The Legal Approach to Sustainability

The anthropocentric view of "sustainability" says that people should take what they need from nature, taking care to ensure that future generations also have resources sufficient for their needs. The ecocentric view requires in addition that other species and their ecosystems should not be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental policy and law 2007-02, Vol.37 (1), p.26-30
Main Author: Waite, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural management
Biodiversity
Birth control
Common Agricultural Policy
Ecosystems
Enforcement
Environmental law
Environmental protection
Forests
International
International law
Natural resources
Nature
Rainforests
Religion
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:The anthropocentric view of "sustainability" says that people should take what they need from nature, taking care to ensure that future generations also have resources sufficient for their needs. The ecocentric view requires in addition that other species and their ecosystems should not be significantly affected. Environmental law seeks to achieve this sustainability and balance (to a greater or lesser extent) through a number of established legal mechanisms which can be arranged and rearranged to suit the particular need. Important as this is, however, even this would still be insufficient to achieve sustainability. A truly holistic approach is needed. The law must be seen in the wider context of all those issues that affect the environment. The environmental law relating to the protection of natural resources is often imperfect and even flawed. The controversies arising at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg illustrate the difficulty of finding the best way to achieve the goal of sustainability in this field.
ISSN:0378-777X
1878-5395