Strategies Toward Environmental Protection

1. Concept of Environmental Protection

Protecting the environment has two very important considerations:

a. wise use of natural resources, or conservation, and

b. preservation, or enhancement of environmental quality

CONSERVATION may be defined as the utilization of a country's natural resources so as to derive the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people and for the longest period of time.

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY implies, most of all, freedom from pollution of the air, land, and bodies of water.

Both conservation and preservation or enhancement of environmental quality contribute to ecological balance. Environmental protection, thus entails the use of technologies which help fulfill the following goals:

a. To satisfy the subsistence needs of people and provide them  with a "reasonable income" ; and at the same time,

b. To control pollution, primarily by:
1. reducing the amount of waste materials produced
2. directly reusing of products
3. recycling materials to form a new product.

2. Sustainable Development

When we think of environmental  protection and improving our economy with equal concern, the concept is called SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. This we need to do to strike a balance between socioeconomic development (or human well-being) and environmental quality. To achieve sustainable development, people must make decisions as follows:

A. utilize renewable resources at a rate slower than the rate at which those resources can be renewed. For example, logging must be at the rate such that the number of trees cut down is more or less equal to the number of seedlings planted. This is achieved by:

1. Selective logging = means choosing the trees to cut. They must be mature trees with diameter of 60 cm or more. It requires 60 to 70% of the mature trees (or about 42 trees per hectares) should be left in the forest. This will ensure a constant seeds of forest trees. Loggers are also advised to cut down defective trees in the forest to prevent crowding.

2. Careful logging = the idea is to protect seedlings and young trees from being crushed by falling timber.

3. Reforestation = Loggers are required to a plant tree for every one cut down. This allows the forest to continuous regenerate itself.

B. Use technologies which produce little or no waste and which do not degrade the environment.For example a farm may be managed utilizing sound agricultural processes which conserve soil nutrients and protect the soil from erosion.

C. Use technologies to recover resources. Examples are the manufacture of paper using old newspaper instead of fresh wood pulp and recycling of plastics, glass, or scrap iron.

D. Avoid and control pollution.