Addressing Sustainability and Equity Challenges in Managing the Environment and Natural Wealth in Sudan

Ensuring sustainability is about protecting the rights of future generations in natural wealth endowments, which include in addition to stocks of resource assets (minerals, land, water, forests, wildlife, etc.), a healthy environment and functional ecosystems. Prudent use of the proceeds from liquidation of natural assets and protection of environmental quality and ecosystems health, are therefore necessary for inter-generational equity. At the same time, consequences of depletion of natural assets and environmental degradation are not equally shared among different regions and social groups, with the least fortunate and more vulnerable bearing the largest burden. Such intragenerational inequities, in turn threaten sustainability. This illustrates how equity and sustainability are interlinked in the dynamics of natural and human systems’ interactions. This paper is an attempt to contribute to an improved understanding of how human and natural systems interact in shaping livelihoods and environmental conditions in Sudan. The paper analyzed the natural, institutional, and socioeconomic contexts and policy environments within which the transitional period administration in Sudan is to design its reform strategies and implement programs for prudent environmental management and equitable distribution of the benefits from exploiting the country’s natural wealth. Our analysis focused on identifying major challenges to pursuing the goals of inclusive and sustainable development and propose intervention measures necessary to address them