| Some Voices
The
Right to Food
-
Hungry for what is right (FIAN-Magazine), No. 24/
December 2001
"After
decades of growing food availablity there are
signs of future scarcity due to ecological
constraints and population growth. Studies
indicate that resources could neverthless suffice
- even without introduction of even more
hazardous agricultural technologies such as
genetically mutilated food. For this to occur,
however, it may be necessary for the rich to
drastically reduce their (unhealthy) meat
consumption to increase the availablity of
cereals for direct consumption: it takes 7 kg of
grain to produce 1 kg of beef in a feedlot."
An Arms-Free
Environment
-
Worldwatch
Institute
"The
growing number of international environmental
treaties and other initiatives suffer from weak
commitments and inadequate funding. The U.N.
Environment Programme has struggled to maintain
its annual budget of roughly $100 million. At the
same time, military expenditures by the world's
governments are running at more than $2 billion a
day."
"In
several countries around the developing world,
abundant natural resources are at the root of the
matter-either triggering violent conflict or
financing its continuation. In fact, about a
quarter of the 49 wars and armed conflicts waged
during 2000 had a strong resource dimension. And
many of them are taking place in areas of great
environmental value.
In some cases,
groups initiate violence to gain and maintain
control over lucrative resources. In others, the
pillaging of oil, minerals, metals, gemstones, or
timber allows wars to continue that were
initially caused by other factors, such as
unresolved grievances or ideological struggles,
as seen in Sierra Leone (diamonds) and
Afghanistan (emeralds, lapis lazuli, heroin).
Conflict has also erupted in countries such as
Columbia (oil) and Indonesia (timber, natural gas),
where the benefits accrue to a small elite while
the social and environmental burdens are borne by
local communities."
Where
are Sustainable Indigenous Communities, Where is
Sustainable Development
-
Indigenous
Affairs, 4/01
"Indigenous
people are at the cutting edge of the crisis in
sustainable development. Their communities are
concrete examples of sustainable societies,
historically evolved in diverse ecosystems.
Today, they face the challenges of extinction or
survival and renewal in a globalized world...
Indigenous peoples comprise five per cent of the
world's population but embody 80 per cent of the
world's cultural diversity. They are estimated to
occupy 20% of the world's land surface but
nurture 80% of the world biodiversity on
ancestral lands and territories... The
Traditional Native American Farmers Association
estimates that Indigenous Peoples cultivated 65%
of the crop varieties consumed throughout the
world."
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| Why sustainable
development has not been achieved in the last ten
years? Following is an
extract from "Johannesburg Summit Needs to
Highlight Effects of Poverty"
by Jessica Wilson and Stephen Law
The full text was first appeared in Global
Dialogue (Volume 6.2, July 2001)
and published by the Third World Network Features
The key
challenge in this rapidly globalising world,
which will be echoed at the world summit, is to
break the power imbalance that allows
exploitation and the abuse of women, children,
men, nature, rural communities, and developing
countries. This imbalance of power is observable
in:
- Terms
of trade that favour rich
countries over poor, and which, through
controlled access to markets, the control
of technology, etc, serve to maintain or
deepen that inequality.
- Debt
flows in which billions of
dollars flow out of the developing world
every year in the form of debt
repayments, paying interest upon interest
upon interest. Yet the ecological debt
incurred by the North and its consumptive
lifestyles has never been paid.
- Flows
of development aid from North to
South which have declined massively in
real terms over the past 10 years. More
and more, development aid is being linked
to trade agreements invariably loaded in
favour of the North; to investment in
which substantial profits are paid
offshore; to strict conditions that cut
state spending on education, health, etc;
or allocated to specific 'development'
projects such as dams, large agricultural
projects, etc, designed and constructed
by Northern consultants. More subtly, the
intrusion of multinational business into
developing countries has disrupted social
and cultural traditions based on an
understanding of the sustainable use of
resources, and supplanted them with
inappropriate new habits.
- Carbon
emissions and pollution
originating in the developed world yet
posing a global threat and leaving
developing countries even more vulnerable.
If the United States, for example, were
to emit its 'fair share' of carbon
dioxide while keeping within the 'safe
limits' of greenhouse gas emission, it
would need to reduce its CO2 emissions by
about 90%. At the same time, models
predict that the poorer countries are the
most vulnerable and the least able to
adapted to the negative effects of
climate change. It is predicted that
southern Africa will be particularly hard
hit by climate change.
- Resource
consumption, where a quarter of
the world's people consume more than
three-quarters of the world's energy,
metals and minerals; produce more than 90%
of all industrial and hazardous waste;
and eat more than half the world's food.
- Women
and children as the primary
targets of violence and abuse in
developed and developing countries, and
are among those who suffer most from
poverty, injustice, and underdevelopment.
Since 1945, 'superpower' conflict has
invariably played itself out in
developing countries, from Korea through
Vietnam to Afganistan and Somalia.
Notwithstanding the direct impact of war
on natural systems, these conflicts serve
to deepen poverty and disrupt formerly
stable social and cultural traditions.
- International
law and institutions whose
development has historically been driven
and controlled by 'Northern' interests.
Even today's generally accepted
definition of 'sustainable development'
is a Northern product.
It is clear
that people in the developing world - both
government and non-government - need to be up-front
about this: neither development nor environmental
protection can take place in a world where a
privileged few control access to and the
ownership of resources. It is not just about
ironing out small problems in international
texts, or graciously accepting another sum of
'development' aid with different strings attached.
It is about taking the lead and demonstrating
that if human beings are to survive as a species,
we need to go about managing the world in a very
different way.
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| A Checklist for the
World Leaders Vocation
for Justice, Summer 2002, Volume 16 No 2
Climate
and Energy
- Recognise
carbon debt (i.e. industrialised
countries have a historical
responsibility to reduce emissions and
provide adequate funds to reduce the
vulnerability of affected communities).
- Mandate
negotiators in the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
process to define dangerous climate
change, accelerate the next round of
emissions reductions and move towards a
system of safe, global per capita
emissions limits.
- Establish
targets and timetables for the rapid
deployment of renewable energy and the
phase-out of international and domestic
fossil fuel subsidies.
- Immediately
stop construction of new nuclear reactors.
- Stop the
reprocessing of plutonium and the
production of mixed oxide plutonium fuel.
Forests
and Biodiversity
- Commit to
allocate the necessary funds for ancient
forest conservation and sustainable use
under the Convention on Biological
Diversity's forest work programme.
- Adopt a
robust mechanism for establishing
certification of legality for timber
logging with independent verification.
- Make it
illegal to import illegally sourced
timber products.
Genetic
Engineering
- Give
priority to agricultural practices that
respect traditional knowledge and the
environment.
- Adopt a
new instrument to prevent patenting of
life and oppose the WTO's TRIPS (Trade-Related
Intellectual Property Rights) approach.
- Ratify the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
- Commit to
allowing no irreversible releases of
genetically-modified organisms (gmos).
- Commit to
public control of agricultural
biodiversity.
- Provide
international support for biodiversity
conservation.
Corporate
Accountability
- A legally-binding
international treaty which requires
international companies, wherever they
operate, to adopt best practice in their
operations and to be accountable for
their environmental and social damage to
citizens and communities.
Trade
and Food
- The
promotion of food security and non-intensive
agriculture are key issues that
governments must address through the
United Nations.
- International
environmental and social treaties should
not be subject to free trade rules and
should take precedence over them.
- The Earth
Summit should not promote the WTO's
controversial trade-liberalising agenda,
but seek new, sustainable economies.
Water
- International
co-operation on freshwater strengthened
via an international framework so that
water supplies are managed by people,
communities and governments at the most
suitable local level.
Oceans
- Moratorium
on fishing in areas of high biodiversity.
- UN General
Assembly to establish a conference to
negotiate an international agreement for
the protection of marine biodiversity.
- Genetic
engineering-free seas - no intentional or
unintentional releases of gmos into the
marine environment.
- Agree that
WTO must not oppose efforts of regional
fisheries management bodies to impose
trade restrictions to enhance compliance
with multilaterally agreed conservation
measures.
- Deep sea
mine tailings disposal should be
abolished.
Cities
- Promote
sustainable ecological initiatives in
urban areas.
Disarmament
- Reduce
military expenditure in favour of
increased expenditure on life-enhancing
initiatives.
- New
initiatives on disarmament, in particular
in relation to nuclear weapons.
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| A Quick
Look Commission
on Sustainable Development (CSD)
- being created in
December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up
of the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED), to
monitor and report on implementation of
the agreements at the local, national,
regional and international levels
- a functional
commission of the Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC)
- an inter-governmental
body whose members are elected by the
ECOSOC from amongst the Member States of
the United Nations and its specialized
agencies
United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED)
3 to 14
June 1992
Rio de Janerio, Brazil
- with
"Environment and Sustainable
Development" as principal theme,
governments recognized the need to
redirect international and national plans
and policies to ensure that all economic
decisions fully took into account any
environmental impact
- the Agenda
21 was adopted by the international
community
- the
Commission on Sustainable Development was
created after this conference for follow-up
- influenced
the subsequent UN conferences, which have
examined the relationship between human
rights, population, social development,
women and human settlements and the need
for environmentally sustainable
development.
World
Summit on Sustainable Development
26 August to 4 September 2002
Johannesburg, South Africa
- an opportunity for
leaders to adopt concrete steps and
identify quantifiable targets for better
implementing Agenda 21 ten years after
the UNCED
- will be
participated by governments and
representatives from the Major Groups
identified in Agenda 21
- started the
preparation process in 2001 in 2 steps,
including:
1 - a comprehensive "Assessment"
by all actors, identifying progress and
obstacles to the process of achieving
sustainable development
2 - a new comprehensive "Programme
of Action" developed by all actors
for the next ten years (2002-2012)
Agenda
21
- a comprehensive
plan of action to be taken at all levels
by organizations of the UN system,
governments, and major groups in every
area in which human impacts on the
environment
- consists of 27
principles addressing a wide range of
issues including poverty, hunger,
disease, illiteracy and environmental
degradations as a set of interrelated
issues
- recognises women,
children and youth, business and
industry, workers and trade unions, NGOs,
the science and technology community,
local authorities, farmers and indigenous
as 'major groups' who play crucial role
in achieving sustainable development
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| More
Online
Resources Sustainable
Social Development in a Period of Rapid
Globalisation:
Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Options
is a study conducted by the UN Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
It looks at the aspects of social development
that are thought to have some linkages with the
process of globalisation. The study reflects the
core goals of social development as identified by
the World Summit for Social Development, the
global opportunities as well as the social risks
and challenges to the realisation of these goals.
State
of the World 2002
is a report released by the Worldwatch Institute
with focus on issues central to the UN World
Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002.
It highlights social and environmental advances
as well as negative trends since the Earth Summit
in 1992. The report also points to several
significant impediments that have slowed progress
towards building a sustainable world over the
last decade.
Human
Rights in Development
is the web site of Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, where the
indivisible link between human rights and
development, which is an important key to achieve
sustainable development is explained.
Stakeholder
Forum
is an international multi-stakeholder
organisation - a network and forum on sustainable
development which has promoted outcomes from the
first Earth Summit in 1992 and is now working on
preparations for Earth Summit 2002.
Peoples-Earth-Summit
is a place for sharing your events and
organisational details and links online for the
Earth Summit. It aims to inspire diverse
individuals and organisations to join forces in
strengthening and developing initiatives,
policies and legislation which will scale up
sustainable and healthy ways of living for
humanity and the planet.
Sustainable
Development and the Environment in East Timor
is the proceeding of the Conference on
Sustainable Development organised by the Timor Aid, held in Dili on 25-31
January 2001. It publishes the presentations made
at the conference, which provide an overview of
sustainable development issues in East Timor 18
months after the total destruction of
infrastructure, and 18 months into the complex
process of nation building. A list
of organisations, strategies and directories is especially helpful
for getting more information on this topic.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-profit organisation,
with a presence in 40 countries across Europe,
the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. It focuses on
the the most crucial worldwide threats to our
planet's biodiversity and environment.
Christian
Ecology Link (CEL)
is a multi denominational UK Christian movement
for people concerned about the Environment.
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