Conflicts between Economic Development and Conservation

As rapid economic development goes on, more and more natural habitats will be depleted these will ultimately limit or even inhibit economic development. In other words, economic development should rely on the sustainable use of natural resources and protection of the environment. The method of cost-benefit analysis is a useful way to study the relationship between economic development and conservation. Possible solutions to the conflicts between economic development and conservation include, compromise between conflicting parties in such a way that economic development progress with minimum damages to the natural environment.

\

Governments also made many efforts in environmental protection. They play a major role in legislation and adoption of policies concerning environmental issues, but also in education so as to raise the public awareness of the importance of environmental protection. Environmental protection measures applicable in industrial and commercial operations would inevitably increase the investment costs. Governments begin to reduce tax rates, provide subsidies and legislate, in order to encourage or urge industrialists and entrepreneurs to include environmental protection measures in the investment costs. They also enact and enforce laws, such as setting pollution standards, banning the release of certain toxic chemicals into the environment, and protecting certain slowly replenished resources from unsustainable uses. The governments also charge investors and users in order to provide environmental protection services, such as the charges involved in sewage disposal. They also regulate the use of public lands for cultivation, grazing livestock, lumbering and mining. Governments also request investors to provide appropriate pollution prevention assurance when they plan to develop new mines, set up new chemical plants, or introduce a new chemical or technology in industry. In Hong Kong, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Environmental Protection Department are responsible for the establishment and implementation of the ordinances related to environmental protection and conservation.

One major obstacle in environmental protection is the ignorance or irresponsibility of the public. This can be dealt with in part by educational programmes. Apart from governmental developments concerned with environmental issues, environmentally concerned troughs are also actively organizing programmes to educate the public about environmental protection.

Apart from government bodies, there are many environmentally concerned groups that are also actively offering their efforts in environmental education and protection. A wide range of them has been established. Large ones include mainstream groups led by environmental experts. They are engaged in habitat protection, wildlife conservation, pollution control, environmental research, and environmental education. Their areas of work include both global and local issues. Small ones may be neighborhood groups formed by residents in localized areas. Their work is often focused on local environmental issues.