scholarly journals The quest for sustainable agriculture

Author(s):  
Peter Simon

Since the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development published its report in 1983 the idea of sustainable development has become popular. Although many definitions of sustainable development have been proposed, the concept is not easily implemented in a world which believes that high rates of economic growth are essential and in which economic systems are run on the basis of money flows in a setting of private property. Environmental degradation is seen as external to the system. The article discusses the concepts of technicism and economism as the dominant features of Western culture, meaning that all problems can be solved by technical and economic means. This is followed by an analysis of technicistic and economistic concepts of sustainability. In order to develop a concept of sustainability that is not marred by technicism and economism, key features of reformational philosophy, as represented by D.H.Th. Vollenhoven are summarized, especially concepts of time. This leads to an idea of sustainability that seeks to maintain the integrity of the kingdoms of things, plants and animals through a human culture inspired by wisdom and careful stewardship.

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Els van Dongen ◽  
Hong Liu

What is the added value of investigating the contested concept of “sustainability” in tandem with the geographical marker of “Asia” in today’s world? To answer this question, we need to return to the formulation of the problematique of “sustainability” and “sustainable development” several decades ago. The Our Common Future report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)—also known as the Brundtland Commission—put forward the most commonly recognized and most frequently used definition of “sustainable development” (SD) in 1987.1 Development could be made sustainable, so the report stated, “to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987: 15). The report further proclaimed that there were limits to development, but that improvements in technology and social development could “make way for a new era of economic growth” (ibid.).


1998 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 642-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günther Handl

In its June 1997 review of the state of the global environment and the implementation of Agenda 21, five years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the UN General Assembly drew a rather gloomy picture. While acknowledging that some progress toward sustainable development had been made, for example, in curbing pollution and slowing the rate of resource degradation in a number of countries, the Assembly’s report noted that, overall, trends tended toward continued deterioration. Not surprisingly, therefore, the report also reiterated Agenda 21’s call upon, inter alia, multilateral development banks (MDBs) to ensure that development funding “contribute to economic growth, social development and environmental protection in the context of sustainable development.” The report, in short, enjoined MDBs to strengthen their commitment to sustainable development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 09021
Author(s):  
Citrasmara Galuh Nuansa ◽  
Wahyu Widodo

Sustainable development with three main pillars, namely environmental, economic, and social, is the concept of country’s development to achieve inclusive economic growth, good environmental quality, and improvement of people's welfare. However, the dominance of economic factors cause various environmental problem. This phenomenon occurs in most of developing countries, including in Indonesia. The relationship between economic activity and environmental quality has been widely discussed and empirically tested by scholars. This descriptive research analysed the hypothesis called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) from a perspective of sustainable development in Indonesia. EKC hypothesis illustrates the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation forming an inverted U-curve, indicating that at the beginning of development, environmental quality will decrease along with increasing economic growth, and then reached a certain point the environmental quality will gradually improve. In this paper will be discussed how the relationship between environmental quality and economic growth in Indonesia was investigated. The preliminary results show that most of the empirical studies use the conventional approach, in which the CO2 emission used as the proxy of environmental degradation. The existence of inverted U-curve is also inconclusive. Therefore, the extension research on the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality in Indonesia using the EKC hypothesis is required.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3(68)) ◽  
pp. 46-56
Author(s):  
P. GORIUP ◽  
O.I. LAIKO ◽  
Z.V. CHECHOVICH

Topicality. The conceptual foundations of institutional support for the development of regional economic systems around the world are in state of constant transformation according to the impact of key topical trends. During the last two decades, the EU has adopted policy of active investment support for the development of local destinations, territorial centers of resource concentration and economic growth. The general rules of the investment activities conducting are combined with targeted measures of support for the implementation of strategically significant projects. The emphasis in the European regional policy has shifted towards the will of the investments attracting so much that, in fact, the whole policy of stimulating of regional sustainable development has turned into investment policy. An important task for the practical implementation of tools for a project, decentralization approach is the development of methodical tools for the preparation and execution of priority investment projects in the territorial communities in order to develop scientific and applied tools. Even the consideration of specific practical situations is urgent with the purpose of generation of new organizational and economic mechanisms that are to stimulate investment development of territories. Despite numerous theoretical and applied developments in the field of the socio-economic development stimulation of regions and territorial communities, the questions remain unanswered regarding the methodological bases for regulation of priority areas of economic activity of territorial communities and methodological approaches to selection, assessment of the degree of perspective and promotion of implementation of priority investment projects taking into account the specifics and the concentration of local resources. In more specific and applied aspects, the issue of project incentives for socio-economic development of communities is unresolved for the conditions of the national economy, on the basis of decentralization reform and taking into account the requirements of the ideology of sustainable development. Also, the description of various situations with the organization of socio-economic development of the territorial community in the conditions of decentralization, as an example of concrete projects, is still insufficiently considered.Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to formulate conceptual foundations, methodological approaches to the stimulation of the sustainable development of territorial communities in the conditions of decentralization, using the best European principles, practices and on the basis of specific situation description of the development and implementation of a long-term investment project for the territorial community. Consideration of the prospects and key aspects of the implementation of investment projects will be considered on the example of the planned association of the Lyman united territorial community of the Tatarbunarian district of the Odessa region.Research results. The conceptual, methodical principles of project support of investment activity in territorial communities are considered, algorithm of selection and support of investment project realization, which is a priority for the territorial community, is defined. There is considered, on the example of the Lyman United Territorial Community, a project on integrated recycling and rational waste management, the results of which the experts of the Institute for Market Problems and Economic & Ecological Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with representatives of the future community testify to the demand for an individual, pro-project approach to the solution of territorial communities problems, on the basis of local features. Thus, in the considered example, taking into account the specifics of composition, volumes, garbage structure and taking into account the seasonal fluctuations in its formation, the original methods are proposed that are available for the community during the processing of waste products into useful products, which are in demand, first of all, in the domestic market segment of the same community. The economic, social, ecological effectiveness of this project is determined, prospects of viability and opportunities for project development are estimated.Conclusions. The experience of working with representatives of territorial communities in the field of implementation of scientific and applied developments to stimulate the socio-economic growth of economic systems on the basis of sustainable development suggests the need for methodological tools on planning sustainable development of territorial communities in the context of decentralization reform.The prospects of the proposed approach include the possibility of local administration and application of measures of economic and organizational assistance for the implementation of such unique projects by the very same territorial community. Support for promising investment projects can be carried out directly by the administrations of territorial communities on the basis of scientifically substantiated principles concerning economic, tax, organizational and other types of regulation.


Author(s):  
Julia Orlovska ◽  
Alyona Khlivitskaya

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the introduction of the model of sustainable development in the economic systems of the leading world countries. Sustainable development is understood as a state of preserving the integrity of ecosystems, conservation of natural resources, constant maintenance of material and social well-being of the population. Economic policy of sustainable development is characterized as a state-defined system of scientifically sound measures aimed at improving economic processes and phenomena in order to simultaneously achieve economic growth, social justice and environmental management. The features of economic policy of sustainable development of Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland and Czech Republic have been analyzed. The experience of establishing additional taxes for pollutants and tax benefits for enterprises that take measures for environmental modernization of production has been suggested to use in Ukraine. It has been considered necessary to create a system of national grants for the implementation of such models of economic management of natural resources, which not only will not harm the environment, but will also correct the already caused harm. The obligatory principle of implementation of specific environmental measures has been recognized the administrative and financial decentralization.


Author(s):  
Oluf Langhelle

This chapter starts with the origin of the concept sustainable development and establishes what the innovation of sustainable development represented – the merging of environment and development. It then explores what has happened with this concept in its 30 years of existence in terms of two key questions: What has been the impact of sustainable development? Has sustainable development made any difference at all? These questions are discussed in light of two different but equally important issues that have permeated the whole complex of global environment and development linkages since the late 1960s: the question of (environmental) limits and the question of economic growth. The chapter argues that sustainable development is both simple and notoriously complex. It is simple in the sense that it builds on intuitive ideas which merge environmental and developmental concerns. It is complex in the sense that it demands the cooperation of all countries in a globalized, competitive, capitalist system. Further, the merging of environment and development is argued to be inescapable–there is simply no way out of the sustainable development equation. Sustainable development will therefore continue to be the main framework for the integration of the challenges of environment and development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 04033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bindzar ◽  
Shuxun Sang ◽  
Eyvaz Gasanov ◽  
Rauf Aliyarov

Today, it is important to consider the problems of preserving the environment from macroeconomic positions, which enable to determine the main systemic causes of environmental degradation; identify those economic directions that affect the environment. This approach is especially relevant for countries and regions that have a specialization in raw materials. Purely environmental measures aimed at preserving nature will not have an effect without an environmentally balanced macroeconomic policy, since without taking into account and correcting the development of the entire economy and its sectors (fuel, energy, metallurgy, agrarian, etc.), the effect of direct environmental investments will be minimal. It is obvious that without the access of the nation to the trajectory of sustainable development it is problematic to ensure a high quality of economic growth. However, we have to determine that resourceproducing countries and regions are following another way – first the economic growth, and then purification and restoration of the environment. Here the methodological basis can be the approaches developed by international organizations and initiative groups in the field of environmental protection.


Author(s):  
L. N. Orlova ◽  
V. V. Kuznetsov

The current technological development provides a foundation for fast growth of well-being in industrialized countries and at the same time causes global economic misbalance. Growing production and consumption lead to wasteful use of resources and increasing contamination of air, water and soil. In order to meet basic needs we cause damage to the environment. The article investigates the issues of strategic survival of society in conditions of natural resources deficit. The concept of sustainable development adopted and accepted in the whole world is, unfortunately just a concept in many spheres and it requires development and introduction of economic mechanisms of rational use of resources of all types. The continuously increasing speed of changes has become a principle factor of economic growth. But the economic approach is a pivot of the concept of sustainable development. The authors proved that only observance of balance between economic, social and ecological interests of business entities and their harmonization at the expense of innovation, which were used in economic, social and ecological life of society, could result in sustainable development of economic systems.


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