Jan Van der Straaten – författare

The issue of maintaining a balanced relationship between tourism and the environment has received considerable attention since the 1970s. However, only in the 1980s and 1990s did it become a topic of systematic academic inquiry and research, distinguished from the broader area of the environmental impacts of recreation and leisure activities.

The text contains 17 chapters, written by analysts coming from many continents, which portray late 1990s state-of-the-art in ecological economics thinking on sustainable development. The selection of methodological contributions, illustrated by empirical observations, highlights how a new generation of economists is confronting new problems of irreversible environmental change, uncertainty and social equity in the long-term.

There is a complex relationship between the environment and the development of tourism, which this book discusses. Specialists from several disciplines pay attention to the challenges of sustainable tourism, devoting their full attention to cultural, regional and policy issues. This is a revised edition that has been expanded to 22 contributions, with inclusion of the cultural element. All chapters have been updated to include new data and information added to the existing body of literature in the last seven years up to 1999. It includes new developments and new insights into the relationship between tourism and the environment.

Cultural landscapes are created by people, and used by people, but still decidedly rich in biodiversity, and in harmony with nature. The landscapes of fairy tales, without dragons. Socio-economic complexity on top of biological diversity is the challenge nature conservation faces in the context of cultural landscape.This book is an attempt to approach this complexity and provide a theoretical background as well as guidelines and examples for hands-on solutions. It draws on inputs from scientists, administrators, independent consultants and politicians from Europe and the United States. With a particular emphasis on agriculture it attempts to merge disciplines such as philosophy, law, planning, economics and conservation biology toward a common goal: nature conservation and the preservation of biological diversity in landscapes under the pressure of human usage.

This book explores approaches to sustainability by linking the economy, society and the environment. The international group of experts uses concepts of sustainability from the physical and social sciences to develop a framework for creating policies for sustainability. Sustainability in Question goes beyond much of the existing literature on sustainability taking into account culture, institutions, knowledge and traditions. It sheds new light on the ability of humans to create institutional and social arrangements which are able to adapt to changing conditions. The authors consider the current state of environmental and institutional sustainability within the context of economic activity and public policy. They recognise that some of the basic economic notions such as universal substitutability, methodological individualism and the superiority of the price mechanism may be misplaced in the case of environmental protection.Sustainability in Question will be welcomed by those interested in environmental economics, science, management and environmental studies, as well as by those working in the fields of ecological economics, natural resource economics and environmental sociology.

Nature and agriculture both shape the European countryside and one of the main challenges for the years to come will be to strengthen their interaction for the future development of rural areas. In this valuable and highly topical book, the authors demonstrate how economics and ecology can play a critical role in maintaining and sustaining this relationship.The book identifies the dilemmas facing European agriculture and explores their economic and ecological consequences. The authors believe a better understanding of these problems will be crucial in recognising the potential options for the future role of agriculture and nature policy and will guide the identification of suitable policy instruments. They highlight current threats to the relationship between agriculture and nature - such as abandonment and intensification - and demonstrate how these problems can be resolved by a rational policy mix. The book also provides extensive empirical evidence from four case studies and concludes by scrutinising the major changes in market conditions and the Common Agricultural Policy which could upset this important but fragile balance between agriculture and nature.Providing a state-of-the-art overview of current thinking on the relationship between agriculture and nature in the context of EU policy, this book will be welcomed by policymakers and those studying and working in the fields of agricultural and resource economics, geography, and agri-business.

The debate on the valuation of nature and the environment, sustainable national income and economic growth is one of prime importance in environmental economics. Economic Growth and Valuation of the Environment deals with the fundamental approaches to calculating sustainable national income and their implications for the valuation of the environment. Leading economists present their views on how the UN system of national accounts could be adjusted to include environmental impacts and the depletion of natural resources. The discussion centres on the appropriateness of national income as an indicator for welfare, and specific attention is paid to the question of how to value changes in environmental quality or emissions of pollutants.Centred around the topics raised by the seminal publications of Roefie Hueting, this book will be of great interest to environmental economists and students focusing on environmental and natural resource economics. Environmental policymakers will welcome the lively and up-to-date discussion of a range of policy issues.

At the end of the 20th century economists and policymakers face an unprecedented dual challenge: to avert ecological disaster and to end mass unemployment by accelerating and redirecting world economic growth.This major volume brings together contributions from environmental and technological economists. The first part discusses the ecological challenge to economists and policymakers and shows that both need a radical change in their approach. The second part discusses the institutional and legal changes which are necessary to address this challenge. The final part deals with the technological revolution, focusing on microelectronics and biotechnology, which is now transforming the world economy, and sets it in the context of long term fluctuations in economic growth and the relative stagnation since 1973. The protection of the environment, and economic growth with full employment are not necessarily opposed. On the contrary, as this volume demonstrates, what is required to return to full employment and more rapid growth is vigorous and concerted government action to give an 'eco-friendly' direction to technological and economic change.

Economy and Ecosystems in Change addresses ecological problems from an economic perspective, and provides policy suggestions for resource management and environmental sustainability based on integrated, multidisciplinary information, methods and applications.The book begins by introducing the different approaches and applications within ecological economics and clarifying new elements and fundamental principles. This initial discussion includes a comparison between ecological and environmental economics and the evaluation and function of ecosystems. The authors then examine the macroeconomy-ecosystem relationship with reference to national and global processes, focusing specifically on employment versus sustainability, trade, industrial transformation and rural development. In the third part there is an evaluation of whether ecosystems and economics can be treated independently; it is argued that the integration of these fields provides more complete insights and information for addressing the complex relationships between human activities and natural processes. Finally, the authors consider the institutional environment and policies affecting public ecosystems subject to economic uses. Using case study evidence, they conclude that public policy often supports an unsustainable use of resources. To counter this the authors propose policy and management options based on natural resource accounts, practical policy objectives and the precautionary principle.Economy and Ecosystems in Change will be of interest to ecological, environmental and resource economists and policymakers.

The book contains 17 chapters, written by analysts coming from many continents, which portray the state of the art in ecological economics thinking on sustainable development. The selection of methodological contributions, richly illustrated by empirical observations, highlights how a new generation of economists is confronting new problems of irreversible environmental change, uncertainty and social equity in the long-term.

There is a complex relationship between the environment and the development of tourism, which this book discusses in a thorough and informative manner. Specialists from several disciplines pay attention to the challenges of sustainable tourism, devoting their full attention to cultural, regional and policy issues. This is a revised edition that has been expanded to 22 contributions, with inclusion of the cultural element. All chapters have been updated to include new data and information added to the existing body of literature in the last 7 years. It includes new developments and new insights into the relationship between tourism and the environment. An invaluable sequel to the first edition.

Cultural landscapes are created by people, and used by people, but still decidedly rich in biodiversity, and in harmony with nature. The landscapes of fairy tales, without dragons. Socio-economic complexity on top of biological diversity is the challenge nature conservation faces in the context of cultural landscape.This book is an attempt to approach this complexity and provide a theoretical background as well as guidelines and examples for hands-on solutions. It draws on inputs from scientists, administrators, independent consultants and politicians from Europe and the United States. With a particular emphasis on agriculture it attempts to merge disciplines such as philosophy, law, planning, economics and conservation biology toward a common goal: nature conservation and the preservation of biological diversity in landscapes under the pressure of human usage.

The issue of maintaining a balanced relationship between tourism and the environment has received considerable attention since the 1970s. However, only in the 1980s and 1990s did it become a topic of systematic academic inquiry and research, distinguished from the broader area of the environmental impacts of recreation and leisure activities. This volume dwells on the environmental and economic impacts of tourism and is divided as follows: Part 1: Introduction and Overview Part 2: Tourism and the Environment: General Considerations Part 3: Regional Issues Part 4: Economic Issues Part 5: Policy Issues The work is complemented by a subject index.