Survival for a Small Planet: The Sustainable Development Agenda

The present generation will probably be the last generation that will have the opportunity to make fundamental choices about the future of our people and our planet. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in 2002, was an attempt to invite all the leading experts in this field to discuss and brain-storm the key decisions.

Survival for a small planet is an edited collection, post WSSD., that presents ideas about sustainable development as it affects all major policy fronts, including security, finance, urban governance, migration, health, access to markets and finance. The book is organized in five parts. The first part, Global governance, includes papers that discuss the significance of the Summit, and new targets post-WSSD with respect to globalisation, renewable energy, human rights, security, and finance. It also emphasises the importance of research in the formulation of good international public policy. The second part, on National and local governance, highlights the need for new action and assessment and for strategic planning based on experience and lessons learnt from the past.. The third part discusses new approaches to Equity and sustainable development in environmental and human rights, partnerships, human health. It also addresses the links between migration and globalisation and the impacts for sustainable development. The fourth part examines the impact of poverty on environment, and looks at how poverty can be reduced through conservation, the sustainable use of resources, good governance and appropriate policies. The last part, on Markets and sustainable development, investigates the impact of sustainable agriculture, tourism, mining in achieving the aims of the Local Agenda 21. All these contributions are highlighted with informative case studies, figures, tables and boxes.

A free CD-Rom is included containing the civil society documents from WSSD process produced by over 500 organisations in 80 countries. This collection is vital and important source for researchers, academics and all those involved in implementing sustainability at different levels.**