Douglas D. Southgate - Sustainable Resource Development in the Third World

Sustainable Resource Development in the Third World

Published in cooperation with the School of Natural Resources of The Ohio State University

edited by
Douglas D. Southgate
and John F. Disinger

First published 1987 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge
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Copyright 1987 by the School of Natural Resources of The Ohio State University

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sustainable resource Development in the Third World/
[edited by Douglas D. Southgate and John F. Disinger].
p. cm.(Westview special studies in natural resources and
energy management)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8133-7522-3
1. Natural resourcesDeveloping countriesManagement.
2. Environmental policyDeveloping countries. I. Southgate,
Douglas Dewitt. II. Disinger. John F. III. Series.
HC59.7.S8826 1987
333.7'15'091724dc19 87-20137
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28932-4 (hbk)

Special thanks and appreciation for their efforts in the staging of the symposium and the production of this volume are due to the following members of the staff of the School of Natural Resources at The Ohio State University: Craig B, Davis, Director; Judy A. Kauffeld, Editor; Sara Brenner, Janice J. Gorsuch, Marjorie Pless, Elizabeth A. Poeppelman, Jerri L. Shafer, and Mignonne A. Whitlow.

D.D.S.
J.F.D.

Over time, scientists, technologists, and resource managers in affluent countries have devised and institutionalized methodologies for exploiting and managing natural resources in their own environments with considerable success. In doing so, they have provided models, at least of development and affluence, that the less developed countries seek to employ.

Many mechanisms are currently used in the transfer of technology and its concomitants from the developed world to the developing world. Among the most successful are those promoting the open exchange of ideas and information between and among the key players from both worlds.

An international symposium involving both invited and contributed papers addressing the technological and institutional challenges of sustainable development of natural resources in the Third World was staged in September 1985 in Columbus, Ohio, co-sponsored by The Argonne National Laboratory of Argonne, Illinois, The Tropical Renewable Resources Program and the School of Natural Resources of The Ohio State University, and the United States Agency for International Development. This volume presents selected papers from the symposium.

Described in many papers are "success stories"; that is, approaches that have worked are examined. However, the authors have candidly and conscientiously provided complete treatments of their topics, indicating clearly the problems faced, false starts, and frustrations. In doing so, they offer useful suggestions for others to consider in developing their resource management strategies, along with evidence of many options which are better not employed, and many problems still in need of solution.

Douglas D, Southgate
John F. Disinger

Douglas D. Southgate

Throughout the developing world, renewable resources that are the bases for food and energy production are under severe strain. Land quality is deteriorating because of excessive grazing and cropping and because irrigation water is managed poorly. Firewood gathering, increasing agricultural competition for wooded land, and lax enforcement of reforestation laws have combined to create deforestation problems in many third world nations. The impacts of declining land quality, lost forests, and increased sedimentation of waterways are not confined to the countryside. As renewable resources deteriorate, urban residents face progressively higher food prices while paying more for hydroelectricity.

Concerned about the costs of environmental degradation, the governments of many countries have recently initiated projects intended to foster improved resource management or to ease human pressure on the environment. Erosion control has been encouraged on range and farmland upstream from reservoirs. The use of more fuel-efficient stoves has been promoted, where gathering of fuelwood is a primary cause of deforestation. To encourage tree conservation, innovation and adoption of unproved nursery, harvesting, and milling technologies have been supported. Practically all of these initiatives have received financial support from donor agencies.

Some resources management projects have accomplished their objectives. Taken as a whole, however, efforts to conserve renewable resources in the developing world cannot be termed a major success. Even in countries where projects have been undertaken, it is difficult to show that the rates at which agricultural land is degraded, forests are lost, and water is polluted have been greatly reduced.

In part, the limited effectiveness of third world resource conservation projects reflects an inadequate understanding of tropical and subtropical environments. For example, those wishing to mount projects aimed at ameliorating sedimentation problems in reservoirs, waterways, and harbors find their efforts hampered by limited information about how erosion control at one site will affect sediment yield at some point downstream. Beyond such technical limitations, a variety of social and organizational constraints on renewable resource management present themselves in the Third World. In many countries, the primary agents of environmental changesmall farmers and herders confined to marginal landdo not find resource conservation to be in their best interest, given prevailing market and institutional conditions. They are the ones, for instance, who suffer disproportionately from the credit shortages created by interest rate controls which prevail throughout the developing world. Denied access to formal financial markets, they must rely on informal markets, where interest rates are considerably higher. As a result, they are discouraged from investing in land improvement generally, and from adopting soil conservation practices specifically.