Resource policies in the context of sustainable development: Current trends and challenges ahead, ESDN Quarterly Report March 2011

This ESDN Quarterly Report (QR) is intended as a first stocktaking of major international and national initiatives related to natural resource policies and management and in particular, resource efficiency, for the forthcoming ESDN Conference 2011 which takes place in Szentendre, Hungary in late June 2011. It would seem that although numerous scientific disciplines achieved a certain understanding of complex interrelations between ecological and socioeconomic systems, a lack of a systemic perspective has been the main cause for the policy for decades failing to ensure sustainable outcomes of natural resource management. In particular in a situation when resource efficiency is regarded as a strategy out of the dilemma of achieving continuous economic growth while decreasing resource use and environmental degradation, an integrated perspective between social, economic and environmental dimensions should be held in the centre of attention. This report therefore aims to frame the discussion on sustainable natural resource management by outlining various recent concepts, approaches and paradigms as well as their implementation at the international and national levels. The report is divided into four chapters.