The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--manage Nature For Global Prosperity

THE PLUNDERED PLANET 2010 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Paul Collier Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Collier, Paul. The plundered planet: why we must—and how we can— manage nature for global prosperity / Paul Collier. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-19-539525-9 1. Natural resources—Management. 2. Sustainable development. I. Title. HC85.C656 2010 333-7-dc22 2009047333 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free For Stephanie (aged one) and Alexander (aged three), who will inherit the natural assets and liabilities that we bequeath, and who already know a thing or two about natural disorder. Contents Preface Part I The Ethics of Nature Chapter 1: Poverty and Plunder Chapter 2: Is Nature Priceless? Part II Nature as Asset Chapter 3: Cursed by Nature? The Politics of Natural Assets Chapter 4: Discovering Natural Assets Chapter 5: Capturing Natural Assets Chapter 6; Selling the Family Silver Chapter 7: Investing in Investing Part III Nature as a Factory Chapter 8: Is a Fish a Natural Asset? Chapter 9: Natural Liabilities Part IV Nature Misunderstood Chapter 10: Nature and Hunger Part V Natural Order Chapter 11: Restoring Natural Order A Note on Sources Index Preface I GREW UP BEFORE NATURE WAS DISCOVERED. Today, our mismanagement of the natural world is widely recognized. It fills blogs and packs conferences, and "environmental studies" sits high and proud in the school curriculum. But when I was at school it was called "nature study," and we slept through it. At college, while others were waking up to disorder in the natural world, I woke up to global poverty and the tragedy of frustrated lives. My parents had lacked the opportunities that had opened for me. I saw in global poverty that same lack of opportunity writ large. Environmentalism looked like the indulgence of people who took their prosperity for granted. Restoring environmental order and eradicating global poverty have become the two defining challenges of our era. Each has its adherents, often opposed. A number of environmentalists in the developed world are wary of the spread of global prosperity, arguing that it would wreck the planet. Conversely, in the poorer countries of the world—the bottom billion—many people are wary of environmentalism, seeing it as an attempt by the richer countries to haul up the ladder. Belatedly, I have accepted the importance of nature. This book reflects my own struggle to reconcile the quest for global prosperity with an ethical approach to the natural world. As Nicholas Stern argues, if we fail in either challenge, we fail in both. If we permit natural disorder to continue, it will indeed frustrate the eradication of global poverty. Yet if part of the world continues to be marginalized, it will frustrate the cooperation