The Importance Of Sustainable Development

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The discourse of sustainable development has deepened the consideration of rights through its attention to the rights of future generations and present especially for socially marginalized people. It also significantly puts their focus on nonhuman dimensions of the natural world by acknowledging the value and capacity. Sustainable development has proposed the issues in various aspects of society and universe as a whole and aims to create sustainable lifestyle in long term. In this paper, I will demonstrate why it is difficult to achieve sustainable development by using the example of village of Andavadoaka which successfully implemented sustainable practice. Secondly, it will demonstrate under what circumstances sustainable development calls for ‘environmental justice’ that led to transformation of development policy and practice. First of all, it is important to begin by elaborating on the definition of sustainable development. The most recognized definition that has been widely used is proposed at the Brundtland Commission; it is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (United Nations, WCED 1987). It requires for humans to establish a position to live in harmony with the rest of the planet while being aware of its limitation and capacity. Further, Mohan Munasinghe divided the development into three aspects that contributes to approach sustainable development more precisely; economic, ecological and socio-cultural aspects (cited in Rogers, Jalal and Boyd 2008). This multiple dimensions of development make it difficult to achieve sustainable development that will be discussed further below. It is difficult to achieve sustainable dev... ... middle of paper ... ...f socio-economic disadvantage can become a form of coercion and appear as procedural unfairness (cited in Parkins & DeLay 2011). As it can be seen in the example, environmental justice is called when the development does not satisfy the equalities discussed above and threaten one’s healthy life in any forms. In conclusion, it is hard to achieve sustainable development because it has various dimensions to fulfill their interests in sustainable fashion that suits for natural and socially constructed environment. Environmental justice is claimed when equities of stakeholders and nonhuman beings including future generation are not concerned in the process of development. Essentially, sustainable development cannot be achieved just by altering patterns of practice in relation to the environment, but it requires changing the brooder systems that shape human behavior.

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