Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Dodds F. (ed.). 1997. The Way Forward: Beyond Agenda 21. Earthscan. pp xix + 284 ISBN 1 85383 437 8. £15.95.

After the publicity of Rio died down it was time to start the long process towards some form of global consensus on the many environmental issues raised. In the intervening five years it is worth asking what has become of these fine ideals. The reality, as Dodds and his contributors shows us it is a mixture of success and failure. There has, as yet, been very little in the way of overwhelming success but the signs are there for some optimism about the progress. Dodds has divided the book into four sections. The first analyses the key agreements made at Rio mostly written by the people either involved or close to the action. The second section deals with the major groups involved - NGOs, local authorities, business, trades unions, women and the young. The third section examines some of the main issues that could arise in the future such as trade, sustainable development (still not unequivocally defined after all these years) and finance. This leaves a final section on perspectives - the viewpoints a key groups represented from NGOs to governments from both North and South.

Reactions to this text are likely to be mixed. As a source of progress it's a sorry tale. Here, it would be of great value to students following closely the international debates post-Rio. As a guide and summary to detailed aspects of Rio it has much to recommend it. The reader is given both text and commentary. It's doubtful if all but the most involved senior student would find much here for it requires too much initial knowledge to extract the best from the text.