8 - Development Performance and Future Scenarios in the Context of Sustainable Utilisation of Natural Resources

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Sustainable development requires the integration of economic, social and environmental dimensions, also known as the ‘ESE triangle’ (WCED 1987; Azis and Roland-Holst 1999). Sustainability may be thought of as strong or weak. Weak sustainability requires that aggregate resources do not decline over time; strong sustainability requires that individual resources do not decline over time. In this chapter, we review the Indonesian development experience in the context of sustainable development and describe some future scenarios that would be more consistent with the goal of a balance between the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. We focus on the interconnection between sustainable development and utilisation of natural resources.

It is generally agreed that sustainable development requires the prioritisation of resource investment rather than resource depletion. This is relatively obvious for renewable resources, but we argue that it is not reflected in Indonesia's policy record. In the case of non-renewable resources, the government apparently felt that depletion was inevitable and that therefore mining resources should simply be used as needed to support public expenditure. We develop scenarios of alternative rates of resource depletion, analyse the consequences of each and derive some policy implications.

ASSESSING PAST PERFORMANCE

Plant a stick into Indonesian soil and it will grow into a tree’ is the usual perception of Indonesia’s rich base of natural resources. Situated on the equator, Indonesia ranks near the top of the list for global flora and fauna diversity. In second for mammals (behind Brazil) and oceanic fisheries, fourth for primates fifth for birds generally, and sixth for amphibians.