The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say!

Week One - “Global Challenges to Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century”
Comment / Comentario / Commentaire

Bhubaneswor Dhakal, Nepal

Moderating team: Bhubaneswor Dhakal argues that conservation has often undermined the livelihoods of poor people in developing countries. Sustainability should be practiced by people who consume the most environmental goods and services.

Bhubaneswor Dhakal afirma que la conservación generalmente ha minado los modos de vida de la gente pobre en los países en desarrollo. La sostenibilidad debería practicarse por las sociedades que consumen la mayoría de bienes y servicios ambientales.

----

It has been studied and discussed much about the sustainability and widely agreed that all three pillars (economic, social and environment) of human concern should be accounted in sustainability. The meaning and need of sustainability should be different with socioeconomic and environmental condition area which are agreed in forums with higher and wider intellectual participation. However, influential conservation societies have given little attention on those consensus, and overemphasized on environment aspect. If you look at practices conservation are increasingly done in the interest and for the benefit of affluent societies who have ruined environmental resources. As a result it has affected livelihoods of poor societies who have already limited access to environment resources. If any benefit offers to the people (poor people, indigenous groups and women) are wastages, by-products, or residual products. These are reward of their cooperation for conservation. The income generation opportunities that are offered by development agencies (so called) are just flash incentives which have put the poor people in long term institutional poverty trap. As a result they have been forced to abandon their communities. I believe sustainability should be come from practices of people who use too much environmental goods and services but not from people who use little to survive.