Dušan Plut

Environmental challenges of Europe: The state of environment and environmental trends in the EU (EU15) and the Accession Countries (AC10)

The state of the environment and environmental pressures in the EU Member States (EU15) and the Accession Countries (AC10) is discussed from the prospective of ecosystems and geopolitics. In the EU15, the reduction of the most acute kinds of pollution began in the 1970s, and at the beginning of the 1990s, an overall environmental development action program was made, aimed at sustainability. In the AC10, the state of the environment slightly improved in the 1990s, particularly thanks to the decline of industrial production and a general slump. Typical of the EU15 and the AC10 is the consumption of natural resources at an above-average level per inhabitant of the globe. The starting position in the EU15 with regard to a sustainable development is considerably more favourable than in the AC10.However, the EU15 are only in the phase of weak sustainability, with the emphasis laid on curative measures for eliminating some consequences of environmental pressures. To achieve the environmental and other goals of sustainable development of Europe and the planet, it is necessary to establish a strategic partnership on the basis of the equality of all European countries, to reduce radically the environmental pressures and consumption of natural resources per inhabitant, and to integrate the ecological principles into sectoral policies. The period of ‘two-speed Europe’ should be as short as possible.

Geographical scheme of sustainable development and self-supply in Slovenia

To overcome the crisis, both on global and regional levels, does not mean to continue the traditional developmental practice but to implement a sustainable development concept. In Slovenia, it should be implemented in the country as a whole and in all its individual regions in order to pursue the welfare of the citizens of the present and future generations and also to balance economic, social and environmental development. Slovenia has all the essential developmental-protective geographical potentials (environmental resources) that are necessary for its transition to sustainable development, sustainable reinvigoration of economy and a safe degree of food and energy levels for its self-supply.

Geographical Identification of Development Potential for the Sustainable Development of Protected Areas in Slovenia

The principles of sustainable development for protected areas give priority to environmental objectives, but the economic and social objectives, have an important development role as well. A version of regional development of protected areas in various landscape types and settlement areas, which has a strong conservation component, is attainable only through a sustainable and responsible, multilevel activation of endogenous development potential. Only in this way it is possible to implement the challenging and necessary transition from passive to active biodiversity and geodiversity conservation.

Oris raziskovanja na področju okoljske geografije ob 90-letnici Oddelka za geografijo ljubljanske Filozofske fakultete

Theoretical geographical guidelines in the field of environmental geography in Slovenia were schemed in the first half of the 1970s by S. Ilesic and D. Radinja. In the second half of the 1970s and in the 1980s the associates of the Department conducted numerous complex and regional-geographical investigations into the anthropogenic transformation of Slovenia, of its landscapes and landscape-forming components. Later on, the field of research of environmental geography extended partly also in the direction of geographical prognosis. In the future, the associates of the Department are expected to focus their environmental investigation work on the two fields, that of ecology geography (with human ecology) and that of sustainable development geography (with environmental resources geography).