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II. MECHANISMS FOR INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS INTO OVERALL ECONOMIC POLICIES
[ II-A | II-B
| II-C | II-D ]
C. Initiatives in economy-environment integration
[ C-1 | C-2
| C-3 ]
3. Philippine Agenda 21
The formulation of the Philippine Agenda 21 is part of the national effort to fulfil its commitments made at the Earth Summit in 1992.
Launched on 26 September 1996, the Philippine Agenda 21 now serves as the national blueprint for pursuing socio-economic development that is ecologically sustainable.
The Philippine Agenda 21 is a consensus document that was drafted following an iterative process of reviews and revisions characterized by a multi-stakeholding, participatory decision-making and consensus-building between the government and civil society.
The Philippine Agenda 21 responds to four key questions:
Where are we now?
What is sustainable development?
Where do we want to go? How do we get there? The responses to those questions are expounded in the respective sections of the Philippine Agenda 21 document:
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The section, "The current and emerging landscape for sustainable development", describes and analyses trends and issues relevant to sustainable development;
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The section, "A conceptual framework for sustainable development", recognizes the functional differentiation of modern society into three realms interacting with, but independent from, each other.
Those three essential societal dimensions comprise economy, polity and culture are the realms where business, government and civil society, the key players in sustainable development, interact;
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The section, "Elements of a shared vision", describes the vision of the Philippine Agenda 21.
It envisages a better quality of life for all Filipinos through the development of a just, moral, creative, spiritual, economically vibrant, caring, diverse yet cohesive society, characterized by appropriate productivity, participatory and democratic processes and living in harmony within the limits of the carrying capacity of nature and the integrity of creation;
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The section, "Operational Framework and Action Agenda", comprises criteria, parameters and descriptors as a guide for decision-making for sustainable development.
It also contains a detailed action agenda which elaborates the mix of strategies that integrate the sustainable development parameters in the overall development strategy of the country.
On the whole, the Philippine Agenda 21 does not merely look at sustainable development in its broad dimensions.
Its implementation will address three distinct objectives which, if attained simultaneously, will virtually ensure sustainable development on all fronts:
(a) the reduction and elimination of mass poverty and the promotion of equity;
(b) the preservation of environmental resilience; and
(c) the promotion of efficiency, or the ability of the market to price resources according to the structure of supply and demand and the wider consequences of their depletion.
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