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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Sustainable development: concept and application in Zambia's environment and development planning
Author:Kapula, E. Shamilupa
Year:1990
Periodical:Review of Rural and Urban Planning in Southern and Eastern Africa
Issue:1
Pages:111-121
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Zambia
Central Africa
Subjects:economic development
economic policy
environmental policy
Environment, Ecology
Environmental planning
development planning
Economic and social development
Abstract:During the second half of the 1980s, Zambia appeared locked into a vicious circle of economic decline, increasing poverty and environmental degradation. In the search for viable economic alternatives, Zambia adopted the concept of sustainable development and incorporated it in the preparation of both its National Conservation Strategy and the Fourth National Development Plan, 1989-1993. The general presentation of these documents, however, precludes detailed discussion of this concept especially in regard to its appropriateness as an enabling planning idea, as well as its shortcomings. This paper aims to fill the gap. First an overview of the concept of sustainable development is presented, stressing its multiplicity of origins, definitions and contexts. This is followed by an analysis of the application of this concept by Zambian economic and environmental planners. Finally, a critique is presented figuring out the problems and limits of applying this concept to a country like Zambia, whose economy is under pressure and subject to an unwarranted command or top-down development approach with little or no regard for embracing local-level initiatives, opinions and strategies. It is argued that there is a need to put people back into conservation, thus going beyond the phase that development and conservation should go hand in hand. Bibliogr.
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