“Think about the environment, starting from the general to the particular, and vice versa; it plunges us into a deep analysis of what the future has really meant and holds for us, and about what, exhaustively, what is essential for Colombia could mean in terms of environmental policy ”.
Just four decades ago, in Colombia, the issue of the environment appeared as something that had to be dealt with in fact, with a low or even minimal importance, which bordered on the ignorance and scarce culture about the environment, and also, without any serious and formal commitment, of what the human being does and receives, of nature and the environment.
In the same way, environmental consciousness, in the third world, was in lethargy for almost the entire existence of those who inhabited it, and on this continent, since the discovery of America; in the rest of the world, it did not appear, precisely, simultaneously with the birth of products and services designed for the benefit of humanity and its quality of life.
This environmental awareness arose after verifying the immense damage that had been caused to nature and humanity, with the noble idea of satisfying the needs of the human being, and it became even more serious, when having to wait, with that deficiency, that production already designed, in process, or finished, in all fields of industry, was sold, on a large scale, for human use and consumption and in favor of the business economy.
Today, things, apparently, are different; at least it can be seen in the intentions that countless governments and societies have demonstrated in the world, and it has been possible to detect, with great difficulty and with great debate, the essentials of the environment.
Although the essential does not cover the vast sphere of what the environmental means, it does not exceed its meaning either. It is known that, in some European countries, the issue is beginning to overflow, when proclaiming and starring, in extreme movements, the stability of the ecosystem altering it, not because of scarcity, in the case of some animal species that are not on track. of extinction and that they are not suitable for human consumption, but rather because of their higher and excess reproduction and outside of a development under relatively normal conditions for their subsistence. It cannot be denied that, in some cases, such as scientific pest control, their permanence could be one of the exceptions. They are avatars of the scientific and technological development of the continents, in all their fields,that for some cases it is favorable to the ecosystem, and for others, it is the burden of multiple and diverse consequences.
If we stick to thinking about data and trends, as one of the key aspects that were discussed at the " World Summit for Sustainable Development: from theory to action ", held in Johannesburg eight years ago, between the 26 of August and September 4, 2002, we have an even more bleak outlook, according to the report recorded there on water, energy, health, agriculture, biodiversity, population and poverty:
"Water.
Approximately 1.2 billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion people do not have adequate sanitation services. Some 2 million children die every year from water-related diseases, and by 2025, more than half of the world's population - some 3.5 billion people - will face water scarcity. Considering the current rate of water consumption, people in developing countries use about 20 liters of water a day, and even less in some places; while those in the developed world use 400-500 liters.
Energy.
Approximately 2 billion people, mainly in rural areas, and an additional 2 billion are not adequately supplied with the service. There are large disparities in energy consumption levels within and between countries. The richest people in the world (those who earn $ 20,000 a year on average) use almost 25 times more energy per person than the poorest people.
Health.
In less developed countries, many children under the age of five die each year from diseases related to environmental conditions. Today, acute respiratory infections are the biggest killers of young children, accounting for nearly 2 million deaths annually. Diseases such as diarrhea are the second leading cause, claiming more than 1.5 million lives per year.
Farming.
During the past 30 years, agricultural productivity in developing countries increased thanks to the successful increase in food production. Yet today, nearly 40% of the world's agricultural land experiences serious productivity reductions due to soil erosion, with proportions reaching 75% in some regions. About 800 million people in developing countries are chronically undernourished.
Biodiversity.
The world's forested area was reduced by approximately 2.4% in the 1990s (a loss of approximately 90,000 km2 per year). More than 75% of the genetic diversity of agricultural plants has been lost in the last century and, in recent decades, approximately 20% of freshwater species have become extinct or are in danger. Of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty, approximately 900 million live in rural areas and are highly dependent on biodiversity for their daily sustenance.
Population.
The world's population rose from 2.5 billion in 1950, to 6 billion in 2000. It is expected to increase to approximately 8 billion in 2025 and 9.3 billion in 2050. In the future, it is estimated that it can stabilize between 10.5 and 11 billion. Almost all future population increases will occur in the developing world.
Poverty.
The total number of people living in poverty declined slightly in the 1990s, from approximately 1.3 billion to 1.2 billion. A large majority of the world's population living in poverty is concentrated in Asia, particularly in rural areas. However, the poverty level is highest in sub-Saharan Africa where almost half of the population lives on less than US $ 1 per day. Most of the inequitable distribution of income in the world is due to inequality between countries rather than inequality within countries. "
Thus understood this experience, but within the Colombian reality, any territorial proposal for training and updating in the systems, as a solution to the dynamics of action and response to environmental problems, must be based on basic notions and conceptions, which explain, to different scales, the historical relationship between people and spaces, as socially constructed territories so that they appropriate the different emphases that are implicit in the diversity of forms of interaction that the relationship between culture and nature has, in already configured territorial systems, and can be applied, dynamically and prospectively, to potential and new environmental problems.
In this way and considering, the strictly essential of the environmental, it corresponds to us reasonably to think that we must always start from human talent to plan the use, management, exploitation and mobilization of every human being to guarantee the renewal of other resources; its sustainable development, its conservation, restoration or replacement, in addition, to seek the protection of the diversity and integrity of the environment, without exceeding the limits of the pluses and minuses.
It means transcending the political level and getting involved in the analysis of the possibility of implementing public policies, in this field, to gradually descend to the scale of regional and local communities, since they must develop a participatory process, such as a of the options to achieve direct intervention in the decisions that affect their possibilities of well-being and progress, assuming their territorial and political ordering.
Likewise, profound economic-social transformations and strategies to be adopted are needed to undertake the strengthening of the processes of formulation of government policies and improvement of public management, in the environmental field, that enable the government, at its different levels, to handle new realities and internalize them, on a regular basis, in their actions.
The application of these elements will require a political counterpart, given that the strengthening of regional and municipal governments requires improving the mechanisms of citizen representation in public administration, also, at all levels, to strengthen the capacity for decision-making, supervision and supervision. of those authorities with respect to the performance of public entities and their managers.
Therefore, the changes will make the convergence and integration of these institutions with municipal organizations and autonomies, a necessary condition to effectively and efficiently implement development policies, programs and initiatives in a territorially balanced manner and, consequently, the main opportunities are opened for the strengthening of actors from civil society.
The process must be strategic and permanent, long-term, formulating environmental policies that are directed towards restoring and improving the environment in a lasting and rational way and, as territorial policies, are consistent with reality.
It is our responsibility to be aware that for the development of public policies in this field, an ecological and cultural reality must be verified that, as a territorial expression, is different and diverse and, as a tool, serves to guide the viable guidelines of sustainable human development.
For this reason, environmental policy must be comprehensive and its application must be made at different territorial scales, taking into account the spatial differentiations of environmental problems and the differences in their rhythm and intensity over time. In this way, a strategic and coherent policy that does not overlap between the different levels of application would be guaranteed.
In the field of action, a gradualness and prioritization must be established to take into account the relationships that are involved in these problems and the integral nature of environmental cycles, without the strategic becoming an argument against the principle of contingency, It requires prompt action, when gravity demands it.
Therefore, the allocation of human talent and technical and financial resources must be done legitimately, seeking to meet the environmental demands of society with the prevalence of technical criteria in the management of public spending.
Similarly, investments in environmental matters must be assumed as social investment, from which positive effects on the local and regional habitat can be expected.
Making this a reality implies that regional and local endogenous development has to be based on its own resources and under the control of territorial-based actors, and the environmental effect of activities and human settlements can be ordered. This would also allow economic development to be compatible with the maintenance and promotion of other important values of human communities.
In addition, it requires a methodological environmental ordering of the territory to activate processes of socio-spatial change that guarantee that environments that present severe restrictions for permanent and traditional human activities do not suffer deterioration and degradation, due to inadequate management systems.
It is important, then, that the policies for the management of the environment in Colombia, have as a platform, regional and local territorial-based proposals and working methods that pose the environmental dimension as a sustainable development of production and service systems. of services that involve costs of repair and replacement of the environment, with social and intangible valuation of the processes, and the reconversion of hard technologies towards clean and creative technologies that affect all forms of social life. What is essential about the environment in Colombia is an obvious reality that we are aware of and in which we have to prepare for the identification and proposal of policies and permanent action, as part of our human, community and social future. "Pie de monte"
Only in this way, we can direct ourselves towards the promotion, conservation, knowledge and sustainable use of biodiversity and, in the same way, obtain as reciprocity a fair and equitable distribution, towards the community, of the benefits obtained, which must become the heritage of the nation and strategic value for the present and future development of Colombia.
