Human Ecology and World Development: Proceedings of a Symposium organised jointly by the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council and the Huddersfield Polytechnic, held in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England in April 1973

185 Pages·1974·3.41 MB·English

by  Peter Kenyon (auth.)

Human Ecology and
World Development
HUll1an Ecology and
World Developll1ent
Proceedings of a Symposium organised jointly by the
Commonwealth Human Ecology Council and the
Huddersfield Polytechnic, held in Huddersfield,
Yorkshire, England in Apn"l1973
Edited by
Anthony Vann and Paul Rogers
The Polytechnic, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
PLENUM PRESS' LONDON-NEW YORK
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-1619
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2096-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2094-4
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-2094-4
Copyright © 1974 by Plenum Publishing Company Ltd.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1974
Plenum Publishing Company Ltd.
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v
Contributors
Edwin Brooks Department of Geography and Geology,
University of Liverpool,
Liverpool
Bruce Dinwiddy Overseas Development Institute,
10/11 Percy Street,
London WIP DJB
Kenneth A Dahlberg Department of Political Science,
Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
Jonathan Holliman Friends of the Earth,
9 Poland Street,
London Wl
Angus Hone Institute of Commonwealth Studies,
Queen Elizabeth House,
21 St Giles,
Oxford OXI 3LA
Peter Kenyon 54 Devonshire Road,
London SE23 3SX
Palmer Newbould New University of Ulster,
Coleraine, Northern Ireland
Hugh Springer Association of Commonwealth Universities,
36 Gordon Square, London WCl
Anthony Tucker 'The Guardian', 192 Grays Inn Road,
London, WCIX 8EY
VB
Foreword
Sir Hugh W. Springer
This book is the outcome of a symposium organized jointly by
the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council and the Hudders
field Polytechnic and held in Huddersfield in April 1973. It is
the third book to have resulted from the work of the Council
and like the other two it illustrates the need for a multi
disciplinary approach when examining problems of world
development.
Commonwealth countries, like many other countries of the
world, are becoming increasingly concerned that their processes
of development should be so ordered as to preserve or enhance
the quality of human life, and should therefore take account
not only of economic considerations but also of all the other
factors that must be kept in balance if all man's needs are to be
satisfied in due proportion. Human ecology is moving towards a
central place in development studies.
The Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC) was set
up to find ways of helping Commonwealth countries to cope
with human ecological problems by providing an agency that
could promote understanding and pool the knowledge and
experience available in this field. Its functions are as follows:
1. To encourage the promotion and assist the growth of
organizations concerned with human ecology in the
countries of the Commonwealth.
2. To sustain a framework of affiliation through a common
council.
3. To stimulate interest at all levels in educative activities
and provide a centre and clearing house for information.
4. To encourage, support and co-ordinate studies in human
ecology with particular reference to development in the
Commonwealth countries.
5. To encourage and support the holding of Commonwealth
FOREWORD
VIll
seminars and working committees in human ecology with
particular reference to development.
6. To help form among those responsible for decision
making a proper appreciation of the issues of human
ecology.
The Council was formally incorporated in 1968, having
developed from an earlier Committee on Preventive and Social
Medicine. Before that, in 1966, a pilot human ecology case
study had been begun in Malta in which the Government and
the University took part. Preliminary reports of that study were
presented to the First Commonwealth Conference on Develop
ment and Human Ecology, organized by CHEC jointly with the
University and the Government and held in Malta in the autumn
of 1970.
The proceedings of that meeting, edited by Professor H.
Bowen Jones, were published under the title Human Ecology £n
the Commonwealth, and included, in addition to the Malta
material, reports from many of the 15 Commonwealth
countries participating in the Conference. Shortly afterwards
the government constituted the Malta Human Environmental
Council which has since become affiliated to CHEC.
Early in 1972 the Second Commonwealth Conference on
Development and Human Ecology took place in Hong Kong,
again organized by CHEC, with the close co-operation of the
University of Hong Kong and with Government assistance; and
studies of Hong Kong by members of that University formed
the chief basis of discussion. Here too one of the main aims was
to encourage the human ecological approach in development
planning, and it is hoped that the report of the conference,
which will soon be published, will be a useful contribution to
this end.
In the field of education, CHEC has concerned itself
primarily with studies of the development of human ecology
courses at tertiary level. Following a preliminary appraisal of
the situation in Australia, a survey of such courses throughout
the Commonwealth is in progress, financed by a grant from the
Commonwealth Foundation. In the closely related field of
information retrieval, CHEC has established an Information
Service. This is designed to serve as a central reference system
through which requests for information on any discipline
FOREWORD IX
integral to human ecology may be channelled to appropriate
sources.
Inevitably, much of the work of CHEC is concerned with the
stimulation of interest in human ecology by personal contact,
but the Council also sees the value of seminars devoted to
specific aspects of the subject. It is in this connection that the
relationship between CHEC and the Huddersfield Polytechnic
has developed which has led to what we hope will be a
continuing series of symposia on aspects of human ecology.
The Polytechnic has a long-standing interest in the multi
disciplinary approach to the management of the human
environment and was the first educational institution in the
Commonwealth to become a corporate member of the Council.
The first of the joint symposia was held in March 1972 and was
on tertiary education in human ecology. About ninety
participants from universities, polytechnics, industry and local
and national government, both in the UK and overseas,
attended the symposium and the proceedings were later
published under the title, 'The Education of Human Ecologists'.
The present book is a record of the second symposium, on
'Human Ecology and World Development', which, like its
predecessor, involved contributors from a number of disciplines.
The theme was, of course, wider than that of the previous
symposium and attempted to bridge the gap which undoubtedly
exists between the many people concerned with problems of
the environment and the equally large number whose concern is
with problems of international development.
It generated a valuable debate between ecologists and
economists concerning problems of world development and the
constraints put upon such development by ecological realities.
In this book, the editors have attempted to retain this element
of constructive debate by including summaries of the extensive
discussion that took place.
Xl
Introduction
Despite urgent calls for the consideration of environmental
problems on a global level, it would appear inevitable that most
interest and action should have occurred to date on a domestic,
often highly localized level. This may reflect partly traditional
areas of concern and partly the levels of organization at which
human societies currently respond most rapidly. National
schemes for cleaning up rivers and localized schemes of
environmental improvement (often carried out with the aid of
centralized funds) are areas which have received considerable
attention in the United Kingdom.
No doubt time will tell how efficient this type of piece-meal
action may be, but it would seem that many of the more serious
problems and wider implications of the 'ecological crisis' are
receiving comparatively little visible attention. There would
appear to be a dichotomy of thinking on such matters-on the
one hand some of the more tangible (and easily dealt with)
facets of the problem receive attention, while on the other
industrialized consumer societies continue to seek yet higher
levels of material well-being. It would appear paradoxical that at
a time when there is extensive discussion concerning an
imminent energy crisis, the domestic economies of Western
industrialized nations should be directed towards rapid
expansion along fairly traditional lines. However, in addition to
the seemingly intractable situation of international competition
(some may call it economic warfare), such problems as domestic
unemployment and even environmental dereliction may require
expanding economic activity as a step in their solution in the
current economic climate. There is an implied risk in any case
that money which might have been used for development
assistance may be diverted towards cleaning up the environment
of developed countries.
XII INTRODUCTION
One hopeful note was struck in 1968, when the United
Nations called for a conference on the human environment, at
which there could be international discussion of all relevant
problems, leading (hopefully) to some multilateral co-operation.
The event, which was held in Stockholm in 1972, suffered from
a number of severe limitations from the outset. The Eastern
European countries and Russia declined to contribute owing to
the exclusion of the German Democratic Republic. Ironically,
the GDR may soon have full status at the UN. Two further
limitations were the exclusion of discussion on the ecological
implications of the development, production and deployment
of nuclear weapons, and the control of population growth.
Although the relevance of the Conference to underdeveloped
countries may have diminished somewhat as a result of this
latter exclusion, there was some discussion of the priorities for
non-industrialized countries in terms of agricultural develop
ment, employment, technological development and to a limited
extent aid, trade and political participation.
Of far more immediate relevance was the third United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development held in
Santiago, Chile, also in 1972. While the Stockholm conference
may be described as enthusiastic and vague, the Santiago
conference has been described as a 'very successful failure'. This
was despite the considerable efforts of the 96 underdeveloped
countries to present common proposals at the Conference,
particularly with regard to the preferential use of new issues of
Special Drawing Rights (SDR's) and, more significantly, greater
access to the markets of the developed countries for the
products of the underdeveloped world.
In the event, the developed world gave few concessions. It
was agreed that some specific help should be aimed at the 25
poorest countries in the world. Since none of them is very large,
and such selective treatment may break up such unity as exists
among underdeveloped countries, this measure may be both
economically and politically expedient from the point of view
of the developed nations. No doubt with the fluid state of the
international monetary system and the enlargement of the
European Economic Community, developed nations may have
been more concerned with their own national economic affairs.
Since any improvement of the human environment in under
developed countries appears to depend very largely on a high
relative increase in wealth, neither of these Conferences gives
INTRODUCfION XUl
any concrete assurance that the developed world intends, at the
present time, to substantially assist the underdeveloped world in
the achievement of its material aspirations.
If the backgrounds and conclusions of the Stockholm and
Santiago Conferences are considered along with such studies as
the much debated MIT document, Limits to Growth, then the
implications for the Third World are as serious as they are
inevitable. While some resources have been considered as finite
in the past, now all resources are considered in terms of their
supplying power, whether capital or renewable. The
implications, in the most general terms, for underdeveloped
countries, are clear. Even with due allowance made for some
measure of population control, and technological innovation,
the global resource base may be considered to be finite, in case
of capital resources, or limited in supplying power in the case of
renewable resources. With the developed countries already
dominating the current pattern of use and deployment of global
resources, the scope for expansion and development for the
Third World must, of necessity, be limited.
There is, of course, the possibility that some underdeveloped
countries may profit greatly from the growing demand for
resources. This trend is already clearly established in the Middle
Eastern oil states and other countries of the OPEC group. We
may expect that as the demand for oil and petroleum products
continues to increase and the world reserves of oil decrease,
there will be an accompanying increase in price. Depending on
the scale of increased demand, and the possible discovery of
further reserves, we may expect the relative wealth of these
states to increase rapidly. It would be nice to think that the
demand for other commodities might equally profit more
impoverished nations in Africa and Asia in particular, provided
that such nations were able to control the influence which
western technology had on their endemic cultures. At the
present time there are few trends in this direction, but rather
more in the reverse. How long this continues to be the case
depends on the economic, resource and population statuses of
both the deVeloped and underdeveloped worlds.
The symposium on which this book is based sought to
examine some of the most important interfaces between the
two disciplines of Development Studies and Human Ecology,
interfa:ces which to the present time have received compara
tively little academic attention.