The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say!

Week Two - “Human Wellbeing and Sustainability”
Comment / Comentario / Commentaire

Ghulam Amin Beg, IUCN Pakistan

Moderating team: Ghulam Amin Beg argues that notions of sustainable development have been hijacked by those with vested interests in maintaining control of resources. Solutions involve empowering poor people through ownership rights, decentralized governance in fragile ecosystems, and investments in capacity building of local level community-based participatory institutions.

Ghulam Amin Beg argumenta que la noción de desarrollo sostenible ha sido secuestrada por los grupos interesados en mantener el control de los recursos. Las soluciones involucran el empoderamiento a los pobres, gobernanza descentralizada e inversiones en construcción de capacidades de instituciones y comunidades locales.

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The Statement by Dr. Ashok Khosla and comments by Richard Celarius , Suresh, Dr. Pervez and Dr.Singh provided some good insights into the subject.

Theoretically speaking the 'noble notion' of sustainability and the good intentions expressed by WSSD 2002 and other forums could not be challenged. But in practice the term 'sustainability'

'eco-sustainable' 'sustainable development' 'sustainable-use', 'sustainable harvesting' etc., is being misused, misled and politicized by the vested interests: the 'haves' whether at global level or at a village level are interpreting these terms in order to continue to 'sustain' their control over the 'havenots'. For global corporations, sustainability means total control over the natural resources of the world, for the village feudal lord, sustainability and sustainable-use of natural resources means, 100% use and ownership rights on the resources and accumulation of wealth in one hand.

Like the notions of liberty, democracy, justice, the term sustainability is now a word of convenience. It seems that in the years ahead, when the big powers sign the Koyoto protocol and when these powers have full control over the extraction and supply of fossil and non-fossil fuel, term eco-sustainability will be used to 'outlaw' and ban the 'have-nots' for violating the 'environmental laws' of damaging the interests of nature and the well being of the 'lower raparians' so to say, and shall be term as terrorists.

These powers look at sustainability as sustainable growth with motives of profit and generation of wealth. Their ethical framework is different from the ethics echoed in the WSSD and similar documents.

For example rich American or European trophy hunters are allowed to kill animals for fun and because they have money they pay to the third world governments and the poor communities, but the poor people in the same habitat could not kill these animals to feed themselves and their children or get income from it.

I remember, some years back, a friend who works as outfitter for hunters, saying an American hunter is coming and there is a meeting on 'sustainability of wildlife', while emphasizing the government is very 'cooperative' and has 'internalized' the idea. The output of the meeting was setting up logistics for trophy hunting and deciding on the share of money that could be distributed between the 'official' and the outfitter.

The wellbeing of poor people is also disrupted by natural disasters, wars, sectarian violence and inequitable distribution of wealth and bad governance.

While environmental prudence and nurturing nature is important and very fundamental for the survival of all life forms on mother earth, the conservationists must understand that nature-worshiping and corporate governance have found common grounds to work together in the near future. But at the expense of nature and the quality of life of the poor.

The future of sustainability lies in not redefining sustainability, but making 'sustainability’ as defined in WSSD and other documents the underpinnings of the anti-globalization movements and in 'developing communities of practice', especially focusing on empowerment of people through ownership rights to the poor, decentralized governance in fragile ecosystems and investments in capacity building of local level community-based participatory institutions.