The seminar, attended by around 80 people, could not have been more timely. To the concern of environmentalists in the South Asia region, recent reports have shown that the level of human development and the state of environment is amongst the lowest in the world. Though significant improvements have been made in certain sectors, the problems of increasing poverty, illiteracy, disease, population, women and child abuse and environmental degradation loom large. Strife within and between nations is leading to increased military spending.

Various government and NGO initiatives have been launched for dealing with these problems. Major programmes have sought to deal with poverty, education, health care, afforestation and soil and water conservation. While remarkable success has been achieved in individual projects, the overall impact on the region is not significant.

The seminar, held in New Delhi, therefore had a clear agenda—to evolve more sustained and realistic individual or collaborative projects between two or more countries to address some of the major environmental problems currently facing the South Asian region. The key issues for discussion included: how to promote regional environmental cooperation, the challenges ahead, the strategies that needed to be adopted, how to maximise the benefits of regional cooperation, how to access funds and what were the required institutional support systems.

The seminar opened with a short speech by Dr Ashok Khosla, President, Development Alternatives, who outlined some of the major environmental issues confronting the subcontinent, such as air and water pollution, deforestation, noise congestion, inadequate resource management, degradation and urbanisation. Said Dr Khosla: " The level of cooperation between our countries has lagged, but in the millennium we have to see the close linkages and common problems of our countries."

Dr Khosla’s views were shared by E Ashley Wills, Charge d’ Affaires, US Embassy, who highlighted the importance given by the embassy to environmental issues.

The panelists at the seminar then made their presentations. The first off the mark was Dr RS Shanthakumar Hopper, Project Leader, Biovillage Project, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. Turning the spotlight on some of the problems facing South Asia, Dr Hopper pointed out that 26 million people in the region lacked access to rudimentary health facilities; 337 million lacked safe drinking water. To top it all, he said, South Asia was the most malnourished region. Children were the worst affected. All this was because the region had the highest degree of militarisation. Added Dr Hopper: "We need to change direction from schemes and processes to combatting poverty head on."

"The children of the monsoon", an evocative expression to describe the common heritage of people in the subcontinent, formed the leitmotif of the conference. The phrase was introduced by Dr Syed Ayub Qutub, President and Chief Executive of the Pakistan Institute for Environment – Development Action Research, Islamabad. Dr Qutub said that a billion and more people were sustained by the monsoon but the pattern of monsoons were undergoing a dramatic alteration because of climate change. So far, he said, the governments of South Asia had exercised a global voice in influencing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Similarly they had taken a common stand on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention to Combat Desertification. However, the sharing and learning at the inter-governmental level had been less than at the business level. A good case was that of Karachi where the 160 or so tanneries had incorporated a series of effluent treatment plants for which the technology had been supplied by Iram Consultants, Kanpur, India.

The other speakers at the seminar were Pushkar Bhakta Mathema, Associate Editor, Gorakhapatra, from Kathmandu, Nepal, Dr Biplab Bhushan Basu, Director, School of Fundamental Research, Calcutta and Dr Parvaiz Naim, Programme Director, Environmental Assessment Services, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Karachi. The theme of Mathema’s presentation was "The Role of Media in Promoting Environmental Awareness". In Nepal, he pointed out, there were regular environmental programmes on TV and radio, while the traditional media, such as puppet shows, were also mobilised. Dr Basu cited the Joint Forest Management programme in India as a successful example of an initiative that had the people’s sanction. Said Dr Basu: " In the sector of policy planning for environment and development it is important that some of the major gains are shared. People need to feel that they are co-partners of the system." The last speaker was Dr Naim who spoke about Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Pakistan and how the component of public participation was subtly woven into it. He emphasised the need for greater interaction between NGOs on both sides of the border.