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This article provides information about the relationship between ecology, environment and sustainable development:
The term ‘sustainable development’ gained wide international currency in recent years with the growth of ecological understanding at local, national and international levels not only among the communities and movements but also, among Nation-States and Governments.
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Ensuring environmental sustainability the 7th Millennium Development Goal requires achieving sustainable development patterns and preserving the productive capacity of natural ecosystems for future generations. Till the beginning of the 1980s in many countries of the world, ecology was not integrated as an essential element of development planning and therefore it was not seriously considered as a major issue.
The economic expansion in the last century and half had alarming consequences for the global environment. Depletion of ozone layer, air pollution, loss of forests and biodiversity, extinction of plant and animal species, loss of marine life, soil and water pollution have occurred at an alarming rate. On realising the importance of environmental variations, problems created by them and their impact on human settlement, quality of life, developmental problems and changes in fertility, mortality and morbidity, the concept of ecology acquired prominence during the 1980s. It brought forth the realisation that the ecosystem had to be protected for the betterment of life in general.
“The word Ecology may be used as interchangeable with geographic environment and consequently ecological studies are often limited to the study of the direct effect of environment on the material culture of the people with simple technologies. Social ecology is likewise concerned not only with direct response to environment where technology is unsophisticated, but also with the distribution and composition of groups necessary for the exploitation of natural resources, the indirect relationships which spring from these groupings and general conceptualisation of the cosmos associated with the specific habitats”.
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The recent period in human history contrasts with the previous in its strikingly high rates of resource utilisation. Ever expanding and intensifying industrial and agricultural production has generated increasing demands on the world’s total stock and flow of resources. Development interventions aimed at commercialisation of natural resources involve a major shift in the manner in which rights to resources are perceived and exercised.
The resource demand of development has led to the narrowing of the natural resource base for the survival of the economically poor and powerless, either by direct transfer of resources away from their basic needs or by destruction of the essential ecological process that ensures renewability of the life-supporting natural resources. For development to be sustainable it must take into account the social, cultural, ecological as well as economic factors of the living and nonliving resource base, and the long-term as well as short-term advantages and disadvantages.