Birds and People No.34 June 2012

Is sustainable development an oxymoron? Conservation and sustainable development are, in essence, about balancing human populations with natural resources. However, it seems as though human numbers are rapidly outstripping the capacity of the earth to support them. At every turn, compromises are made to benefit people (in the short term) at the expense of our natural resources capital. In Botswana, the original national objective of sustained development has become transformed into sustainable development, and now this concept is being firmly entrenched on the political agenda following the Summit for Sustainability. Read about this exciting initiative on the opposite page. It may just be that sustainable development is an achievable reality! Pete Hancock