Sustainable development as a research area in economy

Sustainable development means a development model in which meeting the current needs of society and the needs of future generations is treated equitably. The concept of sustainable development was created in opposition to the development of the traditional development. It was a criticism of the current development model, which was based on the unlimited exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation. The article’s objective is to present the achievements of economic theory in the evolution of the concept of sustainable development. The author asked herself a few questions: (1) What is the relationship between the economics of sustainable development and the economics of forestry?; (2) Did the economics of sustainable development have an impact on the development of sustainable forest management, or rather forest economics created the foundation for sustainable development? To accomplish such a research task, there was the analysis of Polish and foreign literature used.