The environmental basis of sustainable development

Much economic activity depends on the environmentalresource base (soils, water, vegetation, climate) that ultimately underpins virtually all human endeavor. This environmental-resource support is obviously important for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and hydropower generation. It is less obviously important for public health: without regular supplies of domestic-household water with sufficient quantity and quality, the risk of sanitation-disease increases. Much the same applies, through indirect linkages, to such further economic sectors as communications and education.These considerations are especially significant for developing countries. A greater share of their economies is usually dependent on the environmental-resource base than is the case with developed-world economies; and at the same time, the resource base, being generally tropical in location, is more fragile and hence susceptible to depletion than is the case with temperate-zone countries. Thus there is a premium on safeguarding the environmental-resource base as an integral part of those processes known as sustainable development.This is a revised and expanded version of a paper prepared for a Seminar on Land and Water Management, Economic Development Institute, The World Bank, November 10–21, 1986. The author is a consultant in Environment and Development, Upper Meadow, Old Road, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author, and should not be attributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations or to any individual acting on their behalf.