Study on Environment and Sustainable Development

in the Islamic Countries (Sustainable Development

from an Islamic Perspective)

Introduction

In the Islamic region, there is a marked rise in environmental problems. Their origins are multiple.

- Some problems are related to need, poverty and underdevelopment in general as well as to the excessive tapping of resources to meet basic energy and food needs. Thus, forests, a fundamental source for numerous communities, suffer from the problems of over-consumption, illegal logging in addition to the failure of legislation to adjust to social conditions…etc.  Moreover, their profitability is less and less certain. The solution of these problems is part of the global action aimed at improving living standards, education and social promotion.

- Some problems are related to disorders in production, consumption or space management, and are characterised by consumption patterns that ignore the ecological cost of products.

+ Thus, extending agricultural areas cannot be considered to be infinite. The recent large-scale extensions have often been undertaken on peripheral, thus more fragile land.

+ The particularly fragile coastal zone is sensitive and in great demand; it endures numerous aggressions by various forms of pollution. Their primary origin lies in the excessive concentration of demographic and economic activities along the seaboard. It is about a fundamental problem of land planning and activity distribution. In fact, the majority of population, most big cities and industries, and the major part of tourism capacity are concentrated on the coastline.

- Damages are due to the removal of traditional control institutions while failing to set up sufficiently efficient modern institutions, based on the participation and involvement of citizens in decision-making with respect to projects of resource exploitation or regional planning. Cases in point include mountainous grazing lands in the Maghreb and water in oasis areas, traditonally managed in a context of collective efforts. In these harsh milieus, social organisation aims at the efficient management of resources which tend to be scarce while the population continues to grow. Such a situation calls for a mechanism of regulation, monitoring and protection as well as a set of laws with a view to promoting a more econmical use of resources and combatting the occupation and excessive use of endangered sites.

- Deficiency in technology control and insufficient socio-sanitary equipment are responsible for nuisance that is harmful to the comfort and health of citizens. Population represents a serious threat to both surface and underground water resources. A large part of this population ends up reaching the coastal zone. Demographic growth, rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and technology transformations in agriculture generate polluting wastes that cause the quality of water to deteriorate. The absence of cleaning-up equipment and, often, even the lack of sanitation infrastructure account for the emergence of these serious cases of unhealthy environment, which threaten population health and the overall quality of milieu.

The deterioration of air quality and its impact on population health are major environmental problems in urban areas. It is due to heavy road traffic and the pronounced ageing of car fleets.  Fixed sources include pollutant industrial installations considering the absence of emission control and the use of high sulphur-content fuels (fuel oil and charcoal).

- Other forms of deterioration are due to the absence of a feeling of identification of citizens with a given space or resource. Such is the case for the behaviour of newly urbanised rural emigrants towards the neighbourhoods where they live, particularly those which constitute real heritage values (old medinas, for instance).

- Other problems are simply due to lack of information and the absence of sensitisation campaigns that are sufficiently well conducted to cover the majority of citizens and convince the latter of the need to change behaviour towards resources, public property and buildings…

The environment is for that reason at the same time a problem of education, development, growth models and information. For all these problems, the solution consists in reforming legislation and upgrading management methods and institutions; that is, making efforts to clean up the situation by discarding any disproportionate and inequitable growth system, often responsible for social tension as well as ecological damages.

In the Muslim world, particularities related to the environment/ sustainable development problematic are of two types:

- The Muslim religion tackles this problematic in its fundamental teachings which one may consider to be pioneering in this regard.

- The Muslim world is mostly composed of developing countries in search of original but efficient ways of ensuring sustainable development. Drawing inspiration from the teachings and recommendations contained in holy texts offers an opportunity in this context.

I. World Prospects and Islamic Foundations

1. Global Socio-economic Prospects

The third millennium is henceforth marked by some great trends:

- The socio-economic system is threatened by serious imbalances in productivity and the distribution of wealth and services. A large part of humanity, including most Islamic countries in particular, lives in poverty. Within countries, the gap widens between those who benefit from growth and those who do not. This large gap in terms of well-being, access to resources and health threatens the stability of human milieus and the global environment.

- Planetary changes are more and more pronounced; but the rapid technology revolution and political options that generate social and environmental gains have failed to close the divide created by demographic growth and poverty even though the communication revolution and the free movement of information appear to erase divisions in the world.

Accordingly, the globalisation process, at the origin of a manifest social evolution, has not yet been directed against the major imbalances that divide the world.  Economic, social and environmental challenges do not allow imagining a sustainable future for the planet and human society.

Since 1950, the world economy has more than quadrupled and continues to grow at a rate of 4% per year despite the Asian crisis. The annual average income is higher than $5,000 per capita; that is, 2.6 times that of 1950.  However, more than 1,300 million inhabitants live with an income that is lower than $1 per day ($365 a year).  Moreover, developed countries host only 1/5 of the world population while they consume 60% of energy. One quarter of the world population lives in severe poverty.  Whereas the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) posted an annual growth rate of 1.17% between 1975 and 1995, the rate was -0.2% in Africa, 3% in eastern Asia and - 2.9% in the Arabian Peninsula (that is one GDP per capita, falling from $6,500 in 1975 to $3,800 in 1995).

In countries of the North, consumption and discharges are massive and excessive, triggering large-scale damages whereas proximity pollution control is increasingly improved. The environmental aspect is better understood thanks to technological progress, breakthroughs in control and legislation, but even more so because of efforts made by the media and civil society, denouncing projects that could bring on negative impacts on the environment and health.  There remains the problem of impacts that are still unrecognised or deliberately hidden from the public, and that one discovers only after they have given rise to serious damages (animal-based feed, for example).

In developing countries, poverty and demographic growth lead to a more and more pronounced degradation of natural resources. Alternatives to this excessive tapping are hard to find. In fact, one-third of the world population lives directly on natural resources.  The latter's deterioration lowers the standard of living of these populations as well as their development prospects. In these countries, uncontrolled urbanisation and industrialisation generate high pollution levels, affecting the immediate environment, populations' living environments and, consequently, their health. The state of poverty does not help mitigate the impacts of nuisance made to this defective living environment, which also affects health to the same extent.

Future prospects are far from being reassuring.  World GDP, food needs as well as water and energy use being on the increase, inequities will only worsen, the consequent hunger, diseases and mortality even gaining in magnitude in certain regions of the world.  Environmental stress will, however, become more significant due to global change or the pollution of the immediate environment.  In any event, the impact will be more serious on poor countries and vulnerable populations.

Yet, voluntary political intervention can correct these trends by influencing consumption choices and development models. Human values that are more in relation with universal ethics and whose observance is recommended by Islam can help control individual behaviour as much as social choices, thus leading to the correction of current evolutionary trends.

The forces that guide the environmental evolution are as follows

a- Demography

Growth refers to:

- The need for additional resources to meet the basic needs of populations;

- Additional efforts to absorb added wastes. 

The fall in mortality since the beginning of the century responds to a certain improvement of health conditions. But other indicators allow differentiating between advanced and developing countries (child mortality, mortality at birth, incidence of infant diarrhoea, etc.). The decline in fertility is correlated with progress in income levels and health improvement. Yet, this progress cannot be guaranteed without economic growth as well as the improvement of education and social security systems.

Urbanisation is one of the fundamental demographic changes. The number of city dwellers went up from 750 millions in 1950 to more than 2,500 today while there is a forecast of 500 millions by the year 2025. Ninety percent of this growth were reached in developing countries with all the ensuing environmental and health problems.

b- Economy

Developing countries are experiencing an ascending curve of production (as a result of the use of fertilisers in agriculture, industrialisation, the building of urban centres, transport and distribution networks) and pollution while the environment is at times considered to be a luxury. Moreover, though economic transformations and relocations favour growth, they also trigger nuisance in countries where investments in polluting industries are made.

Technological innovation due to the rise in the number of engineers and scientists and to progress in communication within the scientific community improves the efficiency of the processes of production, energy and building materials. Recycling is increasingly used. Product substitutes bring about a zero-growth development of necessary construction materials. But of all developing countries, only certain Asian countries are efficient in terms of energy and pollution control.

Concerning transport, mobility and leisure have dictated drastic changes including an increase in the number of vehicles (from 40 millions in 1945 to 680 millions in 2000).  Means of transport use one-fourth of energy and half of the oil produced.  Thus, the sector largely contributes to atmospheric pollution.  The growing number of vehicles surpasses technical improvements that allow cutting unit consumption. Health effects added to those of physical injury are highly costly for society.

c- Politics

Both under colonisation and in the postcolonial era, economic objectives took precedence over social and environmental concerns. Today, liberalisation is a generalised process in which environmental and health costs are often excluded from the decision-making process.  With globalisation, governments, supposed to safeguard public property, are more and more relieved of this power and risk losing such an influence to the benefit of multinational corporations for which immediate profit is the primary objective.

Fortunately, various organisations attach additional value to the social and environmental dimension or even identify it as a priority.  Certain equilibrium is underway. In developing countries, co-ordination as well as governance and control structures remain to be established with a view to safeguarding public property and population well-being.  To achieve this goal, funds should be made available.  Developed countries were able to do it thanks to the transfer of 20% to 45% of GDP to governments as tax destined to improve the quality of life.

Globalisation has some important environmental and health dimensions embodied in such phenomena as ozone depletion, climate change, increasing pollution and the proliferation of disruptive organisms. The growth of private direct foreign investments ($25,000 millions) at the expense of development aid (less than $50,000 millions) accounts for the lower capacity of the public sector to provide public property and offer to bear environment-related costs. Yet, these direct investments made by corporations responsible for the globalisation of technology do not cover environmental and health costs.

Thus, environmental costs and protection expenses are more and more viewed as limiting to free trade whereas the challenge is that liberalisation be accompanied by a real improvement of well-being and the quality of life.

Debt accumulated by countries of the South comes to complicate the situation. Worsening terms of trade make debt servicing a more difficult undertaking while structural adjustment policies, by reducing public expenses, cause the environment to become an issue of very little concern.

Among political choices, one may also consider that of peace which has become a prerequisite for environmental stability and population well-being.  In addition to the brutal loss of human lives, war and insecurity cause production systems to collapse, affect the environment through large-scale accidental pollution and forms of excessive tapping of resources, and impair health as a result of the use of arms with still unknown effects.

d- Values and Lifestyles

Consumption patterns and lifestyles tend to be homogeneous at the expense of local cultures.  These new habits generate high quantities of wastes and increase the need for resources (i.e. water and energy).  Streamlined consumption and, above all, the revival of local farming based on consumption ethics as well as human and environmental respect constitute a necessary objective.  Reference to the Islamic culture can represent a unique opportunity to be taken by all Muslim societies.

e- Laws, Institutions and Economic Tools

- The concept of development in the fifties and sixties was based on the idea that wealth would inevitably lead to the improvement of well-being.  Since then, human development has become at the heart of development, and measurable criteria such as life expectancy, illiteracy and per capita GDP have come into existence. Since 1992, development has been perceived as a complex process involving aspects pertaining to the environment and social culture.

- General measurement tools, integrating environmental, economic, social and health indicators, are suggested to assess new products introduced in the market and compare them with common products.

- Informing and sensitising consumers to opt for more durable goods and services by drawing their attention to the associated environmental and health costs (offer special prices for ecological products).

Regulation is the key instrument of the environmental policy.  Since 1990, the approach has become integrated with the setting of norms and standards.  But this effort requires follow-ups and inspections besides constraint agencies, which means rapidly increasing expenses. In developing countries, adequate bills are proposed late and, above all, are not implemented. Regulatory capabilities are limited.  In countries of the North, the environmental policy is more and more integrated into the sphere of sustainable development, especially by virtue of the strong involvement of civil society.

During the last three decades, environmental laws and institutions have considerably developed in most countries.  Governance and control policies supported by direct regulation represent the most adequate instrument. Yet, the efficacy of these policies depends on development methods, the level of co-ordination among institutions and the degree of political integration because, often, these policies are organised by sector though the planning of projects and impact assessment studies have become the rule everywhere.

A number of regions have had their institutions strengthened. But deregulation is underway in others with the tendency to make more use of economic instruments and give greater prominence to private initiatives. This tendency is reinforced by the realisation of the complexity of regulation and high costs involved in the control function.

Multilateral agreements create instruments that are strong enough to tackle environmental problems. Water-related agreements concluded within the framework of great basins and universal conventions on climate change and biodiversity are cases in point.

2. Globalisation and Islamic Identity

Globalisation imposes itself on everybody. Its positive aspects should be identified and benefited from to serve human development. Thus, an appropriate approach should be adopted to control it so as to fully participate in the building of the human civilisation while drawing on Islamic authenticity and identity.

Such an enterprise requires that our economic, social and political system be competitive as a result of sustained efforts with a view to developing and modernising the economy, society and culture.

Yet, according to a study on Globalisation and Cultural Life in the Islamic World by Dr. A.D. al-Twijri (2001), only 15% of the world population produce most modern technological inventions.  The rest of the population, including that of the Muslim world, is made up of a segment that is able to have access to these inventions and another that lacks such access.

Half the world population lives in an uncertain economic and social situation:

- An excessive demographic growth:  90% of world growth takes place within the borders of developing countries, including those of the Islamic world.

- One third of the population is below the poverty threshold.

- Child mortality and malnutrition affect a great number of developing countries.

- The aftermaths of war and insecurity, including violence and population displacement.

- The political commitment of developing countries as part of structural adjustment programmes, thus turning their backs to the objective of social equity.

Only reforms that go in the direction of helping Islamic countries take off can allow overcoming the state of underdevelopment and gaining access to progress.

That requires “setting Islamic action in motion at all levels in order to reinforce Islamic solidarity and make of it the mainspring of cooperation among the members of the Islamic community in all fields, the objective being to underpin overall development, raise the standard of living through combating injustice, poverty, ignorance and diseases, and cause the sense of civic responsibility to prevail.”

In the beginning of the current millennium, a new world order, whose predominant feature will be the globalisation of phenomena and their interconnections, is being established.

This new order of globalisation does not escape from the threat of the potential impacts of the system in force and its evolutionary tendencies on human life, including the persistence of poverty, starvation and illiteracy. This feeling of insecurity is more and more accompanied by awareness of the interdependence among social and economic development, resource management and environmental protection.

In fact, such awareness should be accompanied by a real understanding of these interrelations among scientific knowledge, environmental action and population well-being.

From the current situation of globalisation and complex interrelations, a new perspective comes to light. Man becomes at the heart of the world policy, the fundamental subject of research and decision-makers’ centre of interest.  What relates to purely material problems is more and more looked at from the perspective of its impacts and effects on man. The discourse of the current system rests on these principles though, in practice, such a discourse is far from being a universal principle applicable to all.  In practice, a North-South gap widens, worsens and becomes more complex as a result of manifest social imbalances. But if one refers to the Islamic heritage, it emerges that this principle which consists in founding the whole evolutionary thrust on Man, his action and intelligence constitutes one of the prime foundations of Muslim thought.

3. Islamic Foundations

The teachings of the Islamic faith had very early considered the complex problematic of development and action undertaken by man in this respect.

Indeed, the principles of the Islamic faith are based on the global and profound view that man should deal with his environment as a public resource that should be protected to safeguard the continuity of the world and mankind on earth.  This environment is not perceived only from a spatial perspective; it is also considered in its temporal dimension since man is invited to analyse the conception of the universe and go back in time to understand its genesis.

Man should lead his short life in perfect harmony with ecosystems, regarded as a unique resource for man, and benefit from resources while reflecting on the diversity and complexity of creatures, which constitutes the basis of faith in God and His creating power.

The Islamic region has laid the foundations of a just and balanced system.  According to the holy texts, man should structure his social life in accordance with Quranic morality and in particular “order what is convenient and repress the blameworthy.”  This objective is to be reached through collective efforts and mutual aid for the good of all.

The Universe was created by God to serve humans within the framework of respect for life, man and all the other living creatures.  God honoured man by conferring on him the faculty to create, build and innovate in order to adapt to problems encountered (natural constraints) in addition to farsightedness that allows planning for the future.

A Muslim believer is mindful of the fact that he is part of a group and that his fate is linked to that of the group.  Responsibility is therefore collective because everyone should seek to improve and work with the others to keep action in the right direction.

From this perspective, it is recommended to think and use reason to bring about the evolution of the social and natural environment

God created everything in this world according to well-defined norms. Only these wanted standards are able to ensure both the durability and good functioning of these resources so that every element plays fully and entirely its role with infinite precision. All living creatures are part of a cycle determined by the Creator for a role that only God knows - but which we are invited to try to understand - and that serves as its function since no creator is redundant, even those that seem deleterious at first sight.

Accordingly, any man-induced disruption in these perfect systems will have an impact on ecosystems as a whole, through often-unanticipated interactions. These impacts will affect the environment, resources tapped by man, the latter's own living environment and, more directly, human well-being.

Islam, therefore, includes among its principles set out in the Holy Book and the Sunna the obligation of man to safeguard the environment, achieve optimal resource management, disturb ecosystems the least possible and, in the process, protect himself against any direct or indirect effect related to incurred disruptions so as to live in an adequate and healthy environment.

Hence, accordingly, Islam insists, in everyday practice, on hygiene and the cleanness of the body, dress, abode and the living environment.

Ablution, directly linked to prayer, one of the five pillars of Islam, and performed several times a day using safe water has more than an implication.

- First of all, it presupposes access to good-quality and safe water, coming from a clean environment. This necessary pureness of ablution water implies therefore prohibition to discharge dirty water or solid wastes directly in watercourses or the immediate upstream water source that feeds running water or the water table.  Pollution generated by man and his activities is thus targeted, whether the discharge is individual or grouped (urban sewers).  The purification of liquid wastes and discharge control is thus mandatory if the pure quality of ablution water is to be preserved.

- It also implies, considering its daily repetitive use, bodily hygiene and the cleanness of dress, which are necessary for the prevention of infections in an environment where man is inevitably attacked by a multitude of organisms and vectors detrimental to health.

Prayer is not acceptable but in clean places, which implies cleaning the surrounding areas by avoiding waste accumulation; that is, the adoption of a civic and respectful behaviour.

But more generally, one can find among the fundamental principles that the Islamic faith inculcates in its followers the primacy of prevention over cure. It means that Muslims are expected to safeguard their environment against any aggression liable to bring about direct or indirect adverse effects. The assessment of impacts on the environment and society springs from this principle. The other principle that should be remembered is that all that has a deleterious effect should be considered as such and, thus, prohibited.

It emerges from the foregoing that Islamic morality, both in its fundamental principles and the practices that it seeks to inculcate, strongly insists on the links and interrelations that bind them together.

II. Environment and Sustainable Development:

General Principles

Awareness of the Environment-Sustainable Development dimension dates back to the 1970s with:

- The Stockholm Conference in 1972.

- The Bruntdland Report: It refers to the report of the World Commission on the environment and development, entitled "Our Future for All."  It has introduced the notion of sustainable development.

- Agenda 21: Action plan for the 21st century, adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992 and aimed at establishing the concept of sustainable development.

- The World Conference for Science in 1999.

These stages show that concerns related to the environment and sustainable development are intertwined. The planning principles and processes flowing from Agenda 21 reveal remarkable integration.

1. Growth Models, Environment and Sustainable Development

The world is experiencing environmental problems that represent growing threats due to overpopulation and the unbridled expansion of industrialisation in both developed and developing countries. These environmental problems affect milieus, the availability of resources, and human health due to pollution, ecosystem alteration and the extension of the ozone layer hole. 

The international community has been mindful of the need for sensitisation and information since the Stockholm Conference held in 1972. A number of moves have followed and confirmed this observation with the support of several organisations and agencies. In 1999, the World Conference for Science underlined the need for a pact between Science and Society with a view to a sustainable and sound future.

The first formulated requirement aims at preventing human exposure to any environmental or hygienic risk factor through a basic change in environmental behaviour. The second requirement, to be met concurrently, consists in a more direct involvement of decision-makers in this regard.

Thus, a new perspective comprising sensitisation, capacity building and sustainable action should become firmly established in the minds of decision-makers and politicians who should be able to both prevent the negative repercussions of their choices and react positively to correct unexpected or uncontrollable effects.

Increasingly, the state of our environment is dictated by the economic activities and human installations. The impact has become so strong that it is in process of changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere and, eventually, meteorological dynamics, thus triggering global changes whose repercussions are sometimes unexpected. As for the quality of milieus and the diversity of ecosystems, artificialisation has already reached a highly advanced level with, undoubtedly, considerable degradation as well as certain improvements relating to the quality of life.

It is clear that the current growth model, around the globe, does not lead to sustainable development. Globally, macro-ecological equilibriums are upset, and the efforts and willingness to restore them are lacking though discourse seems to express it. Even when economic success is real, the social and ecological impacts are considerable on various fronts (Masood, 1998). When economic success is less real, problems grow in number, including the risks of social implosion, health hazards and the risks of irreparable ecological disasters.

Development in both countries of the North and the South gives rise to nuisance that is harmful to the countries themselves and, more generally, to the marine environment and the atmosphere of the earth.  Development prospects and sectoral strategies have a fundamental impact on the environment and on the future availability of resources and the quality of life. Thereupon, development options should be mindful of the ecological component which is to be perceived more and more as a foundation and source of support for development rather than an obstacle to development.

If environmental prospects are put in a global context, namely that of industrialised and developing countries, a marked opposition emerges:

- On the one hand, there are well-equipped industrialised countries where environmental problems reflect this advanced economic state, with, in particular, high levels of gas emissions, affecting the planet as a whole, atmospheric deterioration in urban centres, owing to industrial development and the primacy of individual transport, extreme space artificialisation, and various forms of nuisance linked to urban expansion and the marginalization of rural areas turned chiefly into leisure spaces.  As a result, these countries constitute a source of massive pollution that has a global impact on the earth system. Nevertheless, locally, milieu control is more advanced and the environment healthier, at least in appearance (hygiene of aquatic milieu, efforts to improve health conditions).  However, there remains a number of unknown factors and hidden information (e.g. pernicious diseases due to the environment or bad development, new health problems linked to technological choices due to obsession with productivity, in the food industry among others…etc).

- On the other hand, there are under-industrialised and under-equipped developing countries where environmental problems are, on the one hand, related to poverty and need and result in the excessive tapping of resources, which causes land deterioration, and on the other hand problems due to malfunctioning production, consumption and space-management systems in the absence of adequate equipment and effective management institutions. These countries produce low levels of pollution on a global scale and affect only very secondarily planetary systems. Yet, the living environment is unhealthy and inadequate while pollution is directly visible and has an immediate impact on health (for example, water-borne diseases).

Within these developing countries with limited means and in the absence of sufficient material resources, sustainable development thus means:

- First of all, the need to favour human resources and inventiveness as a key factor from the conception to the application of solutions rather than weakly controlled technology.

- Then, giving prominence to substitute recipes that propose solutions at a lower cost rather than projects that require high financial commitments.

Economic development and improving the standard of living are necessary conditions to guarantee an effective environmental protection. Thus, opening up to the world as a promise full of hope for development should be understood as an opportunity for the environment.

In effect, without additional financial resources, countries of the South cannot put the environment high on the list of their concerns.  Moreover, without technological assistance as well as the support for and command of technology, ecology will only fall into neglect.

International and regional cooperation is therefore indispensable to safeguard ecosystems as well as establish and maintain healthy milieu conditions and a satisfactory quality of life.

International conventions on the environment define shared responsibilities with respect to changes in global climatic systems, biodiversity deterioration and desertification. The countries of the South have chosen to adhere to these conventions to show their willingness to cooperate with a view to reducing the global processes of degradation. They are expecting in return technological and financial support for the adoption of less polluting energy and industrial practices.

The current world is witnessing two opposed tendencies: Free trade in goods and services and globalisation on the one hand, and the emergence of forms of cultural particularism and calls for safeguarding the environment and heritage, in its broadest sense, on the other. Moreover, the gap between a developed and rich world and a set of marginalized and impoverished regions and social segments causes any idea of achieving real development to seem deceptive as long as the current conditions that characterise economic systems, fundamental choices, behaviour and the frame of mind remain unchanged.

That leads to the question of whether the current world economic system, based on free trade, lowering barriers to the movement of goods and services, the excessively powerful multinational corporations and globalisation, and which arouses apprehension for the local economies of countries of the South and creates social situations of marginalization, is also a system with tremendous environmental and cultural costs and impacts.

Even in countries of the North, there is a general belief that globalisation, despite the economic growth it generates, involves a series of social and environmental costs. Yet, we always fall back on the assurance that the benefits sought outweigh the negative impacts.  For instance, certain economic theorists hold that part of the gains drawn from economic expansion will suffice to reduce pollution levels. That is already the case for proximity pollution generated by cities and industries (pollution of large watercourses in Europe, for example), but fails to consider unexpected accidents and, above all, global pollution (emissions into the atmosphere), which continues to threaten the world’s major equilibriums.

For countries of the South, globalisation is at the origin of problems that are far more difficult.  The wish to benefit from foreign investment competes with the fear of the economic impacts on small local enterprises. At the same time, accompanying growth models are never in favour of solving the problem of unemployment. Globalisation is also perceived to have cultural impacts since it also constitutes a free market of Ideas. Finally, it has a serious environmental cost:

- First of all, multinational corporations in their pursuit of higher profits will seek to establish a presence, above all, where environmental norms are the least restrictive for the same reason that they prefer the weakest salary requirements.

- Moreover, countries that receive investments can no longer channel them towards sectors that they are in need of or turn them away from sectors that they deem harmful to their environment.

- Furthermore, certain WTO rules conflict with health policies and the United Nations conventions on the environment. Thus, it has become impossible to deny a product that is deemed harmful entry into national markets (for example, genetically modified products produced by the US as soon as they are certified healthy by the control services of the exporting country). Moreover, the convention on biodiversity stipulates that countries have the possibility to regulate access to their genetic resources by granting them, for instance, the right to process their natural products - medicine and cosmetics among others - and to benefit equitably from their transformation whereas WTO rules do not recognise the contribution of local dealers to the search for products and suggestion of pharmaceutical formulas.

The current wealth of the world is without precedent since the world GDP increased 7 times over in 20 years, per capita income 3 times, and the consumption of goods and services 2 times. However, inequalities worsened among countries, regions within countries, and social classes in such a way that disparities have become really inhuman. Thus, rural dwellers who represent the two-thirds of the world population benefit only from one fourth of services offered. These disparities tend to become more pronounced while poverty now hits 90% of the world population (Spire, 1999).

The development advocated today – with beneficiary and invading multinational corporations, States that get rid of both their economic assets (often the most profitable ones) and their social responsibilities, and inequalities that culminate in a state of real split – cannot contribute to real development, but only to situations of growth with low job generation, uneven distribution of revenues and low participation of the underprivileged in effective democracy.  It leads finally to identity negation and uncertain viability because of resource squandering.

The search for macroeconomic equilibriums only has had very severe economic and social effects. Thus, in many rural areas, the suspension of subsidised inputs raised the cost of production and blocked the improvement of techniques whereas maintaining selling prices too low also prevented reinvestment. That was at the expense of rural development, especially that cities have a preference for imported products (luxury flours, dried fruited, etc).  Thus, globalising development tends to marginalize local economies (Griffon, 1999).

Hope comes from the awareness that emphasis has been laid on the quantity at the expense of quality. Hence the emergence of new criteria to assess the development achieved by a country, by measuring performance in terms of the quality of life.  Social disparities, though wrongfully justified in a number of cases by the need for efficiency, are less and less accepted whereas development is more and more seen as a global process that integrates the economic, the social and the ecological, and that brings man to the fore.

Thus, real sustainable development involves a series of principles:

- Firstly, there is a social design, which implies a cultural approach based on the sharing of wealth and rights.

- It is an environment-aware process, in order to avoid any damage that man can control while being of real economic efficiency.

- It is a process that maintains the foundations stemming from the local cultural heritage.

- Finally, it is a balanced development at the spatial level and that equitably meets the needs of various regions within a country.

This approach presupposes inventiveness and innovation (Brodhag, 1999).  Thus, it will not suffice to criticise economic options that cause environmental damage; situations that combine the accomplishment of both objectives such as the gains that can be drawn from waste recycling or research on substitute sources of energy that can reduce both energy cost prices and the emission of pollutant gases (Griffon, 1999).

Currently, there are two situations that prevail all over the world with regard to the relationship between the economic and the social:

- A situation where economic stagnation triggers pronounced social and environmental degradation, which is the case for a number of developing countries.

- A situation where options of economic growth do not generate perfect social development and where only certain facets of the environment do progress.

However, it is only rarely that there is a real positive trend on all fronts.  Yet, the only type of growth that one can term development is that which posts progress on the three counts; that is, economic growth, social development and sustainable development. To reach these objectives, action is necessary at the institutional level by maintaining the strong role of the State, in the field of market regulation by extending the enjoyment of political and economic rights to all citizens, the right for a decent life by productive integration and the promotion of man, as well as by the reinforcement of the capacity of populations to make decisions concerning their territory (Morata, 1999).  Environmental management cannot be tackled through a wild liberal policy non-accompanied by large intervention on the part of the State and the local authorities by means of incentives, public investments as part of the struggle against poverty and need with a view to real social development, tailored legislation, education, and more ambitious information aimed at spreading rational production and consumption patterns.

The opening perspective should never mean standardisation. Society in the countries of the South should foster lifestyles and methods of space management that carry a cultural mark and diversity because they entail adequate practices for the protection and management of regional resources that these populations appropriate and tend to identify themselves with.

2. Environment, Economic Activities and Development Options

2.1. Industry

Industry is an eloquent example of activities that are in fierce competition with environmental health.  But such inadequacy can become blurred in front of technological progress and breakthroughs in terms of normalization.  From this perspective, contrast between countries of the North and the South is manifest.  In countries of the North, traditional industry strongly declined for the sole benefit of cutting-edge technology. A drop in proximity pollution ensued along with real improvement in the quality of life. In contrast, the responsibility of these countries in global change as a result of greenhouse-effect gas emissions is evident.  Moreover, one cannot rule out the possibility of unexpected risks that can lead to catastrophes (example of nuclear accidents).  Sometimes, one also ignores certain health risks due to the use of biotechnology in the absence of respect for the principle of precaution. At the spatial level, heavy industry remains largely dependent on maritime transport, which accounts for its concentration along the coastline, a source of conflicts among activities, particularly with seaside tourism.

The countries of the South witness a sizeable industrial development that benefits from foreign investment as part of global relocation advocated by multinational corporations. This transfer of industrial branches to the countries of the South takes place smoothly owing to the less restrictive nature of regulations and thus the possibility for investors to obtain lower cost prices for manufactured products thanks to the use of less sophisticated and thus less costly technology. But in host countries, the inability to master technology and less sufficient management arouse fears about risks of serious accidents that are more difficult to contain.  Finally, the process of activity concentration along the seaboard is far more pronounced than in countries of the North. At both quantitative and qualitative levels, the discharge of pollutants is therefore highly damaging to the environment and risk to ban other activities from the same sites.

The wish of countries of the South to benefit from productive investments is in contradiction with concern about protecting the environment and equilibriums at the spatial level. Thus, in many countries, fundamental laws on the environment are still awaiting to be promulgated because a more restrictive normalisation is considered by certain investors to be a hindrance to development.

However, there are sizeable opportunities that countries of the South take it as their duty to seize as part of globalisation:

- First of all, the nature of export-oriented industries imposes more and more on certain relocated branches norms and regulations that are in conformity with those of importing countries that are anxious about receiving only quality products.  It should, nevertheless, be added that it is civil society and the media of countries of the North that play a large part in the promotion of quality and the recommendation of an equal treatment.

- Moreover, to adopt the principles and recommendations contained in the United Nations conventions on the major equilibriums in the planet, the countries of the South exchange their availability to participate in general efforts by requiring material assistance, more sustained cooperation and the transfer of advanced technology, particularly in fields where traditional technology leads to excessive pollution (sectors of energy, combustion, etc).

2.2. Agriculture, fisheries and new technology

Growth in various fields including that of agriculture consists in making productivity gains (intensification, lower cost prices and making work less laborious) thanks to the combination of an efficient use of resources and sustained technological innovation. Yet, there are risks in terms of renewing resources and mastering technology. These risks are ranked among those that can affect health, the environment and the quality of life.

The current economic system has partly been able to put up with degradation-causing phenomena as long as the latter has not reached critical thresholds. Moreover, various events have been at the origin of questioning such a situation. Thus, in the fishing sector, a distinction has always been drawn between models of biological and economic optimum until some species deserted certain fishing spaces. The United Nations conventions have come to respond to these real problems related to inadequate development models.

Reference to sustainable development has become constant, though with very qualified interpretations with respect to agrarian resources. The “productivists” hold that the natural capital of agriculture can be substituted thanks to technological progress.  For advocates of sustainability, management should be conservative whenever there are doubts as to the fragility of resources. Finally, more hard-line “ecologists” speak of a prudent or precautionary approach, thus expressing their unreadiness to take chances by tapping certain resources or using techniques that are still at the experimental stage.

The concept of viability is applied to agricultural systems (Griffon, 1999).  It refers to the ability of ecosystems to renew themselves and continue to function without degradation, which requires a good management of flows - water, minerals and loans - and stocks (rate of organic matter, groundwater reserves, etc).  It also refers to the system’s ability to resist to shock, as it is the case during a phase of water stress. Finally, it means the absence of external negative effects such as off-site pollution that is damaging to other resources or milieus.  In the same connection, viability has a chiefly economic meaning:  The threat that hovers over a resource or the continuation of an activity.

Guaranteeing the viability of exploitation systems supposes an integrated management of all constituents of these systems. Thus, agricultural lands are sources of food production, energy (firewood) and textiles (cotton, wool, etc).  They are also sources of several external impacts since agricultural practices (impact on land erosion) and the use of fertilizers and herbicides (pollution effect) affect the environment in general and the living environment in particular downstream.  The current choices, if excessive, can ban future use.

Some of the external impacts of the same activity are beneficial in addition to production. One can mention local soil development thanks to the maintenance of installations (servicing of hydro-agricultural equipment or that of water and soil conservation), crop and know-how conservation, marketing “labelled” products, checking rural exodus, etc.

Thereupon, the agricultural activity should be considered according to its environmental effects. The criteria of ecological benefits are positive and deserve to be encouraged:  The anticipated benefits for fauna, water quality and reducing wind erosion, etc.

Comparison between countries of the North and the South is edifying with regard to agricultural-environment binomial. In countries of the North, agricultural evolution is based on the upstream-downstream integration from the production of inputs to the marketing of foodstuffs, and on the conversion of low-productivity marginal spaces into new activities. Henceforth, agriculture is only part of an entire production and service chain.

In countries of the South, agricultural areas continue to expand at the expense of forests and steppe courses whereas pressure is growing on land with all the ensuing risks of degradation. The dualism between two agricultural sectors (large-scale modern agriculture and small-scale traditional agriculture) is becoming more pronounced with the growing marginalization of the second sector while the first is exposed to a series of risks (excessive use of water and its shortage, soil and groundwater pollution due to the uncontrolled use of inputs, the salinisation of irrigation areas, etc).

There are multiple options for a more balanced agricultural management with fewer negative impacts:

- The principle of the spatial differentiation of agricultural policies; that is, a modulated use of tools that the officials of the agricultural sector have at their disposal – incentives, tax reductions, subsidies – according to the land’s traditional uses, thus leading to a better distribution of agricultural speculation according to the potential and constraints of land.  Degradation factors can thus be minimised, especially that the constraint of land fragility will have been taken into account while adopting incentive tools.

- The principle of targeting actions to undertake according to objectives sought while avoiding the vagueness that consists in seeking several objectives at the same time with the risk of not attaining any due to potential antinomy among some of the objectives. Each of these objectives entails resort to a battery of techniques, research on how to adjust these techniques to a local context, and a real effort in terms of innovation.

3. Major Environmental Phenomena and their Impact on Development

The physical, chemical and biological features of the