Developing countries need to prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction because of corruption, the resource curse, and the advantageous effects of ensuring environmental stability. The reason this conflict is so pressing is because many people think that resource extraction is the best means of economic growth. Developing countries, however, do not necessarily manage their wealth very efficiently. Most developing countries need to focus on the environment to do the most good for the largest amount of people.
Developing countries are defined according to their Gross National Income per citizen per year. As of 2014 countries with a GNI of US $11,905 and less are defined as still in the developing process (United Nations, 2014). The reason that developing countries are defined like this is because there must also be a level of human development as well as economic development.
Resource extraction is not going, and never will go, to people of developing countries. Eighty percent of the people in the world currently live within developing countries (International Monetary Fund, 2014). The government of these developing countries is supposed to regulate the wealth being generated from things such as extraction of resources, production, and trade. In theory this should work for the people because they all get an equal share of the wealth, but one must also look at the corruption within developing countries.
Since 1995, Transparency International has published the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private benefit." The CPI is currently ran...
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