Sustainability and Degradation in Less Developed Countries

"Unsustainable use of the environment is a growing problem world-wide. Land degradation is a significant example of one impact of unsustainable natural resource use. Such impacts have particular relevance in less-developed nations like the Philippines, where many people are directly dependent upon the immediate environment for subsistence and also lack a social welfare infrastructure to support them through times of hardship. In the past decade, the concept of sustainable development has increasingly gained currency as a policy determination tool, yet its interpretation and application is widely contested, especially with respect to the role of economics in the facilitation of environmentally and socially sustainable outcomes." "Sarah Lumley assesses some of the fundamental assumptions of mainstream economic theory, and its interpretation and application, as part of an analysis of farmers' motives in adopting soil conservation on degraded lands in the Philippines. The results are relevant to environmental and social policy in both developed and less-developed nations. Should economic theory continue to dominate policy determination?"--BOOK JACKET.