State of the debate on sustainability: concepts and models
2014
Wachter, D., Amt fuer Gemeinden und Raumordnung des Kantons Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
After the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), there emerged a common understanding of sustainable development, based on the work of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), the Rio declarations and Agenda 21. In recent years, however, trends have appeared which are moving away from this consensus. With the economic crisis of 2008, hopes for an economic recovery through green economy or green growth as motors for management of the crisis have gained importance. These concepts focus strongly on economic growth through green technologies and innovation. They offer valuable impulses, but contain in themselves the danger to downgrade the concept of sustainable development and its underlying principles if planetary limits to growth and global distribution issues are neglected, or if institutions and political processes created for the governance of sustainability are weakened by the creation of parallel green economy institutions. For forestry and forest economy, this debate can be seen, pragmatically, as an opportunity if it helps to bring the economic dimension of the forest into the limelight and gives value to the ecosystem functions and services, without losing sight of the broader understanding of sustainable development.
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