World
Summit on Sustainable Development (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.
END
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
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