The gulf is widening -- but this is the right track

26-Aug-2003: By Guy Rogers --

DESPITE growing awareness of poverty and the need for sustainable development, expressed at a multiplying number of high level conferences, the gulf between the haves and have-nots is widening.
But the mechanisms are in place to deal with this crisis and, despite the advent of a new foe in the form of climate change, they can succeed.

This was the message from three key speakers at the opening plenary of the 6th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertificatiion ( COP-6) which is being staged over the next fortnight in Havana, Cuba.

In her address, (COP-6) incoming president and Cuban Science, Technology and Environment Minister Rosa Negrin said she hoped that the conference would make “real progress towards creating a better world”.

Expressing confidence in the human capacity “to overcome”, she nevertheless noted that “fifty-four countries are poorer today than they were in the 1990s, one point two billion people live in absolute poverty, one point three billion live on fragile land that does not provide them with stable livelihoods, food distribution continues to be unequal and natural resources are depleted.”

In his speech UNCCD executive secretary Hama Diallo said this grim situation existed despite the fact that many affected countries had finalised the action programmes as they had been called upon to do, aimed at reassessing suitable land use, preventing over-grazing and protecting and restoring forests.

The problem was that population growth and human inflicted degradation of the land were combining with climate change, presenting a “worsening challenge”, he said. The climate factor is exemplified by the scheduling of the conference at the end of August, a month which saw unprecedented forest fires rage from Portugal to Canada. Temperatures reached 53 C in the Spanish city of Sevilla, Italy endured its longest heat wave in two centuries and drought gripped three quarters of France. As a consequence the price of basic food stuffs has been rising across Europe, electricity prices soared to a record high and hundreds of thousands of hectares of land have been devastated by fires and drought.

“So greater effectiveness is needed and it is the responsibility of the international community as a whole to explore all possibilities for a global response.”

Speaking at the same session, outgoing COP president Charles Bassett of the Canadian Development Agency said change was needed “now more than ever”.

“Climate change, drought, famine... in Africa in particular poverty and hunger are increasing.”

But Mr Bassett expressed optimism that the convention could succeed in turning this bleak scenario around and he said that the change would come if its partnership with the Global Environment Facility – which last week announced the launch of a R4000 million ($500m) programme to combat land degradation -- could be strengthened and clarified.

“With this, I believe this convention now has all the tools it needs to help us move towards effective results.

“We need to take a hard look at how much time we spend planning and meeting and talking about desertification. I think we need to shift our energy towards implementation. It’s time to make a difference where it counts -- in the lives of the poor.”

Speaking at yesterday’s plenary, NGOs representative veteran activist Carlos Amat identified several “implementation tools” including a proposal that all countries should re-allocate 50 per cent of their present military expenditure to sustainable development initiatives.