The limitations of economic planning
Various strategies are undertaken by national governments and international institutions, to achieve economic growth in developing countries.
Dams and reservoirs may be built and power generation plants constructed, or tourism infrastructures put in place. But in the process, the
individual and local communities are often forgotten or ignored.
Economic policies and practices and aid agency programmes are intended to help developing countries correct their fiscal or trade imbalances.
But many such programmes have ignored environmental and social considerations. And because of this, they have failed.
Take so-called structural adjustment programmes. These are policies, designed for example by the World Bank or the International Monetary
Fund, to solve economic problems in developing countries. Such a country may be deeply in debt, paying high interest on international loans,
importing more than its exports can pay for, and with a severe budget deficit. A structural adjustment programme might devalue the currency
and lift export restrictions to encourage exports; it might shift resources to the infrastructure to help industry; it might call for a decrease in
public expenditure or a reform of the tax system to benefit the public purse.
Structural adjustment programmes are targeted at the economy. But inevitably and invariably they affect the environment. For example, trade
policy to encourage export in an economy heavily dependent on, say, timber could speed up deforestation. On the other hand, such policies are
not necessarily all bad from a conservation point of view. The reduction of a government subsidy for the use of commercial energy, for
instance, could lead to less waste and less pollution by wealthy urban dwellers.
But the real problem is that these policies have failed to regard conservation concerns as an integral part of adjustment. Adjustment policies that
fail to do this will be unsustainable in the long run, because their economic goals are pursued at the expense of natural resources. And without
healthy natural resources, future economic growth will be jeopardized.
It isn't enough, however, for structural adjustment programmes and similar economic policies to safeguard natural resources. The concept of
sustainable development means economic growth while preserving the environment, but it also means improving the quality of human life.
Many economic and environmental problems are rooted in social and political factors. These factors must also be taken into account if the
quality of life is to improve worldwide.
In many developing countries there exists a huge gap between the very rich (a minority) and the poor (the vast majority). For example, in
non-Amazonian Brazil, 4.5 per cent of the landowners control 81 per cent of the land, and farmers have been driven off it to the Amazon or to
the cities, so aggravating poverty in those places.
Where there is a national budget deficit, the wealthy and powerful may be protected, e.g. by lenient taxation. If this socio-political issue is not
addressed, the burden of reducing the deficit will land on the poor: there will be less money for basic education and health care. And poverty
cannot afford long-term economic or conservation objectives.
This is one aspect of the problem of population growth, which poses an obvious threat to sustainable development. The more people, the greater
the demand on the earth's resources. Population growth is the result of so many complex factors - involving among others economics, religion,
culture, and ethics - that it lies outside the scope of this publication. But the problem illustrates the issues raised earlier of human
interdependence and hard choices. Another child is another mouth to feed. But in many countries, adult children represent a person's only
security in sickness or old age.
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