Abstract

Since the establishment of the Environment Department in 1987, the Bank has made a concentrated effort to incorporate environmental concerns into its lending and advisory activities. In January of 1993 the Vice Presidency for Environmentally Sustainable Development (ESD) was created to take forward the incorporation of sustainability issues into all aspect's of Bank work. This report is a compilation of eight essays which attempt to capture current thought on a number of key conceptual, methodoligical, and practical issues. The collective authors cover a range of concerns including: poverty and the environment; gender and ecosystem management; the sociologist's, ecologist's and economist's approaches to sustainable development; the integration of environmental concerns into development policymaking; the World Bank's agenda for the environment; and an epilogue regarding the expansion of capital stock.