Environment and Economic Development — The Two-Way Link

Environment and economic development are linked in both directions, not just one.

Development depends on the environment: every economic activity ultimately draws on natural resources — agriculture depends on soil and water, industry depends on minerals, energy and water, and even services (tourism, for instance) depend on a liveable, attractive environment. An economy cannot keep developing if the resource base it depends on is destroyed.

Development affects the environment: the process of development itself — building factories, roads, cities, using more energy, farming more intensively — places direct pressure on the environment. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, if pursued without regard to their environmental consequences, degrade the very resource base that made the development possible in the first place. …