Capital based sustainability indicators as a possible way for measuring agricultural sustainability

Abstract

The most frequently quoted and perhaps most widely accepted definition of sustainable development is the one articulated by the Bruntland Commission – development that ‘seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising [the] ability to meet those of the future’ (WCED 1987, p. 43). Various disciplines have addressed the interpretation of sustainability in very broad terms. It is not uncommon, for example, to distinguish ‘social sustainability’, ‘cultural sustainability’, ‘environmental sustainability’, and of course ‘economic sustainability’. Social sustainability includes key concepts such as resilient communities, sustainable livelihoods, and access to core services of education and health. Cultural sustainability includes language, values and cultural aspirations. Environmental and economic sustainability are key concepts in this paper and are presented in more detail below. Four decades into talks and negotiations over ‘sustainable development’ as a planetary aim, and there still remain two key challenges in moving sustainable development from concept to action. One, the broad range of interpretations of the term and two, somewhat connected to the first, is the lack of reliable tools of measurement that can provide an indication if we are moving in the right direction in achieving sustainability.