Ecological Degradation and the Dilemma of Modern Development: Towards a Participatory Approach to Management of Natural Resources

The problem of conflict between the mainstream developmentism and ecological conservation has not yet been fully resolved in spite of its universal recognition and realization of its urgency. The modern notion of ‘development’ is by and large synonymous with economic growth which requires massive exploitation of natural resources on a large scale for industrialization-the supposed basis of all economic activities oriented to achieve the goal of human wellbeing. Our aim here is to mainly bring out the nature of the complex relationship between ecology/natural environment and development in its prevalent sense and to focus on the idea of sustainable development which is supposed to be the way out from the dangers of ecological imbalance caused by the commercially oriented industrialization. Lastly, attention has been focused on the need for a participatory approach to management of natural resources.