Sustainable Development — Issues and Perspectives

Sustainable Development is a major thrust area adopted for all development interventions initiated by different National Governments of the world as a follow up initiatives to resolutions of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The First Global Knowledge Conference at Toronto (1997) encouraged world leaders, policy makers, scientists and civil society representatives of developing countries to focus more on community-based knowledge systems and development practices and incorporate them in ongoing development initiatives for achievement of Sustainable Development. It is realised that the synergy between local knowledge and development efforts would ensure the achievement of MDGs. The forces of globalisation have affected the indigenous communities and their empowerment process in different parts of the globe. In 1998, World Bank for the first time launched the indigenous knowledge for development programme to explore local knowledge systems and development practices and integrate the best practices into the framework of Sustainable Development. Linking indigenous knowledge with Sustainable Development has been experimented across different regions of the globe. This book is an outcome of explorative research conducted on the issues of Sustainable Development by scientists of various research institutes and universities of India, Malaysia, Portugal, Switzerland, U.S.A. and Romania. It is recognized that the economic benefits and incentives associated with indigenous practices would ensure preservation of local knowledge and achievement of Sustainable Development.