Sumak kawsay, Suma Qamaña, or ‘El buen vivir’ is a concept that finds its roots, like the Andean native language of Aymara, in Bolivia; where respecting Mother Nature is enshrined in the country’s Constitution. It is about retaining an equilibrium between people and nature, between men and women, and their communities. There it remains a common societal practice to depose of a small quantity of one’s drink or meal to the ground before starting to consume it, for example.

What this represents is the recognition that if we expect to take from nature, we must also give something back. If we are forcibly to pollute the Earth in order to produce our food through pesticide use infecting water used in irrigation, we should provide the ecosystem with a service as well.

Demographic pressures in the wings still means, however, that persevering with the mantra of economic growth whilst aiming to transpose from a neo to post-colonial relationship with the third world will mean that Man’s short sightedness would continue to threaten the ecological system underpinning its own survival.

The former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer sought to soothe the public audience in front of him during the peak of the last financial crisis by stating that the size of the global economy would nonetheless double within 20 years. To what extent will we persevere with this model whose costs take away from its original aim?

A more sustainable relationship between Man and nature would surely be one that applies concrete economic systems reflecting their interdependence and the fact that their resources would otherwise be finite.  I think that we can learn a lot from the country that has chosen its first indigenous President and from their beliefs.

Have you come across thinkings during travels in the developing world that can help policy makers?