What can be suggested to decision-makers to make development without neglecting the biodiversity of natural areas? Ensuring Sustainable Development Without Neglecting Biodiversity

Vibrant Biodiversity and Sustainable Development

Recent years have seen decision-makers find themselves in an awkward position of trying to balance development and conservation. While infrastructure development is essential to encourage economic growth, it can often be at the expense of biodiversity. There are many ways to ensure that development is not detrimental to biodiversity. Protecting natural habitats and species should be a top priority for decision makers. Protected areas can be established and regulations created to restrict human activities. The European Union, for example, has implemented Natura 2000, which covers 18% of the territory and is currently working to expand the network to 27% in 2020 (RojasLizano, et. al., 2016,). The second is that all economic activities in natural areas should be designed to ensure ecological sustainability. Avoiding activities that have high environmental impact, like large-scale timber logging, is a better way to focus on sustainable activities. Cont…