MEASURING SUSTAINABILITY IN HONDURAS
Executive Summary:
In this assignment, the researcher tried to focus over the aspects that hampered the sustainability of Honduras. In doing so, it is analysed that climatic and natural disasters are the prime causes that disturbed the sustainable situation and living habitat of the people.
In what ways, the climate is affecting the sustainability is also measured here and the factors that may be used to mitigate these are also mentioned vividly in the paper.
A sustainable development of a country can be defined as the development of present socio-culture, environmental and economic needs without compromising the facility of future generations’ requirements.
According to the view of Coleman(2014), a sustainable development country is always concerned for maintaining the efforts towards building a complete, maintainable and irrepressible future for the people and the entire globe as well.
In addition, exterminating deficiency in all its methods and extents is a mandatory requirement for getting sustainable development in the country. It has been viewed thatthere are three core elements, which are responsible for achieving sustainable development in a country.
Supporting the prior statement Schimmel and Jeananne(2014) mentioned that the core elements such as economic progression, social enclosure and environmental safety are interconnected for tapping the comfort of individuals and society as well.
Based on these three measures, every country follows a promotional activity to create greater opportunities for the communal people by eliminating the inequalities so that a general impartial economic growth can be uphold within the nation (Arndtet al. 2016).
It has been viewed that depending on theses ratifying activities and performance every country attains an appropriate position in the chart of country sustainability index.
In this framework of sustainability, the current study aims to evaluate the sustainable approaches maintained by a county that affects its environment, socio-culture aspect and economic development. In this regards, the country named Honduras has been considered by the researcher.
It is known to all that Honduras is most unstable country in Central America devastated with poverty, corruption, natural disaster and crime (www.news.bbc.co.uk, 2017). According to the country sustainability index, Honduras holds 97th position (www.news.bbc.co.uk, 2017). A suitable recommendation has been given in this current context to improve the sustainability index of Honduras.
The principle of sustainability:
The principle of sustainability embraces the four interconnected domains named economics, politics, ecology and culture.
The economics domain: Economies comprise of business sectors where exchanges happen and controlling structures by which exchanges are assessed and choices about duties are made.
According to Bonardi(2011), financial analysts are starting to ponder the insufficiencies inborn in the limited idea of development that rules estimation of national economies, and some even feature the essential preposterousness of considering utilization in the event that it was salary, a typical practice in the way we treat characteristic assets.
The First Principle
Receive a suitable bookkeeping framework, completely lined up with the planet’s natural procedures and reflecting genuine, exhaustive biosphere valuing to manage the economy (Schimmel and Jeananne, 2014).
The Political Domain: The political domain is characterized as a social space that stresses practices and implications related with fundamental issues of social power as it relates to the association, approval, legitimation and direction of a social life held in like manner.
The Second Principle
Contain entropy and guarantee that the stream of assets, through and inside the economy, is as about non-declining as is allowed by political laws (Coleman, 2014).
The ecology domain: The ecological domain is characterized as the practices, talks, and material articulations that happen over the convergence between the social and the normal domains, including the imperative measurement of human engagement with and inside nature, extending from the constructed condition to the ‘wild’.
The Third Principle
Ensure that the fundamental assorted variety of all types of life in the Biosphere is kept up (Arndtet al. 2016).
The culture domain
The culture domain is categorised as a social area that stresses the practices, talks, and material articulations, which, after some time, express the coherencies and discontinuities of social significance of an existence held in like manner.
The Fourth Principle
Enhance the degrees of flexibility and potential self-acknowledgment of all people with no individual or gathering, critically influencing others (Bonardi, 2011).
Approach to sustainable development:
Political
The Government of Honduras and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) has signed a pioneering partnership agreement that promotes and supports the activities for achieving a Sustainable Development Goals for the country (Byron, 2010).
According to a report the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has made a special attention for evolving ability at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist the South-South cooperation through a new tool and training process (www.undp.org, 2017).
It has been viewed by the past scholars that Honduras have showed a strong commitment to enable the process of sustainable development in the South-South cooperation. Adding to this, the government’s poverty eliminating and rural development approaches are directed by its Country Vision 2010-2038 and Nation Plan 2010-2022 (www.undp.org, 2017).
According to the view of Carnall(2012), the aim of Honduras’s government strategic plan is to develop the Agrifood Sector (2010-2014). As a result of this, the agricultural sector of the country would be modernised and diversified. The government of the country has adopted sectoral policies to be efficient and competitive amongst the global sustainable developed countries.
Economic
Honduras’ financial model has not given the essentials to feasible economic development and advancement. Starting at 2013, 61.4% of the Honduran populace lived underneath the poverty line of 4 dollars per day (www.undp.org, 2017).
This economic trend of the country has not changed since 2004. The people of the country have not seen any type of functional enhancement in the lives. It has been observed that Honduras is the most unequal country from Central America with having a minimum annual income of US$2,000 (www.news.bbc.co.uk, 2017).
Presently, the country economic model is improving as the Hondurans are started to export the manufacturing goods to contribute in country’s economic development. In this regards, the government of the country has kept a special attention to increase the number of job opportunities as well as the remuneration of the labour force (Arndtet al. 2016).
This would provide a standard of economic benefit to the workers group of the country. Additionally, the government of Honduras is also refining its relationship with IFAD and other contributors, with having the intention of increasing revenues, scope of incomes and sponsoring the market access for attaining the micro-enterprise development within the country(Schimmel and Jeananne, 2014). As a consequence, this would bring economic diversity in Honduras.
Social
Honduran societal value is endemic with financial discrepancy. Lack of healthy sustenance, poor housing and new-born child infections are embarked. It has been viewed that the nation has a young populace but rife neediness, perpetual unemployment and the prospects offered by dignified trafficking have added to a harmful crime wave amongst the country.
Considering the view of Coleman(2014), a huge number of Hondurans leave the nation every year, a large portion of them for the US. The monetary help sent home by the abroad residents is an essential source of pay for the families. Currently, the government initiatives have assisted the people of the chosen country to get a standard lifestyle with all types of advanced facilities (Bonardi, 2011).
Furthermore, the livelihood approach of the government helps to promote the agricultural extension programs and land redeployment.
Cultural
Honduras owns an exceptional cultural and environmental resources, yet the country is third poorest country in Latin America. In spite of the Honduras tourism division’s extraordinary potential, its development has been constrained by various issues, including absence of a key system for tourism advancement, inadequate infrastructure to invest in tourism and poor or public services i.e. water, solid waste management in import areas (Byron, 2010).
Thus, to minimise these issues, the Honduras Institute of Tourism (IHT) has organised a comprehensive Plan of Action for 2004-2021 to upsurge the development process in this sector. The government of the country has also an aim to generate a new “Archaeological Tourism Circuit” to draw the attention of the visitors in the country (www.undp.org, 2017).
Evaluating the way of climate change that affects the country, Honduras:
Honduras’ geographic position between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans makes it particularly defenceless to an extensive variety of atmosphere related calamities including typhoons, hurricanes, storms, floods, landslides and rainfall. As per the Germanwatch report, Honduras crowned the list of countries most pretentious by climate change between 1992 and 2011 (www.latincorrespondent.com, 2017).
Hurricane Mitch dispensed a distressing blow to the Honduran economy and did a serious injury to the vital sectors such as housing and agriculture. With reference of Carnall(2012), it has been viewed that ‘La Roya’, a shocking coffee disease, intensified by climate change has made major impact on the Hondurans every year (Arndtet al. 2017).
The heavy rainfall in 2008 and a massive landslide in 2013 in Honduras has demolished 25,000 houses, destroyed 81,000 acres of crops and forced 18,000 people (www.siteresources.worldbank.org, 2017). A report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change established that the effects of climate change in this country will stay because of its geographic position. The changes in global weather becomes a major threat to the Hondurans.
The responsible factor of creating sustainable issues in Honduras:
Honduras is mainly a low-middle income economy so it is mainly dependent over agriculture. However, the country is highly affected by varying types of natural disasters such as hurricanes, acid rains, droughts, deforestation and many others. As a result of which, the individual of the economy fails to maintain their living through agriculture, thereby amplifying the scope of poverty significantly within this region.
In this regard, Arndtet al. (2017) denoted that environmental distress is considered as the prime factor hindering the prospect and sustainability of the region. Due to environmental disturbances, natural assets like land, forests and water is depleting with an extremely higher rate as compared to others.
Since, the intensity of acid rain and afforestation is improving therefore, the scope of agriculture and fisheries is also declining at a rapid pace that would diminish the improvement of the economy. In lieu to this, the level of poverty is also augmenting significantly among the rural individual that might offer a negative impact over the growth and success of the nation in the entire globe among many other rival players.
Other than this, due to environmental deprivation, the chance of export of the products of Honduras is also decreasing at a consistent manner. Hence, the rate of sustainability of the organizations located within the region of Honduras is lowering that would hamper its economic status.
Apart from this, soil erosion is also another prime cause for the downfall of the position of Honduras in the whole globe. Landslides, tropical storms, floods, fires, droughts are also extremely frequent and this hinders the natural lands. Moreover, almost 80000 to 100000 hectrers of land are lost due to deforestration thereby obstructing the earning rate of the rural families from the forest resources like fuel, fodder and medicines, etc.
Therefore, the above mentioned causes are primly responsible for upsetting the living habitat of the region of Honduras. Thus, it may be revealed that nature is recognized as the key accountable factor that creates a pessimistic impact over the economy of Honduras.
It not only ruins the lives of numerous families, but also pushes them towards deaths. Thus, highest attention need to be taken towards the environmental issues in order to diminish its effect over the society. To do so, the government of the economy is trying to implement varied types of policies and regulations.
And at the same time, the rural people are offered education in regard to environmental or natural hazards and the ways to control them. Along with this, the natural and forests of Honduras need to be preserved so as to increase the quantity of resources attained from it (Arndtet al. 2017).
This would not only amplify its total revenue, but also its sustainability level in front of other global countries. Consequently, forest protection acts also need to be introduced by the government of Honduras so as to safeguard it from its destruction. Hence, if these aspects are followed strictly, then it would prove helpful for Honduras in strengthening its dominance and reputation in the international perspective.
Recommended suitable measures to prevent the problems:
The country of Honduras is facing extreme suffering mainly due to environmental calamities. Varied types of storms, landslides are taking place within Honduras and it is depleting the lands used for forestation. Due to this, the range of forest products is also declining at a rapid extent within Honduras that diminished its success.
The export rate of Honduras is also lowering, due to the intensity of environmental problems. Thus, varied, suitable measures are introduced by Honduras in order to prevent the problem of environmental calamity are presented below:
- Introduction of reforestation activities for Honduras:
In order to improve the presence of Honduras, reforestation policy is implemented. Doing so, the problems related to forests and products associated with it might be declined entirely, This would prove extremely advantageous and profitable for the nation thereby increasing its success and growth.
However, in order to achieve it, proper education for reforestation need to be presented towards the rural individual. Only then, the village individual might get wholly involved within the action and make the process effective in all aspects. Against the latter statement, it is mentioned that, inadequate concentration towards reforestation might prove alarming for Honduras (Arndtet al. 2017).
- Education policies for the rural people of Honduras:
Varied types of learning classes need to be introduced within the rural areas of Honduras. This would present the opportunity to the villagers to protect the lands and forests from any sort of degradation.
Hence, it would be extremely beneficial for the individual residing within Honduras to reduce the negative effects of environmental distress. Contrary to this, it is stated that failure to do so, might prove quite troublesome for the government of Honduras to retain its presence in the coming age.
- Resilience to environmental activities:
To mitigate the after effects of natural turbulence, resilience towards environmental actions is the prime requisite. If proper focus is offered towards the issue, then it would be effective for the individual of Honduras. Since, numerous industries might get interested in capturing the market of Honduras that would create a distinct impact over its condition.
The growth and sustainability of the nation might get enhanced significantly among others. In contrast, it is revealed that if resilience is not followed accurately, then it would be problematic for the rurals of Honduras. Since, the poverty and death rate would go in increasing and the success would not get attained by Honduras.
- Government policies for Honduras:
This is also equally important for the people for Honduras to get involved within government policies. Varied types of forest modification techniques need to be implemented by Honduras so as to augment the essence of the region.
It would also offer the opportunity to present inventive strategies to protect the deforestation act. Hence, the productivity of the products in forests would get enhanced and it would result in its growth and development. The economic status and living of the individual of Honduras might also get improved with the implementation of the government policies.
Thus, proper following of these measures would be extremely profitable for Honduras in this age of extreme rivalry and complexity.
The above analysis depicts that Honduras faces a severe cultural, economic, societal and environmental collapse due to its geographic position. The government of the country has adopted several policies to improve the standard of living of Hondurans.
However, the geographic position of the country is creating several sustainable issue in its environmental, societal and cultural life. In this current study, the researcher has delivered some strategic initiatives to prevent the problems of Hondurans.
It is expected that these precautions could help Honduras to become a sustainable country by fostering unbiased social development and endorsing an integrated management system of using natural resources and environments.
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