The Greening of Burma: Political Rhetoric or Sustainable Development?

Abstract

M sUCH has been written of late about the concept of sustainable development. The subject of growing conceptual and methodological debate, this all-encompassing concept has become established as the truism of our times.1 Defined notably by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, the concept of sustainable development is increasingly understood today as a policy-related objective that broadly aims to reconcile human use of the environment with the latter's long-term conservation.2 Yet as states around the world seek to implement sustainable development policies in keeping with commitments undertaken at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992, there is a need to consider whether current policy initiatives constitute the basis for real change or are simply political rhetoric designed to reinforce the status quo. A starting point for such research is necessarily the recognition that the implementation of sustainable development policies is an intensely, and inevitably political, process. It stands to reason that, if policies that lead to unsustainable development require political explanation, then so too must policies predicated on sustainable development be seen in a similarly political light. In this view, policies that promote, say, reforestation are no less political in their meaning and impact than are those policies that result in