Elaboration of the concept of ecological debt - Part 4

Part 4 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 has about 230 pages and is divided into five sections. It 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 (450 KiB)

Summary :

Part 4 applies the concept of ecological debt to Belgium. It analyses the development of the Belgian livestock sector and looks at Belgium’s ecological debt through land use and ecological damage in the livestock sector (1960-2000). Main countries of production for fodder crops for Belgium are Argentina, Brazil, France, USA and Canada. This part of the report ends with conclusions and a list of references.