"Many of the environmental problems have an economic root"

The Spanish professor Ignasi Puig Ventosa is an old acquaintance of the Universidad del Azuay. Since the Master in Environmental Management began four editions ago, the environmental consultant on issues of waste management and on issues of economics and environment has dictated the subject "Economics of natural resources."

“What this subject seeks is to understand why many of the environmental problems have an economic root, precisely because of this dynamic of extracting the more the better and the faster the better, and as far as possible to see what economic solutions can lead to a better environmental management ”.

Puig Ventosa has seen biologists, agricultural engineers, lawyers, civil engineers and economists go through his subject, and with all of them he has debated and analyzed environmental issues that his students have brought to the classroom.

"In the classes we look for examples to translate everything we have learned in theory and the issues that generated the most consensus to be addressed at the country level were the contamination of water sources, loss of biodiversity and contamination derived from mining extraction."

"At an economic level," adds the master's professor, "everyone is well aware of the risk involved in relying excessively on income linked to non-renewable resources such as oil or minerals."

But is it possible to find economic solutions to environmental problems? For Puig Ventosa it is:

“The word economy comes from an etymological root that means 'home management'. If we extrapolate this beyond the four walls of the house and place it in the context in which we live, it should be understood as a logical and lasting management of natural resources ”, concludes the Spanish teacher.