Busy bees in the summertime

Jeffrey Mc Neely, Chief Conservation Officer at the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Gland, Switzerland, dwelt on the busy bodies at the UNCED PrepCom in the Network ‘92 No.7, June 1991.

The UNCED PrepCom process resembles a beehive in a meadow in the middle of summer. Everybody is busy, the corridors are a buzz with talk of sustainable development, diplomats are launching themselves on important missions to other hives, a thousand flowery new ideas are blooming, new international agreements are being pollinated, and information is flowing hither and yon. By the end of summer a beehive produces honey and wax. But the UNCED negotiations often seem to resemble too many drones chasing one elusive queen.

In its influential 1987 report, the World Commission on Environment and Development called for greatly improved international cooperation. This seems to have led primarily to ever-growing numbers of international meetings and lots of work for the international consulting community. The danger is that international cooperation is often aimed at more and more sophisticated ways of exploiting natural resources (called "rationalising sustainable use of resources"), not in conserving them. The benefits of over-exploitation flow especially to the international consumers, who gain the benefit of steadily growing supplies of raw materials to feed their voracious appetites for "essentials ". The honey is not staying in the local hive, but is flowing to distant markets.

Meanwhile, the only future for the worker bees in the country side is more work.

While increasing the amounts of foreign exchange available to the developing countries is a commonly quoted objective of UNCED negotiations, the resulting exploitation of resources for the benefit of the international market also has costs. The international costs - climate change, pollution, species loss - are well recognised by UNCED, and are the subject of seemingly endless negotiations (often notable for lack of hard data on which to negotiate, and fundamental disagreements abut how to interpret the data that exist). But even greater costs are paid by the local people whose resources are being over-exploited; while the international market can move on to other sources of supply, the local communities must adapt to the resources available. They are often put in the position where they must over-exploit their own environment in order to meet their daily needs and the demands of a voracious external market.

This is doubly ironic for the local communities - those who would earn the direct benefits from using their local resources in a sustainable way-are also sometimes the victims of conservation. When national parks, for example, do not recognise the needs of the local communities, conflict is inevitable. What can be done to enable to earn the benefit of sustainable use? Responses include : more complete evaluations of the real cost of exploiting resources; greater participation by local communities in decisions on both conservation and resource exploitation; more complete sharing of information; more effective drawing on local knowledge in management programmes; great responsibility for local communities in managing the resources upon which their welfare depends.

While the international negotiations continue, local communities remain the units that are adapting to the real-life condition on the ground.

And who speaks for the local communities at UNCED? What response can be expected to result form Rio? More bees in people’s bonnets, more sticky fingers on the hands of exploiters, or at long last some real honey for the rural people whose welfare depends directly upon sustainable forms of using resources?

By the end of summer a beehive produced honey and wax. But the UNCED negotiations often seem to resemble too many drones chasing one elusive queen.

It is apparent that the real sources of power in this world - governments and the corporate sector - are advocating more exploitation of resources, often at rates that ecologist consider unsustainable in the long term. While this is often cloaked with tokens of environmental concern and words like "sustainable development," the on-the-ground reality is something far different. Local communities are losing power over their own lives, and governments - both North and South - want them to produce more food, raw materials, and products for the world marketplace, even when local ecosystems are already suffering form over-exploitation. the outcome is often predictably tragic.

Virtually the only voices being heard on behalf of true sustainability for local communities come from various NGOs. Conservation NGOs argue that protecting biodiversity is crucial to sustainable development; development NGOs argue for empowerment of rural communities, especially on behalf of the minorities. All of these are finding common ground in forms of development which are aimed at maintaining healthy ecosystems that can be managed by local communities for their own benefit.

The local expression of sustainable forms of development will vary greatly from place to place, reflecting different cultures, climate, history, and natural resources. This diversity of approaches to sustainability is to be applauded. Local communities need appropriate encouragement and practical support to build self-reliance, to adapt to changing conditions, to utilize their local assets in ways that make sense to local needs.

Governments of North and South are squabbling over who gets what share of honey, but the far more important question for the future welfare of humanity is how to enable rural communities to develop sustainable forms of adapting to changing conditions.

See you round the honey pot.

The ‘ 92 Global Forum

The ‘ 92 Global Forum which will be jointly coordinated by the Brazilian NGO forum and the International Facilitating Committee (IFC) is intended to be a series of events, which provide an apportunity for all sectors to express their independent views in Rio de Janeiro at the time of the Earth Summit.

Also included within the framework of the ‘ 92 Global Forum will be individual events planned by women, youth , indigenous people and others as well as an " Intersectoral Summit’ planned by the IFC. These meetings and exhibitions will provide an opportunity for various sectors of society to share with each other their recommendations to governments and their own plans of action for the 21st century.

The site for the ‘ 92 Global Forum will be the area surrounding the Gloria Hotel in rio, which encompasses the historical centre of Rio (where conference facilities and hotel accommodation are being arranged) and the Flamengo Park (which will be the venue for exhibitions, informal meetings and other suitable outdoor activities including live transmission by television of UNCED itself.) The headquartes for the Gloria Forum, including registration, travel and accommodation facilities and communication centre will be located at the Gloria Hotel in Rio, Which encompasses the historical centre of rio (where conference facilities and hotel accommodation are being arranged) and the Flamengo park (which will be the venue for exhibitions, informal meetings and other suitable outdoor activities including live transmission by television of UNCED itself.) the headquarters for the Gloria Forum, including registration, travel and accommodation facilities and communication centre will be located at the Gloria Conference Centre adjacent to the Gloria Hotel.

For planning the individual events of the independent sector organisations, during the Earth Summit, the Global Forum coordinators have opened an office in Rio at the following address :

International Facilitating Committee
Hotel Gloria, prei Anexo, Sala 366
Rua do Russel, 632
22212, rio de janeiro
Brazil
Tel : 5563030
Fax : 2054114
telex: 2141201 GLFO

Desks and operational support are available in the Global Forum for all independent sector organisations planning events in Rio next June. Organisations interested in securing a desk in the Global Forum’s office should contact the office directly.

All equipment and facilities for the Global Forum’s office including telephones, faxes, telexes, computers, moderns, photocopiers and furnitures have been secured as contributions to a corporate sponsorship programme organised between the Global Forum coordinators and the commercial association of Rio de Janeiro represented by Mr. Paulo Protasio.

All indoor conference facilities within a 15-minute radius of the Gloria Hotel and the Conference Centre have been blocked by the brazilian Government for use by groups and organisations planning events as part of the Global Forum.

Exhibition booths are also available in Flamengo Park where materials and goods can be shown and/or sold. Requests for meeting space (either indoor or outdoor) and exhibition booths in Flamengo Park should be directed to the Global Forum’s office in Rio.

To facilitate participation in the Global Forum, the Global Forum coordinators will assist with accommodation and travel arrangement. Those interested in securing accommodation in Rio next June, whether individually or as a group, should contact the Global Forum’s office at the earliest possible date.

For details, please contact the Global Forum Office in Rio.

Meeting with the Minister

UNCED Update
Get accredited now! time is running out

The last PrepCom in Geneva which ended on the 4th September decided that only those representatives of the Independent sectors which are accredited to the prepCom by the end of its fourth and final session in New york will be invited to attend the conference in Rio de Janeiro. The final PrepCom ends on April 3, 1992, so if you are not already accredited to UNCED, you should do so as soon as possible. (It is important to note that you do not have to attend the PrepCom meetings in order to get accreditation.)

PrepCom grants accreditation to those organisations of the independent sectors that are able to prove their "competence and relevance" regarding the issues being discussed by UNCED. To help it make a decision about any given organisation, the PrepCom has asked the UNCED secretariat to make recommendations for accreditation. In order for the secretariat to make its judgement on which organisations to accredit, the secretariat requires the following information from interested groups and organisations :

Contact :UNCED, B.P. 80, CH-1213 Conches, Switzerland, Tel. (41-220 789 1676, Fax . 789 35 36.

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