sustainable development

                             SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE

                                          ENVIRONMENT                              

                                           To live and to develop we need to use resources in the environment. When we consider natural resources they are not growing parallel with the needs of the increasing population. Therefore we can’t use natural resources excessively because some resources are cannot be renewable. Before we continue further we should understand many phenomena which come under natural resources. First, let me define what natural resources are.

                     “The things we use in our day to day life and to develop our economies are known as natural resources”. The main three natural resources are air, land, and water. But solar energy, animals, plants, and minerals also can be considered as natural resources. Natural resources can be categorized into two, 1. Living resources           2. Non-living resources.

Living resources contain the organisms found in forests, grasslands, deserts, wetlands, and aquatic systems, (marine and freshwater)

Under non-living resources; air, land, minerals, and solar energy can be considered.

Living resources can be categorized into two groups renewable resources and non-renewable resources.

Renewable resources: If the rate of consumption is less than the rate of renewable we can call it renewable resources.

Nonrenewable resources: When the rate of consumption of a resource is more than the rate of renewable it will become a nonrenewable resource.

 Some living resources are renewable in nature under natural conditions. Edible living organisms like fish can be taken as an example to explain this phenomenon. If overfishing is done some fish species may be extinct. Then it will become a nonrenewable resource. How does overfishing cause the extinction of a fish species? When they overfish they catch the entire fish population including young small fish (fingerlings). Therefore renewal ability depends on the consumption rate. Because of the greediness of man some food species plants as well as animals may be extinct from the world. Excessive cutting of trees also may cause the extinction of plant species. Once destroyed forests could not be easily recovered again. Some biologists consider a forest as one organism and they expect to protect the forest as an individual. So, fish, forests, and other animals can be considered critical resources.

Non-living resources can be categorized into 3 groups,

1. Resources that have a continuous supply.

        Solar energy, Tidal waves

2. Resources that can be renewable

Water by the hydrological cycle

Clean air by photosynthesis of green plants

             These 1st and 2nd resources are noncritical

3. Resources that cannot be renewable (non-renewable resources)

              These are the resources that take millions of years to generate. They have some amount in the earth and when man consumes them it will decrease in quantity. E.g. Fossil fuels, coal, hydrocarbons, minerals, metallic (copper, iron, silver, gold), and nonmetallic (gemstones)

 After studying the problem of non-renewable resources in 1987 a new concept has introduced as Sustainable development of the environment. This has been defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”.

“The earth summit” held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 had put forward a convention and was signed by 175 countries including Sri Lanka. There are three main objectives of the convention and the most important objective is “the sustainable use of the environment”. When we consider sustainable development we should not act as “preservationists” but should act as “conservationists”. Preservationists never get any use from the environment. That is they never try to get resources from the environment and they think of that environment as a sacred thing. But conservationists use natural resources more carefully and sensibly. They use the resources to a certain extent but do not overuse them. So, for the people who seek economical development as well as environmental development they have to be conservationists. In the recent past when we had the Tsunami disaster great damage was done to the regions along with the coastal line areas where people have over mined the coral reefs. When we think about forest ecosystems they are like living beings. We can’t keep them without touching them because as a country with not much economic development we want to obtain many things from forests such as timber, fuel, medicine, food, fodder, animals, etc. But we have to use these sensibly and sustainably that is we should not bargain with the future generations' needs.

For the sustainable development of the forests, a government should introduce effective management of forests programs all over the country. Under these programs can introduce the following things.

1. Prevention of overexploitation of plants for timber, medicine, fuel.
2. Prevention of overuse of animals for flesh, skin, teeth, and for raring.
3. Prevention of introduction of new invasive species
4. Control of deforestation
5. Monitoring of depletion of natural resources.
6.  Re forestation programmes
7. Prevention of dumping of garbage.
8. Prevention of extracting plant species and throwing garbage on visitation.
9. Conserve the lands which were cleared and used for agricultural purposes and now abandoned.
10.  Ex-situ conservation should be done. That is the conservation of some rare plant and animal species outside their natural habitats. For example, keeping animals in zoos,
11.  Increase the efficiency of resource use.
12.  Promote sustainable consumption
13.  Establishment and management of protected areas and buffer zones. Now it is about 14% of the land area.
14. Further, can conduct education and awareness programs

What is the importance of sustainable development?

• Creating human and other animals' security
• Conservation of natural resources endowments
• Securing the natural resources as conservationists

Make use of the natural ecosystems without damaging