Beyond Rio

This book provides strategies for arresting the relentless destruction of sustainable livelihoods particularly afflicting indigenous and tribal people. It demonstrates the feasibility of preventing environmental degradation while creating extra jobs, a crucial requirement for the future sustainability of livelihoods in ecologically fragile lands inhabited by the poor of the earth. The volume reveals the existence of wider options for concurrently maximizing incomes, minimizing environmental degradation and expanding employment than is ordinarily assumed for alternative uses of natural resources. In industrial production, pollution prevention need not necessarily require sacrifices in jobs nor should it affect the competitiveness of industry. While alternative strategies for environmental clean-up could have quite different outcomes on employment, offering much wider and compatible environmental employment policy choices, systematic analysis for third-world countries has been constrained by lack of hard data. A pragmatic mix of command and control approaches and market-based incentives would be crucial for sustainable development in developing countries.