World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

Task Force fo the Preparation of WSSD Website http://www.rrcap.unep.org/wssd

PRESS RELEASE

Asia-Pacific preparatory process defined for next year's World Summit on Sustainable Development

Bangkok/ Manila, May 18, 2001 - The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have begun regional preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September, 2002

The three agencies will pool resources in organizing a series of subregional and regional consultative meetings with Governments and civil society organizations.

The Summit will come a decade after the historic United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which adopted Agenda 21 – the blueprint for sustainable development - and spawned the conventions on climate change, biological diversity and desertification.

Recent analyses by ADB, ESCAP and UNEP all show that, despite modest progress in some areas of resource management, the environment of the Asia-Pacific region has declined seriously over the past decade, driven by increasing population and consumption patterns and continued use of polluting and wasteful technologies.

A major issue to emerge over this period has been the globalization of markets and emergence of ‘the new economy’, driven by communications advances, trade liberalization and economic policies, creating new levels of wealth but also widening the gap between the rich and a growing number of poor.

The preparatory process will aim to assess the gains made and lessons learnt since the Rio Summit and identify the human and physical resources needed to reverse the decline in region’s natural ecosystems.

It will propose policy initiatives that integrate poverty reduction, social development, governance and environmental improvement goals - now recognized as a critical factor for achieving sustainable development.

And it will identify priority projects to promote further implementation of Agenda 21, building on the Regional Action Programme for Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development, 2001-2005, adopted at the Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, in Kitakyushu, Japan last September.

Discussion papers identifying the experiences, challenges and new initiatives for sustainable development will be prepared for Central Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, the South Pacific and North East Asia.

These will be reviewed at a series of multi-stakeholder ‘roundtable’ meetings and at intergovernmental meetings during the period June to August, 2001.

A subregional approach has been found to enhance information sharing and collaboration due to shared socio-cultural backgrounds, sustainable development challenges, and problems of transboundary pollution.

From this consultative process, environment and development trends, causes and consequences of environmental problems, and issues and priorities will be defined in each subregion.

This will be synthesized into a ‘platform of regional issues’ for further multi-stakeholder consultation and adoption at a regional preparatory meeting – probably in November 2001 - for submission to the Johannesburg Summit.

The first of the Global ‘PrepCom’ meetings was held last month at UN Headquarters. Two more are scheduled in New York early next year, leading to the final PrepCom for the Summit, to be held in Indonesia from May 27 to June 7 2002.

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For further information contact:

Surendra Shresta, Director UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia-Pacific, tel (662) 516 2124, surendra@ait.ac.th or Tim Higham, Regional Information Officer, UNEP/ROAP, Bangkok, Thailand, tel: (662) 288-2127, email: higham.unescap@un.org

Rezaul Karim, Chief, Environment Section, ESCAP, tel (662) 288-1614, karim.unescap@un.org, or David Lazarus, Chief, UNIS, Bangkok, (662) 288-1866, lazarus.unescap@un.org

J. Warren Evans, Manager, Environment Division, Office of Environment and Social Development, Asian Development Bank, tel (632) 632-6883, jevans@adb.org.

Note to Editors:

Background information, and the dates and venues for the preparatory meetings, as they are confirmed, can be found at the following web sites:

http://www.rrcap.unep.org/wssd/

http://www.un.org/rio+10