A Footprint Analysis of ASEAN: Ensuring Sustainable Development in an Increasingly Resource Constrained World.

The recently proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth as well as wellbeing for all. Economic activities ultimately depend on ecological assets and their capacity for provisioning primary resources and life-supporting ecological services (Costanza et al. 2014; Georgescu-Roegen 1971); managing the latter is becoming a central issue for decision-makers worldwide (CBD 2010; UN et al. 2014). Thus, living within the limits of the biosphere's ecological assets is a necessary condition for global sustainability, which can be quantitatively measured and must be met to achieve SDGs. This paper provides a summary of key findings from a joint research project undertaken by Global Footprint Network and the Keidanren Conservation Nature Fund reviewing ecological asset balances for member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and discusses implications on sustainable development in the Philippines, an ASEAN country that has been experiencing rapid economic growth in recent years. It also provides an in-depth analysis of the trade links and dependencies in ASEAN. This analysis utilises two methodologies: National Footprint Accounting (NFA) and Environmentally Extended Multi-Regional Input Output analysis (MRIO) for the Ecological Footprint to conclude with an overview of the biocapacity and Ecological Footprint of ASEAN nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]