Highlights, conclusions and recommendations

Abstract

Recalling Chapter 1, we started our research on inter alia the following observations:

• there was a wealth of interest and initiatives in sustainable development, not in the least at the local and regional level;

• although everybody said to strive at sustainable development, most of these initiatives were in fact aiming exclusively at environment protection and resource conservation. The important elements of social, economic and societal sustainability were absent as a rule, as well as an appreciation of the global dimension;

• most activities were typically local. The awareness that a city forms an indivisible unity with its surrounding ‘hinterland’ (region) was usually missing;

• insufficient attention was given to the fact that sustainable development would only have a chance if all interested citizens and their groups were actively involved;

• many initiatives were developed in isolation and hence many wheels reinvented.