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 Vanishing SpeciesEarth's Worth: Page 1 Citizens of the wealthiest countries represent some 20 percent of the world's peoples, but consume 80 percent of the planet's resources. The high standards of living that are enjoyed in North America, Western Europe and Japan depend in large part on importation of low-priced raw materials from poor countries. International corporations have few laws restricting their activities, which are causing major damage to forests, rivers, lakes and other environments. Moreover, the market provided by Europe and North America and, most recently, by some countries in East Asia, encourages fast-paced exploitation. Many of the recent logging contracts signed in Africa, Russia and South America have been negotiated to repay debts incurred from loans from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank or other funds. These loans are often for the construction of dams, factories or mines that primarily benefit third parties, such as large corporations. To repay the loans on schedule, countries are pressured to exploit their natural resources, forests and minerals, which are sold at low prices. Such loans rarely help nations develop according to their avowed intention, but send poor countries into an ever escalating debt that requires more and more forest cutting and other exploitation for short-term gains.
The US government's foreign aid tends to encourage mega-projects that do not help the populations of developing countries. Development that is environmentally friendly, based on small-scale business or ecotourism, is of far greater value in helping people as well as preserving wildlife. The decades that have passed since the publication of E.F. Schumacher's 1973 book, Small is Beautiful. Economics as if People Mattered, have only validated the philosophy of helping people through small-scale grassroots programs. Economic development programs that respect both people and the environment by finding means through which people can be economically secure, maintain their culture and live in their ancestral regions without destruction to natural ecosystems, should be the model in the future. The concept of small-scale eco-development has been endorsed by various conservation organizations, and use of solar cookers, bio-gas and fertilizer from livestock manure, development of crafts and other small-scale industries, education on crop rotation and use of crops adapted to particular areas, preserving forests to prevent erosion and not living in flood plains are examples of this approach. A wide variety of organizations are carrying out such programs in many parts of the world. Such approaches are also needed in North America and Europe, where conservation education has failed to teach such basic principles, and government officials lack basic knowledge about the environment.
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