10 - Coordinating economy and environment in less developed regions (1991)

Summary

An old argument claims that the poorer a place is, the less mindful the locals are of the ecosystem, the more indiscriminate they are in land reclamation, logging, and mining, while having less money to treat the damaged environment and thus sinking deeper into poverty. Another oft-heard opinion puts it this way: When a place is poor, water, soil, and air pollution are rare; but when the local economy is booming and the local standard of living is improving, the local rivers, soil, and air are polluted too. Which argument holds water? Or are both of them reasonable? If both hold water, does it mean that the cause of environmental protection is helpless whether a place is rich or poor, or that it can be helped only when the place is neither poor nor rich?

In fact, both environmental economics and development economics are confronted with the same baffling paradox concerning the economic operational mechanisms for environmental preservation and for the development of less developed regions. Only by beginning our study from these mechanisms can these questions be answered.

Economic operational mechanisms associated with environmental preservation and developing less developed regions

Society, whatever its type, invariably relies on an inherent impetus and employs the resources at hand to keep the economy going in the direction of certain goals. Defying all sorts of interference, it strives to reach these goals or approach them as closely as it can. The “economic operational mechanisms” is a general term for all the relationships society employs to go through this process.