Sustainable Development: Local Issues and Global Agendas

The early roots of the concept of ‘sustainable development ‘ can be traced back to the development-environment debate, sparked off by the adoption of the economic growth model of development by most of the countries in the world and realization of the consequences it produced in various forms of environmental degradation. In 1983, the United Nations set up the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) to examine the critical environment and development problems, formulate realistic proposals to solve them and ensure that human progress will be sustained through development without ruining the resources of the future generations. Then Our Common Future (1987) defined sustainable development as development that meets needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

In this context, the present volume, based on the papers presented at a national seminar and aimed at disseminating knowledge and data on some issues of sustainable development, covering the concept, approaches, experiences in various fields and role of NGOs, is being brought out.