Natural Resource Degradation and Human-Nature Wellbeing: Cases of Biodiversity Resources, Water Resources, and Climate Change

ISBN-13: 9789811986604 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023 / 370 str.

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir; Tanjila Afrin; Mohammad Saeed Islam

Opis

The book addresses the gaps in the body of knowledge from two grounds. Firstly, it adds value through explaining the dynamics of natural resource governance by focusing on the particular arenas of biodiversity resources, water resources and climate change in developing country context. Secondly, it critically scrutinizes the market-centric perspectives on one hand and combines political economy questions that are generally overlooked in discussions of current resource governance framework, on the other. It develops a new framework to examine the reasons behind the degradations of natural resources to offer sustainable solutions to the problems. It shows that the natural resources have been exploited beyond sustainable limits due to the structural rigidities, embedded in, and reproduced by, fragile institutions and unequal power-sharing arrangements under the market-centric economic system.  The book formulates a new understanding of sustainability in case of usage and management of natural resources by incorporating the idea of human sociality. It highlights the importance of the well-being of nature, and human beings must go side by side; one without the other is not a sustainable option.  The book contains key learnings for scholars and researchers working in the field of development studies who wish to gain a deeper understanding on the sustainable natural resource governance specifically in the contexts of developing countries. For policymakers and policy advocates, the book serves as the groundwork on policies regarding biodiversity resources, water resources, and climate change, specific to the context of developing countries, providing more relevant contents in terms of laying out justification for policy objectives.

Spis treści

Chapter 1- Setting the context

Introduction

State of natural resources: global and developing country context scenario

Biodiversity resources

Water resources

Climate change

Institutions, power and political settlement

Sustainability of human-nature relationships: human sociality and natural balance

Emerging stylized facts

Biodiversity resources degrading at the most expeditious rate

Water resources unsustainably used and unevenly distributed among and within the countries

Climate change:  governance challenge of global commons resulting in unequal impacts

COVID-19 and natural resources

Approach and scope of the book

Organization of the chapters

 

Chapter 2- Managing natural resources sustainably: market and non-market comprehension

Introduction

Market and non-market perspectives of natural resource governance: a critical analysis

Market centric approaches: neo-classical economics and new institutional economics

Political economy approach: power, political settlement, and distribution

Towards a new understanding: the complementarity of human-nature well-being

                Components of the framework: agent, means, and outcomes

                Key variables: institutions, power, political settlement, human sociality

                Propositions and hypotheses 

Conclusions

 

Chapter 3- Biodiversity resources: degradation, protection, and sustainable conservation Introduction

State of biodiversity in Bangladesh: a macro scenario in developing country context

State of biodiversity of the Sundarbans: a micro case study

The Sundarbans as a socio-ecological production landscape and seascape (SEPLS) Emerging stylized facts as regards to biodiversity of Bangladesh

Commodification, institutions, and distribution: a critical appraisal on sustainable biodiversity resource governance

Market centrism: valuation, financialisation, and institutional arrangement

Political economy: accumulation, distribution, and power relations: towards a new theoretical framework and testable hypotheses

Missing institutions: property rights instability and tenure insecurity Power, politics and degeneration of biodiversity resources

Pricing, rent and extraction of forest resources: unsustainable conservation and loss of revenue

Traditional knowledge, collaboration and cooperation: towards sustainable management of resources

Conclusion

 

Chapter 4- Water resources: provision, distribution, and sustainable production 

Introduction

State of water and aquatic resources in Bangladesh

Emerging stylized facts as regards to water and aquatic resources

Privatization, political economy and water governance: towards creative conservation and sustainable solution

Market centric approach

Politico economy of commodification, exchange, and accumulation

Towards a new theoretical framework and testable hypotheses

Provisioning and access: a case study of ground water

Unstable institutions and power politics: the case of wetlands and fisheries resources

Power and unequal exchange: the case of trans-boundary water

Technology, scale, and resources: the case of marine resources

Social norms, cooperation and human sociality in water governance: towards a sustainable solution

Conclusion

Chapter 5-Climate change: are all countries suffering equally?

Introduction

State of climate change - global scenario

State of climate change in Bangladesh

Emerging stylized facts as regards to climate change

Private governance, equity, and distributive justice of climate change: theoretical fallacy

Market correction – a pro-market approach

Ecological rift, ecological debt and unequal exchange - a Marxian analysis Towards a new theoretical framework and testable hypotheses

Unequal rate of pollution and unequal distribution of burden

International co-operation, finance and technology transfer: a critical analysis

Decreasing carrying capacity: climate induced displacement of people

Material balance, resilience and sustainability: solution to the paradox of climate change Conclusion

 

Chapter 6- Conclusions: sustainable transformative pathways

Introduction

Transformative pathways for human-nature relationships

Bending the curve of biodiversity degradation

Equalising the curve for water resources

Flattening the curve of climate crisis

Outcomes in terms of Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs)

Conclusion

O autorze

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir is a Professor of Economics at the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and is currently holding the charge of the Chairman of the Department. He is the Founder-Chairperson of Unnayan Onneshan—a Dhaka based multidisciplinary think-tank, Vice Chairperson of IUCN Asia Regional Members Committee and Chairperson of IUCN National Committee of Bangladesh. His latest books are: Fiscal and Monetary Policies in Developing Countries: State, Citizenship and Transformation (Routledge); State Building and Social Policies in Developing Countries: The Political Economy of Development (Routledge); Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries (Purdue University Press); and Numbers and Narratives in Bangladesh’s Economic Development (Palgrave Macmillan). He edited Sundarbans and Its Ecosystem Services: Traditional Knowledge, Customary Sustainable Use and Community Based Innovation (Palgrave Macmillan) and co-edited COVID-19 and Bangladesh: Response, Rights & Resilience (University Press Ltd).

Tanjila Afrin is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Development Studies, Bangladesh University of Professionals, Bangladesh. Her research focuses on the political economy of natural resource governance, environment and development, biodiversity conservation, climate change, poverty and inequality, livelihoods, and governance. 

Mohammad Saeed Islam is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Development Studies, Bangladesh University of Professionals, Bangladesh. His areas of research interest are environmental and resource economics, water economics and policy, environmental protest, agriculture and rural development, poverty and inequality, and welfare economics.