Economic Progress and the Environment

"Doug Southgate's book is an elegant and forceful testimony to the role that bad economic management plays in destroying natural resources and, with them, the chance of sustainable development....Out of causal analyses come striking policy prescriptions for sustainable development....Doug Southgate's book cuts through the cherished but superficial analyses of some environmentalists, and persuades us that sustainable development is possible." --David Pearce,Director of CSERGE, University College, London"Economic Progress and the Environment is the best study of renewable resource policy issues in [Ecuador] that I have seen. It makes clear that conservation depends on economic development and vice versa and also that environmentally sustainable economic progress depends on fundamental public policy reform." --Jorge Barba Gonzalez, Executive Director, INEFAN"In 130 elegant pages [Southgate and Whitaker] have produced one of the most persuasive contributions of environmental economics to development policy to appear in recent years . . . . The exposition is largely accessible to non-specialists. The book is highly recommended to all students of development, applied environmental economists, and policy-makers."--Development Policy Review"A valuable contribution to the information available about environmental conflicts and policy issues and processes in Latin America."--Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies

• Part I: Causes of Renewable Resource Degradation1: Environmental Crisis in the Latin American Countryside1.1: Outline of the Book1.2: The Study's Geographic Focus2: Causes of Increasing Resource Scarcity2.1: Population Growth2.2: Internal Migration2.3: Income Growth2.4: Increasing Domestic Demand for Agricultural Commodoties2.5: Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies and Performance of the Agricultural Economy2.6: The Challenge of Increasing Scarcity3: Policy Crisis and Environmental Degradation3.1: Discriminatory Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies3.2: Factor Market Distortions3.3: Failure to Invest in the Rural Economy's Scientific Base3.4: Labor Markets and the Environment3.5: An Ideal Set of Policies for Environmental DegradationPart II: Case Studies4: Tropical Deforestation4.1: Historical Trends4.2: Current Magnitude4.3: Net Returns4.4: Causes of Agricultural Colonization4.5: Summary and Conclusions5: Farmland Degradation5.1: Soil Erosion and Its Origins5.2: On-Farm Consequences of Soil Loss5.3: Why Farmers Allow Their Land to Deteriorate5.4: Land Degradation and Declining Commodity Prices6: Waste and Misallocation of Water Resources6.1: Water Resources for Agriculture6.2: The Water Law and INHERHI6.3: Irrigation Projects6.4: Hydroelectricity Development6.5: Potable Water Systems6.6: Water Resource Degradation6.7: Summary and Conclusions7: Oil Industry Pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon7.1: Environmental Impacts7.2: Current Regulatory Environment7.3: The International Controversy Surrounding Development of Block 167.4: The Economic of Pollution Control7.5: Summary and Conclusions8: Shrimp Mariculture and Coastal Ecosystems8.1: Alteration of Coastal Ecosystems8.2: Consequences of Coastal Ecosystem Disturbance8.3: Causes of Environmental Degradation Along the Ecuadorian Coast8.4: The Future of Ecuadorian Mariculture and the Country's Coastal Ecosystems9: Tourism and Species Preservation in the Galapagos9.1: A Short History of the Galapagos9.2: Conservation Initiatives9.3: The Growth of Tourism9.4: Tourism Pricing Issues9.5: ConclusionsPart III: Conclusions and Recommendations10: Development and the Environment: Some Common Fallacies10.1: Will Population Growth Outstrip What the Environment Can Support?10.2: Does Economic Growth Always Harm the Environment?10.3: Is Economic Liberalization Inherently Unfair to Nature and the Poor?10.4: Does Ecuador Have the Fiscal Capacity for Sustainable Development?11: Resolving the Policy Crisis11.1: Non-Discriminatory Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies11.2: Efficient Markets for Natural Resources and Other Inouts11.3: Formation of Human Capital and Strengthening the Rural Economy's Scientific Base11.4: The Challenge of ReformReferences