbanization Trends – unplanned and
uncontrolled urbanization lead to
pollution, water shortage, flooding,
violence and other social ills
Human development trends –
rampant substance abuse, break-up
of families, economic exploitations
and homelessness as evidenced by
the growing number of street
children.
Agenda 21: Philippine
Trends
Environmental trends – mine tailings,
deforestation, pollution, salt water
intrusion
Institutional Trends – ineffective
mechanism for enforcement and
implementation, information
inadequacies and continuing system
graft and corruption destruct strong
institutional building blocks for SD
Political Trends – the rich continue to
dominate political processes as
Agenda 21 Philippines
Key Actors in SD
Civil SD Governme
Society nt
Busines
s
The three Essential Dimensions of Society in
Relation to
Nature, the Human Being and Sustainable
Development
Human
Being
DEVELOPMENT
SUSTAINABLE
Culture Polity
Societ
y
Economy
Nature
Conclusion: Poverty,
Empowerment, and Sustainable
Development
Common argument is that poor people
are forced to cultivate marginal lands, or
to overexploit resources in spite of the
fact that they threaten their future
livelihood by doing so, because they will
not otherwise be able to survive the
present season.
The excessive wealth and
overconsumption of industrialized
societies is responsible for the vast
majority of unsustainable resource
extraction, and that wealth may
Conclusion: Poverty,
Empowerment, and Sustainable
Development
The poor communities not only have
high incentives for managing their
resources sustainably, but they have
historically often been able to develop a
variety of effective and adaptable means
of doing so.
This growing inability of communities to
participate in resource management
resources on which they depend, their
traditional tenure rights and rights to
exclude outsiders may be abrogated, or
their ability to make their own decisions
regarding resource management may be
curtailed.