Ecological footprints of Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica and the Netherlands

The ecological footprint (EF) has received much attention as a potential indicator for sustainable development over the last years. In this article, the EF concept has been applied to Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica and the Netherlands in 1980, 1987 and 1994. The results of the assessment are discussed and used to discuss the current potential and Limitations of the EF as a sustainable development indicator. The originally defined methodology has been slightly adapted by the authors, who focus on individual components of the EF (land and carbon dioxide emissions) and use local yields instead of global averages. Although per capita and total land use differs among the four countries: available data suggest increasing land use in all four countries while per capita land use decreases. The EF for carbon dioxide emissions increases for all four countries in both per capita and absolute terms. Differences in productivity, aggregation (of different resources) and multi-functional land use have been shown to be important obstacles in EF application - depending on the assessment objective. However, despite the obstacles, the study concludes that the EF has been successful in providing an interesting basis for discussion on environmental effects of consumption patterns, including those outside the national borders, and on equity concerning resource use. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.