Economy, sustainability and measurement

Abstract

Metrics are essential, because it is through them that social and natural phenomena are described, analysed, predicted and evaluated or, more simply put, it is through them that we understand the world.

The objective of this document is to review the way in which social and environmental phenomena are measured, pointing out their potentialities and weaknesses. The critical evaluation allows presenting a different metric linked to sustainability, with a reflection on the situation of the Amazon shared by Ecuador and Peru. The Amazon, a rich natural and cultural ecoregion, faces the attacks of extractivism, changes in land use due to deforestation and climate change.

 Economic growth, usually used to approach the well-being of a country, does not consider environmental limits and leaves aside social justice. Given that, for the current economic paradigm, the success or failure of a country is evaluated by the development of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), this brings conflicts with conservation and equity, particularly in areas rich in biodiversity and culture, such as The Amazon.

 We advocate a holistic and biophysical approach, through the use of information and indicators that allow us to measure a highly complex reality. The proposal for a measurement of good living is part of the socio-environmental transition in the Amazon. To achieve this transition, a plurality of approaches and methodologies is required.