http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-muir/balancing-economic-growth_b_1506358.html
Balancing Economic Growth With True Sustainability
I am privileged to attend the World Economic Forum for the first time. For me, it is very poignant that this forum is taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Addis is not only the home of the African Union but also at the heart of the new economic growth taking place on the continent.
Talk here is that Africa's projected growth rate for 2012 will be in excess of 5% and at a time of global uncertainty and general economic downturn. Talking to various delegates it seems that whilst there is a genuine worry around food security and high rates of youth unemployment, there is, at the same time, a renewed optimism about this continent's future.
However, the sustainability of this economic boom and growth requires
attention and planning. Much of the economic growth for Africa is
around a so-called resource boom, and this equates largely to extraction
(mining) as well as natural resource utilization (farming and
forestry). Transforming ecosystems through economic development has
yielded net benefits to human society, but continuing to achieve these
gains by degrading nature risks irreversible declines in productivity
and producing an inverse relationship between resource exploitation and
poverty alleviation.
In terms of Africa, unmitigated loss of nature, accelerated by
population growth, will lead to ecosystem change at a scale and breadth
too costly to reverse, and particularly when one adds climate change
predictions into this boiling pot. We must guard against loosing the
true meaning and concept of sustainability.
We can learn from people who live directly in natural environments,
such as farmers, the 'first people' and indigenous peoples of Africa and
our world, notwithstanding that our environments and challenges have
altered in the contemporary world. The North American Indians for
example, had a basic philosophy that before every action and decision
they took today, they would look to the impact to the seventh
generation. How do we accept the implications of living within our
means, of living with tomorrow in mind?
Clearly, now is the time to implement many of the agreements and
mechanisms agreed to at COP17 and other forums that will combine
sustainable resource utilization together with access to clean energy
mechanisms. This would include African governments putting into place
adequate policies together with the tools and resources to monitor and
enforce impacts.
The World Economic Forum has highlighted the fact that one in six
people do not have access to adequate nutrition (approximately 1 billion
people).
At the same time it is "spearheading efforts to rethink
infrastructure development, reshape responsible capitalism and encourage
the free movement of people and goods" and that "social development
without economic progress is not feasible."
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