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Environmental Conferences
Thirty years ago the United Nations
convened the first world conference on the environment
and development. In 2002, on the eve of the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, to take place in
South Africa, the challenge is to create a consensus-based
action plan to save the planet.
The first meeting convened by
the UN was the Conference
on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in
June 1972. At that time, the issue was not yet part
of the international agenda, nor was it a major concern
of governments, most of which lacked any institutions
related to environmental protection.
The final declaration of the
Stockholm meeting stressed the responsibility of humans
in preserving their natural surroundings. It was the
beginning of a debate that continues to this day.
As a result of the 1972 conference, the United
Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was created.
Twenty years passed before the
next international environmental meeting. In 1992,
the UN Conference
on Environment and Development, also known as
the Earth
Summit, drew thousands of world leaders, experts
and activists to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
That was the highest-level global
meeting ever: 172 countries sent delegations, and
an unprecedented 107 heads of state, along with tens
of thousands of civil society representatives. The
government leaders signed a series of commitments,
the most important of which was Agenda
21, which outlines a plan of action for achieving
human development that is compatible with the protection
of the planet.
In fact, a key contribution of
that Earth Summit was the dissemination of the notion
of sustainable development, in other words, measures
that allow us to meet the needs of people today without
compromising the ability of future generations to
provide for their needs.
The Rio Conference, which had
been preceded by the successful UN Summit on Children,
triggered planning for a whole series of world
conferences under the auspices of the United Nations.
And another decade passed before
the environment once again became the subject of another
high-level meet. From Aug 26 to Sep 4 the South African
city of Johannesburg will be the scenario for the
World
Summit on Sustainable Development.
The conference is also known
as Rio+10 because it is being held 10 years after
the Earth Summit. One of the objectives is to evaluate
progress made on the commitments made in Brazil, on
protecting biodiversity and the ozone layer, for example.
But there is also the underlying challenge to launch
a new strategy for achieving true sustainable development.
Will it be possible to meet that
goal? That is the big question hovering over the Rio+10
Summit.
UN
Conference on the Human Environment, 1972
UN
Conference on Environment and Development, 1992
World
Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002
Earth
Summit Report
Environment
and Sustainable Development
Agenda
21
UN
Conferences and Events
UNEP:
Mission Statement
Johannesburg and the
Summit
The city of Johannesburg, South
Africa, will be the epicenter of discussion and debate
for two weeks, as it is hosting a key international
meeting, the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
which is to draw tens of thousands of delegates from
around the world.
This Summit, convened by the
United Nations, is expected to bring together at least
100 heads of state and a total of 65,000 delegates,
according to organizers' estimates. For the host city
the event poses an opportunity and a challenge.
Beyond the meetings and panel
discussions during the Summit itself, the city has
had to face a long preparation process, including
building infrastructure and developing a strategy
for dealing with the influx of so many visitors in
a short period of time.
The Johannesburg Summit Company
was created to handle the preparations for the conference,
which is also known as Rio+10, as it is taking place
a decade after the last world environmental meet of
this magnitude, also organized by the UN, in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992.
The Johannesburg city authorities,
who have a web site with information on the pre-summit
groundwork, report that two weeks before the arrival
of the delegates, more than 43,000 hotel rooms have
been reserved. The organizers are also working with
local families to provide housing for 7,000 more visitors.
This South African city is 115
years old, founded in 1886. It is a mining and industrial
center, with a population of 3.8 million residents
(1998). An Internet site providing figures about the
city states that 40 percent of the population is younger
than 24, and 72 percent is black.
The Internet is an important
source of information for travelers heading to South
Africa for the Summit. In addition to information
specific to the conference, one can find Johannesburg
tourism guides, weather reports and other services
available in the city, set 2,000 meters above sea
level.
Johannesburg
World Summit Company
World
Summit on Sustainable Development
Joburg:
Official site of the city of Johannesburg
Johannesburg
by Numbers
Earthsummit2002:
suggestions for travellers
UN-Cyberschoolbus:
Johannesburg profile
Ananzi:
Portal about South Africa
Johannesburg:
services guide
Biological Corridors
The
concept of a biological or ecological corridor entails
preserving the connections between protected areas
with important biodiversity with the aim of preventing
the fragmentation of natural habitats. Today these
corridors are being promoted as an innovative way
to promote sustainable development as well as conservation.
A search for information on the
Internet about this type of natural conservation project
shows that the most talked about initiative today
is the Meso-American
Biological Corridor, which covers the countries
of Central America and the southern Mexican states.
But it is not the only effort of this kind.
There are natural corridor projects
under way in Brazil's Amazon
and Atlantic forests, in the Andean zones of Ecuador
(in Spanish) and Peru, and some smaller initiatives
in Argentina and the United States. While most of
the biological corridors mentioned on the Internet
are located in the Americas, other regions are following
this route, such as in the Black
Sea region and in Bhutan.
A web site that explains
the term "corridor", as it is used in
the biological sense, states that this nomenclature
dates back to the 1930s, though it was not until the
1960s that it was proposed as a way of uniting nature
preserves or other areas to protect species diversity.
The corridors should permit an
increase in the size and possibilities for survival
of the smaller populations of species, according to
the web site. But to be effective, these corridors
must be well designed.
The fundamental goal of biological
corridors is the conservation of ecosystems.
A Brazilian web
page states that corridors encompass areas of
exceptional biodiversity. One such case is the Brazilian
Atlantic forest, where a project has found that ecosystems
there have become "islands of nature". The
challenge of the corridors "is to re-establish
interconnection".
In the case of the Meso-American
Biological Corridor, emphasis is on preserving
a relatively small area that is nevertheless home
to a great diversity of plant and animal species.
Meso-American
Biological Corridor (In Spanish)
World
Bank Group: Pilot Program to Conserve Brazilian Rain
Forest
Ecuadorian
Biological Corridor (In Spanish)
World
Bank and Mexico in Biological Corridor
Black
Sea Ecological Corridor
Proposal
for Ecological Corridor in Puerto Rico
Towards
a Definition of Biological Corridor
Biological
Corridors in Bhutan
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