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[Agriculture, ecology and development].


 This work is based in part on the papers concerning agriculture, ecology, and development contained in this issue of the Revue Tiers-Monde. It provides an overview of changing international attitudes toward environmental damage, examines 3 specific types of damage affecting developing countries in particular, and discusses the shortcomings of existing environmental projects and the prerequisites for a lasting control over environmental damage. It has become increasingly evident that pollution and environmental damage cannot be the concern exclusively of developed countries. The 1992 UN Conference on the Environment and Development in rio de Janeiro focused most of its attention on problems evident at the planetary level such as the greenhouse effect and extinction of species. Problems resulting from the impact of harmful agricultural practices on developing country ecological environments were noted somewhat in passing. The examples of tropical deforestation, the degradation of savannahs and steppes, and cultivation of new fields on steep mountainsides demonstrate the complexity and gravity of environmental problems in developing countries. The poverty of peasants and their inability to obtain the inputs that would enable them to practice a more stable type of agriculture are important factors in the damage done. A common problem is that immediate production or consumption is favored with little regard for longterm consequences. Certain agricultural practices such as the use of cultivars selected for their high yields under optimal conditions contribute to the progressive disappearance of varieties with special properties such as resistance to disease or insects that may be needed in the future. Excessive use of herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizer may bring problems of pollution and toxicity. Numerous development projects sponsored by donors from the developed countries have been designed to pursue short term objectives with insufficient attention to longterm damage. Environmental protection projects have frequently fallen short of their goals because the local populations were not consulted or involved. Some used materials such as tree species that were not adapted to local conditions or that did not meet the needs of the people. The sponsors of development projects may not be sufficiently aware of the difficulty of assuring day-to-day survival for some groups, who find the constraints imposed by the projects to be extremely burdensome. The author argues that peasants are always interested in reconciling their production objectives with protection of resources, and they are quite well informed of how to do so. Governments should ease their access to credit or the inputs that would enable them to practice a more productive agriculture with less environmental damage. A more equitable world economic order will be required before environmental protection can be assured in the poorest countries.
