Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the causes of environmental degradation in the developing world, drawing out the common themes and principles from a close analysis of the natural resource issues in Ecador, as a microcosm for much of the developing world. The authors draw their general conclusions from the intensive case studies of tropical deforestation, farm land degradation, waste and misallocation of irrigation water, petroleum development in the Amazon, mariculture and costal ecosystems, ecotourism in the Galapagos. The book demonstrates the pressures and trends which lead much of the developing world to an excessive reliance on mining renewable resources.
Trade Review"Doug Southgate's book is an elegant and forceful testimony to the role that bad economic management plays in destroying natural resources and, with them, the chance of sustainable development....Out of causal analyses come striking policy prescriptions for sustainable development....Doug Southgate's book cuts through the cherished but superficial analyses of some environmentalists, and persuades us that sustainable development is possible." --David Pearce, Director of CSERGE, University College, London "Economic Progress and the Environment is the best study of renewable resource policy issues in [Ecuador] that I have seen. It makes clear that conservation depends on economic development and vice versa and also that environmentally sustainable economic progress depends on fundamental public policy reform." --Jorge Barba Gonzalez, Executive Director, INEFAN "In 130 elegant pages [Southgate and Whitaker] have produced one of the most persuasive contributions of environmental economics to development policy to appear in recent years . . . . The exposition is largely accessible to non-specialists. The book is highly recommended to all students of development, applied environmental economists, and policy-makers."--Development Policy Review "A valuable contribution to the information available about environmental conflicts and policy issues and processes in Latin America."--Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies
Table of ContentsPart I: Causes of Renewable Resource Degradation 1: Environmental Crisis in the Latin American Countryside 1.1: Outline of the Book 1.2: The Study's Geographic Focus 2: Causes of Increasing Resource Scarcity 2.1: Population Growth 2.2: Internal Migration 2.3: Income Growth 2.4: Increasing Domestic Demand for Agricultural Commodoties 2.5: Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies and Performance of the Agricultural Economy 2.6: The Challenge of Increasing Scarcity 3: Policy Crisis and Environmental Degradation 3.1: Discriminatory Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies 3.2: Factor Market Distortions 3.3: Failure to Invest in the Rural Economy's Scientific Base 3.4: Labor Markets and the Environment 3.5: An Ideal Set of Policies for Environmental Degradation Part II: Case Studies 4: Tropical Deforestation 4.1: Historical Trends 4.2: Current Magnitude 4.3: Net Returns 4.4: Causes of Agricultural Colonization 4.5: Summary and Conclusions 5: Farmland Degradation 5.1: Soil Erosion and Its Origins 5.2: On-Farm Consequences of Soil Loss 5.3: Why Farmers Allow Their Land to Deteriorate 5.4: Land Degradation and Declining Commodity Prices 6: Waste and Misallocation of Water Resources 6.1: Water Resources for Agriculture 6.2: The Water Law and INHERHI 6.3: Irrigation Projects 6.4: Hydroelectricity Development 6.5: Potable Water Systems 6.6: Water Resource Degradation 6.7: Summary and Conclusions 7: Oil Industry Pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon 7.1: Environmental Impacts 7.2: Current Regulatory Environment 7.3: The International Controversy Surrounding Development of Block 16 7.4: The Economic of Pollution Control 7.5: Summary and Conclusions 8: Shrimp Mariculture and Coastal Ecosystems 8.1: Alteration of Coastal Ecosystems 8.2: Consequences of Coastal Ecosystem Disturbance 8.3: Causes of Environmental Degradation Along the Ecuadorian Coast 8.4: The Future of Ecuadorian Mariculture and the Country's Coastal Ecosystems 9: Tourism and Species Preservation in the Galapagos 9.1: A Short History of the Galapagos 9.2: Conservation Initiatives 9.3: The Growth of Tourism 9.4: Tourism Pricing Issues 9.5: Conclusions Part III: Conclusions and Recommendations 10: Development and the Environment: Some Common Fallacies 10.1: Will Population Growth Outstrip What the Environment Can Support? 10.2: Does Economic Growth Always Harm the Environment? 10.3: Is Economic Liberalization Inherently Unfair to Nature and the Poor? 10.4: Does Ecuador Have the Fiscal Capacity for Sustainable Development? 11: Resolving the Policy Crisis 11.1: Non-Discriminatory Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies 11.2: Efficient Markets for Natural Resources and Other Inouts 11.3: Formation of Human Capital and Strengthening the Rural Economy's Scientific Base 11.4: The Challenge of Reform References
