Environmental Management And Economic Development

This book shows clearly that much environment damage is the result of either shortsighted policies or lack of knowledge, as when insecure land tenure, artificially low farm prices, and illiteracy keep farmers from practicing soil conservation.

Despite its tiny size and seeming marginality to world affairs, the Central American republic of Costa Rica has long been considered an important site for experimentation in cutting-edge environmental policy. From protected area management to ecotourism to payment for environmental services (PES) and beyond, for the past half-century the country has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of novel trends in environmental governance and sustainable development. Yet the increasingly urgent dilemma of how to achieve equitable economic development in a world of ecosystem decline and climate change presents new challenges, testing Costa Rica’s ability to remain a leader in innovative environmental governance. This book explores these challenges, how Costa Rica is responding to them, and the lessons this holds for current and future trends regarding environmental governance and sustainable development. It provides the first comprehensive assessment of successes and challenges as they play out in a variety of sectors, including agricultural development, biodiversity conservation, water management, resource extraction, and climate change policy. By framing Costa Rica as an “ecolaboratory,” the contributors in this volume examine the lessons learned and offer a path for the future of sustainable development research and policy in Central America and beyond.

A title in The New Horizons in Environmental Economics series, this is a guide to appropriate policies for environmental management and sustainable development. The topics covered include project evaluation and policies to control environmental spillovers, pollution contol policies, recent policy proposals for caring for the Earth and project appraisal and sustainability.

Publisher description

Integrating Environment and Economy provides a detailed and accessible examination of how integrated approaches enable economic and social activities to support environmental objectives. This is a key text for the many taught Masters courses covering the issues of environmental management and economic development Features of the book: * covers strong areas of undergraduate and postgraduate study * detailed practice-based case studies at both local and regional levels * up-to-date theory using real-life examples

In the past quarter century, environmental management has increasingly become a concern of governments. More recently, the traditional split between developers and conservationists has begun to break down. Conceptions of what is economically and technologically practical, ecologically necessary, and politically feasible are rapidly changing. This report discusses the implications of five paradigms of environmental management in development. The author notes that the remedial legalistic approach of environmental management is breaking down. Instead, interest in the more economically integrated approach of resource management has recently taken hold. Several interdependent forces indicate that improving the economic management of pollution and resources may be a necessary but insufficient measure to create the conditions for sustainable development. The perception of tradeoffs between development and environmental quality persists in the present debate, but its necessity is greatly exaggerated, according to this paper. Finally, it is noted that paradigms may be impervious to evidence, and institutions and societies too difficult to change. Whether, when and how these issues are resolved may be modern civilization's most significant test.

This book presents the new EU approach to environmental management and its attempt to place it in the perspective of sustainable development. China and other large and fast growing economies are putting increasing pressures on global environment, but they are also looking at the European experience with great interest. To critically present this experience can help those countries avoid the mistakes made by developed countries in dealing with the relation between economic growth and environmental protection, and to improve the institutions and tools for better environmental governance. The variety of issues covered and the wide approach used in this book make it a useful tool for readers who want to place themselves in this perspective, although starting from different backgrounds and levels of knowledge of environmental and sustainability sciences.