Conference must send the correct signals
KUALA LUMPUR, Sun. —The second ministerial conference of developing countries on environment and development which begins tomorrow should not send the wrong signals to developed countries.
Such signals could jeopardize negotiations preceding the Earth Summit in June, the United Nations Conference of Environmental Development (UNCED) secretary-general Dr Maurice Strong said tonight.
Statements to be issued at the end of the four-day conference must "send a signal that gives encouragement and support to the developed nations", he added.
"The statements must not be a setback to us. Instead, we should build on experience and knowledge acquired during the recent preparatory committee meeting in New York," Strong said.
"Don’t give the ammunition to (detractors to claim that) the United Nations cannot do it (carry out the environmental programmes)."
He was speaking at a dinner attended by senior officials of various nations who will be taking part in the conference.
After the dinner, the officials met to finalize the delayed Kuala Lumpur Declaration.
Strong warned that if the Earth Summit failed in Rio de Janeiro, it would also be the failure of "historical proportions" for the United Nations.
He warned that if the summit failed, this would tantamount to disintegration of the world order and renewing the unnecessary "rich-poor countries war."
He conceded that a breakthrough at the summit was not easy but he was confident that it could achieve its objectives.
"The (summit) would be a new path to secure global partnership in the future," he added.
Strong said: "There is a need to have an intra-government mechanism which is supported by a secretariat to carry out the objectives of the agreements which will be reached at the summit."
"If there is none, all follow-ups would be in doubt and all that we have worked on would be jeopardized."
He disagreed with the G77 position that global environmental programmes should have a new funding mechanism.
He pointed out that the demand might not be met because "conditions were still not feasible."
He emphasized on the need for existing funding mechanisms to carry out the programmes like the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) or the Regional Development Bank as this would also give the option to use funds for other uses like poverty eradication.
Consensus reached on seven core issues
KUALA LUMPUR, Sun. —Senior officials from developing countries achieved consensus on the final draft of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration after a lengthy discussion which went past midnight and will present it to delegates at the conference tomorrow.
Tan Sri Razali Ismail who chaired the meeting of senior officials said the final draft was approved about 12.30am, about 36 hours later than it was initially scheduled to have been completed.
He added consensus had been reached on all the seven core issues that the officials had been working on for the past three days.
They are the question of new and additional financial resources, the financial mechanism to administer the finance, the concept of sustainable development in Agenda 21 (a programme of action to halt and reverse global environmental degradation into the 21st century), the management and sustainable development of forests, climate change, biodiversity and transfer of technology.
"Everything is now in the hands of the Ministers who begin their three-day meeting tomorrow," added Razali.
The Ministers would then assess and adopt the declaration which would be presented to the Group of 77 in New York before it is brought to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June.
He said the draft was studied very carefully by the officials and they were satisfied that this was indeed the draft they could submit to the Ministers.
Razali added that during the three days, there was good co-operation among all delegates and this showed that solidarity and common purpose with nations of the G77 still remains.
"The unanimity and common purpose we achieved tonight will also add confidence to what the developing nations would be tabling at the UNCED or Earth Summit in Rio in June," he added.
Before the delegates went into their final session at 11.30pm, Razali said that only deliberations on financial mechanism and the Rio institutions had yet to be ironed out.
"These are just the minor details. It is just a matter of dotting the is and dashing the Ts," he said.
The SOM, preceding the ministerial conference, was scheduled to come out with the draft at noon yesterday.
However, delegates adjourned the meeting till today after failing to come up with the final draft despite an extended session that ended about 12.30am yesterday.
A thunderstorm that triggered a four-hour power failure at the hotel where the SOM is being held also did not help matters.
The KL declaration is expected to present a stronger stand for the South at the Summit concerning the seven core issues.
Meeting venue hit by power blackout
KUALA LUMPUR, Sun. —The Crown Princess Hotel, the venue of the second ministerial conference of developing countries for environment and development, was thrown into darkness for more than four hours this evening forcing the postponement of discussions in the final draft of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration.
Delegates to the discussion then adjourned for a few hours for the dinner hosted by Science, Technology and Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding.
The delegates were supposed to meet again at 10.15pm to iron out the differences and come up with a final reading of the declaration.
However by 8pm, electricity had not resumed and dinner guests were forced to have their cocktails at the Ballroom lobby on the 10th floor, where the discussions and meetings were held. The Hunan Restaurant, venue for the dinner, happens to be on the same floor, too.
The media secretariat on the 12th Floor was also thrown into darkness for two hours, and only the clatter of typewriters, used by some foreign journalists were heard, that too, with the help of candies. Power supply only resumed at 8.45pm.
According to a spokesman for the hotel, the blackout was due to a power failure at a Tenaga Nasional sub-station following a heavy downpour in the city in the afternoon.
Fresh perspective of all forestry issues necessary
KUALA LUMPUR, Sun. — At most international environmental conventions the North’s perception of environmental issues can be summed up as "What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is ours".
The divergence of views between developed and developing nations on forestry issues are different as people view trees differently.
The second ministerial conference of developing countries on environment and development which will be opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad tomorrow will hopefully offer a fresh angle to the West’s lopsided view of the forestry issue which has put developing nations in a bad light.
Perhaps the deliberations of the conference, when published, will rectify the misinformation on the developing nations’ efforts to preserve the environment. Such misinformation has been presented by the Western media
Developed nations have always been unable to perceive the developing nations’ views on environment.
A United Nations Conference on Environment and Environment and Development (UNCED) publication states more than a quarter of all forests in the United States in the 17th century were felled. Reafforestation programmes only started this century.
During the 1980s, the last tracts of the virgin timber land were cleared at the rate of 24,000ha per year. The US Government was forced to open up public land in the Northwest to logging interests.
One out of four logs was exported to Japan to build houses.
Fortunately, Malaysia’s efforts to conserve the environment has enabled it to preserve more than 70 per cent of the forests. Out of this percentage, about 55 percent is virgin forest.
The environmental damage done by the North is often underplayed by the Western media.
"The media in the West is only picking up our problems and not our solutions and our perspectives on improving the environment.
"They have reached a point of condemning developing countries and failing to recognize the reafforestation and conservation programmes we are involved in," said Ms Erna Witoelar, a leader of the Commission on Developing Countries and Global Change.
She delivered a paper which emphasized on the creating of a sustainable future at the Asia-Pacific Forum of environmental journalists (AFEJ) seminar which concluded yesterday.
In welcoming the journalists, Primary Industries Minister Datuk Dr Lim Keng Yaik said Malaysia would like to work with the AFEJ journalists to disseminate the correct information on the environment.
The AFEJ chairman, Mr Philip Mathews responded that: "The media could help in promulgating interaction among local governments in the region as it is an effective way to co-operate, exchange knowledge and disseminate the truth about environment." — By M. Krishnamoorthy
Source : New Straits Times, April 27, 1992
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