ABSTRACT
The terms 'sustainable development' and 'sustainable growth' have become very familiar while their meanings have remained vague. The Brundtland Commission Report has made a great contribution by emphasizing the importance of sustainable development and in effect forcing it to the top of the agenda of the United Nations and the multilateral development banks. For the management of renewable resources there are two obvious principles of sustainable development. First that harvest rates should equal regeneration rates. Second that waste emission rates should equal the natural assimilative capacities of the ecosystems into which the wastes are emitted. Sustainable development requires that natural capital be maintained intact, and the rules given above this for renewable natural capital. Quantitative growth in populations of both people and commodities must ultimately end, but qualitative improvement can continue in a regime of sustainable development.
