Environmental Sustainability in the Contextof Third World Economic Development: Constraints and Possibilities

This paper discusses the constraints as well as the opportunities to sustainable development in third world countries. The argument is made that sustainable environments cannot be achieved in the third world unless the living standards of residents in the third world are raised substantially to enable them to achieve a critical minimum standard of living. The paper outlines the policy directions that are needed to achieve such levels of development as well as the commitments needed by the developed and third world countries in this regard.