Publication Code: N32
Natural Resources Management in Mainland Southeast Asia
Environmental concern is a relatively new phenomenon in developing countries, where natural resource extraction and other primary activities such as agricultural often form the main basis of the national economy. Nearly 40 percent of the terrestrial biosphere's primary production is devoted for human use (Goodland, 1991; citing Vitousek et al., 1986), and a major portion of this extraction occurs in developing countries where much of the world's population lives. In the pursuit of a quick economic growth and much-needed foreign exchange, most of these countries have paid little attention to the efficiency of resource extraction and use and to resource sustainability. Such economic growth without appropriate institutions to govern the use of open access resources, not only erodes the natural resources on which it is based, but can cause environmental damages that can completely stop or even reverse the very growth, process. In a number of developing countries, extensive environmental degradation has occurred and threatens the very base of the economies concerned.
Economic growth and environmental quality are inter-related issues. Although the exact nature of this relationship is still far from clear, there are indications that human activities may have pushed the biosphere's absorptive capacities up to--perhaps even beyond--their limits and that irreversible changes may have already occurred in the natural resource stocks. There is now increasing understanding that development cannot occur without conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
August 1995