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News from Earthwatch - 2002
The 2002 report on the status of the world’s coral reefs is a mix of bad news and good news, but there is strong evidence that the corner is being turned in our ability to stop reef decline, provided this continues to be supported by sufficient political will. More information is available on: http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/research/coral-bleaching/scr2002/scr-00.html
Following a 1999 request by U.N. member states for UNEP and the U.N. Human Settlements Program to monitor the issue, Nov. 6 will now be set aside as a day to highlight the impact of armed conflict on the environment. More information is available on: http://www.unep.org/Documents/ Default.asp?DocumentID=271&ArticleID=3162
The Bishkek Global Mountain Summit is the final global event of the International Year of Mountains. It draws together the ideas and recommendations generated by previous events, from all levels and sectors of society, into proposals for concrete action. More information is available on: http://www.globalmountainsummit.org/ home_page.html
More information
is available on: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/information_services/
publications/MountainWatch_Bishkek /presspack/
This year's World Food Day theme is: Water: source of Food Security. Food fairs, field visits, exhibitions, concerts, ceremonies, seminars and radio and television broadcasts are taking place worldwide to heighten public awareness about water as a source of food security and to promote better understanding of the measures that need to be taken to ensure its future supply. More information
is available on: http://www.fao.org/wfd/index_en.asp
The International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction was celebrated on 9 October with initiatives highlighting the way ahead on how to reduce risk, benefiting from risk mapping, education and mountain development, as a contribution to the International Year of Mountains. More information
is available on: http://www.unisdr.org/
"City to City Cooperation" is the theme for this year's World Habitat Day (WHD). This year the global observances will be held in Brussels, Belgium, and will be jointly hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Belgium and the European Commission. More information
is available on: http://www.unhabitat.org/whd/2002/default.asp
More information
is available on: http://www.unep.org/cleanup/
More information
is available on: http://www.unep.org/
ozone/ozone_day2002/
The European Regional Assessment Report
"Assessment
of Progress in Sustainable Development since Rio 1992 for Member States
of the UNECE"is available online in pdf format.
With projections indicating that the world's population will grow by about two billion people by 2025, the new report, Global Challenge, Global Opportunity, underscores the need for greatly increased efforts to support sustainable development to better manage global resources in a rapidly changing world. The report can be downloaded in pdf format from the Johannesburg Summit website at: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/ documents/summit_docs/criticaltrends_1408.pdf (3.92 Mb)
More information can be found on the North American node of UNEP's Global Resource Information Database website at: http://www.na.unep.net/publications/ NA/geo-na.php3
New findings, which include maps showing global variation in family level diversity of flowering plants, freshwater fishes and land vertebrates, provide an indication of areas of special value. More information
can be found on the WCMC website at:
The African Environment Outlook is available at http://www.unep.org/aeo or http://www.grida.no/aeo or at Earthprint http://www.earthprint.com See UNEP Press release: The State Of Africa's Environment Chronicled In Ground-breaking Report: Hard Facts Tough Choices
In 2002, it was celebrated in Osnabrueck, Germany, at the kind invitation of the city of Osnabrueck. This Year theme was “Land Degradation”. UNCCD
page for this event: http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/
june17/osnabrueck.php
The theme Give Earth a Chance calls on each and every one of us to contribute to the healing of the ailing planet. In spite of considerable efforts and significant achievements, many of the problems, which plagued the Earth during the 20th Century, still linger. The main international celebrations of the World Environment Day will be held in the City of Shenzhen and UNEP is honoured that the People's Republic of China will be hosting this important United Nations day. More information is available from: http://www.unep.org/wed/2002/WED2002/
The UN Atlas supports Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, the blueprint for the sustainable development of oceans adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Atlas is funded by the United Nations Foundation. In addition, six UN agencies (FAO, IAEA, IMO, UNEP, WMO, UNESCO/IOC) have committed financial resources to the project, joined by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). Development has been under the lead of the FAO Fisheries Department with additional participation from national agencies. See also
agencies press releases:
GEO-3 is published 10 years after the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and in time for its successor, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. It sets an action-oriented environmental agenda for the future. Continuing the global and regional focus of the series, it complements the detailed assessment of the state of the global environment set out in GEO-2000. GEO-3 examines environmental trends over the past 30 years to provide an integrated explanation of the developments that have occurred. It not only examines the state of the environment over that period, but also the full range of social, economic, political and cultural drivers that have brought about change. Highlighting human vulnerability to environmental deterioration, it assesses effects of the spectrum of policy measures adopted.
This gap, says UNEP, is due to the fact that in most industry sectors, only a small number of companies are actively striving for sustainability, i.e. actively integrating social and environmental factors into business decisions. And, secondly, because improvements are being overtaken by economic growth and increasing demand for goods and services: a phenomenon known as the “rebound effect.” The new findings appear in the UNEP overview report 10 years after Rio: the UNEP assessment. This overview report assesses progress todate by industry on sustainability issues. It draws on the 22 global sustainability reports written by different industry sectors ranging from accounting and advertising to waste and water management. This collection of reports is known as the Industry as a Partner for Sustainable Development series.
UNICEF, UNEP and WHO report
Copies of the book can be ordered from the UNEP Publications Web site -- see http://www.earthprint.com. EEA and WHO report
Up to 40% of the global burden of disease attributable to environmental factors is estimated to fall on children under the age of 5 years. As developing organisms, children are particularly vulnerable to the impact of environmental pollution. The report is available online in pdf format.
The UNEP study concludes that the DU sites studied do not present immediate radioactive or toxic risks for the environment or human health. These findings are consistent with those of UNEP's 2001 DU study in Kosovo. Together, the two studies cover the entire geographical area affected by DU munitions during the Kosovo conflict.
It was decided
that each World Water Day would focus on a particular theme relating to
the conservation of water resources and that one UN agency would be selected
to lead the UN system in its activities. The theme for March
22, 2002 is Water and Development, and the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) is the lead UN agency. See also
the:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held its official launch of the International Year of Mountains at its Rome headquarters on 15 February. The aim of the IYM is to ensure the well-being of mountain and lowland communities by promoting the conservation and sustainable development of mountain regions. FAO, the lead agency for the IYM, is working closely with UN and other organizations to make sure the broadest possible range of expertise is focused on reaching the goals of sustainable mountain development. In response to many requests for assistance, UNEP has set-up a Mountain Programme coordinated by UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). More details on: http://www.mountains2002.org/
Report available from: http://www.fao.org/iptrid/kn_syn_04/kn_syn_04.htm
Ecotourism activities have been expanding rapidly over the past two decades worldwide and further growth is expected in the future. Recognizing its global importance, the United Nations designated the year 2002 as the International Year of Ecotourism. The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) and UNEP have joined forces to take the leading role in the preparation and co-ordination of activities to be undertaken at the international level. The IYE offers
an opportunity to review ecotourism experiences worldwide, in order to
consolidate tools and institutional frameworks that ensure its sustainable
development in the future. This means maximizing the economic, environmental
and social benefits from ecotourism, while avoiding its past shortcomings
and negative impacts.
The seventh meeting of the Earthwatch Working Party was be held at the UNEP offices in Geneva on Monday 10 December and Tuesday 11 December 2001. The Meeting documents are available online.
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| © UNEP/DEWA/Earthwatch 1996-2003 |
Global Environmental Headlines
The
Volunteers
work together in their own communities to carry out local clean-up activities,
uniting with like-minded community groups throughout the globe in a massive
worldwide clean-up of the environment.
This
commemoration (16th September 2002) around the world offers an opportunity
to focus attention and action at the global, regional and national levels
on the protection of the ozone layer.
The
World Summit on Sustainable Development (also known as Rio + 10),
gathering from 26 
This
annual report provides basic information on the agricultural situation
at the global and regional level. Included in the issue are a CD-ROM containing
time series data for 150 countries, country groups, and regions in English,
French, and Spanish, together with FAOSTAT TS software for easy access
and use.
If current patterns of development continue, nearly half of the world's
people will suffer from water shortages within the next 25 years, the
use of fossil fuels, along with greenhouse gas emissions, will grow, and
the world's forests will continue to disappear, according to a new United
Nations report issued on 13 August 2002
by the Secretariat for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development.
New
report "
The
Sharp
increases in air and water pollution, land degradation, droughts and wildlife
losses are facing Africa unless urgent action is taken to deliver environmentally-friendly
development for its citizens, a report released on July
2002 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
says.
As
part of its campaign to tackle global environmental deterioration in particular
by combatting the degradation of drylands -- which cover up to one quarter
of the world's land surface -- the 
The
World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June,
is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates
worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention
and action. 
UNEP
released new 
There
is a growing gap between the efforts of business and industry to
Every
day 5,500 children die from diseases caused by consuming water and food
polluted with bacteria, according to a new study released by three United
Nations agencies, the 9 May 2002,
as part of the 
On
the occasion of the opening of Green Week 2002 by Romano Prodi, President
of the European Commission, WHO and the European Environment Agency (EEA)
A
World
Water Day grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development held in Rio de Janiero. Recognizing the objectives set
out in 
IUCN's
Director General, Achim Steiner, and Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a
joint publication, Dugong: Status Report and Action Plans for Countries
and Territories, during the seventh special session of UNEP's Governing
Council in Columbia. 
The
UN General Assembly declared the year 2002
as the International Year of the Mountains (IYM). Throughout the year,
people all over the world will participate in events to celebrate mountains
and discuss ways to promote their conservation and sustainable development.
The
United Nations General Assembly has designated 2002
as the International Year of Ecotourism (IYE). 
