ISSUES

THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs… As such it requires the promotion of values that encourage consumption standards that are within the bounds of the ecologically possible and to which all could reasonably aspire."
(Our Common Future, WCED, 1987)

In the late 1980's the concept "sustainable development" was introduced into the environmental debate as an expression of the interdependence between the three systems identified as basic to development: the economic system, the social system, and the biophysical system.

This interdependence is illustrated by figure1. The economy exists entirely within society, because all parts of the human economy require interaction among people. Society in turn, exists entirely within the biophysical system. Although human activity is re-shaping the environment at an ever-increasing rate, society and its economic systems can never exist independent of the biophysical environment.

The most common way of illustrating sustainable development is the "three spheres/pillars" diagram (figure 2). True sustainable development is then development that meets the "triple bottom line" where all three systems interact on an equal basis. This model can be useful in showing where the interrelationships exist; for example, the interrelated activities that lie within the biophysical and socio-economic domains.

Figure 1: The interdependence model
Figure 2: The spheres of sustainable development

To achieve a harmonious relationship between these "spheres" of development certain principles have to be followed within each sphere. A set of universal principles has been identified through international consensus. To this principles specific to the development priorities of South Africa and those of the Southern African Development Community have been added.

We should accept that it is highly unlikely that all of these principles can be upheld at all times, as they may have conflicting requirements. Most of the time, decision-makers will have to make trade-offs and otherwise try to balance the different requirements to find a solution that is the optimum one for the greater good. These decisions need to be flexible and should be regularly reviewed against agreed-upon indicators, to keep the three systems in dynamic balance and ensure that the one sphere is not developed at the expense of the others.

Supporting the process of sustainable development is a set of institutional, technology, infrastructure and value system enablers.

For an explanation of each aspect, simply click on the relevant image.

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