Development, whether at the international, national, or local level, has to be made and kept sustainable if it is to succeed. “Sustainable” means not only the reasonable management and consumption by the human population of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable resources, but also the personal and collective commitment to recognize the value of our common natural and cultural heritage. It is a precondition for any development programme, if only because Earth’s resources are part of that heritage. Without such a commitment, all so-called development plans and programs will remain rootless and will bear short-lived results. Development is not a responsibility that belongs only to governments or even to local authorities. It is a requirement to be carried out by each citizen and by each human community. Natural and cultural heritage is a resource which is both nonrenewable (one cannot replace a lost landscape, a ruined monument, or the last master of a certain craft, since they are unique in themselves, at least to their community) and renewable (one can create new landscapes, new habitats, new artifacts). Mass tourism, industrial pollution, war or economic crisis can quickly and effectively destroy not only monuments or natural environments, but also the cultures and the ways of life of whole populations, if these populations do not create the cultural and mental antidotes to these exogenous destructive factors.
Hugues de Varine (Sun,) studied this question.