Valuing the Environment: Economics for a Sustainable Future

Since 1993, IDRC's environmental economics networks have investigated a wide range of problems throughout the developing regions of the world. This work sheds light on the underlying causes of environmental degradation and suggests solutions that benefit people and the planet, pointing the way to sustainable development.

This chapter presents research findings from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since the Asian networks are much older than the others, most of the examples come from that region. But as we shall see, people in developing countries face many of the same environmental problems and react to them in similar ways. These stories have been chosen to show how the ideas and principles outlined in Part 1 can be applied to real world problems and the influence they have had on decision-making.³

³ All the research discussed in this chapter was done by network researchers. The
original working papers from which these summaries are drawn are listed under the
authors' names in the Bibliography at the end of the book.

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