Old proverbs for a future sustainable development: An environmental management perspective

Abstract

Although the concept of “sustainability” is attributed to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the principle of inter-generational equity substantiating it is older, at least in the Romanian tradition. This article attempts to take the first steps in looking for the roots of environmental sustainability starting from the traditional wisdom synthesized in proverbs, focusing on the sustainable environmental management. For this purpose, the universal and international principles of environmental law, which are interconnected to the concepts of environmental management (responsibility for protecting the environment) and scientific management in general (functions of the management, decision theory) are used as the backbone of a taxonomic approach. The concept of managerial responsibility takes in ecology the form of individual, group and collective responsibility for the decisions and actions related to the protection of the environment, and also the form of social responsibility. This study continues previous researches of the authors, opening the way to other trans- and interdisciplinary studies. Its main limitation (to Romanian proverbs) gives a possible direction for further research.