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Address of Ambassador Dr. Pleuger on the occasion of the
panel discussion "Learning from Community Action - Biodiversity and
the Millennium Development Goals"
Wednesday, 19 May 2004 - German Permanent Mission to the United Nations
Administrator,
Ambassador Niclas Rivas, President of the Kerry Center Dr. Tom Lovejoy,
Prof. Niekisch, Executive Director of GEO TV Martin Meister, GTZ-Director
Andreas Gettkant, Vice Presidents of the UN Foundation Melinda Kimble
and Jean-Claude Faby, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the German Government I am delighted to welcome you to the
Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations for this year's Prize
Winning Ceremony of the Equator Initiative and the Panel Discussion on
Biodiversity. It is a particular pleasure for me to co-host this event
together with UNDP, the Partners of the Equator Initiative, GEO Magazine
and GTZ.
The motto of today's gathering "Learning from the Locals: Biodiversity
and the Millennium Development Goals" is meant to highlight two key
messages. Firstly, the recognition that - as UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan has pointed out - unless biodiversity is preserved, achieving the
Millennium Development Goals throughout the world is going to be more
difficult, if not impossible. Secondly, the crucial role local communities
play as care-takers of biodiversity and the importance of the contribution
they make to its global preservation.
Biodiversity is the capital on which our future, everyone's future, is
built - whether we live in the developing world or the industrialized
countries. Nearly 90% of animal and plant species are to be found in the
developing countries. For the mostly poor people living in these countries
biodiversity is vital to their livelihoods. The natural habitat of these
communities is a key resource, supplying them with food and medicines
as well as building materials. Marketing products derived from this habitat
provide particularly poor people in the developing countries with an additional
source of income. For people in the industrialized countries biodiversity
is a vital asset as well, a source of innovative developments and improved
products in the food and pharmaceutical industries, for example.
The loss of biodiversity we are seeing today is unprecedented and has
already reached dramatic proportions. People in the developing countries,
whose livelihoods depend on their local habitat, are particularly hard
hit by this loss. There is a direct link between the loss of biodiversity
and deteriorating living standards particularly of local communities in
developing countries.
At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, the international
community acknowledged its responsibility for biodiversity by adopting
the Convention on Biological Diversity, the CBD. Now 188 states are parties
to the Convention and subscribe to the three objectives, all of equal
importance,
- the conservation of biological diversity,
- the sustainable use of its components,
- and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of
the utilization of genetic resources.
Ladies and gentlemen, the international community has recognized that
poverty reduction is a major global political challenge. At the UN's Millennium
Summit in September 2000 Heads of State and Government agreed on a set
of common goals - the Millennium Development Goals - aimed at reducing
poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, discrimination against women and
the degradation of natural resources. By 2015 the number of people living
in extreme poverty is to be halved. Clearly biodiversity has a major role
to play in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, for it is one of
the keys to combating poverty effectively. Its importance goes beyond
the "environmental target" - ensuring environmental sustainability
- proclaimed in Goal number seven. Biodiversity is also crucial to eradicating
hunger around the world, for example, Goal number one. Germany's contribution
to reducing poverty and hunger around the world as spelled out in the
Federal Government's Program of Action 2015 highlights also the importance
of biodiversity in ensuring food security and safeguarding the environment.
For many years now biodiversity has been an important dimension of Germany's
development cooperation with our partners. The first projects in this
field were launched in the early eighties. Germany is now providing around
70 million euro a year through the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development for projects in the field of biodiversity. We are currently
supporting some 180 projects designed to assist our partners in safeguarding
biodiversity and exploiting the natural habitat on a sustainable basis.
At the multilateral level, we support a range of activities designed
to preserve biodiversity. Germany is the third largest donor to the Global
Environment Facility (GEF), providing 11.5% of its budget, of which an
average of 40% is spent on activities to preserve biodiversity and exploit
the natural habitat on a sustainable basis.
In our development cooperation program we recognized early on the key
role played by local communities in the preservation of biodiversity and
sustainable habitat exploitation. Local communities living in areas with
a rich natural habitat generally have a keen awareness and understanding
of its value. Yet, they also tend to be the hardest hit by environmental
degradation, natural disasters and health hazards caused by environmental
pollution, as they often lack the means to take appropriate counter-action
or protect themselves and their health. Many local communities have found
innovative and effective ways of coping with the challenges posed by environmental
change as well as novel approaches to preserve the natural habitat on
which their livelihoods depend. They not only build better lives for themselves
but also ensure that biodiversity is preserved for future generations.
The Equator Initiative has set itself the goal of publicizing and seeking
greater recognition for the role local communities play in preserving
biodiversity, sustainably managing the habitat and combating poverty effectively.
The UNDP, the United Nations Foundation, the Canadian Government, IUCN,
The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, TVE, BrazilConnects,
the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development,
GTZ and GEO Magazine have joined forces to support such local success
stories and make them known to a wider public. One example of the Initiative's
activities are the Equator Awards. Entries for the Awards were invited
last June, and in February of this year representatives of the 26 finalists
attended the seventh CBD Conference in Kuala Lumpur, where the seven award-winning
entries were chosen.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome here today three representatives
of the award-winning projects: Dr Vanaja Ramprasad from the Green Foundation
in India, Ezequiel Vitonás from the Proyecto Nasa in Colombia and
Benny Roman from the Torra Conservancy in Namibia. The three initiatives
are active in very different fields, but there is one thing they have
in common: by helping local communities to exploit their natural habitat
on a sustainable basis, they are helping to safeguard their livelihoods
and long-term future. This work is a splendid example of what achieving
the Millennium Development Goals means in practice and at local level.
Today's gathering is part of the run-up to the International Day for
Biological Diversity on 22 May, as was the opening of the GEO-exhibition
"Focus on Nature" at the Visitors Lobby in the UN Headquartors
organized by the same partners. I encourage you to visit this extraordinary
photo exhibition. The motto this year of Biodiversity Day is "Biodiversity:
Food, Water and Health for All". This is intended to demonstrate
the determination of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
to play their part in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. That
shows just how important the issues are which we will be exploring in
the discussion to follow.
Let me thank all partners, UNDP, the Equator Initiative, GEO and GTZ
for their joint work to bring this event about - truly a multistakeholder
partnership! Our special thanks go to UNDP - and you allow me to specially
thank Eileen de Ravin, Charles Mc Neill, Sean Southey - as well as Cristina
Hoyos from GTZ without whose personal devotion it would not have been
possible.
I wish you success and look forward to a very stimulating discussion.
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