Reflexiones sobre estrategias territoriales para el desarrollo sostenible

Abstract

Since before the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has been providing considerable support to the countries of the region in their efforts to achieve sustainable development goals. In this respect, special mention should be made of the document entitled El desarrollo sustentable: transformación productiva, equidad y medio ambiente (Sustainable development: changing production patterns, equity and the environment), issued in 1991. With respect to the issue of water, energy and biodiversity, in particular, ECLAC has contributed numerous reports, promoted meetings and seminars, and supported training and research programmes.

ECLAC contributions in the thematic area of sustainable development take the form of proposals for integrating social, economic and environmental objectives, on the principle that it is vital that they be compatible if the goals implicit in this concept are to be achieved. The present contribution takes into account the territory where such sustainable development is to be generated.

As pointed out by Gabaldón (1994), "it is difficult to manage natural resources without paying due attention to their territorial context. Ecosystems are physical and biotic entities situated in specific geographic spaces, whose equilibrium can be disturbed by human action and/or by the action of nature itself". As is apparent also from ECLAC reports, one of the principal attributes of natural capital is that it is situated in a specific, identifiable locality, unlike other forms of capital (human, financial and physical), which can and should dispense with such a link to locality. In spite of all the current technological advances, especially in the fields of communication and the information sciences, which attenuate the importance of place (the locus), ecosystems set inescapable physical and biotic conditions for environmental management, because of the fixed nature of their territorial setting.

This study presents proposals for improving environmental management at the territorial level, including practical suggestions for shaping strategies. Environmental management incorporates a wide range of measures affecting extensive geographic zones. It should therefore preferably be implemented through decentralized systems, in order to generate the local management capacity necessary to ensure that the measures adopted are put into practice effectively and are long-lasting. The private and public institutions that participate in this process should perform in a transparent way in order to ensure that the implementation of national policies receives the support of the entire community and that there is no conflict of responsibility with respect to the tasks assigned to the various agents in each area of management.