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Governance, Heritage and Sustainability:
Environment, the critical factor
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Former Secretary to the President K H J Wijayadasa
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 Being an Environmental Economist who has been working in the field of
Environment over two decades, I am pleased to review the environmental
section of the book titled 'Governance Heritage and Sustainability' by
Deshamanya K H J Wijayadasa who is well respected and most experienced
civil servant in the country. In fact, I am honoured and privileged to
review this book due to two reasons:a) author has enormous experience in
the field of sustainable development, Governance and Heritage; b) I
started my career under Mr. Wijayadasa and I learned my A,B,C in public
service from him.
The launching of this book is timely for Sri Lanka because the
President has presented the Budget 2013 to the Parliament recently
giving high priority for sustainable development particularly for
promoting green environment and renewable energy. This book provides
important policy recommendations towards these objectives.
With Mr. Wijayadasa's vast experience by holding country's highest
civil service position as the Secretary to the President and as the
person who played the key role in establishing Central Environmental
Authority and also preparation of Agenda 21 by participating in the 'Rio
Summit 1992', his recommendations for sustainable development are
valuable for Sri Lanka and the Asia Pacific Region. The uniqueness of
this book is that the author blends his experience in the field of
Governance, Heritage and Sustainability and tried to open eyes of policy
makers, scholars and future generation on the sustainable development.
Guiding principles
The authors’ main objective of the section on sustainability of the
book is to ensure sustainable development in Sri Lanka which provides
seven chapters on sustainability by this book. All these chapters
address important issues on sustainable development. Most importantly,
the author, it is trying to remind us the provisions in Agenda 21 on
sustainable development which was adopted 20 years ago. He argues that
the Agenda 21 and its guiding principles are useful to solve present
environmental and social problems. The author should be commended for
his efforts to bring the Agenda 21 into the limelight of the policy
makers and his effort to convince the society on the importance of
integration of environment and development.
The book highlighted the magnitude of environmental problems in the
Asia Pacific mainly due to population growth, deforestation, air
pollution, and water pollution. The author believes that
underdevelopment and unsustainable development contribute to
environmental degradation. He suggests that the guiding principles and
the policy initiatives spread over 40 chapters of the agenda 21 such as
eradication of poverty; elimination of sustainable patterns of
production and consumption; promotion of appropriate democratic policies
can be used to overcome these environmental problems.
International community
The book emphasized that addressing the environmental issues of the
Asia Pacific region is critical for global sustainability, since this
region is expected to be the most dynamic region in the world by 21st
century. The author highlights some policy initiatives relevant to
sustainable development. These initiatives are organized in several
major sections; environmental and development paradigm, dynamic of
population, consumption and poverty, application environmentally
compatible policy measures, energy and environment and transfer of
environmental sound technology. In addition, he emphasizes the
importance of capacity building for sustainable development of these
countries including Sri Lanka. He argues the capacity building for
sustainable development is a complex exercise so that international
assistance is necessary.
Mr. Wijayadasa also indicates that the agenda 21 is a meaningful
global plan of action which provides guidance to the international
community to achieve sustainable development. The environment and
development are two sides of same coin. The environment is an integral
part of the development process. The developing countries should adopt
environmentally compatible economic policy measures and every effort
should be taken to adopt less polluting technologies. Most importantly,
he indicates that, the capacity building for the sustainable development
should be the priority of a developing country. Furthermore, the author
concludes that strong implementation strategy is required to be
developed to achieve the goals of the agenda 21.
Mr. Wijayadasa discusses issues relating to harmonizing environment
and development. He points out three basic conditions for sustainable
development a) changes in thinking, b) deciding and c) executing. The
author further emphasizes that Sri Lanka has not taken remedial steps on
any of these three basic conditions due to lack of political view of the
government and technical competence of the bureaucracy for the
sustainable development. He suggests that government should develop a
white paper on Sri Lanka's sustainable development policy and agenda.
Natural resources management
He further indicates main features which should be included in
Sustainable Development Policy and Agenda for Action in Sri Lanka.
Economic Policy and Environmental planning is major feature using
effective market mechanisms and economic instruments. He also emphasizes
the linkages between poverty, population and consumption and indicates
poverty alleviation and provision of basic needs are critical
fundamentals in combating environmental degradation.
The author emphasized that the rich biodiversity and natural
resources management in Sri Lanka needs well planned policies, powerful
institutions and adequate information. In addition he states that urgent
attention is needed on land degradation, soil control prevention
mechanisms and watershed degeneration. Special efforts should be needed
for boosting agriculture productivity, improve food production and rural
development by sustainable use of natural resources.
He further indicates main features which should be included in
Sustainable Development Policy and Agenda for Action in Sri Lanka.
Economic Policy and Environmental planning is major feature using
effective market mechanisms and economic instruments. He also emphasizes
the linkages between poverty, population and consumption and indicates
poverty alleviation and provision of basic needs are critical
fundamentals in combating environmental degradation.
The author emphasized that the rich biodiversity and natural
resources management in Sri Lanka needs well planned policies, powerful
institutions and adequate information. In addition he states that urgent
attention is needed on land degradation, soil control prevention
mechanisms and watershed degeneration. Special efforts should be needed
for boosting agriculture productivity, improve food production and rural
development by sustainable use of natural resources.
He highlights the requirement of an appropriate industrial strategy
by encouraging cleaner and environmentally sound production
technologies, minimizing wastes as outputs, ensuring resource
conservation, enhancing the utilization of efficiency of energy, raw
materials and labour.
The author argues that the sustainable development by 2035 is
feasible provided the world community could bring about the correct mix
between environment and development. He identifies three major
challenges in achieving this; a) supplying better quality food for over
10 billion people; b) doubling agricultural production through
productivity increase; and c) bridging energy gap through renewable
sources.
Sustainable development
The author attempts to guide us to the sustainable development path.
The main milestone of this path are integrating environment and
development, poverty, population and environment relationship, equity,
social justice and social mobilization and good governance. It is also
highlighted the essential element of sustainable agriculture,
conservation oriented agriculture, agro forestry and agriculture
diversification, which he believes as important elements for the
sustainable development.
The book critically analyzes the ethical dimension on sustainable
development, particularly on addressing the issue of freedom from
hunger. Towards this end, the author argues that the sustainable
consumption and production, green revolution, cleaner production, equity
and distribution are necessary conditions in achieving sustainable
development.
In conclusion, Mr. Wijayadasa has successfully attempted to remind us
the importance of Agenda 21, which most policy makers and scholars have
forgotten to achieve sustainable development of Sri Lanka. According to
my view, the most thought provoking section of the book is the section
on sustainability. The importance of integrating the environment and
development have also been highlighted not only through traditional
economic, ecological and social parameters but also through hitherto
forgotten spiritual and ethical dimensions. To do these, three critical
things are required a) changes in thinking, b) deciding and c)
executing.
The author should be commended for this thought provoking initiative
to lead us to the path on sustainable development. We wish him long life
and have the courage to publish many books and to share his vast
experience and knowledge for sustainable development of the country. |
