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A discussion is presented of an article by Andrew B. Whitford and Karen Wong, "Political and Social Foundations for Environmental Sustainability," published elsewhere in the same issue. It is noted that the article helps to address the need for social sciences to make greater use of empirical hypothesis testing and quantitative models. However, Whitford and Wong's use of the components of the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) as dependent variables is said to be problematic. It is argued that the ESI is not a valid measure of sustainability, and that this detracts from the soundness of Whitford and Wong's conclusions.

This article quantitatively investigates several possible foundations for environmental sustainability, as measured across countries with varying geography, development patterns, social customs, and political arrangements. Two central hypotheses about the roles of democracy and federalism, as well as other hypotheses about economic development, religion, and demographics, are tested. The study provides moderate evidence that sustainability levels depend on democratization, but little evidence that it depends on the presence of federalism. In addition, it is found that the effects of environmental interests, development paths, and religious orientations vary across different measures of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the concept of ecosystem services for a broad scientific readership in South Africa and contends that its attendant research offers a theme for the engagement of a diverse range of scientific disciplines and stakeholders in the development of sustainability science. It then provides an overview of published ecosystem service studies that have dealt with the country, revealing that there were large gaps in the information on these services. Research shows that human activities are contributing to a decline in the quantity and quality of these services. If the potential of research on ecosystem services are to be realized, more direct interaction and development of an interdisciplinary understanding between the different domains of science are required .

This article examines the effect of development assistance programs on Local Agenda 21 (LA21) programs in three municipalities of Thailand. First, the article examines institutional changes in Thailand geared toward decentralization. Second, the article analyzes the effect based on the frameworks of Noda and Ouchi for the level of participation. The results indicate that participation was a top-down participation of local residents who presumed some benefits from the municipality in exchange for their attendance in meetings. Third, the article evaluates the effect in terms of project efficiency. The results show that municipalities conducted most of the actions declared in their LA21 but the sustainability of these actions is questionable. It is contended that LA21 has its limitations as a planning guide for sustainable cities in developing countries. An assistance program should be designed that helps the government of a developing country to institutionalize meaningful involvement for a participatory environmental policy formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's view concerning the issue relative to nuclear energy and environmental sustainability. He claims that the need to reassert the paradigm shift in addressing the increasing demands for energy is significant to obtain energy security. He discusses that the topics of sustainability should be included in the nuclear industry's guidelines. He denotes that achieving sustainability require policies that support conserving and recycling the use of renewable energy and resources. Moreover, he emphasizes that proper evaluation depicting the environmental, health and economic impacts of nuclear energy should be determined.

The difficulties of achieving sustainable development reflect several internal tensions in the three-pillar approach: The adoption of economic development as a separate pillar from social development challenges the view that the purpose of one is to achieve the other; economic valuation of the environment removes the distinction between environmental and economic goals; and no distinction is drawn between the development of developing countries and the development of developed ones. These tensions are shown to be symptomatic of difficult issues being avoided. A closer examination revives doubts about whether the conservation of the global commons and the development of developing countries can both be achieved without major changes in economic structures and governance systems, nationally as well as globally. It is concluded that the development of more appropriate systems requires imaginative research in every discipline of the social sciences, with a vital role for cooperation between American and Chinese institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now commonplace to assert that actions toward sustainable development require a mix of scientific, economic, social and political knowledge, and judgments. The role of research-based knowledge in this complex setting is ambiguous and diverse, and it is undergoing rapid change both in theory and in practice. We review conventional views of the linkages between research-bared knowledge and action, and the early response to concerns that these links could and should be improved, through efforts at translation and transfer. We then examine the range of critiques that challenge those conventional views by highlighting different aspects of the relationships between science and society, focusing on the implications for action toward sustainable development. We then review the theories and strategies that have emerged in the attempt to improve the linkages between research-bared knowledge and action in the context of sustainability across four broad categories: participation, integration, learning, and negotiation. These form a hierarchy with respect to how deeply they engage with the various critiques. We propose that the relationships between research-based knowledge and action can be better understood as arenas of shared responsibility, embedded within larger systems of power and knowledge that evolve and change over time. The unique contribution of research-bared knowledge needs to be understood in relation to actual or potential contributions from other forms of knowledge. We conclude with questions that may offer useful orientation to assessing or designing research-action arenas for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the by-products of the culture of targets, performance and assessment, is the introduction of uniform methods for the evaluation of the success of policy interventions. Such an approach has been applied to attempts to evaluate regional sustainable development, often with unsatisfactory results. This paper reviews some of the fundamental requirements for the evaluation of regional sustainable development and provides research evidence that indicates the need for procedural and institutional innovation. The evidence in support of innovation reflects the need for assessment procedures and methods to be tailored-to-fit the environmental, social and economic conditions obtaining in an individual region. An additional consideration in analysing the evaluation of regional sustainable development is the extent of socio-political influence over the choice of procedures and methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many different approaches for national sustainable development strategies (NSDS) have been proposed since 1992, with some components common to all. A country's national strategy should be designed to help mainstream environmental concerns into policy. More broadly, it should coordinate local policy with global concerns, as well as integrate scientific knowledge into policy and development planning. The peer review mechanism for national strategies was piloted by France, and also involved representatives of countries from the North and the South as well as stakeholders. The peer review process allows countries to share their experience and information, and can assist them in identifying their own path to sustainable development. The business community can also contribute to sustainable development through provision of local and global public goods. Another input to sustainable development could come from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and its Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility (ISO 26000), as a coordinating mechanism between voluntary initiatives and binding obligations (such as international conventions). ISO standards and guidelines should therefore be integrated with national sustainable development strategies and local Agenda 21 frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National sustainable development strategies (NSDSs) play a vital role in pursuing sustainable development (SD) at the country level. These strategies help in clarifying priorities and in focusing efforts to more effectively address relevant SD issues. Since its establishment in 1992, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development has urged its members to formulate and implement their respective NSDS. The Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (1997) provided a more aggressive push to this advocacy by setting 2002 as the deadline for the formulation of NSDS while the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002) targeted 2005 as the year by which all countries should have started implementing such strategies. Many countries have heeded this call, albeit the strategies have taken a variety of forms: some took the route of formulating National Agenda 21s (as in the Philippine case), while others built on existing national environmental action plans, poverty strategies, sustainability plans, so-called green plans, policy statements, or legal frameworks. The UN/DESA crafted some guidelines for NSDS formulation but, and rightly so, countries are given freedom of choice as to the scope, substance and form best suited to their own unique circumstances. As varied as the formats of these strategies turned out, so too were the processes that were adopted in their formulation. All these elements could reflect varying degrees of understanding and differing perspectives about the nature of sustainable development and how the concept could be made operational. Consequently, such an understanding could ultimately define a country's success in mainstreaming and achieving sustainable development. In this connection, it would be worthwhile examining how an NSDS has actually played out its role in the national pursuit of sustainable development. Are there creative insights, lessons or guidelines that can be drawn from practical, countrywide experience in NSDS formulation and implementation? What are the emerging challenges and problematic areas in using an NSDS as an instrument for integrating sustainable development in mainstream decision-making? Are there nascent considerations that could be useful in developing design parameters for NSDS? This paper explores the foregoing questions in the Philippine context, given its decade-long experience in implementing its NSDS, the Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21). In so doing, it hopes to distill potentially valuable perspectives that can inform UNCSD and country-level efforts at crafting, refining and mainstreaming national strategies for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a background to the SUFOR program, in this paper a short introduction to Swedish forestry is given, together with an overview of the sustainability debate in Sweden. The research carried through in the SUFOR program is concurrent with some of the main aspects of sustainability as interpreted here. Knowledge obtained through the program is identified to have a role as decision support for decision makers in Swedish forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses sustainable development. Roots of the sustainable development movement, in the United Nation's initiation of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1982, and with the publishing of then-Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland's report, "Our Common Future"; Definitions of sustainable development, the most widely accepted one being the ability to ensure that development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; Goals of sustainable development, as defined by the UN Millennium Declaration, the Sustainability Transition of the Board on Sustainable Development, and the Great Transition of the Global Scenario Group; Progress indicators for sustainable development. INSET: VALUES UNDERLYING THE MILLENNIUM DECLARATION.

This article focuses on the ecology of global economic power and the role of changing investment practices to promote environmental sustainability. The power of global corporate capital and the power of major cities representing destructive forces was examined and considered as sources of solutions. The seventh goal of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals is to ensure environmental sustainability. Such goal aims to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. It was said that markets are important institutional components in developed and developing economies. They are seen as enabling sustainable development in poorer countries, as they can mobilize forces and capital that greatly surpass foreign aid.

In this paper, the authors elaborate on the policy competences that environmental sustainability professionals need for solving environmental problems as part of sustainable development. The 'multi-actor' policy context in which they operate lends itself to the application of the metaphor of a sports game. The paper goes on to outline the difference between 'spectators', 'players' and their relative roles. In practice, environmental sustainability professionals often switch between both roles during their career, implying that their training should have prepared them for such changes. The authors then elaborate on specific role-related competences and their educational delivery. An important competence for players of the game includes the ability to organise interactive policy-making processes. Spectators should be able to analyse, explain and evaluate the content, process and impact of public policy-making. Such competences can be acquired by teaching students to apply certain key methods and the paper considers the appropriate level of education for each identified aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe problems of fragmented policies and uncoordinated implementation undermine natural resource management in Australia. There have been promising signs of progress through activities such as the National Forest Policy, Council of Australian Government water reforms, National Land and Water Resources Audit, the Murray- Darling Basin initiative and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality to integrate resource policies. There have also been some notable successes at State and local level. But fragmentation endures. This paper provides evidence of the enduring problem of fragmentation and presents a framework to analyse Australia's experience in natural resource management. The analysis reveals the multi-dimensional character of the problems and identifies a diverse set of actions that need to be taken to improve integration in policy and implementation. Particular attention is given to the potential for regional programs to contribute to improved integration and NRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an analysis of the strategies indicated by the U.K. Sustainable Development Commission report. Introduction of 15 headline indicators as the basis for regularly reviewing progress toward sustainability; Recommendations from the SDC report regarding substantial sustainability policy; Challenges associated with developing comprehensive policies and rethinking the economy; Assessment of police and military forces from a sustainability point of view; Identification of different business sectors that the government should establish long-term goals and timetables for change; Implications from the report that the U.K. government must do better by defining ambitious targets and transparent strategies to approach them.

After the end of the Cold War, the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) developed into a highly dynamic area of cross-border cooperation and transnational networking. Three forms of governance beyond the nation state and appropriate case studies are presented here: (1) the Helsinki Convention as an international regime; (2) Baltic 21, the world's first regional Agenda 21, as an international policy network; (3) the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC) as a transnational network. The achievement of sustainable development in the BSR undoubtedly requires a fruitful combination of national governance and these forms of international and transnational governance. In this respect, international policy networks, such as Baltic 21, and transnational networks, such as the UBC, promise to provide new approaches that can complement international and intergovernmental cooperation between nation states. Furthermore, it must also be taken into account that governance in the BSR will soon become embedded in European governance and lead to the Europeanisation of the Baltic Sea Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water companies in England and Wales are responsible for the management of large areas of land. This land is under little pressure for development and is often free from the pollutants associated with conventional agriculture and is therefore a potentially valuable resource for biodiversity conservation. The value of this resource will only be realized if sufficient investment is made in the management of the habitats associated with these sites. This paper reports an exploratory case study based on customers of Southern Water which uses a mixture of questionnaire surveys and focus groups to investigate whether or not consumers are willing to pay higher utility bills to fund such management. In particular, it explores the public's willingness to forgo potential bill reductions in order to fund biodiversity conservation and examines how payment instruments could be designed to maximize and maintain the agreement from consumers. Results suggest that customers are willing to forgo a proportion of a potential bill reduction to pay for biodiversity schemes but are not necessarily willing to face a bill increase for the same public good benefits. Participants in the focus groups suggested that schemes could be made more acceptable to customers by ensuring that the outcomes were both visible and local and that their achievements were well publicized. Similarly, administration of the scheme through a trust fund alleviates some of the concerns of consumers while raising several new ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the potential of ecotourism as a form of environmental education for sustainability. It reviews current concepts of education for sustainability and research on the educational impact of ecotourism, and points to a gap between the aspirations of education for sustainability and the outcomes of current ecotourism programs. The paper further argues that a critical approach to environmental education through ecotourism is the most appropriate form for contemporary concepts of sustainability, and illustrates how this approach can be applied to environmental education using a strategy of critical discourse analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that restructuring the economy for sustainable development requires economists and ecologists to work in tandem. There is a need to develop an eco-economy, one that respects the principles of ecology, one that can be integrated into the ecosystem in a way that will stabilize the relationship between the two, enabling economic progress to continue. Though there are several policy instruments that can be used for restructuring the economy, restructuring the tax system is the key to eliminate crippling economic distortions. Unlike before, natural capital is a scarce resource today. Therefore the goal should be to restructure the fiscal system so that the prices reflect the truth, protecting the economy's natural supports. Fiscal policy should be used to encourage environmentally constructive activities, so as to steer the economy in a sustainable direction.

As the World Summit on Sustainable Development approaches, it is timely to assess our actions on behalf of a more ecologically viable world and the barriers that remain to our realization of this goal. Globalization and sustainable development have emerged as key discourses to evaluate our social and environmental prospects. On the critical issue of limiting trade and economic growth, we find that globalization and sustainable development are not the polar opposites they are frequently depicted to be. Rather, both discourses share a common emphasis on development and efficiency as tools of sustainability. The convergence of the two discourses has placed both in opposition to the arguments of ecological justice. In the evaluation of our performance since UNCED, a pressing task is to bring the insights of ecological justice to bear on efforts to address our interrelated environmental and social conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]