unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/20/89)
conditions, Brazil, in particular, could not accept that the
Amazon forest-- which accounted for 40percent of its land--
could not be exploited for industrial uses, while atmospheric
pollution by developed countries was allowed to continue
unabated.
The tendency in the industrialized countries to push for a
global reduction in energy consumption has been based on a
North-South perspective which assumed that development in the
third world posed the greatest threat to the global
environment. But responsibility for the ecological balance of
the planet could not be placed on the developing countries.
Rather, a new approach to international co-operation was needed
for the protection of the environment. While environmental
problems were difficult to solve in the developed world, they
were even more difficult in the developing world. The
developing countries took a responsible approach to environmental
issues, and demanded equally responsible behaviour from the
developed countries for the damage they have inflicted, and
continued to inflict on the environment, he said.
ZBIGNIEW M. BOCHNIARZ, visiting professor of the Hubert Humphrey
Institute of Public Affairs, speaking from the Polish
perspective, said it had not been easy for non-governmental
bodies to be organized in Eastern European Socialist countries.
But the situation was changing with the mushrooming of
organizations concerned about the environment in his own country
and other socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and
Czechoslovakia. That development was a milestone. Focusing on
the environmental scene in Poland, he said the situation there
was typical of the centrally-planned economies of Eastern
Europe. Poland was now at the bottom of the scale of the 10
largest industrial producers in Europe, leading some to equate
it to a developing country. Its national income had dropped,
small-scale agricultural and business activities had not reached
the level of 12 years ago. That had resulted in many shortages.
Those shortages had undermined public morale and had led to
corruption and political upheavals. Consequently, serious
environmental problems had developed and attempts at
environmental protection had had little effect. There had been
serious and increasing contamination of foodstuffs and
deterioration of health standards among other problems, such as
degradation of ecosystems and an increase in pollution.
He said reforms were required in major areas such as political,
social and economic development to ensure sustainable
development in Poland. Environmental problems could not be
solved without such reforms which should be market-oriented and
implemented in an integrated manner. Public awareness of
environmental issues was growing with roundtable conferences on
the subject and formulation of strategies to cope with them.
DAVID OKALI, professor of forest ecology in the Department of
Forest Resources Management at the University of Ibadan in
Nigeria, said that poverty itself could be a major obstacle to
sustainable development, which often required poor rural
dwellers to sacrifice their basic needs in the interest of
long-term ecological goals. Attempts to manage natural resources
sustainably invariably sought to alter the way of life and
production practices of the rural poor. It was difficult to
induce such people to abandon traditional, destructive land-use
practices in the interest of achieving social forestry
objectives unless one could demonstrate "success stories", and
convince them of the importance of those activities. This was
especially important since such practices did not generally
yield results in the short term.
In order to achieve success in social forestry projects, it was
important to help the rural people: to identify their own
problems; to assess the nature and scope of interventions
required; to assess the inputs required and determine who is to
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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