Elaboration of the concept of ecological debt - Part 1

Part 1 of a five-part report on ecological debt: in 2003, several departments of Ghent University (Belgium) - in cooperation with the Belgian NGO VODO - have been working on a research project on ecological debt. The research was ordered by the Belgian development cooperation and aimed at clarifying the concept of ecological debt and studying its applicability to Belgian and international policy. The report is about 230 pages long and is divided into five sections. t can be downloaded from the website of the Centre for Sustainable Development (Ghent University), where the executive summary of the report (in English and in Dutch) is also available, as well as a Powerpoint presentation with an overview of the main results: http://cdonet.rug.ac.be/onderzoek/ecological_debt

Paredis Erik, September 2004

To download : PDF (640 KiB)

Summary :

Part 1 of the report first discusses the current state of affairs on ecological debt. It then proposes a working definition of ecological debt which serves as a basis for developing a methodology for calculation (based on material flow analysis, environmental space and a DPSIR framework for indicators). It also discusses a scientific frame of reference for ecological debt, and provides the conclusions of the core research and a list of references.