ABSTRACT
Introduction: sustainable development or environmental crisis? This chapter explores some important dimensions of environmental protection in Middle America. Underlying the discussion are three key trends that are fundamental in understanding environmental issues in Middle America. The first relates to globalisation and has a series of contradictory outcomes. On the one hand, it will increase pressure on the environments of Middle America for agricultural exports, and on the other it will offer new opportunities with consumer preferences for environmentally friendly products and services, for example organic fruit and vegetables, and lowimpact tourism. A second crucial process is sustainable development with its guiding principle of inter-generational equity (particularly in terms of environmental resources) and its recognition of the symbiosis between socio-economic development and environmental change. Environmental protection and conservation is a third process that plays a key role in discussions of both globalisation and sustainable development. Since the region is so dependent on its natural resource base for production and services, the environment has to be protected and managed alongside longer-term objectives of social development and equity, and the promotion of alternative economic activities.
