Landmark Report
LANDMARK REPORT URGES GOVERNANCE REFORMS TO ARREST DECLINE OF WORLD'S ENVIRONMENT
(World Bank July 11)
A landmark report released yesterday calls for
fundamental changes in how decisions are made concerning the world's natural
resources. The report, World Resources 2002-2004: Decisions for the Earth -
Balance, Voice, and Power , stresses the urgent need for such changes to arrest
the accelerating deterioration of the world's environment and to address the
crisis of global poverty.
The report calls on governments to include the public in decisions that affect
ecosystems, and for integration of environmental impacts into economic
decision-making. It also identifies public access to information from
governments, business, and non-governmental organizations as a necessary
precursor to improved environmental performance. The report argues that greater
transparency and accountability can lead to fairer and more effective management
of natural resources.
Great strides have been made and successes achieved in melding different sectors
of society, different stakeholders, to a common cause of saving planet Earth,"
said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) in releasing World Resources Report 2002-2004: Decisions for
the Earth: Balance, Voice, and Power . "Governments, businesses, civil society
and the individual citizen are more aware of what needs to be done and are
certainly taking action. But, as evidenced by the continued erosion and collapse
of so many of the planet's life support systems, it is not nearly enough and
more concerted, focused, action is urgently needed."
Statistics from World Resources 2002-2004 indicate an overwhelming human
dependence on rapidly deteriorating ecosystems, the systems that support all
life on earth. One out of every six humans depends on fish for protein needs,
yet 75 percent of the world's fisheries are over-fished or fished at their
biological limit. Nearly forty-one of every 100 people live in water-stressed
river basins. Some 350 million people are directly dependent on forests for
their survival, with global forest cover declining by 46 percent since
pre-agricultural times. Nearly half of the world's population lives on less than
$2 a day.
"Poor communities are particularly vulnerable to failed environmental
governance,since they rely more heavily on natural resources for subsistence and
income," said Dr. Kristalina Georgieva, director of the Environment Department
of The World Bank. "They are less likely to share in property rights that give
them legal control over these resources."
World Resources 2002-2004 asserts that the best way to force government action
is to empower citizens to demand it through increased public access to
information, participation, and justice in environmental decision-making. When
constituencies for the environment and for the poor have a seat at the table,
the resulting decisions are more likely to promote ecological sustainability,
social equity, and lasting conflict resolution.
"Democratization of environmental decision-making is one of the most direct
routes to better environmental decisions," said Jonathan Lash, president of the
World Resources Institute (WRI). "It is also a powerful lever for better
governance more generally, because people are willing to engage their
governments on decisions that bear so directly on their health and well-being."
A study of nine countries by The Access Initiative, a collaboration of WRI and
24 civil society groups, indicates that while some progress has been made in
promoting transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability in environmental
decision-making, much remains to be done to improve both law and practice.
UNDP, UNEP, The World Bank, and WRI have committed to improve environmental
governance through the Partnership for Principle 10, in collaboration with the
European Union, the World Conservation Union, the governments of the United
Kingdom, Chile, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and Uganda, and non-governmental
organizations from around the world. The coalition is named after the section of
the 1992 Rio Declaration that called for increased public participation in
decision-making that affects the environment.
World Resources 2002-2004 describes how corporations are responding to demands
for transparency and accountability in the context of economic globalization. It
also documents the increasing number and expanding role of civil society groups
in addressing environmental challenges, both locally and globally. The report
asserts that improving public access to information and decision-making is a way
to ensure that environmental and social considerations are fully integrated into
economic development policies.
"For UNDP, human development and the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals depend upon fair and effective governance. It is a central tenet of UNDP's
work to strengthen the voices of civil society, in particularly the poor and the
marginalised in shaping the policies that impact their livelihoods and the
environment," said Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the United Nations
Development Programme.
World Resources 2002-20004: Decisions for the Earth is the 10th in a series of
biennial reports on global environment and development issues published since
1984. Since 1988, it has been published jointly by the World Bank, the United
Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the
World Resources Institute.
Copies of World Resources 2000-2001: Decisions for the Earth - Balance, Voice,
and Power can be downloaded from the media preview section of
http://newsroom.wri.org. A 20-page
journalist's guide is also available.
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