Monday, June 10, 2002 12:24 PM
WSSD.Info News Issue #4 Part 2

Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Distributed exclusively to the 2002SUMMIT-L list by IISD Reporting Services
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Editor's note: Welcome to the fourth issue of WSSD.Info News, compiled by Richard Sherman. We hope to provide this service on at least a fortnightly basis from now through the Summit. If you should come across a news article or have a submission for the next issue, please send it directly to Richard. WSSD.Info News is an exclusive publication of IISD for the 2002SUMMIT-L list and should not be reposted or republished to other lists/websites without the permission of IISD (you can write Kimo for permission.) If you have been forwarded this issue and would like to subscribe to 2002SUMMIT-L, please visit http://iisd.ca/scripts/lyris.pl?join=2002summit-l.

Funding for the production of WSSD.Info News (part of the IISD Reporting Services annual program) has been provided by The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Canada (through CIDA), the United States (through USAID), the Swiss Agency for Environment, Forests and Landscape (SAEFL), the United Kingdom (through the Department for International Development - DFID), the European Commission (DG-ENV), the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Government of Germany (through German Federal Ministry of Environment - BMU, and the German Federal Ministry of Development Cooperation - BMZ). General Support for the Bulletin during 2002 is provided by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Environment of Finland, the Government of Australia, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Environment of Norway, Swan International, and the Japanese Ministry of Environment (through the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies – IGES). If you like WSSD.Info News, please thank them for their support.

Contents

1. BUSH BLOCKS BID TO SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVES (Independent 2 June 2002)
2. ACTION PLAN FOR GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT NEARLY COMPLETE: U.N. OFFICIAL (Associated Press 2 June 2002)
3. BRITAIN CRITICIZES U.S. STANCE ON FARM SUBSIDIES AND KYOTO PROTOCOL Associated Press 2 June 2002
4. HOPES FOR KYOTO RISE AFTER JAPAN AND EU RATIFY TREATY (The Guardian 1 June 2002)
5. CONSUMPTION BAROMETER' TO HELP KEEP JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT GREEN United Nations Development Programme 31 May 2002
6. SPEAKERS AT PREPARATORY MEETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT REPORT ON PROGRESS IN NEGOTIATIONS (United Nations Press Release 31 May 2002)
7. IMPLEMENTATION OF DESERTIFICATION CONVENTION SEEN AS KEY TO PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, FIGHTING POVERTY IN DRYLANDS
8. AT BALI TALKS, NEGOTIATORS HAMMER OUT TEXT FOR ADOPTION AT JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT (United Nations 31 May 2002)
9. POVERTY STRAINING ENVIRONMENT (The Herald (Harare) via All Africa 31 May 2002)
10. UN REPORTS PROGRESS IN TALKS ON WORLD SUMMIT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (United Nations 30 May 2002)
11. DEMAND FUELS ILLEGAL LOGGING, ACTIVISTS AT UN CONFERENCE SAY (Associated Press Writer 30 May 2002)
12. GOOD PROGRESS MADE IN BALI ON NEGOTIATION OF OUTCOME DOCUMENT FOR JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT (United Nations Press Release 30 May 2002)
13. RI SEEKS MORE AID IN BALI TALKS (The Jakarta Post 30 May 2002)
14. OECD CRITICAL OF ITS COMMITMENTS (The Jakarta Post 30 May 2002 )
15. CHINA TRIES TO EXCLUDE PRO-TIBETAN GROUP (The Jakarta Post 30 May 2002)
16. AFRICA WELL SET AT UN CONFERENCE (South African Press Association via All Africa 30 May2002)
17. STAKEHOLDERS' VOICES (The Jakarta Post 30 May 2002)
18. DEVELOPMENT TALKS LIKELY TO BE EXTENDED (The Jakarta Post 30 May 2002)
19. BALI MEETING, WORLD SUMMIT TO LIKELY FAIL IN REGULATING COMPANIES (Jakarta Post 29 May 2002)
20. PARTNERSHIP, CAPACITY BUILDING DOMINATE MULTI-STAKEHOLDERS MEETING (The Jakarta Post 29 May 2002)
21. WATER SHOULD BE AT TOP OF JOHANNESBURG AGENDA, PREPARATORY MEETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE TOLD (United Nations Press Release 29 May 2002)
22. VIEWS EXPRESSED ON ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY, CAPACITY-BUILDING, PARTNERSHIPS, AS MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE CONCLUDES (United Nations Press Release 29 May 2002)
23. HOW EFFECTIVE ARE DEVELOPMENT FUNDS? Financing for sustainability: Priorities and roadblocks (International Herald Tribune 29 May 2002)
24. STATES ACCUSED OF BLOCKING TARGETS FOR GREEN SUMMIT (Inter Press Service 29 May 2002)
25. HEALTH IS GREATEST WEALTH Vigorous agenda: The issues affect us all (International Herald Tribune 28 May 2002)
26. ACTION PLANS FOR WATER, SANITATION, ENERGY, POVERTY ERADICATION AMONG KEY ISSUES UNDER NEGOTIATION IN BALI (United Nations Press Release 28 May 2002)
27. 'CHAIRMAN'S TEXT BENEFITS THE NORTH (The Jakarta Post 28 May 2002)
28. AGENDA 21 UNDER REVIEW IN BALI CONFERENCE (The Jakarta Post 28 May 2002)
29. GREENPEACE MULLS ACTIONS IN BALI (The Jakarta Post 28 May 2002)
30. GLOBAL GROUPS SEEK ACTION ON MINING INDUSTRY (Inter Press Service 28 May 2002)
31. GREEN ACTIVISTS SAY WEALTHY COUNTRIES WRECKING ENVIRONMENT CONVENTION (Associated Press 28 May 2002)
32. BALI HOSTS DEVELOPMENT TALKS (BBC 27 May 2002)
33. NEWS AND EVENTS (International Herald Tribune 27 May 2002)
34. TENSION MOUNTS OVER "EARTH SUMMIT" AGENDA (OneWorld South Asia 27 May 2002)
35. NORTH AND SOUTH AT OPPOSITE ENDS IN BALI'S ENVIRONMENT TALKS (The Jakarta Post 27 May 2002)
36. NEED FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE, DEMOCRATIZATION, TRANSPARENCY, EQUITY STRESSED AS MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE BEGINS (United Nations Press Release, 27 May 2002)
37. THOUSANDS OF INTERNATIONAL DELEGATES MEET FOR BALI DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT (Associated Press 27 May 2002)

38. RICH STANDING BY IDLY WHILE POOR DIE By JEFFREY D. SACHS
39. WHAT WILL BE THE LIKELY OUTCOME OF JOBURG SUMMIT?  By Agus Sari 7 June 2002
40. A CALL TO ACTION FOR THE PLANET By Guy Tousignant and Claude Martin CARE International /WWF International. 5 June 2002
41. CATASTROPHE IS NOT INEVITABLE JANE GOODALL Bangkok Post 5 June 2002
42. WORLD SUMMIT NOT MORE HOT AIR by Aubrey Matshiqi Business Day via All Africa 5 June 2002
43. ISSUE IS NOT ENVIRONMENT VERSUS DEVELOPMENT, BUT HOW TO INTEGRATE THEM, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS United Nations Press Release 30 May 2002
44. CONCRETE RESULTS ARE ACHIEVABLE' Viewpoint: Nitin Desai, secretary-general, World Summit on Sustainable Development International Herald Tribune 27 May 2002

45. ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA AT THE FOURTH PREPARATORY COMMITTEE MEETING FOR THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
46. PROGRESS WILL DEPEND ON ACTIONS BY ALL THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS, AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES, DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS BALI PREPARATORY MEETING United Nations Press Release 5 June 2002
47. GOALS AT THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Paula J. Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Remarks to the Fourth Session of the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development Bali, Indonesia 5 June 2002
48. FOURTH SESSION OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE UN WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, MAY 27-JUNE 7, 2002 Jonathan A. Margolis, Head of the United States Delegation Remarks to the Fourth Session of the Preparatory Committee (Ministerial Level) Bali, Indonesia 27 May 2002
49. OPENING REMARKS MR. NITIN DESAI SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FOURTH PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT United Nations 27 May 2002

50. FACTBOX - What's on table at talks for "Earth Summit 2" (Reuters via Planet Ark 7 June 2002) http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16322/story.htm
51. Global water "crisis" high on Earth Summit Agenda (Reuters via Planet Ark 7 June 2002) http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16323/story.htm
52. US, poor nations face off at Earth Summit talks (Reuters via Planet Ark 7June 2002) http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16309/story.htm
53. Ministers Struggle to Wrap Up Earth Summit Talks (Reuters 7 June 2002) http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=UP3W24LW1DOXYCRBAE0CFFAKEEATGIWD?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1060655
54. Big cities a headache UN summit wants to address (Reuters via Planet Ark 6 June 2002) http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16295/story.htm
55. Business says states not living up to Rio promise (Reuters via ENN 5 June 2002) http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/06/06052002/reu_47436.asp
56. EU warns Earth Summit agenda unrealistic (Reuters via Planet Ark 5 June 2002) http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16270/story.htm
57. U.N. Urges Governments to Finish Earth Summit Plan (Reuters 5 June 2002) http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/world/3401914.htm
58. Bali village eyes tourists but puts environment first (Reuters 4 June 2002) http://asia.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=2SO32UKF2WI1GCRBAEZSFFAKEEATIIWD?type=topnews&StoryID=1043285
59. Ministers to add muscle to Bali Earth Summit talks (Reuters via Planet Ark 3 June 2002) http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16224/story.htm
60. Negotiators Try to Wrap Up Earth Summit Plan (Reuters 3 June 2002) http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=V1AJZBT5C05G2CRBAEZSFFAKEEATIIWD?type=worldnews&StoryID=1041091
61. Ministers to add muscle to Bali Earth Summit talks (Reuters 2 June 2002) http://asia.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=SL4TH4GZ0MNKMCRBAE0CFFAKEEATGIWD?type=topnews&StoryID=1038132
62. EU Ratifies Global Warming Pact, Slams Washington (Reuters 31 May 2002) http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=K2QSXPXKSZBE4CRBAEKSFEYKEEATIIWD?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1036273
63. Delegates closer to deal on Earth Summit plan (Reuters 31 May 2002) http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/3368950.htm
64. Bush Yet to Decide if Will Attend 'Earth Summit 2' (Reuters 31 May 2002) http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=3E1HSDN2GT1QKCRBAE3CFFA?type=politicsnews&StoryID=1032924
65. Delegates Inch Closer to Deal on Earth Summit Plan (Reuters 31 May 2002) http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=HK1NCO2UEVSXMCRBAE3CFFA?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1032197
66. Delegates Close in on Earth Summit Plan, NGOs Livid (Reuters 31 May 2002) http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=NXX3DFQMUBPKQCRBAE3CFFA?type=worldnews&StoryID=1034358

1. BUSH BLOCKS BID TO SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVES

   Independent, 2 June 2002
   Internet: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=301420

   European governments have long suspected it. Environmentalists have long proclaimed it. But now there is clear evidence that President George Bush's environmental policy is indeed a load of crap. For the United States is blocking an international plan to halve the number of people, two-fifths of the population of the planet, who have no sanitation. Some 2.4 billion people lack even a bucket for their wastes, and this is one of the main causes of world disease.

   European and developing nations, meeting in Bali, Indonesia, want the world's leaders to agree to meet this target by 2015. They are proposing that the plan be put in front of the leaders when they meet for a new "Earth Summit" in Johannesburg in August. The summit - officially called the World Summit for Sustainable Development - is to concentrate on the environmental problems faced by the world's poorest people.

   The Bali meeting, which is the final preparatory conference for the summit, is running into trouble, with the Bush administration, in the words of one top Whitehall source, being "very, very negative". More than 2.2 million people - mainly children - die in the Third World every year from diseases caused by lack of sanitation and by dirty drinking water. The United Nations says that "the incidence of some illnesses and death could drop by as much as 75 per cent" if adequate clean water and sanitation were provided.

   Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who is leading Britain's delegation to Bali, describes dealing with this issue as "absolutely key to any prospect of tackling poverty". The US position is baffling the other countries at the conference because the Bush administration has already agreed a target of halving the number of people without clean drinking water by the same date - and this is seen as inseparable from solving the problem of sanitation. The British officials held a special meeting with the American delegation on Thursday, but did not receive any clear reason for their objection to the plan.

   The clash over sanitation is only one of a range of issues holding up an agreement on a plan of action to present to the summit. Opec countries are opposing a plan - originating from an initiative by Tony Blair - to halve the number of people, currently two billion, without any modern sources of energy, mainly by tapping into renewable sources. And the US, Canada, Japan and Australia are objecting to European proposals to make energy consumption in developed countries more environmentally friendly. Senior British ministers fear that if the Bali conference fails to reach agreement it will be hard for the Johannesburg summit to succeed - and the best chance of tackling world poverty in two decades will be lost for the indefinite future.

    

2. ACTION PLAN FOR GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT NEARLY COMPLETE: U.N. OFFICIAL

   Associated Press, June 2002
   Internet: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020602/ap_wo_en_po/indonesia_development_conference_2

   JAKARTA, Indonesia - Delegates at a United Nations summit were close to completing an action plan for an upcoming environmental conference, but were still stuck on several issues, a U.N. official said Sunday.

   Thousands of delegates have gathered at a fourth preparatory summit meeting in Bali and hoped to finish negotiations on the action plan for the World Summit on Sustainable Development by Sunday night. But talks broke off early Sunday morning, leading U.N. officials to suggest the plan will not be completed until at least Tuesday. "It's gone a little slower than what we expected," said Lowell Flanders, a senior U.N. official tracking the negotiations. "But we are getting there. We're not at loggerheads yet." Sticking points include issues of good governance, transfer of technology and financial resources.

   About 500 delegates have been meeting since Monday to hammer out a nonbinding agreement and timetables that will be voted on at the conference in Johannesburg in August by the heads of state. Delegates in Johannesburg will also vote on a political declaration that will first be approved next week in Bali. Some 50,000 delegates are expected for what is being dubbed the "Earth Summit 2." The meeting is timed to fall on the 10-year anniversary of the Rio De Janeiro Summit, where the first global agreements on how to protect the environment were reached. Critics say many of the goals governments promised in Rio have not been achieved.

   Three earlier preparatory meetings for the summit prioritized five areas for negotiation: water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and preserving natural ecosystems. Delegates at the Bali meeting are expected to adopt targets agreed at the U.N. Millennium Summit, such as halving by 2015 the number of people who face poverty and hunger and the number who lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

   The United Nations estimate 1.2 billion people around the world live in poverty. At least 1.1 billion lack access to safe drinking water. Environmentalists at the talks have accused wealthy nations - led by Japan and the United States _of blocking proposals that would tie governments to a timetable for implementing the action plan and providing money for development programs to achieve its goals. Delegates from rich nations have used the forum to urge poorer countries to address corruption rampant in much of the developing world by enacting laws promoting good governance and through stronger law enforcement.

   The Bali talks opened on Monday and run for two weeks. Environmental and economic ministers from dozens of countries are due to attend talks June 5-7.

    

3. BRITAIN CRITICIZES U.S. STANCE ON FARM SUBSIDIES AND KYOTO PROTOCOL

   Associated Press, 2 June 2002
   Internet: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020602/ap_wo_en_po/britain_us_development_2

   LONDON - Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett on Sunday said U.S. decisions to subsidize its farming industry and abstain from the Kyoto protocol on global warming were simply short-term steps in the wrong direction. Speaking before attending a meeting this week in Bali that is paving the way for the United Nations eco-summit at Johannesburg in August, Beckett called on other nations to keep pressure on the United States to fall into line with international agreements on the environment.

   "I do agree that the recent American Farm Bill is certainly a step in the wrong direction, but it is not what the administration wanted," Beckett told British Broadcasting Corp. television. "We have seen a short-term step in the wrong direction in America. What we have to do now is try to make sure that they continue to pursue what they say are their long-term goals."

   The farm bill, signed by U.S. President George W. Bush last month, increases spending by nearly 80 percent over the cost of existing programs and is estimated to cost around dlrs 190 billion over the next 10 years. It raises subsidy rates for grain and cotton growers and revives a target-price system abolished in 1996 to provide supplemental income. It also brings back subsidies for wool and honey producers and provides new payments for milk, peanuts, lentils and dry peas.

   Beckett said cuts to agricultural subsidies in the developed world would be good both for Third World farmers, who would gain greater access to lucrative European and American markets, and for First World consumers and taxpayers. Beckett said Bush's refusal to endorse the Kyoto protocol did not sound the death-knell for the agreement to tackle climate change.

   "Americans are major polluters, but don't forget that this American government has said that they accept that there is a climate change problem and accept that action has to be taken to tackle it in America," she said. "I personally believe that as we go on with the Kyoto protocol ... there is every possibility that in the fullness of time the American business community and interests in America that can see America losing out as a result of some of these things will start to rethink and start to increase the pressure on America itself."

   The Bali talks to agree on an action plan for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa opened on Monday and run for two weeks. Environmental and economic ministers from dozens of countries are due to attend the gathering for three days from June 5. Some 50,000 delegates are expected in Johannesburg for what is being called the "Earth Summit 2." The meeting is timed to fall on the 10-year anniversary of the Rio De Janeiro Summit, where the first global agreements on how to protect the environment were reached.

    

4. HOPES FOR KYOTO RISE AFTER JAPAN AND EU RATIFY TREATY

   The Guardian, 1 June 2002
   Internet: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,725841,00.html

   The European Union and Japan ratified the Kyoto protocol yesterday, binding themselves to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite America's refusal to have anything to do with the treaty.  The decision, announced on the first day of a meeting in Bali to make final preparations for the Earth summit in Johannesburg in August, is designed to give the talks much-needed impetus.

     John Prescott, the deputy prime minister and one of the architects of the Kyoto deal in 1997, was delighted. The Japanese foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, rang him yesterday to wish him a happy birthday and tell him of her government's surprise decision to ratify.

   Mr Prescott said: "Mrs Kawaguchi rang me at 8.30am to say she had a birthday present for me. It was a nice way to start the day. She knows how much importance I attach to this, having been so closely involved for so long."

   It is exactly 10 years since the convention on climate change was first negotiated at the inaugural Earth summit in Rio. The first legally binding cuts were negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, but agreeing the details proved difficult and the United States, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, pulled out when George Bush was elected.  The rest of the industrialised world decided to go ahead with the treaty in Bonn last year and the EU promised to ratify it before the Johannesburg summit. Some of America's allies, particularly Canada and Australia, have been reluctant to proceed. Japan, however, is emotionally attached to the treaty because it was negotiated in one of its cities, and had been keen to push ahead as long as the US was on board.

   For the Kyoto protocol to enter into force, 55 parties to the convention must ratify it, including industrialised countries accounting for 55% of their total combined carbon dioxide emissions in 1990. As of yesterday the first condition was met but the second was proving more difficult because the US, which alone accounts for 36.1% of the emissions, refuses to take part. Almost all other large industrial countries, including Russia and the eastern European states, need to join.

   The ratifications have given fresh impetus to the ratification process, increasing the percentage of industrialised country emissions now covered under the protocol from 2.7% to around 35.2%. Mr Prescott said Russia, with 17.4%, had already begun the process, and President Vladimir Putin had promised to complete. More signatories were still required to reach 55%.

   In ratifying the Kyoto protocol, the EU legally commits itself to reduce greenhouse gases by 8% from 1990 levels in the period 2008 to 2012, and Japan by 6%. Some countries in the EU, such as Spain and Ireland, with developing economies are allowed to increase emissions and others have offered larger reductions. The UK's share is a 12.5% reduction, made easier by the switch from coal to gas, which produces less carbon dioxide for the same amount of heat. Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic and Romania, each with 1.2% of emissions, are likely to be keen to take part in the Kyoto process. When international carbon trading starts they will both have exceeded emission reduction targets and be able to sell surplus carbon dioxide to countries that cannot reach their targets.

   Canada, with 3.3% of emissions, and Australia, with 2.1%, are likely to face increasing diplomatic pressure to comply with the Bonn agreement, and to show that even without the US the world is willing to tackle climate change

    

5. CONSUMPTION BAROMETER' TO HELP KEEP JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT GREEN

   United Nations Development Programme, 1 May 2002
   Internet: http://allafrica.com/stories/200206010001.html

   Delegates to the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, will be able to consult a "consumption barometer" offering a daily update on how much food, water, energy, paper and other resources they use. Environmental audits carried out before, during and after the summit will chart its impact -- and what it would have been without efforts to stay "green." The Greening WSSD Initiative, launched by the Government of South Africa, UNDP and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), will showcase environmental best practices to leave a useful legacy for the host country and create greater awareness about environmental concerns championed at the summit.

   More than 60,000 participants are expected to converge on Johannesburg for the event from 26 August to 4 September. The Greening Initiative is expected to influence how UN and other major gatherings are organized in future. The Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs (DACEL) of Gauteng Province, UNDP and GEF are providing more than US$4 million for the initiative. The South Africa country office of the World Conservation Union is providing technical assistance and managing the initiative.

   Mary Metcalfe, the provincial member of the executive in charge of DACEL, said: "We must make sure that in our efforts to demonstrate and document the effects of the summit we leave a legacy of greater public awareness, which will positively influence how people relate to the environment in the future."

   The initiative is a "tangible way of showing that we can learn by putting into action the message of the summit," said John Ohiorhenuan, UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator.

   Mohamed T. El-Ashry, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of GEF, said that the project will also demonstrate to participants the "choices that they can make during the WSSD and in their daily lives to minimize the negative environmental impacts of their activities."

   Over the next few months, extensive awareness campaigns through the media, schools and other channels will educate South Africans about the challenges and opportunities of promoting sound environmental practices and sustainable development. Summit organizers will try to ensure that procurement transactions take into consideration and reflect best environmental practice. Service providers, such as those dealing with waste management and transport, are expected to apply environmentally-friendly standards in their services. Caterers are expected to source and use reusable and recyclable materials as much as possible, and the five "R's" -- reduce, re-use, replace, recover and recycle - will be watchwords for the summit.

   Specially designed tours will enable delegates to visit field projects that demonstrate the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable development at the local level. Awards for the hospitality industry will encourage environmentally sustainable operations. For further information please contact Sharon Chetty, UNDP South Africa, or Cassandra Waldon, UNDP Communications Office.

    

6. SPEAKERS AT PREPARATORY MEETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT REPORT ON PROGRESS IN NEGOTIATIONS

   United Nations Press Release , 31 May 2002
   Internet http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/bali/pressreleases/envdevb10-e.htm

   Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Denied Accreditation

   The fourth and final Preparatory Committee for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development was briefed this morning on the state of negotiations on the Summit implementation plan, with speakers underlining the progress made in the negotiations thus far and outlining the areas that required further deliberation.

   In other business this morning, the Committee decided to reject accreditation of a non-governmental organization (NGO), the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, by a vote of 90 in favour of no action to 37 against, with 10 abstentions.

   Representatives have formed two working groups to advance their negotiations on the Chairman's paper, which contains the text of the draft implementation programme (the latest version of the text is contained in documents A/CONF.199/PC/WG.1/2 & WG.2/2), with a third group deliberating on a Vice-Chairman's paper (see document A/CONF.199/PC/L.3) entitled "Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development". 

   STATUS OF NEGOTIATIONS

   KYOTAKA AKASAKA (Japan) Co-Chair of Working Group I, which is assigned to deal with the first half of the Chairman's paper, said the Group had worked very hard to meet the Chairman's deadline of completion of work by this evening.  About 80 per cent of the text was now agreed upon, within today's deadline.  The text of two "rather large" areas, energy and oceans, had been under intensive consultation and were not included in the latest version of the text.  Even in those cases, good progress had been made, with many differences having been bridged.  More time was needed to complete discussions on those items. Issues remaining in brackets included how to deal with financial and technical issues.  Some of the issues were linked to those being discussed by the other Working Groups, which made it hard to complete discussions without seeing the results of those Groups.

   RICHARD BALLHORN (Canada), Co-Chair of Working Group II, which is assigned to deal with the second half of the Chairman's paper, said the latest text contained some reproduction errors -- corrected copies were available at the back of the room.  The first chapter of the section, on sustainable development in a globalizing world, had many bolded and bracketed texts.  Trade and finance issues would have to be dealt with in the relevant contact group.  It was not as unresolvable as it looked. He said chapter 6, on health and sustainable development, was in reasonably good shape.  Chapter 7, on Small Island developing States, was also in reasonable shape.  Discussions were continuing, and there was a good chance that a number of the issues would be resolved perhaps even by this afternoon.  Chapter 8, on sustainable development for Africa, had proceeded at a slightly different pace because there had been less time at the last Preparatory Committee to deal with it. Good progress had been made in a contact group on Africa yesterday, he continued.  It was quite a substantial text and in some cases delegations were having to check with their authorities before they could decide.  He thought a substantial text could be achieved, but that some issues remained to be resolved.  He noted that there was now a chapter 8 bis -- proposals for very concentrated regional initiatives to promote sustainable development. In the final chapter, means of implementation, paragraphs 59 to 70 were the subject of a contact group and required significant further group.  He hoped experts in finance and trade -- where the biggest challenges lay -- could sit down resolve those issues.  Good progress had been made on the remaining issues.

   IHAD GAMELELDIN (Egypt), Co-Chair of Working Group II, said he was confident that the remaining issues could be resolved.  He noted good process had been made on such issues as capacity-building and science and technology transfer.  Discussions were ongoing in the area of health.  In a nutshell, progress was being made.

   EMIL SALIM (Indonesia), Chairman of the Preparatory Committee, then urged delegates to undertake a constructive approach to the remaining negotiations.  The time had come "to clean the text by focusing our discussion on the brackets". The representative of Venezuela, for the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said any paragraph or section absent from the two documents before the Committee didn't mean that they were outside the document in real terms -- they were present in the text, even though they didn't appear in it. The CHAIRMAN assured the Committee that such passages would not be left out.

   NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION ACCREDITATION

   When the Committee took up accreditation of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, it had before it a letter from the Permanent Representative of China (see document A/CONF.199/PC/19).  The letter sets out China's firm objection to accreditation of the NGO to the World Summit and its preparatory process, because it was "a separatist organization that is same in nature as 'International Campaign for Tibet' and 'Tibet Justice Center' whose applications for accreditation were resolutely rejected" by the Preparatory Committee.

   At the outset of the Committee's consideration, the representative of the United States said it was his position that legitimate NGOs, such as the one in question, applying for accreditation could and should be approved.  All well-established and widely recognized NGOs could make positive contributions to the Summit.  The NGO in question was well qualified to be accredited and to participate.  He proposed that the plenary grant the request for accreditation. The representative of Spain, for the European Union and associated States, then said the Union welcomed the participation of NGOs and other major groups at the Summit.  They had an important part to play in the discussions. 

   A large number would be present at Johannesburg representing a broad range of different views that would help lead to a fruitful exchange of views.  The Union believed that the NGO in question should be able to participate in Johannesburg and he supported its accreditation. 

   This didn't mean it supported its views, however.  The Union supported the call for a vote just made by the United States delegation. The representative of China next reaffirmed his delegation's objection to the accreditation of the NGO in question.  He moved to take "no action" on the proposal of the United States and requested an immediate vote by roll call.  The Chinese government had consistently supported participation in the Summit of NGOs operating in the spirit of the United Nations Charter. 

   The NGO in question was a political organization, which had the aim of splitting China's territory.  It had never carried out any activities to help the socio-economic situation of Tibet, he noted.  He strongly appealed to vote yes to China's no action motion and reject the NGO's application for accreditation. Following China's request, both Pakistan and Cuba spoke in favour of the motion. 

   The United States and Spain, for the European Union, spoke against the motion. The motion was then carried by a vote of 90 in favour to 37 against with 10 abstentions.

   Also today, the Committee decided to accredit to the current meeting and the World Summit two intergovernmental organizations, the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development and the Center for International Forestry Research.

    

7. IMPLEMENTATION OF DESERTIFICATION CONVENTION SEEN AS KEY TO PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, FIGHTING POVERTY IN DRYLANDS

   United Nations , 31 May 2002
   Internet: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/whats_new/otherstories_desertification.htm

   31 May, BALI, Indonesia- The dust blowing across China that assaulted Beijing this year went on to reach Japan and Korea, but it did not stop there: it continued on toward the west coast of North America, disrupting air travel and causing health problems.

   Dust storms are increasing, according to Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of Convention to Combat Desertification, and it is affecting areas that have never though of it as a problem before. In fact, he said, sands blown away from Africa recently landed in Switzerland.

   Land degradation has often been considered a local issues, caused by poor land management, poor farming techniques, and poor water distribution. But the problem, which affects an estimated 2.3 billion people in over 100 countries is now blowing across national boundaries, and is having an international impact. The issue has emerged as a major issue for the World Summit on Sustainable Development and United Nations Secretary-General identified land degradation, which affects as much as two thirds of the world's agricultural land, as one of the five main areas where the Summit should concentrate efforts to achieve results.

   The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that every year, 10 million hectares of arable land are being lost to desertification, costing the world close to $42 billion annually. Yet that the price-tag for action to avoid further degradation would only be $2.4 million. "No one is listening, but this is a good investment," Diallo said, but the treaty to halt land degradation, with virtually universal membership, still has little funding. There are proposals presently under consideration in the Bali PrepCom to significantly increase funding to the Desertification Convention through the Global Environment Facility, but there are some concerns that the GEF could be stretched too thin unless donor countries agree to a significant replenishment.

   Mostafa Tolba, who presided over the Earth Summit+5, and who is a member of a panel of eminent personalities for the Convention, said it was essential to address the issue of land degradation if the Johannesburg Summit is to succeed. "About 70 per cent of the poverty in Asia and Africa is in rural areas. If you want to address poverty, you have to go where the poverty is. Implementation of the Convention would be a good way."

   According to Tolba, interest in the desertification issue has flagged because it is not seen as affecting people in developed countries, although dryland areas of Spain, Portugal and Greece are experiencing degradation. Although people see a connection between themselves and climate change and ozone depletion, he said that link is often missing when it comes to desertification. The Desertification Convention, an offspring of the 1992 Earth Summit, calls for a "bottom-up" participatory approach where people in affected communities, including women and youth, identify their problems and their solutions. The process eventually percolates up to the national level where, countries adopt national action plans.

   To date, 58 countries have adopted these plans, and are now looking to donors for resources to implement them. But desertification has not been a donor priority, Diallo says. Assistance to hot spots, such as Afghanistan, East Timor and Kosovo, Diallo said, are usually the explanation donors give why resources to fight desertification are not forthcoming.

   Desertification, Diallo said, is not about build barriers to prevent the spread of the desert, but rather, about taking steps to transform fragile ecosystems back into land that can produce food. According to Diallo, restoring degraded lands can also play an important role in mitigating the effects of greenhouse gases by serving as a carbon sink. "What we are saying," Diallo said, "is that dealing with land degradation can lead to win-win scenarios."

   Partnerships will be important he said, but since land degradation is typically a problem of the poorest of the poor, most of the partnerships will necessarily require the public sector. The development of voluntary partnership initiatives has emerged as a third major outcome of the Johannesburg Summit. The partnerships, it is hoped, will go beyond what governments can and must do to implement sustainable development.

    

8. AT BALI TALKS, NEGOTIATORS HAMMER OUT TEXT FOR ADOPTION AT JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT

   United Nations, 31 May 2002
   Internet: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=3825&Cr=sustainable&Cr1=development

   31 May - Negotiators meeting in Bali, Indonesia, today reported progress in their efforts to hammer out draft final documents for adoption by the World Summit for Sustainable Development, which will convene this August in Johannesburg.

   Reporting to a plenary session of the Summit's Preparatory Committee, Kyotaka Akasaka of Japan, who chaired negotiations on parts of the text, said agreement had been reached on 80 per cent of the language. Two "rather large" sections, on energy and oceans, had been under intensive consultation, he added, noting that despite some progress, more time would be needed to complete discussions on those issues. 

   Richard Ballhorn of Canada, another chief negotiator, said agreement was still outstanding on sections concerning globalization, trade and finance. Other areas were largely agreed on, including those relating to health and sustainable development. 

   Negotiator Ihad Gameleldin of Egypt, who is also chairing talks on portions of the document, voiced confidence that remaining issues could be resolved, pointing out that good process had been achieved on issues related to science and technology. 

   Also today, the Preparatory Committee considered applications from several intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to participate in the Johannesburg Summit. A motion by China for the Committee to take no action on the application of the Tibet Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, an NGO, was approved by a vote of 90 in favour, 37 against, and 10 abstentions, effectively rejecting the bid for participation. 

   The Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development and the Center for International Forestry Research were both accredited without a vote.

    

9. POVERTY STRAINING ENVIRONMENT

   The Herald (Harare) via All Africa , 31 May 2002
   Internet: http://allafrica.com/stories/200205310413.html

   AT 66 years old, Ambuya Berita Chanakira from Epworth should be retired and enjoying a pension at some old people's home. But that life is still a fairy tale and a luxury least afforded by most of the people in the Third World where daily chores include warding off the poverty scourge.

   To expect people who daily endure the ravages of dire poverty, hunger, disease, war and natural disasters such as droughts, floods and earthquakes for many decades to come to understand the advantages of sustainable development in a globalising environment is but a tall order.

   For Ambuya Chanakira, constant hard work in her small vegetable garden since her husband's death in 1986 has helped her escape the grinding penury that is the order of day for the majority of people in Epworth, a run down settlement that rapidly sprouted after 1980 into a major urban residential area 10km outside Harare.

   "This is a very poor community, but I have never expected someone to give me food," said Ambuya Chanakira, taking a break from adding fertiliser to the soil in her vegetable garden along a small stream running through the settlement. "I have to struggle everyday to fend for myself." While Ambuya Chanakira's efforts to feed herself have had little effect on the environment, the struggle for survival for many Zimbabweans and others elsewhere on the globe, where poverty reins supreme, has, however, resulted in environment degradation to a point that economic and physical survival is being seriously threatened.

   "Since the 1970s the environment and key natural resources in most African countries have been increasingly threatened by escalating and unsustainable pressures from fast growing populations and cities as well as expanding agricultural and industrial activities," says the Global Environment Outlook 2000, a report by the United Nations Environment Agency, the United Nations Environment Programme. The UNEP reports that Africa is the only continent where poverty is expected to rise during the next 100 years.

   This prediction comes at a time when the continent's 500 million hectares of land have been affected by soil degradation; the number of undernourished people has doubled to over 200 million since the 1960s; 50 million hectares of tropical forest have disappeared since 1980; and water scarcity has continued to increase over the years.

   The UNEP further points out that Africa is also still suffering from economic development policies and patterns, imported by colonial authorities that "largely neglected the adverse impacts on the poor majority of people and on the environment". Says the UNEP: "On achieving independence during and after the 1960s, African governments inherited and maintained centralised economic and sectoral institutions and narrowly-focused growth policies, usually with the encouragement and support of international aid agencies. These national and international 'development' policies, in combination with rapid population growth and increased poverty, had progressively adverse impacts on the state of the environment and natural resource base."

   Epworth, a former property of the United Methodist Church-run Mission School but invaded by desperate home-seekers from Harare when Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, is a perfect example of the real dilemmas and obstacles many developing countries are facing to achieve sustainable levels. Recognised as an urban settlement after a Local Government Board was appointed to run the area in 1986, Epworth's population has rapidly increased over the years to more than 45 000 today. Despite the Government's pledge since the mid-1980s to develop the area by installing proper sewerage and water systems, constructing roads and electrifying houses, Epworth has remained an eyesore as more home-seekers continue to invade the settlement consequently throwing planners off course. The majority of people are unemployed, crime and environmental degradation are rampant as people devise means of survival. Sand and wood poachers have wrecked havoc in the surrounding farms, stealing sand to construct their homes and wood for domestic fuel after the cost of paraffin rose to unaffordable levels.

   The area is now so densely populated that attempts to properly settle the people would actually involve removing everyone and flattening much of the settlement since the present set up has no provision for roads, sewers and electricity power lines. A severe drought that has swept across most of Southern Africa has also exacerbated the plight of the people in Epworth after their small crop fields wilted.

   By merely multiplying the plight of the people in Epworth by Zimbabwe's 15 major urban areas where similar problems occur the country's economic and environmental problems become a complex jig-saw puzzle.

   While blaming corrupt governments for the Third World's economic and environmental crises, the International Monitory Fund and World Bank-initiated reforms have so far managed to bring about little relief either. The solutions to the poverty trap, that have ironically ignored the issue of debt relief, have completely failed to reverse the environmental catastrophe facing poor nations.

   The United Nations hopes that a World Summit on Sustainable Development, due to start in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 26 August this year, will produce "concrete results" on providing clean water and sanitation and energy to developing countries, and health, agriculture and biodiversity issues. The UN conference is a follow-up to the 1992 "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that put, for the first time, environmental issues on the global political agenda.

   "The planet is at a crucial crossroads with the choices made today critical for the forests, oceans, rivers, mountains, wildlife and other life support systems upon which current and future generations depend," the latest UNEP global report says. It is, therefore, crucial that world leaders attending the Johannesburg meeting find the political courage and the innovative financing needed to implement the hundreds of declarations, agreements, guidelines and legally-binding treaties made so far, says the UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer.

   A World Bank official responsible for environmental issues, Mr Ian Johnson, says: "I think one of the themes that will emerge at a political level in Johannesburg is how to make globalisation work for poor countries. There's quite a lot of evidence to suggest that public opinion is concerned about many of the issues that will be raised at the Johannesburg summit and politicians have yet to grasp how important it is to many people."

   Balancing these issues and setting priorities right at the global level to achieve sustainable development in a world where the number of poor people continues to rise is definitely going to be a difficult task for the world leaders for some time to come. For a better future to be realised in Africa, the UNEP has, for instance, concluded that: "The key challenge is to reduce poverty. New approaches that put the poor at the top of the environment and development agenda could tap and release the latent energy and talents of Africans to bring about development that is economically, socially, environmentally and politically sustainable."

    

10. UN REPORTS PROGRESS IN TALKS ON WORLD SUMMIT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    United Nations, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=3811&Cr=sustainable&Cr1=development

    30 May - Negotiators are finalizing documents that are expected to be endorsed by the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, according to a UN official attending the preparatory session in Bali, Indonesia. "Overall, we are progressing quite well," Lowell Flanders, a senior official with the Summit Secretariat, told reporters. He predicted that working groups assigned to negotiate the text would complete the bulk of their talks by Friday evening.

    The Summit itself will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa, this August.  Critical issues still requiring further deliberation include trade and finance, natural disasters, oceans, water, sanitation, and the establishment of a world solidarity fund for poverty eradication, according to Mr. Flanders.

    The section of the document related to Africa was also being further negotiated, as was the issue of how best to deal with the issue of climate change. Some of the text currently in brackets, indicating that it is still in dispute, might "go through to Johannesburg" for final consideration, he said.

    In another development, the UN today released the unabridged version of an article by Kofi Annan on sustainable development which was published yesterday in The Financial Times. Mr. Annan argues that ecological and economic considerations must be integrated in order to achieve sustainable development. He recommends that the Johannesburg Summit pay priority attention to issues linked to water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity. Acknowledging that tackling all of those areas may sound either too ambitious or too limited, Mr. Annan says this agenda represents "the essential, achievable start that we must make, if we are to preserve the hope of a decent life for our children and grandchildren."

     

11. DEMAND FUELS ILLEGAL LOGGING, ACTIVISTS AT UN CONFERENCE SAY

    Associated Press Writer, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020530/ap_wo_en_po/indonesia_development_conference_1

    JAKARTA, Indonesia - Illegal logging will continue in poor countries unless demand from rich nations drops and law enforcement is stepped up, activists at a U.N. development conference in Bali said on Thursday. Forestry is one of dozens of development and environmental issues being debated by around 6,000 international delegates at the 12-day meeting. Delegates from rich and poor nations are debating a political declaration and action plan to be taken to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August. That meeting will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, which was the first international attempt to tackle environmental issues. Environmentalists, also represented at the talks, have already criticized the Bali convention, and accused wealthy nations of trying to wreck it. "We want the political declaration to say governments have to play a bigger role in helping reduce consumption and create good law enforcement," said Farah Sofa from Walhi, Indonesia's leading green organization. Speaking by phone from Bali, Sofa said delegates from wealthy countries were insisting that log-tracking technology and labeling systems under which timber is identified as coming from legitimate sources were the best ways to wipe out illegal logging. Corruption in many poor countries where exporters can easily buy fake documents meant that this approach was ineffective, she said. "If the demand from rich countries is there, illegal logging will continue," Sofa said.

    Massive expansion in the plywood, pulp and paper industries over the last 20 years has led to much of the world's forests being wiped out, environmentalists say. Critics say graft within the security forces, and forestry and port officials allows for huge amounts of illegal timber to be sold and shipped throughout Asia. Leading global pulp and paper industries admit as much as 60 percent of the timber they use has been illegally felled, according to a recent study by World Resource Institute. In Indonesia, the World Bank estimate that all of Sumatra's forests will be destroyed by logging in five years. Those in Kalimantan will be wiped out in 10 years.

    The Bali meeting, which started on Monday, will peak between June 5-7 when ministerial-level negotiations from U.N-member states are due to be held.

     

12. GOOD PROGRESS MADE IN BALI ON NEGOTIATION OF OUTCOME DOCUMENT FOR JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT

    United Nations Press Release, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/bali/pressreleases/envdevb9-e.htm

    As the final Preparatory Committee for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development continued its session today, government representatives focused their attention on the draft implementation programme to be adopted by the Summit this September in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Speaking at the daily briefing held by the Department of Public Information, Lowell Flanders, a senior official with the Summit Secretariat, said "Overall, we are progressing quite well", and it looked increasingly likely that the working groups assigned to negotiate the text would complete the bulk of their work by tomorrow evening. He informed correspondents that the critical issues still requiring further deliberation included trade and finance, natural disasters, oceans, water, sanitation and the establishment of a world solidarity fund for poverty eradication.  The section of the document related to Africa was also being further negotiated, as was the issue of how best to reflect climate change in the text. If agreement wasn't reached on those issues by the close of this evening, it was possible that Preparatory Committee Chairman Emil Salim (Indonesia) would convene a "committee of the whole" tomorrow morning to try to reach agreement.  He added that it was possible that a few phrases or bracketed text might "go through to Johannesburg" for final consideration. Representatives have formed two working groups to advance their negotiations on the Chairman's paper, which contains the draft (see document A/CONF.199/PC/L.1/Rev.1), with a third group deliberating on a Vice-Chairman's paper (see document A/CONF.199/PC/L.3) entitled "Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development", covering among other things, the question of governance. 

    Working group I is dealing with the introduction and chapters on poverty eradication; changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production; and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development. 

    Working group II is covering the chapters on sustainable development in a globalizing world; health and sustainable development; sustainable development of small island developing States; sustainable development initiatives for Africa and means of implementation. Also today, side events sponsored by civil society representatives were held on such topics as: mining and sustainable development; new strategies for sustainable energy, healthy forests, better land and water management and food security; and habitat and sustainable development. So far, over 3,365 people from 153 countries are participating in the preparatory meeting, including 1,342 government delegates, 931 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and 144 journalists.

     

13. RI SEEKS MORE AID IN BALI TALKS

    The Jakarta Post, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20020530.@04&irec=3

    Debt payments amounting to 40 percent of the state budget and a chronic budget deficit has driven Indonesia to seek more financial aid and new debt payment options from developed countries at the United Nations meeting in Bali on sustainable development. A member of the Indonesian delegation, Djumala Darmansjah, said developing countries were seeking to include loan and debt payment proposals into the action plan, which delegates were negotiating on. 

    He said one suggestion was to include some US$30 billion in funds developed countries had promised during a meeting on poverty in Monterey, Mexico, into the action plan.  "Indonesia is actively pursuing its interests during the talks. It was, after all, our proposal to get the Monterey fund into the negotiations," Djumala said on Wednesday.  The country has much to gain from the talks. Debts totaling $130 billion have undermined efforts to create employment, cut poverty or, for that matter, promote sustainable development.  Domestic debt payments outweigh spending on development, of which only a portion is allocated for social welfare programs. While spending has been kept to a minimum, the state budget remains in a deficit, forcing the government to rely on foreign aid to cover the shortfall.

    The U.S. and the European Union agreed at a meeting on poverty in Monterey early this year to set aside $30 billion in aid to help reduce poverty worldwide.  Djumala said the means to channel the funds had not been drawn up yet, allowing it to be integrated into the Chairman's Text now under negotiation.

    Delegates from around the world have gathered in Bali for the fourth preparatory committee meeting that leads up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in August and September.  The summit is aiming to hammer out a more concrete action plan after the first one agreed at the 1992 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, failed to produce the desired results. 

    Delegates in Bali expect to finalize negotiations of the Chairman's Text, which is the action plan for world leaders to sign in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Chapter IX of the Chairman's Text will draw the most heated debates, as it outlines the means and implementation of the action plan.  Falling under chapter IX are the issues of loans to finance sustainable development programs, and Djumala said it was obvious that developed countries were defensive on this issue.  "It's their money and they just don't accept other countries telling them how to spend it," he said.  But he added that developed countries could back down on their stance later on during the committee of the whole meeting, where different working groups get together to iron out the final issues.

    He said Indonesia along with other developing countries also proposed to utilize the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) loans to finance sustainable development programs.  Also called the Special Drawing Rights, the IMF loans cover only a country's balance of payment in cases of a liquidity crisis. Indonesia has been under the IMF's auspices since the country was hit by the 1997 economic crisis. 

    Other suggestions under negotiation in the Chairman's Text are to loosen financial aid to the least developed countries and promote the use of aid to boost development.  One suggestion accepted by all is the call for action to meet developed countries' targets of allocating 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to overseas development assistance. 

    Indonesian Delegation head Makarim Wibisono said implementation of the Monterey pledge would bring overseas development assistance closer to its target. At present, he said, the average overseas development assistance stands at 0.39 percent of GDP. 

    To help cut the debt burden carried by developing countries, they proposed several debt solutions, Djumala said.  These include debt-swapping payments with sustainable development programs or a debt-to-nature swap that would, for instance, protect forest areas from timber companies.  Preliminary talks of a debt-to-nature swap are under way on a bilateral basis, such as with Germany. However, the amount has been relatively small.  So far the only debt relief has come from the rescheduling of Indonesia's foreign debts under the Paris Club group of creditors. 

    Some NGOs have called for more drastic measures, such as demanding debt reduction. The government, however, is unlikely to entertain such demands, reasoning that the mere mention of a default would condemn Indonesia to isolation from the international finance community.

     

14. OECD CRITICAL OF ITS COMMITMENTS

    The Jakarta Post, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20020530.M07&irec=6

    Developed countries have given the cold shoulder to their commitment to help developing countries achieve sustainable development, even at the last leg of meetings before the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg later in August and September. Kenneth G. Ruffing, acting director and chief economist at the environment directorate of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), acknowledged on Wednesday that developed countries continued to show reluctance in spending money to support less fortunate countries, despite their rhetorical commitments on sustainable development. 

    "We would like to see them be more ambitious in targeting goals and promises that they have made. We would like to see a higher level of ambition to protect the earth by promoting sustainable development," Ruffing said on the sidelines of the preparatory committee meeting for the World Summit.  OECD, established in 1960, comprises 30 developed countries, and aims to contribute to the development of the world economy.  However, according to OECD data, in the past 10 years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, developed countries have failed to fulfill their own commitments to provide the equivalent of 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product to help developing countries. 

    The only country that managed to fulfill that commitment was Denmark, while the others spent about 0.2 percent of their GDP.  "They always come up with reasons for their lack of ability to fulfill the commitments. Of course, there is no sanctions mechanism in the organization," Ruffing remarked.  One of the main reasons cited by developed countries to avoid commitments is the lack of good governance on the part of developing countries and ineffective use of aid.  He added that it was unhelpful if developed countries made generalizations, as each developing country faced different problems. 

    Considering the specific situation in each country, Ruffing said that the OECD had adopted a new paradigm to deal with the problem differently in each developing country.  He cited that it would be unfair to ask developing countries to look for alternative energy sources if they could not afford to do so.  In many cases, it would take a while before developed countries brought down the cost of producing alternative energy so that developing countries could change their consumption patterns without paying higher prices, he remarked.  To deal with the problem, OECD is trying to take the lead in initiatives aimed at nature conservation

     

15. CHINA TRIES TO EXCLUDE PRO-TIBETAN GROUP

    The Jakarta Post, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20020530.M05&irec=4

    The People's Republic of China (PRC) has again expressed its strong objection that the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) be allowed to attend the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The decision of whether the TCHRD will be allowed to attend the meeting will be decided on Friday during the United Nations (UN)'s plenary meeting here, confirmed Pragati J. Pascale, a senior media officer at the UN. 

    Norzin Dolma, one of TCHRD's activists, said on Wednesday that the Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN had requested the world organization exclude his group from participating at the World Summit slated to be held from August to September this year.  The organization has already registered with the UN on its participation at the upcoming summit. 

    In a letter sent to the UN Headquarters two weeks ago, the Chinese representative accused members of the TCHRD group of being separatists who support the independence of Tibet, said Dolma.  The PRC representative has also said that the presence of the group was not relevant to the issue of sustainable development, and they merely wanted to slander the PRC government at the event. 

    It was the third attempt by the Chinese government, after two previous successful moves to kick out two other pro-Tibet organizations, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and the Tibet Justice Center (TJC), from participating in the next World Summit.  In the UN's General Assembly meeting last April, the majority of UN member countries, including Indonesia, rejected the presence of the two pro-Tibetan organizations in the World Summit.  "Their allegations that we would raise political issues is groundless. We are committed to focusing on various environmental problems in Tibet," explained Norzin at the sidelines of the PrepCom meeting.

     

16. AFRICA WELL SET AT UN CONFERENCE

    South African Press Association via All Africa, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://allafrica.com/stories/200206010061.html

    Discussions on Africa at the United Nations' final preparatory meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), being held on the Indonesian island of Bali, appear to be heading for a "very positive outcome", says a senior South African official.

    Four days into the UN conference, delegates are locked in "contact group" negotiations to resolve several sticking points that have emerged, including disputes over corporate accountability, energy, water, sanitation, trade and finance, and agricultural subsidies. The meetings are closed to the media. According to the head of the South African delegation, environmental affairs director-general Dr Chippy Olver, deal-making on many of the issues is likely to continue past Friday, the day the UN hopes a revised version of the so-called Chairman's Text will emerge from the process.

    The text -- expected to be endorsed by heads of state at the WSSD in Johannesburg later this year -- is a plan of action for countries to curb the over-exploitation of the earth's natural resources and to find a better way of managing development. "The deal-making process that will start on Friday could well go through the night, and continue through the day on Saturday and into that night as well. I don't know if we will complete the process by the end of the weekend," Olver told Sapa on Thursday.

    He foresaw "one or two sticking points" carrying over into the conference's second and final week, in which the high-level ministerial portion of the event is scheduled to take place. "When the ministers arrive, they will probably be left with two or three strategic areas in which a deal has to be cut," Olver said. He was up-beat, however, about discussions on Africa, saying these were "going quite well". "It looks like on Africa, particularly because of the build up to the G8 meeting, a lot of the developed countries... are quite keen to make a very positive outcome on the Africa chapter, which we're very happy about."

    One point of concern was that other regions, particularly Latin America, were coming up with their own initiatives. "But I'm not too worried this will eclipse the focus on Africa, because the process we've got going at heads-of-state level, the work that's gone into Nepad, all of this has laid an incredibly solid basis and I don't think any other region's got... anything to (compete) against that," he said.

    South Africa itself had six main focus areas -- water and sanitation; energy; health, food security, education; and technology -- and Olver said he wanted to see these included in the revised Chairman's Text. "We need to get a basic set of things into the text, and on the basis of that launch initiatives." Asked if this would include specific targets for each of the six, he said: "Yes, that is precisely what we want." 

    Olver said sticking points among delegates included the issue of good governance. "There are quite a few developing countries who think that what is being proposed on good governance on a national level is going to be used as 'conditionalities', which will be imposed on them by the North. Clearly we're going to have to work through this issue, because sound governance is fundamental to sustainable development."

    There were also sticking points around energy, water and sanitation. "In particular developed countries are trying to back off on any target on sanitation... the sticking point on water is to what extent we launch a global programme of action. This target was agreed in the Millennium Declaration -- I think the developed countries would like to back out of that if they could. They are now questioning whether one needs a global programme of action."

    He said this was the result of a "complete difference of approach" on the part of some developed countries. "Particularly Japan, the United States, Canada and Australia; it's part of their intrinsic antipathy to the multilaterals. I don't think they believe the UN system can co-ordinate and deliver implementation, and while they're happy with broad normative statements of intent, they're more prepared to say 'we will support', rather than 'we will implement'."

    Asked what type of agreement South Africa would like to see emerge from the Bali conference, Olver said this would have to include a framework for implementation. "This has got to include, at a high level, a global target, a broad outline of the resource strategy, private sector investment, trade benefits, technology issues, and finance issues. It's got to have some mechanism by which progress is going to be monitored... so that you're able to assess how things are working. It's also got to have some reference to governance arrangements, and at the very least it's got to talk about what would be an enabling environment to allow initiatives and partnerships, within that broad framework, to take place."

    Among other things, South Africa was hoping to see a set of forward-looking deals on trade, finance, technology, debt relief and technology transfer. Asked if there was any likelihood of unresolved issues being carried through to the Johannesburg summit, Olver said: "We would like to get closure on the Chairman's Text, and I think most countries are quite committed to that."

    However, there remained a possibility some areas would be bracketed, "but we're going to work very hard to avoid that". We would also like to see a strong political declaration... although would like that this be left slightly open so that heads of state (at the Johannesburg summit) could use it as a mobilisation excercise," he said.

     

17. STAKEHOLDERS' VOICES

    The Jakarta Post, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20020530.M11&irec=10

    Unlike the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which only involved representatives of governments and non-governmental organizations, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August and September of this year will be more representative of society as a whole. Among the groups at the summit will be those representing women, children and youths, indigenous peoples, NGOs, local authorities, workers and trade unions, business and industry, scientific and technological communities, as well as farmers.

    Representatives of these nine major groups are also involved in the Fourth Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Johannesburg Summit currently taking place in Nusa Dua, Bali.  Starting today, The Jakarta Post will present the views and suggestions of these nine major groups on sustainable development, as proposed during the multistakeholders meetings in Bali with government delegations. 

    NGOs want speedy action, not just written principles The Johannesburg Summit could be the last gateway for people to voice their concerns and hopes, and non-governmental organizations will call for a stronger political will and a real plan of action, with clear targets, time frames, financial resources and coordination, within the concept of a "global deal" on sustainable development.  A global deal must be reached between the rich countries of the North and the poorer countries of the South.

    Any global deal should serve to bridge the enormous North-South differences on key parameters, including equity, rights, justice, democracy and ethics.  The Johannesburg Summit should recognize the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples to natural resources. This will require a right-based approach that secures access for poor and vulnerable groups to financial and natural resources, including land rights and tenures. 

    In the field of democracy, NGOs -- represented by the Third World Network, the Environment Liaison Centre International and the Danish 92 Group -- are calling for progress to be made at the local, national, regional and international levels, regarding good governance, democracy and stronger institutions. 

    In the economic sector, the NGOs believe the domination of economic liberalization at the international, national and local levels is a matter of concern, while sustainable development remains an elusive goal.  The NGOs are calling upon governments to strengthen the existing framework for global governance of sustainable development, to create a more balanced global power structure with a far  more active and internationally oriented civil society.

    NGOs will campaign for a legally binding framework/convention for corporate accountability and liability under the aegis of the United Nations, with independent mechanisms for monitoring progress and enforcement.  NGOs are also asking the World Trade Organization to live up to its own objective of contributing to sustainable development in a meaningful way.

    They believe the WTO's work program must not focus narrowly on market liberalization, instead, the focus must be on the need for making trade a tool that serves sustainable development, incorporating social and environmental concerns.  Rich nations have been urged to grant market access to the agricultural and industrial products of the South.

    Better financing for development is needed through improved and increased development assistance targeting poverty reduction and sustainable development.  To achieve this goal, the NGOs believe developed countries should commit to providing 0.7 percent of their gross national products to development assistance within specific time frames.

    Businesses prioritize partnerships the world's business community is campaigning for the adoption of partnerships among stakeholders by world leaders during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August and September.  The business community, represented by the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, contend that partnerships between and among the stakeholders of sustainable development often deliver more effective and practical solutions than those reached in isolation. 

    Public-private partnerships are also an effective delivery vehicle for capacity-building, transfer of technology and the linkage of official development assistance and foreign direct investment. Partnerships are expected to be "type two" outcomes of the upcoming World Summit, meaning that they are produced through engagement, and not through negotiations among government delegations.  The challenge, therefore, would be to link this partnership initiative to the Agenda 21, a set of actions to save Earth set out by world leaders during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and to ensure that this "type two" initiative supports, strengthens and implements the "type one" process, or the sustainable development agreements among world leaders. 

    According to the business community, to make the partnerships effective, they must include the three pillars of sustainable development: economic progress, environmental protection and social responsibility. To have the greatest impact, the partnership projects should be replicable, transferable and inspirational -- practical examples to be adapted and emulated elsewhere.  Organizations interested in partnerships are invited to submit suitable projects and initiatives through http://www.basd-action.net/initiatives/index.php . Partnerships for workers: Unions.

    This time, labor unions are in the same bandwagon as businesses. The unions have given their full support to the partnership initiatives proposed by businesses, although they have provided some indicators on the kind of partnerships.  "Based on experience since Rio, we propose that the World Summit on Sustainable Development promote a variety of partnerships and capacity-building initiatives that involve workers and trade unions," said the trade union report for the multi-stakeholders dialog. 

    The report was prepared by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Trade Secretariats.  In the report, they list a number of partnership demands, including partnership for employment, work-based partnership for sustainable development, capacity-building partnerships, public policy and action partnerships, as well as rights partnerships.  In addition, they also expressed a number of commitments, including to undertake initiatives to research the social and employment impacts of change, seeking new ways to adapt successful workplace structures and processes, increasing participation by trade unions in sustainable development and undergoing education to increase awareness on ILO conventions and OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises. 

    The trade unions also said that they were committed to launching new initiatives to link occupational health with public health, taking steps to increase trade union participation in local Agenda 21 groups and taking steps to expand international cooperation between unions and shareholders.

     

18. 18) DEVELOPMENT TALKS LIKELY TO BE EXTENDED

    The Jakarta Post, 30 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20020530230107&irec=2

    USA DUA, Bali (JP): The preparatory commission meeting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) currently being held in Bali looks likely to extend its Friday deadline due given the varying views remaining on the final chairman's text which will contain governments' commitments to sustainable development. A senior government official on Thursday said the Chairman's Text was originally supposed to be finalized during the third preparatory meeting in New York. "As yet there hasn't been a compromise between the different interests," said the official, who refused to be named.

    The Chairman's Text, which is being promoted to be called the Bali Commitment, is a set of action plans on sustainable development principles that delegates expect to finalize before the WSSD summit in Johannesburg later this year. Currently negotiations on the 39-page text is divided into three working groups discussing the nine chapters of the text. Djumala Darmansjah representing Indonesia at working group II, admitted that demands to incorporate time targets into sustainable development programs were tough to meet.  He said a number of developed countries, notably the United States and Japan, opposed the measures, while developing countries and the European Union supported the time targets.  Developing countries and many non government organizations view time targets as crucial to get actions on ground.

     

19. BALI MEETING, WORLD SUMMIT TO LIKELY FAIL IN REGULATING COMPANIES

    Jakarta Post, 29 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20020529232326&irec=2

    NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): The upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg will likely fail to regulate multinational companies as a demand for a universal code of conduct for them met with strong opposition from the United States. A heated debate ensued on the sidelines of the preparatory committee meeting for the summit here on Wednesday when representatives from international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), delegates from Hungary, Japan, the United Kingdom and Indonesia, faced a representative from the U.S. delegation, Robert F. Cekuta, in an open dialog.

    The head of the Indonesian delegation, Makarim Wibisono, said that Indonesia as well as the Group of 77 developing countries (G-77) agreed that corporate accountability was important for implementing sustainable development. He said the group was pushing for the inclusion of the wording "enhance corporate responsibility and accountability," in the Chairman's Text, but the possibility it would be inserted into the document was slim.

    The Chairman's Text, an action plan and basis for implementing sustainable development principles, already accommodates corporate responsibility, but on a voluntary basis.  Voluntary initiatives, however, would not be forceful enough to hold powerful multinationals, Matt Phillips, from Friends of the Earth International, said, adding that corporations would then have the choice of not implementing the initiatives.

    Multinational companies have been accused of contributing significantly to the practices of unsustainable development. They have been accused of transmitting an environmentally unsound production system, hazardous materials and products to developing countries. Cases of environmental violations by multinational companies abound, particularly by multinational mining giants, such as the States' Freeport McMoran in Irian Jaya and Newmont mining in Peru; the United Kingdom's Premier, and France's Total ElfFina in Burma, according to the California-based NGO, Project Underground. 

    Felia Salim, the former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) deputy chairman, commented that legal systems in most developing countries were too weak to face powerful multinational companies.  "We must take affirmative action at an international level. Not only the management must be addressed but the shareholders must also be addressed directly because companies are accountable to them," she said.  Felia attended the dialog as representatives of the private sector in Indonesia.

    Head of the Hungarian delegation, Tibor Farago, said also that a global framework was needed to regulate multinationals through an international convention on corporate accountability, otherwise governments would not be able to face them. "An international mechanism is needed to talk to multinational corporations, to question them and make them report (to governments and the people)," he said.

    Cekuta, the director for policy analysis and public diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, called the proposed international convention on corporate accountability "unimportant". He reasoned that local laws were enough to hold multinational corporations accountable for their actions if local governments strengthened the practice of good governance and promoted transparency with multinational corporations. Therefore, there was no need for an international convention, he argued. "The first recourse to hold multinational companies responsible for the damage done in other countries is through the government where the company is located. They (multinational corporations) should behave overseas the same as they would behave in the United States, if not they should be held accountable," he said.

    The U.S. -- together with Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- form a powerful negotiation force under JUSCANZ in the deliberations of the Chairman's Text, which contains a set of actions to pursue sustainable development.  JUSCANZ is accused of fighting for the interests of multinational corporations instead of the general public.

     

20. PARTNERSHIP, CAPACITY BUILDING DOMINATE MULTI-STAKEHOLDERS MEETING

    The Jakarta Post, 29 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20020529231125&irec=3

    NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): The governments and its counterparts, the nine major groups, wrapped up their multi-stakeholders dialogue meeting in Bali on Wednesday, with the central issue of partnership and capacity building.  During the three-hour meeting, led by Emil Salim of Indonesia, representatives of the nine major groups -- trade unions, NGOs, women, children and youth, indigenous people, local authorities, scientists, farmers and businesses -- pushed the need for strong action and action-oriented language in the outcome documents. 

    Concrete action was needed to bring to reality Agenda 21 set up in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, as to which all outcomes of the next World Summit on Sustainable Development should contribute to. The next World Summit on Sustainable Development will be held in Johannesburg from August to September this year. 

    While touching on partnership, the major groups lashed out at the developed countries, which rejected accepting the demands of the developing countries to impose time-bound measures for the implementation of the action plans set up in Rio concerning sustainable development. Dianne Quarless, the committee vice chair from Jamaica moved ahead, suggesting the establishment of a supervisory body to oversee the partnership. 

    The major groups also stressed that measures should be taken to ensure that the government did not abdicate its responsibilities for sustainable development. Some of the major groups, especially representatives of the NGOs, demanded that the chairman's text -- to outline the action plan to save the planet -- outline time-bound measures, so that countries would not continue to drag their feet when it came to implementation.  Demands for time-bound measures have been aired several times by various groups at the current preparatory committee meeting for the World Summit, but the demands have fallen on deaf ears from the delegations of developed countries, especially the U.S. The U.S. instead has promoted partnership initiatives. This has already received a warm welcomes from the business group. 

    Partnerships are seen as a vehicle to improve the implementation of Agenda 21 by involving those stakeholders whose activities have a direct impact on sustainable development, and not just the government.  As of Wednesday, there was no focus and clear thoughts on what the detail and profile of the partnerships would be.  However, the major groups would still have time to move forward on the details of partnerships, as the opportunities were still there for negotiations with the governments, before the high level ministerial meetings on June 5. 

    On capacity building, a representative from a local government group stressed that local capacity building must be promoted to materialize sustainable development drives. "Local governments must be empowered so the capacity building drive is a success. The local government could be a pivotal party to facilitate the local and national stakeholders to promote sustainable development drives," said the representative. 

    It is a common phenomenon at the meeting that the representatives fail to identify themselves, and apparently the chairman lets it go. 

    Concluding the meeting, Emil Salim stressed the need to close the gap between ideals and realities.  Emil said he hoped that the contributions of the major groups should be taken into account by government delegations during their negotiations to prepare documents for the upcoming World Summit.  "The participants of the meeting, especially the nine major groups would bring their views on the working group meeting, and in that arena the real negotiations would take place," Emil told The Jakarta Post.

     

21. WATER SHOULD BE AT TOP OF JOHANNESBURG AGENDA, PREPARATORY MEETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE TOLD

    United Nations Press Release, 29 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/bali/pressreleases/envdevb7-e.htm

    Water should be put "at the top of the agenda in Johannesburg", Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange of the Netherlands, said this morning as the fourth and final Preparatory Committee session for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development continued its work. "Water is crucial to development", the Prince stressed. 

    That could be seen by the fact that while the world population had tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources had grown six-fold, mostly for use in agriculture.  No single type of intervention had had greater overall impact upon economic development and public health than the provision of safe drinking water and proper sanitation.  He said he knew that there would be many, many issues competing for attention at the World Summit and it was therefore important to focus attention clearly on priority issues. 

    In his contribution to the report of the Panel of the United Nations Secretary-General in preparation for the Summit entitled "No Water No Future", which was distributed to those present, he had proposed a small number of water targets and actions that could go a long way towards solving the water crisis at the global level. The targets and actions were organized in the four key areas identified by the panel of the Secretary-General -- shared values, the public-private sector nexus, global governance, and science and technology.

    Concerning shared values, he recommended mandating the World Water Assessment Programme of the United Nations to establish a baseline and monitor progress towards achieving the water-related targets set out at the Millennium Summit.  His recommendation in the area of the public-private sector nexus was to build capacity in local government to assess alternative forms of financing for infrastructure, as alternatives to large-scale investments. Regarding global governance, he recommended that in the international trade negotiations on agricultural subsidies and trade in agricultural products, the World Trade Organization (WTO) should consider the impact on water use in countries importing and exporting food.  On science and technology, his recommendation was to have the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research assess the potential for increased drought tolerance and increased water productivity in agriculture, including the potential use of functional genomics and other tools of modern molecular biology.

    He said the water crisis was mainly a crisis of governance -- not of water scarcity.  Overcoming the world water crisis was one of the most formidable challenges on the road to sustainable development.  The Summit should reaffirm the importance of achieving water security and adopt targets and actions that would allow the international community to meet the challenge jointly

     

22. VIEWS EXPRESSED ON ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY, CAPACITY-BUILDING, PARTNERSHIPS, AS MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE CONCLUDES

    United Nations Press Release, 29 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/bali/pressreleases/envdevb6-e.htm

    The fourth Preparatory Committee, continuing to lay the groundwork for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, this morning concluded the "multi-stakeholder dialogue" segment of its work programme, with speakers reporting on yesterday's discussions on capacity-building and partnerships. The three-day dialogue allowed a wide range of civil society and government actors to express their views on issues crucial to sustainable development, which included the importance of good governance, the role to be played by civil society at all levels of the process, and the importance of capacity-building and partnerships in promoting the social, economic and environmental pillars of development.

    "Major groups" representing women, youth, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local authorities, trade unions, scientists and farmers participated in the deliberations, as did representatives of national governments.

    At the outset of this morning's meeting, Richard Bullhorn (Canada), Preparatory Committee Vice-Chair, gave an overview of the morning session of the discussion on capacity-building.  He recognized the depth and the breadth of the analysis presented by all the major groups.  They had noted the central role to be played by governments in promoting capacity-building and the priority they attached to the enhanced role that could be played by each of their groups.

    Kyotaka Akasaka (Japan), Preparatory Committee Vice-Chair, said the afternoon dialogue had demonstrated that the major groups had an important role to play in the process, with speakers presenting interesting ideas on how capacity-building could be improved. 

    There was much shared ground between major groups, but there had also been continuing differences among them and between governments -- that was to be expected.  However, that should not stop "us from continuing our efforts to find further common ground". Following the Vice-Chairs' remarks, representatives of the major groups stressed, among others, the need for a binding United Nations convention on corporate accountability; continued maintenance of the level of participation of indigenous peoples in the sustainable development process; a need to more closely integrate what was happening on the informal level with what was happening at the formal level; the need to strengthen governance; and the importance of networking -- "one of the keys of moving good practice from where it is to where it's needed". Jan Kara (Czech Republic), Committee Vice-Chair, gave a read-out of the morning discussion on partnerships. 

    The idea of type II outcomes [partnerships and initiatives to implement Agenda 21] enjoyed considerable interest and support even though the concept was not accepted by all.  How to bridge type IIs and type Is [government-negotiated outcomes] was deemed important.  Type IIs could not become a substitute for strong negotiated outcomes, speakers had stressed.  An underlying concern was how to integrate type II outcomes into the framework of sustainable development. 

    Dianne Quarless (Jamaica), Committee Vice-Chair, said the discussion had been devoted to the means and modalities of partnerships.  The need to ensure adequate financial resources to ensure sustainability had been stressed.  There had been some "pretty clear signals" emphasizing the need to ensure a truly participatory character to partnerships.  Mechanisms to ensure gender mainstreaming through the use of gender disaggregated information had also been discussed, as had been the need to safeguard the balance of power in monitoring partnerships. 

    In that regard, a suggestion had been made that an international monitoring body be established to oversee type II partnerships. Representatives of the major groups then took the floor to make their observations on the partnerships discussion.  A number of points were raised, including:  the need for strong, action-oriented language in the outcome document; the role local governments could play as a "round table" around which the participants in partnerships could gather; that partnerships must empower the disempowered; that there must be partnerships between farmers and others, as well as among farmers; and the importance of ensuring that governments did not abdicate their responsibilities for sustainable development.

    The representative of Norway then expressed his appreciation for all the major groups.  He stressed that efforts to improve governance structures must be based on openness and transparency, with the active involvement of civil society.  He stressed the role to be played by women in governance.  Work on sustainable development must be revitalized.

    The representative of Spain, for the European Union, said the Union felt the dialogue had been of great interest for the purpose of exchanging views among groups that often worked at a great distance from each other.  Human capacity was essential, and education at all levels was equally vital.

    The last segment of the meeting was devoted to outlining future priorities.  Among the priorities identified were:  the need to develop public services in rural areas; recognition that investment in science and technology was an investment in poverty reduction and wealth creation; recognition that women's equality and gender justice were fundamental to the achievement of sustainable development; and that local government should be seen by national governments as an equal sphere of governance. Also stressed was the view that genuine concerns, which perhaps could not be included in the political declaration and programme of action, could nevertheless be placed on the table. 

    Other items of concern included the need to protect the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples; the importance of cancelling the debt of developing countries; the need to institute accountability measures for corporations; and the importance of ensuring women's rights in the context of sustainable development. The representative of Saudi Arabia then said his Government firmly believed that sustainable development was dependent on the social, economic and environmental pillars of development.  Laws had been enacted to ensure protection of environment and a special anti-pollution law was in place to combat greenhouse gases. 

    The Kingdom had developed a national biodiversity strategy within the framework of the biological diversity convention.  It was fully committed to the goals of the Summit and felt that poverty alleviation was crucial in the struggle for sustainable development.  He called for the strengthening of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

    Emil Salim (Indonesia), Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development, in his closing remarks, stressed the need to close the gap between ideals and realities.  He hoped that the contributions of the major groups would be taken into account as the preparation process for the Summit continued.

     

23. HOW EFFECTIVE ARE DEVELOPMENT FUNDS?
    Financing for sustainability: Priorities and roadblocks

    International Herald Tribune, 29 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=59400

    Stockholm: Helping developing countries mobilize and effectively use domestic and foreign funds to meet their key investment needs is one of the major issues to be addressed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September. To date, the main sources of funding for sustainable development - development assistance, direct investment, commercial credit, bank loans and trade earnings, as well as a range of economic instruments such as green taxation - have failed to close the gap between the poor and the wealthy.
    
    Official development assistance (ODA) has dropped dramatically in recent years; the share of ODA in total financial flows to developing countries declined from 50 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 1998. Meanwhile, direct investment and commercial credit have increased, but these are often aimed at large-scale industrial and infrastructure projects, not at the small and medium-scale projects needed to create sustainable livelihoods. Foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide in 2000 totaled $1.1 billion, up from $209 billion in 1990. However, the developing-country share decreased from 35 percent in 1997 to 17 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, statistics on bank loans, portfolio investment and earnings from international trade show that at present too little of this money is benefiting the developing world.
    
    The United Nations Environment Program launched a Finance Initiative in 1992, which now includes some 270 financial institutions. A voluntary pact between UNEP and the members builds the business case for banks, insurers and asset managers to become sustainability leaders. This includes encouraging the shift to serve emerging sustainability markets, as well as creating financial tools to meet specific challenges, such as climate change.
    
    Closing the gap
    
    Among the most powerful of these financial tools, particularly for the developing world, is microfinance, says Hanns Michael Hvlz, Deutsche Bank's global head of public affairs and sustainable development and co-chair of the UNEP Financial Institutions Initiative's Steering Committee. ''The financial industry is looking very closely at microcredit as a way to close the gap between the developed and the developing world,'' says Hvlz. ''Deutsche Bank, for instance, is active with microlending in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Mexico and Chile. Our objective is to help these countries leverage the existing economic infrastructure to better address their sustainable development goals.''
    
    Directing financing at rural populations is a strategy embraced by many of the major groups to be represented at the WSSD, particularly women and farmers. Poverty is overwhelmingly rural, with some 70 percent of the poorest people in developing countries living in rural areas. According to David King, secretary-general of the International Federation of Agriculture Producers, sustainable development will not be possible until more funds are directed toward rural agriculture in the developing world. ''Agriculture is the single most important contribution to the economy in most developing countries,'' says King, ''yet only 8 percent of World Bank loans are dedicated to rural agriculture in developing countries. International development assistance to agriculture is the lowest it has ever been, and the national budgets of developing countries rarely devote more than 5 percent to agriculture. In the short term, private investment is not going to be the answer for most developing countries. What we need is a substantial injection of funds from the international community.''
    
    Other major groups participating in the WSSD have a range of views on the best way to finance sustainable development. Indigenous people say that globalization, privatization and the growing dominance of industry are damaging for their communities. Local authorities see the liberalization and deregulation of trade and capital markets shifting authority from the public to the private sector, thus concentrating economic power into fewer economic power centers that are not democratically accountable. Nongovernmental organizations state that inequities and imbalances in the trade regime, including unequal trade terms, are obstacles to sustainable development. Workers and trade unions would like to see industrialized countries accept a new role in promoting employment as a means of enabling the world's poor to work their way out of poverty. Youth groups assert that many young people have been negatively affected by the current trade liberalization and expansion agenda. Scientific and technological communities want more investment in science and engineering, arguing that such investments give substantial economic and social returns. Business supports using a free-market framework that employs market-based approaches and dismantling flawed subsidies.
    
    ''If sustainable development were truly prioritized as an outcome, the necessary financial conditions would follow,'' says Jocelyn Dow, president of the Women's Environment & Development Organization. ''Sustainability is denied by poverty and overconsumption. So we are really talking about making choices in production and consumption that create a new value system.'' One place to start would be to enlarge women's decision-making role, Dow says. ''Women are principal carriers of the current financial system, but they are not the financial elite,'' she adds. ''They have fewer vested interests in these current systems that are so jealously guarded. That is why women are such an important force for change."

     

24. STATES ACCUSED OF BLOCKING TARGETS FOR GREEN SUMMIT

    Inter Press Service, 29 May 2002
    Internet: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0530-05.htm

    WASHINGTON, May 29 - The United States, Canada and Australia are blocking progress on a global plan of action to protect the environment that is being prepared for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, environmentalists charge.

    As the fourth and final preparatory meeting on the Summit completed its third day on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, advocacy organizations were pessimistic that the gathering would lead to concrete action if the three nations have their way. The countries have not officially responded to the charges.
    
    Activists say the nations have focused on voluntary measures and opposed proposals that would require mandatory action by corporations. The three wealthy countries were also consistently blocking proposals for specific timelines, targets and goals, they add.
    
    "It is truly depressing to read the texts produced for the Summit so far," said Kim Carstensen, CEO of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Denmark, who has been at the two-week preparatory conference. "If they are not changed substantially over the course of the next two weeks, governments will have failed utterly to fulfill the responsibility given to the Summit by the U.N. General Assembly."
    
    In 1999, the General Assembly decided the Summit should focus on taking decisions that would lead to action on a broad range of development and environmental issues, including improving sanitation and access to electricity, reducing poverty, preserving ecosystems, and reforming consumption patterns.

    The Summit, to be held in Johannesburg South Africa, Aug. 26 - Sep. 4, falls a decade after the landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where nations agreed to balance the world's economic and social needs with environmental protection. But most of the objectives adopted at Rio have not been met, according to UN and environmental groups, which were counting on the upcoming Summit to reinvigorate the process.
    
    A draft of the political declaration that nations will sign at the Summit was expected to be completed in Bali. Most of the hard negotiating is expected to take place June 5 - 7 when hundreds of government ministers will arrive. More than 2,900 people from 144 countries have been participating in the preparatory conference.
    
    Environmental groups say Washington's decision to not send a representative of ministerial rank to Bali proves it is not serious about the Summit's issues. Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs, will lead the U.S. delegation in ministerial-level talks next week.
    
    The United States wants "to avoid signing up to binding international agreements on quite a wide range of areas on which other people might want to see progress", said Ian Willmore, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth.
    
    The international environmental group has been pushing for an agreement that would bind companies to adhere to high social and environmental standards wherever they operate.
    
    Ricardo Navarro, chair of Friends of the Earth International, said that key paragraphs on corporate accountability were deleted from a document titled 'Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development', which had been negotiated during a two-day dialogue between environmental organizations, farmers' groups, indigenous people, business and local authorities.
    
    Navarro accused the United States and Australia of deleting the relevant text.
    
    "These two countries have consistently worked to gut every proposal being put forward by civil society throughout the entire preparatory process," he said.
    
    Other nations, including the European Union, were also to blame for lack of leadership in Bali, added Dewi Suralaga, program director at WWF Indonesia.
    
    "So far this conference has neither leadership nor vision," said Suralaga. "We are looking to the Indonesian chair of the preparatory conference, Emil Salim, and the government of