Verificación de la lógica horizontal

Farsari and Prastacos (2002:14) mentioned that the environmental dimension maintains the earth’s life support system (ecosystem services such as pollution filtering). This dimension is covered under Principles 4 and 6 of UNCED (1992).

Principle 4 stipulates that “in order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it” (World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED] 1987:19).

Principle 6 indicates that

“the special situation and needs of developing countries, particularly the least developed and those most environmentally vulnerable, shall be given special priority and international actions in the field of environment and development should address the interests and needs of all countries” (WCED 1987:19).

Holliday, Schmidheiny and Watts (2002:46) noted that environmental concerns for sustainable development have received greater attention in the past. As new theories regarding sustainability arise, so too do environmental justifications. This dimension is often referred to as addressing “green issues” due to its bias towards protection of natural resources and the promotion of frugal use (Cabeza-Gutés 1996:111). Its major interest is the current generation and how it utilises the natural resources at its disposal without depleting the same resources for future generations. Environmental impact assessment is now regarded as the farmiliar principle for the environmental dimension, which is Principle 17. As such it is more concerned about maintaining environmental integrity (Simonovic 1996:225).

The WCED’s (1987:19) definition is built on the same understanding of maintaining a correct balance (equity/intergenerational) and integrity towards resource exploitation.

Environmental ecological integrity emphasises that conserving biodiversity will provide food, raw materials, energy, industrial chemicals, and medicine, together with important social and cultural benefits (Dunphy et al. 2003:69-70). Nevertheless, there has been a progressively evolving value system that has influenced ethical behaviour for the anthropocentric objective of intergenerational justice (Van den Bergh 1991:33). Intergenerational justice is about the trade-off amongst people and the environment. The WCED’s definition that the current generation should preserve resources for future generations is derived from the same logic (Simonovic 1996:226). This is what has strengthened arguments for environmental concerns and why the environment is vital for sustainable development. Agenda 21 recognises the importance of the natural environment and its protection, as well as the influence this has on sustainable development (Rao 2000:11).

Banuri and Najam (2002) noted that the concept of the natural environment is explained in two different ways. Firstly, renewable resources are defined as those that possess the ability of regenerating, or being regenerated, over time periods

relevant to human objectives. Secondly, non-renewable resources are those where resources do not necessarily regenerate, but rather decline (Banuri and Najam 2002). The two explanations are derived from the concept of the ecosystem, trends, and patterns of ecology and environmental concerns that have dominated the discourse of sustainability for a long time (Rao 2000:33-39).

Mostly, the environmental dimension is regarded as complementary to economic reforms, since it promotes practices that embrace clean technology and diminished environmental pollution (International Institute for Sustainable Development [IISD]

2006:105). As argued by developed countries in particular, such practices serve as necessary conditions for environmental improvement. However, this is yet another contradiction because, arguably, there is a common perception that highly industrialising countries are the greatest polluters of the environment (IISD 2006:105). According to Rao (2000:19), developed countries, for instance, focus their environmental concerns on air pollution, potentially toxic chemicals, and cancer.

The environment, especially in rural areas, is a contested domain because disadvantaged people derive value from it (Daly 1973:10). The environment is the sphere in which value is created through the application of human labour to nature (United Nations [UN] 1992:17). What the environmental dimension needs to advocate is the development of a new range of environmental institutions and policies, adapted to suit democratic, market-based societies, which are geared towards the improvement of human lives and also the performance of democracies in transition, particularly in developing countries (UN 1992:18). Cassim, Onyango and Van Seventer (2002:115) argued that previous lessons have also revealed that the environmental aims of the developed countries are very much different from those of the developing countries. Developing countries and their environmental movements are adopting alternative development agendas, which link problems of environmental destruction to issues of basic needs provision, local self-reliance, distributional equity and social justice, and popular empowerment (Brohman 1996:319).

According to Cassim et al. (2002:115), many of these countries utilise different tools to protect, manage and monitor their natural resources.

This shows that environmental concerns cannot simply be brushed aside (Rao

greater concern for environmental protection as a means to achieving required sustained development. As argued by Haq (1995:79), environmental concerns are not science fiction, they are real. Natural resources are used faster than the planet can replenish them. Humans are eating away at life support systems at a rate unseen in the past 10 000 years by degrading land and freshwater systems, emitting greenhouse gases, and releasing vast amounts of agricultural chemicals into the environment (UN 1992:19).

Perhaps what remains a problem is the difficulty to integrate the human development and environmental concerns (UN 1992:19). As the situation stands today, the former still occupies high status since it is supported by countries and organisations that have adequate power and resources (Haq 1995:80).