The concept of ‘Just Sustainability’ incorporates not only environmental sustainability but also a need to strive towards social justice and equity. According to Agyeman sustainability is “the need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, while living within the limits of supporting ecosystems.” (Agyeman et al. 2003 as cited in Agyeman 2005: 43) Both the desire for sustainability and development can be cause for many social justice and human equity issues, but in order to fulfil the idea of ‘Just Sustainability,’ all of these things need to be taken into account. (Agyeman 2005: 43) An example of how social justice and equity needs to be addressed alongside a sustainability plan for the environment is the deforestation of rainforests in Indonesia.
Forty years ago, Indonesia was known among scientists of human ecology as a land with exemplary sustainability in its agriculture and industry (Henley 2008: 273). However, a growing and uneven population distribution, large socio-economic inequalities, and a recent history of corrupt governing have led to severe problems in the management of its natural resources (O’Conner 2004: 320). Primarily, this refers to the management of Indonesian rainforests. Globally, tropical rainforests are like carbon sinks, storing 46% of the world’s living terrestrial carbon. Due to this, deforestation causes approximately 25% of the world’s total carbon emissions (Danielson et al. 2008: 349). Indonesia itself has a rapidly depleting supply of rainforests. In the fifty years from 1950 – 2000, Indonesia lost forty-percent of its rainforests, decreasing from 162 million hectares to just 98 million hectares. Current estimates state that from 1996...
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Governments in these countries need to stop thinking of forests as a renewable resource. The rate at which they are harvesting these areas drives them beyond the boundaries of sustainability. The efforts required by reforestation may not initially be cost effective, but it will result in not only the survivability of the environment, but of the country’s economy. Widespread awareness of these ideas will help fight against the natural human tendency towards instant gratification and short-term goals. Different methods of logging can be utilized to allow the rainforests to survive and regrow naturally and at a sustainable
...ially, economically and environmentally, and this would only happen if we prioritize and give importance on what people can do, as what community-based forest management says “people first and sustainable development will follow. Good governance among countries will trigger the development needed, not just any development but a sustainable one especially for underdeveloped and developing countries.
Many companies have turned to sustainable palm oil, palm oil that is produced on plantations that reuse the land for their agricultural purposes, thus supplying more palm oil without the destruction of natural forests. Some choose to boycott palm oil entirely, but this alternative will not significantly change the demand for palm oil. Vegetable oil is used abundantly and oil palm trees are the quickest producing oil crops, concluding them necessary to satisfy the demand for edible oils. Not only is palm oil versatile for its uses and quick to produce, but it is a major component to the economy in Indonesia and Malaysia. Many people living in these countries struggle with poverty, and agriculture of sustainable palm oil is how a great deal of people support themselves and their families. If the boycott of palm oil were successful, a considerable population of people would be unemployed and
In Indonesia, 8.828 million hectares of forests have been destroyed (see appendix 2). Around fifty acres of forests are removed every minute, not o...
Rainforests once covered 14% of the worlds land surface, however now it only covers a mere 6%. It is estimated that all rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Trees are becoming more needed and used everyday. We need them cut down for many reasons such as paper and timber, while also needing them ‘untouched’ for other reasons like oxygen, we have to ask ourselves, which is more important? At the current rate, most of the rainforests are being cut down for resources like paper and timber, but less importance is being placed on main resources like oxygen.
These days, forests are very important in maintaining biodiversity. It provides lots of oxygen and takes a big role in our life as well. The tropical forests of the earth are nearly immeasurable riches such as they are home for many people, as well as uncountable animal and plant species (National Geographic, n.d.). Furthermore, they contribute to air circulation, maintaining water quality and global climate stability. In spite of providing many advantages, it also has many disadvantages such as people using the trees for furniture and cutting off the trees for making paper. Deforestation is happening because of the paper industry use the trees to produce the paper. Moreover, paper industry in Indonesia has commonly destroyed the environment. The demand for paper consumption has been increasing rapidly day by day. Because of the paper demand is increasing, it also makes many people start to cut off tress for business purposes w which means it could be dangerous for our environment in the future. In this essay, I would like to emphasize and focus on about paper consumption and the impacts on environment in Indonesia.
The study’s methodology was qualitative. While the study recognizes that palm oil plantation increases deforestation and consequently reducing biodiversity, the authors argues that the demand for palm oil up to the year 2020 can be met without any reduction of forest cover through the improvement of yields and conservation of degraded land. In particular, the study notes that while palm oil plantation endangers orangutan’s habitat, the authors suggest that encroachment of orangutan’s habitat could be reduced by up to 30% through the use of sustainable land use initiatives and policies. Overall, the findings of this article suggest that is there is a need to advocate for an environmental sustainable biomass industry in Malaysia in order to protect the natural habitat for
...ent natural forest as well as non-forest formations that provide PNG with major values and benefits. Namely, the landscape yields bountiful benefits sources of financial, environmental, and social benefits and values. These major benefits in turn attract a distinctive group of stakeholders; namely, foreign investors, local government, and environmentalist, each of which view the landscape’s values from utterly different standpoints. The difference in perspective among these different stakeholders brings forwards the urgent need for these groups to adopt more collaboratively rooted managerial effort. This in turn will result in well-voiced dialogues to take place among theses different stakeholders groups. Ultimately, these dialogues will to moderate the gap between these groups as they all move forward towards a prosperous-developed-sustainable Papua New Guinea.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
Although subsistence activities have dominated agriculture-driven deforestation in the tropics to date, large-scale commercial activities are playing an increasingly significant role. In the Amazon, industrial-scale cattle ranching and soybean production for world markets are increasingly important causes of deforestation, and in Indonesia, the conversion of tropical forest to commercial palm tree plantations to produce bio-fuels for export is a major cause of deforestation on Borneo and Sumatra.
Part of the goals of EIA, is to achieve a sustainable development. However, before the role of EIA in sustainable development can be critically assessed, there is need to understand the concept of sustainability. Increasing global environmental problems, which include exploding population levels, climate change, loss of biodiversity and ozone depletion have being important issues forming a key discussion at international conferences. Unequal distribution of development as can be seen in problems like hunger, poverty, illiteracy and ill health are also some key issues. These social, environmental and economic stresses are now known to be interdependent (Lawrence 1997; Morrison-Saunders & Pope 2013). The challenge