| Living sustainably depends on accepting a duty to seek
harmony with other people and with nature. The guiding rules are that people must share
with each other and care for the Earth. Humanity must take no more from nature than nature
can replenish. This in turn means adopting life-styles and development paths that respect
and work within nature's limits. It can be done without rejecting the many benefits that
modern technology has brought, provided that technology also works within those limits.
This Strategy is about a new approach to the future, not a return to the past. The principles of a sustainable society are interrelated and mutually
supporting. Of those listed below, the first is the founding principle providing the
ethical base for the others. The next four define the criteria that should be met, and the
last four directions to be taken in working towards a sustainable society at the
individual, local, national and international levels. The principles are:
1. Respect and care for the community of life.
This principle reflects the duty of care for other people and other
forms of life, now and in the future. It is an ethical principle. It means that
development should not be at the expense of other groups or later generations. We should
aim to share fairly the benefits and costs of resource use and environmental conservation
among different communities and interest groups, among people who are poor and those who
are affluent, and between our generation and those who will come after us.
All life on earth is part of one great interdependent system, which
influences and depends on the non-living components of the planet - rocks, soils, waters
and air. Disturbing one part of this biosphere can affect the whole. Just as human
societies are interdependent and future generations are affected by our present actions,
so the world of nature is increasingly dominated by our behavior. It is a matter of ethics
as well as practicality to manage development so that it does not threaten the survival of
other species or eliminate their habitats. While our survival depends on the use of other
species, we need not and should not use them cruelly or wastefully.
2. Improve the quality of human life.
The real aim of development is to improve the quality of human life.
It is a process that enables human beings to realize their potential, build
self-confidence and lead lives of dignity and fulfillment. Economic growth is an important
component of development, but it cannot be a goal in itself, nor can it go on
indefinitely. Although people differ in the goals that they would set for development,
some are virtually universal. These include a long and healthy life, education, access to
the resources needed for a decent standard of living, political freedom, guaranteed human
rights, and freedom from violence. Development is real only if it makes our lives better
in all these respects.
3. Conserve the Earth's vitality and diversity.
Conservation-based development needs to include deliberate action to
protect the structure, functions and diversity of the world's natural systems, on which
our species utterly depends. This requires us to:
Conserve life-support systems. These are the ecological processes
that keep the planet fit for life. They share climate, cleanse air and water, regulate
water flow, recycle essential elements, create and regenerate soil, and enable ecosystems
to renew themselves;
Conserve biodiversity. This includes not only all species of plants,
animals and other organisms, but also the range of genetic stocks within each species, and
the variety of ecosystems;
Ensure that uses of renewable resources are sustainable. Renewable
resources include soil, wild and domesticated organisms, forests, rangelands, cultivated
land, and the marine and freshwater ecosystems that support fisheries. A use is
sustainable if it is within the resource's capacity for renewal.
4. Minimize the depletion of non-renewable resources.
Minerals, oil, gas and coal are effectively non-renewable. Unlike
plants, fish or soil, they cannot be used sustainably. However, their "life" can
be extended, for example, by recycling, by using less of a resource to make a particular
product, or by switching to renewable substitutes where possible. Widespread adoption of
such practices is essential if the Earth is to sustain billions more people in future, and
give everyone life of decent quality.
5. Keep within the earth's carrying capacity.
Precise definition is difficult, but there are finite limits to the
"carrying capacity" of the Earth's ecosystems - to the impacts that they and the
biosphere as a whole can withstand without dangerous deterioration. The limits vary from
region to region, and the impacts depend on how many people there are and how much food,
water, energy and raw materials each uses and wastes. A few people consuming a lot can
cause as much damage as a lot of people consuming a little. Policies that bring human
numbers and life-styles into balance with nature's capacity must be developed alongside
technologies that enhance that capacity by careful management.
6. Change personal attitudes and practices.
To adopt the ethic for living sustainably, people must re-examine
their values and later their behavior. Society must promote values that support the new
ethnic and discourage those that are incompatible with a sustainable way of life.
Information must be disseminated through formal and informal educational systems so that
the polices and actions needed for the survival and well-being of the world's societies
can be explained and understood.
7. Enable communities to care for their own environments.
Most of the creative and productive activities of individuals or
groups take place in communities. Communities and citizens' groups provide the most
readily accessible means for people to take socially valuable action as well as to express
their concerns. Properly mandated, empowered and informed, communities can contribute to
decisions that affect them and play an indispensable part in creating a securely-based
sustainable society.
8. Provide a national framework for integrating development and
conservation.
All societies need a foundation of information and knowledge, a
framework of law and institutions, and consistent economic and social policies if they are
to advance in a rational way. A national programme for achieving sustainability should
involve all interests, and seek to identify and prevent problems before they arise. It
must be adaptive, continually redirecting its course in response to experience and to new
needs. National measures should:
 | treat each region as an integrated system, taking account of the
interactions among land, air, water, organisms and human activities; |
| recognize that each system influences and is influenced by larger and
smaller systems - whether ecological, economic, social or political; |
| consider people as the central element in the system, evaluating the
social, economic, technical and political factors that affect how they use natural
resources; |
| relate economic policy to environmental carrying capacity; |
| increase the benefits obtained from each stock of resources |
| promote technologies that use resources more efficiently |
| ensure that resource users pay the full social costs of the benefits
they enjoy. |
9. Create a global alliance.
No nation today is self-sufficient. If we are to achieve global
sustainability, a firm alliance must be established among all countries. The levels of
development in the world are unequal, and the lower-income countries must be helped to
develop sustainably and protect their environments. Global and shared resources,
especially the atmosphere, oceans and shared ecosystems, can be managed only on the basis
of common purpose and resolve. The ethic of care applies at the international as well as
the national and individual levels. All nations stand to gain from worldwide
sustainability and are threatened if we fail to attain it.
Source: IUCN, UNEP, and WWF. Caring for the Earth: A strategy for
sustainable living. Gland, Switzerland, 1991. http://iisd1.iisd.ca/sd/principle.asp?pid=57&display= |