Practices such as agroforestry, which can increase farmer incomes and therefore provide an incentive for having more trees, are key examples of how economic development can become more sustainable.
This is just one of many views expressed by leading thinkers at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Fair Ideas conference in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The Independent this week reported on a summary of what government ministers, business leaders, senior scientists and environmentalists, UN agency staff and representatives of community organisations and indigenous peoples said at the conference.
Among the main messages to emerge is that transforming to a green economy does not act as an anti-competitive brake on development. Rather, it lifts people out of poverty through better use of the natural resources and associated local knowledge that are the main assets of the poor.
The report emphasizes the need for private and public sectors to be equal players; they must enable communities to be involved in decisions and ensure adequate levels of benefit sharing, transparency and accountability.
IIED’s director Camilla Toulmin said of the conference: "Participants were able to show that sustainable development is not out of reach, but that solutions exist. The energy and ambition to take this agenda forward exists too, among those governments and businesses that understand that maintaining the status quo is not an option. Where they lead, others will follow or be left behind.”
“Initially we protected national parks and wildlife regions, with a ‘don’t take, don’t touch’ approach, but this was unsustainable,” said René Castro, Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica. “And so we shifted from full protection to promoting multiple uses — protection of forest cover is now combined with agroforestry to provide farmers with an extra income to incentivise having more trees.”
Read the full story in the Independent: Green economy is not about limiting growth - it is about enabling growth
Read more about Fair ideas: sharing solutions for a sustainable planet
