Wildlife and forest crimes exact a terrible price from developing countries and their communities. Fragile ecosystems are destroyed and biodiversity is reduced.

The staying power of the United Nations is remarkable. For nearly 70 years, the UN's membership has grown rapidly after newly independent countries joined its ranks. It is encouraging too that no country has felt a strong enough urge to leave the organization in spite of its democratic deficiencies.

As we mark half a century of engagement and achievement, let us recall the words of the Group's first ministerial meeting, in Algiers in 1967, which still ring true today: In a world of increasing interdependence, peace, progress and freedom are common and indivisible.

The unity of the Group of 77 was not founded on homogeneity of political systems or a single identity of economic interests. They were based on a shared and common perception of the inequitable nature of the then existing economic order, the unfair and unethical rules of the game and the necessity to change them.

I see the Group of 77 as a symbol of the quest for and an essential element of the democratization of international relations, of the United Nations and of the UN system.

G-77 at 50: not an age of retirement but of experience and wisdom to transform the world economy, for poor countries and people.Go ahead!

The Global South needs leaders of the standing, knowledge and, most of all, conviction of Julius K. Nyerere and Raul Prebisch and a major organization at the global level, which would give energy and impulse to the Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned Movement to confront common challenges in continuing their struggle for world peace, development and an equitable world economic and political order.

The commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the G-77 is an opportunity for its member nations to assess the progress achieved through their joint action to redress the injustices and inequities of a world order crafted by powerful actors in the developed world to serve their own perceived self-interest.

The immediate interests and specific negotiating priorities of many of its many members—the great number in itself makes it difficult to achieve consensus—are different from those of the others.The individual countries differ vastly from one another with respect to their cultural, ideological, political, and economic systems.

The 50 years of celebrations should be the starting point for a new phase, in which the G-77 plays a public role for the good of man and woman all over the world.