Overview

Dr. Sfeir-Younis’s pioneering work in natural resource management represents the foundation of modern environmental economics at the World Bank. From 1978 to the mid-1990s, he established comprehensive frameworks for sustainable fisheries, water management, soil conservation, forestry, and energy development that fundamentally reshaped how international financial institutions approach resource extraction and environmental protection.

As the World Bank’s first Environmental Economist, he developed integrated resource management methodologies that balanced economic development with ecological sustainability. His groundbreaking economic analyses of multipurpose water projects, watershed management, sediment control, and renewable resources created the environmental safeguards now standard across global development institutions.

In recent decades, his work has focused intensively on water crises—particularly in his homeland Chile—advocating for water as a fundamental human right rather than a commodity. Through dozens of publications, media appearances, and direct activism, he has championed the protection of rivers, watersheds, and marine ecosystems against extractive industries, linking resource justice to human dignity and planetary survival.

Key Publications & Teachings

• Fishery: Sector Policy Paper (1982, World Bank) – Comprehensive policy framework for sustainable small-scale and commercial fisheries
• Economic Analysis of Multipurpose Water Projects (1983) – Foundational methodology integrating irrigation, hydropower, flood control, and environmental flows
• Energy in the Development of Agriculture (1983) – Analysis of energy-agriculture nexus in developing countries
• Economic Aspects of Soil Conservation Programs (1983) – Economic frameworks for preventing erosion and land degradation
• The Management of Sediments in Developing Countries: A Socioeconomic Perspective (1985) – Integrated approach to watershed sediment management
• Environmental Concerns in Sector and Country Economic Work (1985) – Integrating environmental analysis into World Bank lending
• Forestry Subsector Work: An Outline (1985) – Framework for sustainable forest management in development projects
• The Economics of Sustainability in Forestry Development (1991) – Economic analysis of long-term forest conservation
• Effective Financing of Environmentally Sustainable Development (1995) – Mechanisms for funding conservation within development finance
• Energía Nuclear: ¿Paraíso o Infierno? (2006) – Critical analysis of nuclear energy for Chile
• Crisis de agua: crisis olvidada, crisis de conciencia (2013) – Chile’s water crisis as forgotten crisis and crisis of consciousness
• Por el agua, yo acuso (2013) – “For water, I accuse” – direct indictment of water privatization
• Water: A Right In Crisis (2019) – Comprehensive analysis of global water rights and justice
• La Escasez Hídrica: La Pandemia Chilena (2022) – Water scarcity as Chile’s pandemic

Continue your journey through Dr. Sfeir-Younis’s work