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PICs: Government's awareness of environmental issues and areas of priority

The traditional resource management systems continue to play an important role and there remains scope for greater utilisation of these systems. However by and large traditional resource management systems have unfortunately been unable to cope with the pressure currently being exerted on the environment. Thus PIC governments are being forced (partly by international pressure), albeit slowly and belatedly, take on part of the responsibility for environmental management to ensure the benefits of the environment continue to serve the interest of current and future generations.

The Tongan country study reports the common tendency in the PICs to regard faster economic growth and ecologically sustainable development as being mutually exclusive. The report notes that, given Tonga's limited land and water resources, assured and lasting economic growth cannot be attained without integrating environmental considerations into the planning and economic decision-making processes. And it is imperative that environmental protection, conservation and sustainable development be made an integral part of the functions and responsibilities of all government agencies.

There remains a deeply rooted idea throughout the sub-region that development is best achieved through traditional macroeconomic policies directed at economic growth, full employment, balance of trade, and price stability. The macroeconomic indicators such as GDP are used to measure performances of such policies. However, traditional macroeconomic policies (particularly the unconditional pursuit of economic growth) and their performance indicators do not consider the relationship of dependency, which exists between the economy and the environment. Continuing to use traditional macroeconomic policies and indicators without regard to their possible damaging effects to the environment will necessarily lead to development which is unsustainable and therefore compromising to the welfare of future and possibly present generations. There is a certain urgency to contain economic development within the limits determined by the environment's assimilative capacity. The consequences of the increasing pressure on the environment which accompanies the development policies of "modern" PIC economies is often not fully realised by government's decision making officials and politician, let alone incorporated in the macroeconomic decision making process.