High economic development is caused to increase ecological footprint (EF). Increasing EF creates an impediment for sustainable development. Previous studies applied several methods and indicators to examine EF in different countries. However, very few studies could examine the originating factors of EF using empirical models. Hence, this chapter measures EF for SAARC countries during 2000 – 2022. It explains the comparative performance of SAARC countries in EF using a time trend analysis. Thereupon, it also examines the impact of certain indicators on EF in SAARC countries using robust empirical analysis. There seems to be significant diversity in EF due to disparity in economic development and its enhancing factors in SAARC countries. EF increases as industrialization, greenhouse gas, inflation, GDP per person employed and age dependency ratio increase. Digitalization, renewable energy consumption, technological change and life expectancy rate showed a negative impact on EF.
TopIntroduction
The global countries are increasing the level of investment, consumption, productivity of resources, industrialization and other activities to attain their desired tasks. Moreover, the prime goal of above-mentioned activities is to increase the living standard of people (Saleem et al., 2019). High economic growth is essential to increase energy, food, shelter and living standard, and it is positive to fulfil diverse needs of individuals (Singh et al., 2023a). Therefore, most countries have achieved significant growth in economic development and social welfare (Kızılgöl & Öndes, 2022). While high economic growth and rising population are responsible for increasing water pollution, environment degradation, air pollution, acid rain, soil quality degradation, loss of biodiversity, and sound pollution, etc. (Dietz et al., 2007; Saboori et al., 2012; Singh & Singh, 2024). These are also responsible for environmental calamities and have an extensive burden on ecological services (Ray & Ray, 2011). Further, these have an adverse impact on environmental and natural habits (Bilsborrow, 1992).
Depletion of natural resources and EF are increasing due to population growth (Sharma et al., 2020; Dogan et al., 2022). Thus, it is solely accountable to increase EF (Kazemzadeh et al., 2023). Globalization is supportive to enhance competition, trade benefits, and transfer of technologies across countries (Figge et al., 2016; Rahman et al., 2019). Globalization is increasing pressure on the environment, and it is also causing increased GHGs emissions and global warming that are harmful for the global ecosystem (Kumar et al., 2015; Saleem et al., 2019). Hence, above-mentioned issues are of great concern for national and global policy makers (Rahman et al., 2019).
The current population of South Asia is around 1.9 billion and it includes around 24.89% of world population. Therefore, South Asia has more difficulty to maintain the stability in biodiversity due to over population that is harmful for biocapacity and ecological footprint (EF) (Kazemzadeh et al., 2023). Biocapacity means that quantity of ecological assets that help to produce food, clothing, shelter, and absorb carbon emissions. For instance, Bhutan has the highest value of EF (i.e., 4.4 million gha per person) and Afghanistan has lowest values of EF (i.e., 0.7 million gha per person) in South Asia. While the value of EF for India is estimated 1.16 million gha per person. Figure 1 shows an increasing EF due to rising activity worldwide. Figure 2 explores the factors affecting EF. Acid rain, forest deforestation, environment degradation and several other activities are causes to increase EF (Singh et al., 2019). Hence, environmental sustainability may be a proper solution to maintain biodiversity and reduce EF (Singh et al., 2019).
Figure 1. The trends in all typed of EF world-wide
Footprint means how much of ecosystem is essential to produce desired goods of the present population, and adjust waste materials. Hence, EF and biodiversity are adversely affected due to increase in food consumption, energy, transportation, and goods and services (Mancini et al., 2016). Hence, demand of ecosystem services by the rising population will increase extensive problems for environmental development. The concept of EF has gained prominence as a comprehensive measure in calculating human impact on ecology (Wackernagel & Rees, 1996).