ABSTRACT
While ‘sustainable development’ is the acknowledged subject of much recent development thinking (see e.g. World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987; Repetto, 1986; Redclift, 1987; Turner, 1988; Stockholm Group, 1988), little headway appears to have been made in terms of a rigorous definition of the concept. Therefore, not surprisingly, efforts to ‘operationalize’ sustainable development and to show how it can be integrated into practical decision-making have been few and generally unpersuasive. 1 The use of the term ‘development’, rather than ‘economic growth’, implies acceptance of the limitations of the use of measures such as gross national product (GNP) to measure the well-being of nations. Instead development embraces wider concerns of the quality of life–educational attainment, nutritional status, access to basic freedoms and spiritual welfare. The emphasis on sustainability suggests that what is needed is a policy effort aimed at making these developmental achievements last well into the future. By implication, some at least of past development efforts have achieved only short-lived gains.
