Abstract
Much economic activity depends on the environmentalresource base (soils, water, vegetation, climate) that ultimately underpins virtually all human endeavor. This environmental-resource support is obviously important for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and hydropower generation. It is less obviously important for public health: without regular supplies of domestic-household water with sufficient quantity and quality, the risk of sanitation-disease increases. Much the same applies, through indirect linkages, to such further economic sectors as communications and education.
These considerations are especially significant for developing countries. A greater share of their economies is usually dependent on the environmental-resource base than is the case with developed-world economies; and at the same time, the resource base, being generally tropical in location, is more “fragile” and hence susceptible to depletion than is the case with temperate-zone countries. Thus there is a premium on safeguarding the environmental-resource base as an integral part of those processes known as sustainable development.
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Myers, N. The environmental basis of sustainable development. Ann Reg Sci 21, 33–43 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01287281
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01287281