- Inicio
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Life on Land
Life on Land
Conserving the world’s roof
It was a chilly February day. Dangwen and his wildlife monitoring team from the village of Yunta patrolled along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The river was frozen solid easy for poachers to walk over. That day they encountered 220 blue sheep five white-lipped deer and a line of otter footprints. On the infrared camera traps that they had set up throughout the valley three snow leopards appeared a mother and two cubs – and the cubs had grown much bigger than three months before.
UN environment at work. Making environmental law work for planet and people
Violations of environmental law including environmental crimes can undermine sustainable development and the achievement of agreed goals and objectives at all levels. Though hundreds of treaties national laws and regulations exist to address environmental problems there are major challenges when it comes to implementing and complying with them. The fifth Global Environment Outlook reported for example that significant progress has only been made on four of the 90 most important global environmental goals and objectives. The consequences of this shortfall can be seen in the increasing environmental pressures from climate change biodiversity loss water scarcity air and water pollution and soil degradation among others. These environmental impacts all have far reaching economic and socialconsequences and contribute to poverty and growing social inequalities.
Strengthening environmental justice
Being rich in natural resources is a tremendous blessing for Indonesia that brings prosperity and hope to the people. In addition to being the world's largest archipelagic country Indonesia hosts a tropical forest area of more than 120 million hectares the most extensive in Asia and the world's third largest. Indonesia is also abundantly rich in maritime resources potential: ocean comprises no less than twothirds of the country’s territory. Together these ecosystems comprise immense mega biodiversity across the country’s extensive rain forests and rich coastal and marine areas.
Alive to solutions
In 2015 engineering student Jorge Zapote and his team from the University of Calgary decided to take on a problem that affects millions of poor rural families around the world – and one whose solution could be key to remedying climate change. They wanted to find a low-cost way of keeping fruit and vegetables cool and fresh in low-resource settings without using electricity.
UNEP at work. Costing the gender gap
Women form a large proportion of the agricultural labour force in sub-Saharan Africa and play a vital role in ensuring family nutrition and food security. But gender-based inequalities in access to and control of productive and financial resources are inhibiting agricultural productivity and reducing food security. At the same time a changing climate means that there is a shrinking window to close the gender gap in agriculture and seize the prospects for promoting women’s empowerment economic development and resilience to shocks.
Creating green growth
I’d first like to pay tribute to Maurice Strong an accomplished industrious Canadian who passed away last November. He was the guiding force behind the 1972 Stockholm Conference where the foundations of UNEP were created and he was also UNEP’s first Executive Director. Canada is proud of Maurice Strong’s legacy and of the contribution he made to the founding of this great institution.
Undermining progress
In 1990 at the end of the bush war in Angola and Namibia we fought criminals and militants involved in trafficking natural resources who were hiding from the government and police. Of course both these authorities harboured some corrupt individuals: we vividly recall handing over armed suspects to a local police chief in an African border town only for them to be let out again – with their assault rifles – the day after we left. But now things have changed for the worse.
Take the lead on lead
Environmental injustices are mostly experienced by low income groups who are at the receiving end of poor technologies and banned chemicals and whose main preoccupation is survival. They handle unknown chemicals using their bare hands and lack sufficient knowledge of their toxicity. In most cases the chemicals pose significant health risks to them their families and nearby communities. The resulting chemical wastes are disposed of directly into the immediate environment. There is little regulation and access to state social protection training and social services is limited.
Beyond GDP
In September last year the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be met by the year 2030. These range from poverty eradication and improvements in education and health to the protection of global assets including the oceans and a stable climate. However neither the SDGs nor their background documents explain how governments should judge the sustainability of the development programmes they undertake to meet the goals. It is currently taken as a given that the only way the SDGs can be met is for the world economy to enjoy healthy rates of economic growth. Unfortunately it is universal practice to interpret economic growth as growth in gross domestic product (GDP).
Taking practical action
Wildlife is a crucial part of natural ecosystems and is directly related to global ecological security cultural inheritance and sustainable development. Indeed wildlife conservation is an important symbol of the development of human civilization. Yet the global illegal wildlife trade is still rampant and the international community must work together to cope with it. For years the Chinese government has given high attention to wildlife conservation and made consistent efforts to address the illegal trade. In the first place it has been constantly improving the laws and regulations and setting severe punishments for illegal hunting trading smuggling and using wildlife and its products. A new amendment of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Wildlife Protection has increased punishment for illegal consumption and online wildlife trade. Secondly we have well established enforcement and coordination mechanisms. Our Inter-agency Joint Mechanism for Addressing Illegal Wildlife Trade consisting of over 20 departments has been set up to carry out comprehensive regulation.
Go circular
The circular economy is a tangible set of solutions – and our best chance of reaching sustainable patterns of production and consumption. The implications are enormous not just for the way we do business but also for the jobs of the future and for the natural world that surrounds us.
Innovation 01. The air we breathe
Every year nearly 4 million people die from outdoor air pollution – that’s more than are killed by AIDS malaria and tuberculosis combined. Nearly 90 per cent of those deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries which typically lack the capacity to monitor the quality of their air.
Lighting the way
The Dominican Republic emits less than 0.1% of global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) but as part of an island the country is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change through increased temperatures sea level rise and rainfall variability. Studies have shown that the country is already experiencing the effects of climate change through the increased intensity and frequency of tropical storms. The Dominican Republic has been classified as the eighth country in the world that was most affected by extreme weather events between 1993 and 2012. In view of the above the country has come up with a set of policies aimed at preserving existing resources achieving the objectives of sustainable development and increasing the resilience of ecosystems and human communities to the adverse effects of climate change. In all of these policies consensus and the participation of all sectors of society has been critical.
Time to deliver
Two years ago I was honoured to participate in the inaugural United Nations Environment Assembly the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment comprising all 193 United Nations Member States and involving major stakeholders from business and civil society. The establishment of the UNEA by the 2012 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development marked a coming of age for both UNEP and global environmental governance. It was testimony to the growing recognition that without careful management of the environment we will not succeed in our efforts to reduce poverty improve global health and secure enduring peace and stability.
The Africa we want
“Go softly in the world: if it is harmed it cannot return.” This traditional African proverb reflects an awakening understanding in the continent that the environment is key to unlocking its great potential. So far despite being filled with vast natural resources Africa has been unable to harness them to bring about long-lasting peace prosperity and good governance. But this is beginning to change.
The environmental dimension of peace
It is not by coincidence that Colombia is placing the protection and sustainable use of our biodiversity at the centre of our long-term development plans. Our natural endowment is among the most diverse in the world: with only 1 per cent of the planet’s surface our territory harbours 10 per cent of all known species and a forest area comparable to the size of Kenya.
Refashioning the future
2015 marked a remarkable moment in governance for sustainable development. The world gained a set of universally agreed goals an agreement on how they would be paid for and another agreement again universal that we would manage the global economy so as to limit warming to well below 2°C.
Natural cure
This amazing spinning ball of rock and water hurtling through space at more than 100000 kilometres an hour provides us with everything we need to live and be healthy. It’s a delicate balance with various interconnected natural systems — hydrologic and carbon cycles ocean and atmospheric currents among them — creating ideal conditions for human life.
If you eat, you’re in!
What wouldn't we do for our kids? We play in the park cut down on sugar walk them home from school talk around that all-important dinner table - the stuff of everyday life that shows we care.
Connecting in nature
Canada has 46 national parks and reserves 171 national historic sites and four national marine conservation areas adding up to 300000 square kilometres of protected areas. They represent the country's massive yet varied landscapes from the towering mountains of Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta to the sparkling sands of Sable Island National Park Reserve off Nova Scotia to the lush rain forest of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve on the coast of British Columbia. All these places tell Canada's ecological and cultural story. As its population becomes increasingly urban – and with the average park over two hours from a city – the need is to make more visiting opportunities available.