 R Safford
The MDG process must strengthen and restore the environment and natural resources for the benefit of all
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"Shameful" inaction on ecosystems threatens MDGs
29-06-2005
The United Nations Secretary-General has again emphasised that environmental degradation could jeopardise the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
But leading conservation groups have warned him that the governments of the world are failing to invest adequately in MDG 7, “ensuring environmental sustainability”, and putting at risk the ecosystem services on which all the other goals – dealing with poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, education and development – depend.
Speaking at the first-ever UN General Assembly “interactive dialogue” with civil society, Kofi Annan summarised one of the key messages he had heard: "We must be conscious of the need to mainstream the environment into future national planning processes."
BirdLife, together with Conservation International, Fauna and Flora International, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF, was represented by Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu of WWF-International and Chair of the Ghana Wildlife Society (BirdLife in Ghana).
"We in the environment and conservation movement know that poverty and environment are inescapably linked – you cannot fix poverty in the long term unless you have a healthy environment." —Dr Ntiamoa-Baidu
"We are concerned, therefore, that the MDG process, at this stage, does not adequately reflect the importance of healthy ecosystems – the basic unit at which the environment can be managed," Dr Ntiamoa-Baidu told the meeting. In the name of development, she added, natural resources are being destroyed and already-poor rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America driven into abject poverty.
This dialogue with Civil Society is part of the preparation for the “MDG+5” meeting in September, at which world leaders will review the MDGs. In his introduction to the report “In Larger Freedom”, which summarises progress in advance of MDG+5, the Secretary General asserts, "all our efforts will be in vain if their results are reversed by continued degradation of the environment and depletion of our natural resources".
But Dr Ntiamoa-Baidu said MDG 7 is the only goal which directly links to environmental issues. "Shamefully, it is the goal where governments of the world, collectively, are not measuring up." She said the NGO conservation community is realigning its programmes to ensure activities in developing countries are pro-poor, empower rural communities and open new opportunities to increase income and assets.
She recalled growing up in rural Africa. "Nature provided all our basic needs. One could argue that we were not poor because the soil was rich, the stream water was clear, the forest was extensive and teeming with wildlife and the rivers filled with fish."
Today, she said, the forest is gone. "The streams have dried up, all big and medium sized game has disappeared, the land is badly degraded and agricultural productivity is low, leaving the village people much poorer than when I was a child!"
Her experience told her that environmental degradation will affect rich and poor alike. "But the rich have the means to cushion the impacts, while the poor have to bear the full brunt. The MDG process must strengthen and restore the environment and natural resources for the benefit of all."