Country report for UNCED : Vanuatu

Abstract

Human needs and desires demand economic development. Natural resources provide the physical basis for that development. But ever more evidence accumulates to show that human actions, whether through carelessness or through the necessity for development, are causing environmental degradation and resource depletion. This deterioration makes continued economic development more difficult both because damage to resources makes them less productive of economic goods and because funding and human effort must be diverted from development toward coping with environmental deterioration. In this situation there has come to be worldwide recognition that more attention must be given to keeping the environment healthy over the long term and to building safeguards into the development process to protect natural resources.