Signposts for Australian Agriculture

Product Information

Ecologically sustainable development involves the allocation of resources between alternative uses, including current and future use. The key principles underlying ecologically sustainable development include a) consideration of future generations and maintenance of ecological processes, and b) balancing economic, social and environmental outcomes to meet the needs of current and future generations (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). Given the often conflicting nature of these outcomes, achieving this balance is likely to involve significant tradeoffs.

The role for government in ecologically sustainable development is to ensure future generations are treated fairly in resource allocation decisions, and to intervene to correct market failures where they exist and where the benefits outweigh the costs. Governments will also be interested in whether policies designed to address sustainability problems are having the desired impact. Given these principles, and the role of government in resource allocation, it is possible to identify some of the types of information that might be useful in considering agriculture’s contribution to ecologically sustainable development.

The information needs of industry and government are likely to differ somewhat. Policy makers, for instance, will be interested in targeted information related to policy objectives, whereas industry is likely to be more concerned with communicating the contribution of their industry to the nation’s well-being. In the context of Signposts, the aim is to provide a set of indicators that meets both needs. However, not all information is equally useful and there is a need for indicators to be prioritised to those related to identifiable policies or actions.