THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday, 6 July 2005
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
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Market rides to rescue of environment World leaders are being asked today to
extend emissions pricing (Financial Times)
U.N. environment chief tells G8 it pays to protect forests, coastlines (Associated
Press)
Zehn Ziele für Afrika und Klimaschutz (Rheinische Post)
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Building for the environment (South China Morning Post)
World Bank President highlights role of business in African development
(Moneyweb)
Euronatur-Umweltpreis 2005 an Roland Emmerich (Umweltjournal)
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Support for South Pacific Coral Reefs (Harold Doan & Associates)
Students take environment seriously (Cayman Net News)
Other Environment News
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Straw positive on climate change (BBC)
Age-Old Questions Continue to Entice Scientists (Washington Post)
Tropical Storm Cindy hits Louisiana (CNN)
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
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ROE
Other UN News
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UN Daily News of 5 July 2005
S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of 5 July 2005
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Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254-2) 623292/93, Fax: [254-2] 62 3927/623692, Email:cpiinfo@unep.org, http://www.unep.org
Financial Times: Market rides to rescue of environment World leaders are being asked
today to extend emissions pricing
By FIONA HARVEY
6 July 2005
Clashes between environmental groups and big business, from Greenpeace activists chaining
themselves to the production lines of fuel-guzzling sports utility vehicles, to protestors outside
meetings of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, are a common sight.
But a subtle change has taken place to bring business and the "greens" closer together than ever:
safeguarding the environment now requires using the tools of business.
Klaus Topfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, exemplified
the change last month.
"To fight poverty we need three kinds of capital - financial, human and environmental. When
we damage natural capital we not only undermine our life support systems but the economic
basis for current and future generations," he said.
"Targeted investment in this natural capital has a high rate of return in terms of development.
Restoring them to health after they have been damaged is a costly and often time consuming
affair. Better to keep them intact than undermine them in the first place."
Mr Topfer was acknowledging the importance of placing environmental goods in an economic
context, thus translating the arguments of environmentalists into a language that businesses can
understand.
The best example of this is carbon trading. From January 1 this year, a price was put on carbon
dioxide for the first time. In the European Union, businesses that emit large amounts of the gas
were forced to begin to monitor their emissions of carbon dioxide, and will have to pay for
producing too much. Companies that produce more than their allowance of carbon dioxide must
buy additional allowances from companies that have successfully cut their output.
The intention is to encourage companies to find ways of reducing their carbon dioxide
emissions at the lowest possible cost.
Businesses seem to be adapting to the scheme. The price of carbon dioxide has risen to more
than Euros 29 a tonne from about Euros 8 in the first days of the scheme.
Margaret Beckett, UK environment secretary, says: "We see this as a very important step.
Emissions trading guarantees environmental benefits."
The most ringing endorsement for the idea of carbon trading came from the leaders of 24 of the
world's biggest businesses who met Tony Blair in June to ask for more regulation of their
industries. They urged G8 leaders who, under Mr Blair's chairmanship, will discuss climate
change at their meeting in Scotland starting today, to take action on the problem by instituting a
carbon trading scheme around the world.
The leaders of businesses including BP, Ford, British Airways, Rio Tinto and Toyota called for
a worldwide carbon trading system that would define emissions rights and set limits on how
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much carbon dioxide businesses could produce to produce a level playing field for companies
operating in different countries.
The start of the EU's trading scheme marked the first real attempt to apply market forces to what
most scientists see as the most important environmental issue of our time - climate change.
The climate changes naturally all the time but in recent decades scientists have perceived new
forces at work. Burning the fossil fuels on which modern economies depend releases carbon
dioxide into the air. Since the 19th century scientists have theorised that this would have an
effect on the earth's climate as carbon dioxide and a few similar gases tend to trap infra-red heat
on earth that would otherwise dissipate into space. This is known as the greenhouse effect and
the gases as greenhouse gases.
Evidence that climate change is more than just a theory has been building up. The Arctic and
Antarctic show signs of melting, as do glaciers around the world; sea levels are rising and the
sea is growing more acidic; there may also be an increase in droughts, storms and floods.
The earth's average temperature is generally agreed to have risen by about 0.6Degrees C over
the past century. The greenhouse effect has made carbon dioxide into one of the world's most
harmful pollutants.
The national science academies of the G8 countries, and those of China, Brazil and India, wrote
to the G8 leaders last month to urge them to take action. They wrote: "It is likely that most of
the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities. The scientific
understanding of climate change is sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action."
That should take the form of identifying "cost effective steps that can be taken now to contribute
to substantial and long-term reductions in net global greenhouse gas emissions".
It was in order to slow and eventually halt the effects of human actions on the climate that the
Kyoto protocol was drawn up under the auspices of the United Nations in the late 1990s. It
requires developed nations to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
by an average 5 per cent against 1990 levels.
But, after years of wrangling, the protocol came into effect only in February this year, and both
the US and Australia have rejected it.
The protocol enshrined the idea of trading greenhouse gases in international agreements. In
order to make it easier for poorer nations to cut their emissions without enforcing on them the
sanctions placed on developed countries - which have benefited economically for more than a
century from burning relatively cheap fuels such as coal - the treaty provided for a way in which
developing countries could gain access to the expensive technology required to harness the
energy of other sources such as wind, sun and tide.
This, the Clean Development Mechanism, allows richer countries to offset their carbon dioxide
emissions against the emissions prevented when when technology that cuts down on greenhouse
gas emissions is deployed in poor countries.
If a wind power plant is built instead of a coal-fired power plant in a developing nation, using
finance from a rich one, the amount of carbon dioxide that is not emitted as a result is credited
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to the rich nation.
Carbon trading has gained currency as a way of bringing a market based mechanism to bear on
an environmental problem. There are even moves to apply the principle to other environmental
issues. In the UK, councils are being given permits to dump a certain amount of waste at landfill
sites, which the councils can trade with one another.
The EU scheme is the only mandatory carbon trading scheme. But there are plans to extend it
outside Europe, and signgs that voluntary schemes in other areas of the world will reduce
emissions from industry further.
Meanwhile, the world's emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise. At present, the gas makes
up about 375 parts per million of the atmosphere, up from about 280 parts per million in preindustrial times. Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for more than a century, so carbon
emitted today will have an effect long into the future.
Climatologists say that allowing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to rise above 500
parts per million would be foolhardy. If the scientists are right, carbon trading must be made to
work.
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Associated Press: U.N. environment chief tells G8 it pays to protect forests, coastlines
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
6 July 2005
[appears in LA Times, Newsday, ...]
The U.N. environment chief has a message for leaders of the world's major industrialized
nations: scientists have shown that it pays to preserve forests, coastal waters and marshes.
Klaus Toepfer made the case that investing in the environment will go a long way toward
meeting U.N. goals to reduce poverty, supply clean drinking water and fight the spread of
infectious diseases.
"Our motto is environment for development," he said in an interview last week.
The Group of Eight meets in Scotland on Wednesday and will address global warming and
climate change - and Toepfer expressed hope that the leaders will see the link between this
critical issue and development.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is hosting the summit, wants an agreement among G-8
leaders on the scientific threat posed by global warming and the urgent need for action.
But the United States rejects the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for cutting carbon dioxide and
other gas emissions believed to contribute to global warming. President Bush has called for
shifting the debate away from limits on greenhouse gas emissions to new technology that would
reduce environmental damage without restricting energy use.
Toepfer, who heads the Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Program, said scientific data show
that destruction of the environment is a direct cause of many problems faced in the world today
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- including poverty, declining health, hunger, undrinkable water, disease, migration from rural
to urban areas, and conflict.
"So the environment is not a luxury, not a Gucci accessory bag or a fancy silk tie affordable
only when all other issues have been resolved," he told a U.N. ministerial meeting last week. "It
is the oxygen breathing life into all the goals. It is the red ribbon running around our common
aspirations for a healthier, more stable and just world."
Toepfer said the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - a recent study compiled by 1,360
scientists from 95 nations who pored over 16,000 satellite photos from the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration and analyzed statistics and scientific journals underscored that the environment is critically important for development.
The study found that humans had depleted 60 percent of the world's grasslands, forests,
farmlands, rivers and lakes. It also found that 12 percent of birds, 23 percent of mammals, 25
percent of conifers and 32 percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction - and that the
world's fish stocks have been reduced by 90 percent since the start of industrial fishing.
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Rheinische Post: Zehn Ziele für Afrika und Klimaschutz
[also in Basler Zeitung, Borcholter-Borkener Volksblatt]
06.07.05 - 06:38
Edinburgh (rpo). Zehn gemeinsame Erklärungen sind das Ziel des G8-Gipfels, der heute in
Schottland beginnt. Im Fokus der Teilnehmerstaaten stehen dabei eine nachhaltige Afrikahilfe
und der Klimaschutz. Für die Zeit des dreitägigen Gipfels im schottischen Gleneagles rechneten
die Behörden mit zahlreichen Protestaktionen.
Die schwierigsten Verhandlungen wurden beim Thema Klimaschutz erwartet. Die USA sind der
einzige G-8-Staat, der das Kyoto-Protokoll von 1997 noch nicht unterzeichnet hat. Der Direktor
des Umweltprogramms der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP), Klaus Töpfer, appellierte an die
Gipfelteilnehmer, effektive Schutzmaßnahmen für Wälder, Küstengewässer und
Marschlandschaften zu beschließen. Wissenschaftler hätten bewiesen, dass Investitionen in die
Umwelt sich auszahlten, erklärte der frühere Bundesumweltminister in New York. Zur
Bekämpfung der Armut sei es auch notwendig, sauberes Trinkwasser bereitzustellen und die
Ausbreitung von Krankheiten zu verhindern.
Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder stellte sich am Vorabend des Gipfels klar hinter den geplanten
Schuldenerlass für die ärmsten Länder. Ferner rief er dazu auf, ein "Signal zur Beruhigung der
Ölmärkte" zu setzen.
Das Entwicklungsprogramm der Vereinten Nationen (UNDP) beklagte, dass die ursprünglichen
G-7 ihre Zusage zur Aufstockung der Entwicklungshilfe auf 0,7 Prozent des nationalen
Einkommens bei weitem verfehlen würden, wenn sie ihren Kurs nicht grundlegend änderten. In
diesen Ländern seien die Durchschnittseinkommen in den letzten 15 Jahren sprunghaft
angestiegen, die Ausgaben für die Entwicklungshilfe dagegen real gesunken. Die Statistik
erfasst die USA, Großbritannien, Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien, Japan und Kanada. Russland
ist nicht enthalten, weil es bei den Vereinten Nationen nicht als Geberland geführt wird.
Dem UNDP zufolge ist die Pro-Kopf-Hilfe für afrikanische Länder südlich der Sahara von 1990
bis 2003 lediglich von 13 auf 16 Dollar angestiegen. Insgesamt sei die Auslandshilfe von 81 auf
74 Dollar pro Person gefallen. Dagegen habe das Pro-Kopf-Einkommen der G-7-Länder im
selben Zeitraum um 7.835 Dollar zugenommen. Die Militärausgaben hätten sich pro Einwohner
um durchschnittlich 168 Dollar erhöht - in den USA sogar um mehr als doppelt so viel.
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Eine Million Demonstranten erwartet
Weltbankpräsident Paul Wolfowitz forderte zur Bekämpfung der weltweiten Armut einen
Abbau der Agrarsubventionen in den Industriestaaten. Beihilfen und Handelsbarrieren hinderten
Landwirte aus der Dritten Welt daran, auf dem Agrarmarkt zu bestehen. Für eine nachhaltige
wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Ländern der Dritten Welt seien vor allem inländische
Investitionen wichtig, fügte Wolfowitz hinzu. Die Bedeutung von Investitionen aus dem
Ausland werde häufig überschätzt.
In Edinburgh wurden für Mittwoch rund eine Million Menschen zu einer Großdemonstration
erwartet. Damit soll der vom Popsänger Bob Geldof organisierte "Lange Marsch zur
Gerechtigkeit" abgeschlossen werden. Die Demonstration schloss an die Live-8-Konzerte vom
vergangenen Wochenende an, bei denen die Teilnehmer für einen deutlichen Ausbau der
Afrika-Hilfe warben.
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South China Morning Post: Building for the environment
Developers are adopting environmentally friendly design features to attract companies
committed to sustainability
6 July 2005
Ernest Kong
A growing number of developers are adopting green building strategies as a way to vie for
multinational corporate tenants who prefer features that will save energy, reduce waste and
increase productivity.
Several multinational corporations have started employing independent consultants to examine
the environment and energy efficiency of buildings before they ink their leases, according to
Kevin Edmunds, deputy director of the Business Environment Council (BEC).
"Not many companies have adopted the practice, but it is a sign that they are now asking for
more than space efficiency," he said.
The Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi separately employed
consultancy firms in fields such as mechanics and information technology to analyse design
features of the new AIG Tower in Central before signing up as tenants, according to market
sources.
Mr Edmunds said more corporations were issuing reports under sustainability reporting
guidelines drawn up by the independent Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a collaborating
centre of the United Nations Environmental Programme.
These corporations' demand for environmentally friendly regional offices was increasing
accordingly, he said.
" Environmental designs have become part of the design process for new office design," Mr
Edmunds said. However, the Grade-B office and residential sectors had been slow to follow
suit.
Among the companies that have issued reports under GRI guidelines is the investment bank
UBS, which has signed a 10-year lease at Hong Kong's tallest building, Two IFC.
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Nigel Smith, executive director of office service at CB Richard Ellis, said the concept of
corporate compliance had significantly changed the decision -making process on office
relocations. International firms were now willing to pay considerably more to ensure that their
staff worked in better and safer environments.
"Office rents in Hong Kong have gone up quickly over the past few months, but these
companies would rather take the time for analysis and pay higher rent," he said.
" Relocation decisions are now centralised at headquarters. They are going not only through the
chief operation office but through the human resources and IT departments."
He said office tenants now had a much longer wish list about office design features than they
had two years ago.
Among the companies embracing environmentally friendly design features is Henderson Land
Development, a joint venture developer of International Finance Centre (IFC) in Central.
"It doesn't really cost a lot more if you start incorporating green features in the design stage,"
said David Dumigan, deputy general manager of Henderson Land Development's project
management department.
He said IFC, the company's latest development, cost only about $ 1,100 per square foot, which
was in line with the cost of building traditional projects.
Some environmentally friendly features were expensive to install but were economical in the
long run, he said.
The sea water-cooled air conditioners installed at IFC cost double the price of traditional coolers
but cost 30 per cent less to run, he added.
Buildings consume 40 per cent of the world's total energy, 25 per cent of its wood harvest and
16 per cent of its water, according to the US Department of Energy's Centre for Sustainable
Development.
Green buildings are designed to drastically reduce the energy and resources necessary to build
and occupy them.
A growing number of private developers in Hong Kong's increasingly competitive office market
have signed up to the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (HK-BEAM),
initiated by the Real Estate Developers' Association in 1995 and backed by the BEC.
Early participants were big developers such as Hong Kong and China Gas, the government's
Buildings Department and Housing Authority and Swire Properties, developers of Three Pacific
Place, with smaller developers having signed up since 2000.
HK-BEAM last month announced the 100th participant in its green building award, Lam Tin
Residential Estate.
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Moneyweb (South Africa):World Bank President highlights role of business in African
development
5 July 2005
By NEPAD
Paul Wolfowitz, newly nominated President of the World Bank, speaking to leaders of business,
civil society and governments at the official UN / Nepad pre G8 conference Bending the Arc,
reaffirmed his commitment to “working with all our partners, the G8 development agencies,
governments, civil society and the private sector, to help meet the development goals and to
meet the expectations for the people of Africa.”
Acknowledging the recent and welcome progress on aid and debt, Mr. Wolfowitz stressed the
importance of trade in meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Africa: ”We need more
action too on trade. Africa’s share of global trade has dropped from 3.5% in 1970 to around
1.4% today, amounting to annual revenue losses that are a multiple of annual aid flows. Trade is
absolutely vital to the increased growth that Africa needs to reach the MDGs. So further action
in opening markets and reducing subsidies is an essential part of the equation.”
He continued: “Another part of the equation is something that is not getting nearly enough
attention in the African context: the private sector. And yet, at the end of the day, this might be
the most important component of all to finance the growth to create the jobs and to create the
investment in education and health that the people of Africa need.” Mr. Wolfowitz rightly
outlined that the private sector implies much more than multinational corporations and that the
role of SMEs in creating a thriving entrepreneurial environment is crucial: “we must do more to
help create the right opportunities for inspirational people and I am certain that given the
expertise of participants in the discussions today, there will be many good ideas in this area”.
“African leaders increasingly are stepping up to their responsibility to combat corruption and to
build institutions of governance that provide transparency and accountability. And the
developed countries need to do more to support those efforts including fighting sources of
corruption in the developed world. Working together, we can create an environment where
individuals can realise their true potential.”
Bending the Arc is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the
United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP), and the United Nations
Information and Communication Technologies Task Force.
The event is timed to coincide with the annual summit of the African Union in Libya. It will
lead to concrete actions in support of the MDGs in Africa to be implemented by all parties and
reviewed on a regular basis including at the UN summit in September.
Participants at Bending the Arc include Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu (Chief Executive, New
Partnership for Africa’s Development); Barbara Stocking (Director, Oxfam GB); Robert Davies
(CEO, International Business Leaders Forum); Ambassador John Maresca (President, Business
Humanitarian Forum), Bjorn Stigson (World Business Council on Sustainable Development);
Hon. Professor Peter Anyang Nyongo (Minister of Planning and National Development,
Kenya); Dr Klaus Toepfer (Executive Director, UNEP); Peter Woicke (former Executive Vice
President, International Finance Corporation); and Hon Trevor Manuel (Minister of Finance,
South Africa).
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Umweltjournal: Euronatur-Umweltpreis 2005 an Roland Emmerich
Stuttgart/Ludwigsburg, 05.07.2005: "Umweltschutz braucht mehr denn je Zivilcourage und
Menschen, die bereit sind, auch gegen scheinbare Widerstände neue Wege zu gehen", so
Euronatur-Präsident Claus-Peter Hutter bei der Verleihung des Euronatur Umweltpreises 2005
an Hollywood-Regisseur Roland Emmerich und den langjährigen Leiter des Nationalparks
Bayerischer Wald Dr. Hans Bibelriether.
Roland Emmerich (49) wurde von der Stiftung Europäisches Naturerbe (Euronatur) für die
filmische Auseinandersetzung mit den Gefahren des Klimawandels ausgezeichnet. Mit seinem
Film "The day after tomorrow" habe Emmerich Mut bewiesen, die gerade in weiten Kreisen der
amerikanischen Politik ignorierten Gefahren der weiteren Erderwärmung durch
Energieverschwendung zu thematisieren, so Hutter. Wie man bei Euronatur betonte, sei es
Emmerich trotz künstlerischer Vereinfachung des komplexen Themas gelungen, der
wissenschaftlichen und politischen Auseinandersetzung mit der Gefahr einer Klimakatastrophe
mehr öffentliches Gehör zu verschaffen.
Der aus dem schwäbischen Sindelfingen stammende Roland Emmerich hatte sich zuvor unter
anderem mit Filmen wie "Independence Day" - einem der erfolgreichsten Filme aller Zeiten -,
"Stargate" und "Der Patriot" internationales Renommee verschafft. Zuletzt war er JuryPräsident bei der Berlinale.
Für sein Lebenswerk wurde der langjährige Leiter des Nationalparks Bayerischer Wald, Dr.
Hans Bibelriether (72), von Euronatur ausgezeichnet. In besonderem Maße habe er Mut und
großen persönlichen Einsatz für das Naturerbe unter Beweis gestellt. Unter dem Motto "Natur
Natur sein lassen" habe Bibelriether laut Euronatur im Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald
kontinuierlich darauf hingearbeitet, nach Sturmschäden aus monotonen Nadelforsten eines der
faszinierendsten Wildnisgebiete Deutschlands werden zu lassen. Große Verdienste habe sich
Bibelriether außerdem als Präsident der Vereinigung Europarc, in der alle National- und
Naturparke Europas organisiert sind, erworben. Dabei habe er sich für die Einführung
internationaler Standards für Großschutzgebiete ebenso verdient gemacht wie für die
Bewahrung großer urwüchsiger Waldgebiete als grüne Lungen.
Die Laudatio auf die Preisträger hielt der Chef des Umweltprogramms der Vereinten Nationen
und frühere Euronatur-Preisträger Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer. Grußworte sprachen
Bundesumweltminister Jürgen Trittin und der baden-württembergische Ministerpräsident
Günther Oettinger.
Vorausgegangene Träger des Euronatur-Umweltpreises sind neben dem früheren
südafrikanischen Präsidenten Nelson Mandela (2004) der frühere sowjetische Staatspräsident
und Vorsitzende von Green Cross International Michail Gorbatschow (2003), der britische
Thronfolger Prinz Charles (2002), der Lufthansa-Aufsichtsratsvorsitzende Dr. Jürgen Weber,
der heutige Ministerpräsident von Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck sowie der damalige ZDFIntendant Prof. Dr. Dieter Stolte und ARD-Filmemacher Prof. Dr. Ernst-Waldemar Bauer
("Wunder der Erde").
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Harold Doan & Associates: Support for South Pacific Coral Reefs
5 July 2005
Press Release - Counterpart International
SUVA, Fiji – Counterpart International, in collaboration with Partners in Community
Development Fiji (PCDF), is about to embark on a new three-year intensive coral reef
restoration effort in Fiji.
The "Living Reefs – Cakau Bulabula" project will be part of the global Coral Gardens program
and the new phase will continue the momentum of the existing programs but focus more on the
tourism and aquarium aspects.
The East Asia Pacific Environment Initiative (EAPEI), which has pledged funding for the work,
wants communities to become skilled in sustainable coral reef resource management, low-tech
environmental restoration, marine park management, reef-based ecotourism, and sustainable
coral farming, and Counterpart's proposals fit the bill perfectly.
It will encourage partnerships between resorts and reef-owning communities in Fiji to conserve
and restore their coral reef resources, vital to both village food security and to the tourism
industry, which recently passed sugar production as the country’s most important industry.
As well as raising local awareness and helping the development of sustainable coral reef
management plans in the five project sites, Living Reefs will promote the training of resort staff
as "coral gardeners" to protect and nurture the reefs associated with tourism, as well as to repair
the inadvertent damage that occurs with heavy usage by tourists and boats. The "reef guide"
training program for resort staff and village youth will provide trained local guides to enrich
reef encounters for tourists entering the planned marine parks. They will explain what the guest
is seeing, while protecting guests from injury and protecting the reef from becoming damaged.
Coral gardeners and trained reef guides are new and vital professions for reef tourism areas,
adding earning capacity and skills to local communities and to the Fiji tourism experience.
Funding for the EAPEI work, whose goal is to improve environmental conditions and quality of
life by increasing environmental capacity and knowledge in the East Asia and Pacific region,
will be channeled through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Lelei LeLaulu, President of Counterpart International, lauded USAID for "seeing the enormous
value of a program which combines traditional island knowledge with the private sector to
conserve a common resource – coral reefs". He described the program as a "smart partnership"
where all sides benefit. "Without healthy coral reefs, the resorts lose their beautiful sandy
beaches and the surrounding communities see dwindling fish catches. And, we all know tourists
spend their hard earned money to be on clean beaches and to eat a lot of local seafood.
"In addition to revitalizing the subsistence economy,” said the Samoa-born LeLaulu, "the
initiative also increases the benefits to communities from sustainable reef-based tourism and
'coral gardening' within resort-associated marine parks to supporting a rapidly growing regional
tourism industry."
Local resorts share LeLaulu's enthusiasm. "The proposed research and activities in the
Mamanucas are a more environmentally friendly and conservationist approach to tourism in
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Fiji, ensuring the protection of natural resources for future generations," said Hannah Raffe,
Director and Sales Executive at Plantation Island Resort.
Managed reefs that close 25-30 percent of their area to fishing, often gain from the increase in
catches of fish, octopus, and clams by anything up to five-fold, which makes the locals much
better off, financially and nutritionally. The target communities in Fiji and ultimately the coastal
populations of all of the Pacific Islands rely heavily on their reef resources for day-to-day
subsistence and economic survival.
The Coral Gardens initiative helps these communities protect and restore vulnerable reef
resources by giving them a set of practical "tools" for their own local systems for sustainable
coral reef management.
Alumeci Gavidi, from the Fijian village of Cuvu, says: “Our fishing grounds are well known for
octopus. But for the past six years we recognized that most of the marine resources that we used
to catch before had been depleting and then, when PCDF did awareness training for our
community, we realized the cause of the problems – depletion of the marine resources. We
established our Marine Protected Area and now we get the benefit of the project with the overspill from the no- fishing area into our fishing zone. We are fortunate to have an organization
like PCDF assisting us in conserving our marine resources for the benefit of our young
generations.”
Coral Gardens reflect the philosophy of Counterpart International and Partners in Community
Development Fiji, its affiliate of over 25 years, and the regional Foundation of the Peoples of
the South Pacific International (FSPI), that communities are better at identifying and meeting
their own development needs in a sustainable way, rather than having rules and regulations
imposed from above.
Since 1999, Counterpart has worked with PCDF, headed by Alisi Daurewa, and the FSPI
network, headed by Ambassador Rex Horoi, on the Coral Gardens Initiative, funded by the
Packard and MacArthur Foundations, New Zealand's International Aid & Development Agency
(NZAID), and with additional support from Shangri-La's Fijian Resort.
During the initial phase in 2000, Counterpart and PCDF were awarded the Henry Award for
Partnerships in Coral Reef Conservation. In 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) selected the primary Fiji site, Cuvu Tikina, for worldwide recognition as an
International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) model site for coral reef conservation.
A full BBC TV programme on the Cuvu Tikina site has been broadcast four times globally
since its release in August 2003.
Other honors include the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network at the United Nations
Sustainable Development Conference on Eradicating Poverty, the United Kingdom's
International Green Apple Award for environmental best practices and the Equator Initiative
Award.
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Cayman Net News: Students take environment seriously
5 July 2005
With 2000 visitors a month and links to major environmental websites
www.johngrayrecyclers.org a local environmental youth club can be justifiably proud.
The club has been active this year despite Hurricane Ivan, supporting projects in the Cayman
Islands and abroad.
“Our students have kept their focus and have continued working on projects, including a new
Seacology project in Micronesia,” said the JGR’s Coordinator Christine Whitehead.
“At the moment we are raising money from family members and friends because we know that
things are very hard in Cayman since Ivan. We have recently sent US$500 towards our
Micronesia project and have another US$3,000 to raise.”
For the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Environment Day held 5 June,
JGR promoted the theme Green Cities – Plan for the Planet at the Agape Park. Students have
actively tended the park’s endemic plants, many of which were damaged during Ivan and they
were surprised to find samples of two rare plants – Snake Wood (Colubrina Aborescens) and
Trichilia Havanensis. After some research they found that Snake Wood is now an endangered
species in Florida. They are now busy identifying the trees in the park, helped by Carla Reid of
the Cayman Islands National Trust.
Shortly after World Environment Day, JGR were delighted to receive a thank-you message on
their website from Ms Guilbaud-Cox, who heads the Outreach and Special Events Division of
Communications and Public Information division of UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya. She wrote: “We
at the UNEP thank John Gray Recyclers for commemorating World Environment Day (WED)
in such a significant way. We take this opportunity to congratulate you for the excellent work
you are doing to protect the environment in your country.”
JGR members Kimone Chambers, Keelia Scott, and GraceAnn White said: “We were very
honoured to receive such an encouraging comment from Ms Guilbaud-Cox in our Guest Book,
and we are now even more determined to help protect our local environment, as well as working
overseas to help others preserve theirs.”
Mrs. Whitehead said that JGR celebrated World Ocean Day, on 8 June 2005 by creating a page
on the website that brings the public’s attention to the importance of Global Marine Parks and
preservation of the world’s coral reefs. “World Ocean Day was created in 1992 at the Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It gives us an opportunity each year to celebrate our world ocean and
our personal connection to the sea,” she said.
After visiting the JGR website, Louisa Wood from the University of British Columbia’s
Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, Canada, contacted the club to find out more about the Cayman
Islands’ marine parks and to gather information for the Sea Around Us Project and the Global
Marine Protected Areas (MPA) database that she is working on for her PhD.
With the club’s help Ms. Wood has been in touch with the Cayman’s Department of
Environment to update their information on the Islands. The JGR club was also able to visit the
MPA Global database to find out valuable information about global marine protected areas and
in turn, to make it available to their website visitors. ”We are also busy collecting plastic six
pack holders to recycle through Bodden Beverages, as a means of helping to protect our
turtles,” Mrs. Whitehead said.
Visit the club’s website at www.johngrayrecyclers.org
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12
Other Environment News
BBC: Straw positive on climate change
1 July 2005
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said he believes there will be a "satisfactory
outcome" on the issue of climate change at the G8 summit.
His optimism comes despite comments by US President George W Bush which seem to rule out
any Kyoto-style agreement.
Mr Straw said US opposition to the UN's 1997 Kyoto deal on carbon emissions was longstanding and would not jeopardise the success of this week's summit.
Tony Blair has put climate change and Africa top of the agenda for the talks.
'No surprise'
The UK government has played down claims of a rift with the US, saying the US and Europe
can work together to tackle climate change despite differences of approach.
Speaking to British broadcaster ITV, Mr Bush said he hoped the other G8 leaders would "move
beyond the Kyoto debate" and consider new technologies.
He did however acknowledge that human activity was "to some extent" to blame for global
warming.
Mr Straw, speaking at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer,
said the US government's decision not to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol was well known.
It was therefore "no surprise" to hear Mr Bush restating that position, Mr Straw said.
"That does not however mean that the result of the G8 summit later this week will be
unsatisfactory and I believe that there will be a satisfactory outcome both in respect to aid to
Africa and in respect of climate change," he went on.
Mr Fischer said his country had signed up to Kyoto but that the US position was different. He
did however trust in the "wisdom" of the UK's G8 presidency to achieve a step forward.
UK Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett earlier told the BBC the summit's aim was to
secure a general agreement rather than concentrating on an "exact theology" of climate change
issues.
At the same time, a leading environmental scientist has warned the world does not currently
have the political capacity to stop global warming destroying the planet.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
denied he was exaggerating the risk.
"I've seen the rate at which our glaciers are melting, I've seen the kind of threat that some of the
small island states have," he told the BBC's Today programme.
"One has seen the loss of biodiversity and all kinds of destruction taking place in the natural
resources of this earth.
"And therefore I am saying this with all the responsibility that I can possibly muster, that we are
in a precarious situation."
He said an "upswell of public opinion" was needed to force the world's leaders to take the
political action necessary to avert disaster.
Dr Pachauri also warned the developed world against placing all the burden for change on
developing countries such as India and China.
He urged developed countries and developing countries to do more to transfer technology or set
up joint development programmes to tackle global warming.
The G8 leaders - from Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - meet
in Gleneagles on Wednesday for the start of the three-day summit.
____________________________________________________________________________
13
Washington Post: Age-Old Questions Continue to Entice Scientists
By Rick Weiss
4 July 2005
There is something refreshing about scientists confessing their ignorance. Day after day, in
research journals and at international meetings, they strut, cluck and boast about the latest
enigma they've wrestled to the ground. The entire human genome mapped! The farthest star
plotted! The mating habits of dinosaurs inferred from fossilized eggs! Ordinary folks can be
excused for muttering, "Is there nothing these white-coated brainiacs don't think they know?"
This week the world's largest general science journal, aptly named Science, takes a different and
more humble tack, presenting a list of the 125 biggest quandaries that scientists have failed to
fathom.
This catalogue of bewilderment, part of the journal's 125th anniversary celebration, is the
product of a months-long survey of more than 100 leading researchers in myriad disciplines,
who were asked to focus on questions that have a chance of being answered in the next 25
years. Beyond offering a glimpse of the many nagging gaps remaining in the human knowledge
base, it reveals the enormousness of scientists' ambitions and the great versatility of the
scientific method, which has proved so valuable as a way to make sense of the unknown.
"Reading through the questions gives a wonderful sense of all the incredibly intriguing things
scientists are looking at these days," said Colin Norman, Science's news editor, who ushered the
initial list of submissions through 17 versions to get it down to a mere 125.
Here is a sampling of the mysteries that scientists themselves most want to solve:
What is the universe made of?
The answer may seem obvious: matter and energy. But physicists who have been studying the
details have some disturbing news. If you take every atom in the universe, and all the detectable
energy in and around them, it adds up to less than 5 percent of what has to be out there, as
determined by how the galaxies are behaving. Scientists have concluded that in addition to
ordinary matter, there must also be "dark matter" -- mysterious stuff that gets the universe up to
about 30 percent full. That leaves 70 percent of the universe consisting of "dark energy," a nice
name for something that no one has a clue about.
A related question: Is ours the only universe? Many cosmologists suspect the answer is "no."
Ours may be just one of countless universes in a "multiverse" that is bubbling with big bangs.
To settle that question, a related query will have to be answered in the affirmative: Is it even
possible to know anything beyond our universe?
How much can the human life span be extended ?
Human life spans have stretched amazingly in the past few hundred years. In the 20th century
alone, the average U.S. life span grew to 77 years from 49, an increase of more than 50 percent.
The longest any person is known to have lived is 122 years. That was Jeanne Calment, a
Frenchwoman who died in 1997. No one knows why she lived that long (she smoked cigarettes
until she was 97, when she quit for her health). Perhaps it was her wry sense of humor. Asked
on her 100th birthday what kind of future she anticipated, she responded: "A very short one."
In general, scientists reckon that longevity is the result of a unique combination of genetics and
life habits, and they suspect that with attention to those things the average human life span can
be increased substantially.
Experiments on simpler organisms, such as the millimeter-long soil-dwelling nematode worm
Caenorhabditis elegans , indicate that in some species a change in a single gene can double life
span -- though in that case we're talking about a total of six weeks. Other experiments with
humans' closer relatives, mice and monkeys, strongly suggest that by cutting out the greater part
of our dietary intake we might increase our life span by decades -- though we'd spend a lot of
those longer lives fantasizing about our next meal.
14
Should scientists succeed in making centenarians a sizable voting bloc, watch for new questions
about Social Security.
What genetic changes made us uniquely human ?
There are those who argue that shoes make the man. But scientists can't help but note that even
a chimpanzee in Cole Haans lacks the humanity of a barefoot beggar. What exactly is at the
heart of that species difference has been a matter of shifting attentions, as the old delineators -language, tool use, culture, an ability to laugh -- have each in their turn been found in one
animal or another. Now, in what some might see as a desperate effort to retain our sense of
specialness, the hunt for the essence of humanness has turned to the genome.
Comparisons of the human genetic code's 3.1 billion DNA letters and those of our nearest
relatives, chimpanzees, confirm long-held suspicions that by this measure we differ by only
about 1 percent.
A few genes seem to have been crucial to human evolution, such as one that allowed our skulls
to accommodate bigger brains and one that seems to have facilitated the development of
language. But clearly there is a lot more going on than that. And no one has come close to
finding the gene that, against all evolutionary logic, drives some male hominids to wear shoes
with leather tassels.
Are we alone in the univers e?
Six billion of us and counting -- not to mention the countless other species with whom we share
this precious planet -- and still we struggle with loneliness. Giant radiotelescopes point
plaintively to the heavens, listening for reassuring evidence of extraterrestrial companionship
from someone, anyone, green or otherwise.
Scientists have scanned more than 700 star systems for the subtlest peeps of life, using the
mother of all remote controls to listen simultaneously on millions of channels. Assuming the
universe is as it appears -- filled with galaxies that are filled with suns that are surrounded by
planets, no small number of them doubtless like our own -- the odds are overwhelming that
there is a lot of other life out there, and that some may be pointing telescopes at us.
With bigger and better scanning arrays being built every year, many scientists not usually prone
to exaggeration think we could be within a generation of making contact with some version of
our biological brethren. Assuming, of course, that the reruns of "Gilligan's Island" that have
been arcing across the cosmos have not convinced our distant neighbors that their children
should find other friends.
Who wants to know?
Or, as Science magazine puts it, "What is the biological basis of consciousness?"
This question is an oldie, dating at least to the beginnings of humankind. It underwent its last
big renovation in the 17th century, when the French philosopher Rene Descartes declared that
the mind and the body lived in different dimensional spaces and so, like east and west, would
never meet.
That model has lately begun to metamorphose amid evidence that body and mind have a far
more integrated and interesting relationship. But the scientific method, which insists on
complete objectivity, faces some of its biggest challenges as researchers contemplate
experiments that would turn the mind's attention to the task of understanding itself.
The list of questions goes on. How do organs and organisms know when to stop growing? Why
do we sleep? What are the limits of learning by machines? Is morality hard-wired into the
brain?
It's endless, with every answer cultivating a new crop of questions. But that's the point.
"This is what scientists do," Norman said, "they ask questions."
The full list of 125 questions, with essays devoted to the top 25, is at
http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/125th .
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15
CNN: Tropical Storm Cindy hits Louisiana
6 July 2005
Coastal residents also eyeing Dennis in Caribbean
(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Cindy came ashore in southern Louisiana early Wednesday with
punishing winds of 70 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
The powerful tropical storm was expected to dump up to 10 inches of rain on the Gulf Coast
and Southeastern United States as it moves inland.
Capt. Mike Sanders with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said the southeastern Louisiana
coastal community is holding up well under the onslaught.
"No reports of injuries, water in homes," he said. "A very major inconvenience, but we're very
blessed that Cindy seems to be moving and not stalling, and that was our main concern."
Meanwhile, out in the southeastern Caribbean, another tropical storm -- Dennis -- continued to
strengthen as it moved west, prompting Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands to post watches and warnings. Forecasters said the storm could be a hurricane
by Wednesday, with Cuba directly in its forecast path.
As of 5 a.m. EDT, the storm was 25 miles east-northeast of New Orleans, moving northnortheast at about 14 mph and setting a path likely to take it through Mississippi, Alabama and
Georgia.
After landfall, Cindy's winds weakened from 70 mph to 60 mph, but the storm's heavy rains
could cause flooding.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms began pounding the Gulf Coast on Tuesday afternoon, with
tornado watches and flood warnings posted as far east as the Florida Panhandle.
Col. Perry Ebbert, the director of Homeland Security in New Orleans, said the Big Easy could
get hit with as much as 6 inches of rain and even more in low-lying areas, potentially creating
heavy flooding.
"Even at 70 miles per hour, we shouldn't have any major wind damage. But living in a bowl
down here, we're always concerned about lots of rainwater," he said.
He noted that the city is below sea level and that anytime the city gets soaked by heavy rains,
officials have to pump the water out to Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River.
Tropical storm warnings were posted from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Destin, Florida, and a
tropical storm watch extended from Destin to Indian Pass, Florida.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Dennis grew in intensity late Tuesday, with forecasters predicting it
would continue to gather steam and become the first full-fledged hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic
season by Wednesday.
As of 5 a.m. EDT, Dennis, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, was centered 275
miles south-southeast of Port au-Prince, Haiti and was 475 miles east-southeast of Kingston,
Jamaica, moving west-northwest at nearly 16 mph.
Forecasters predicted the storm would stay on that general path for the next 24 hours, which
would keep the center over open water between the island of Hispanola (which includes Haiti
and the Dominican Republic) and Jamaica.
Authorities in Haiti posted a tropical storm warning and hurricane watch along that country's
southwestern peninsula. Nearly 3,000 Haitians died in flooding and landslides after Tropical
Storm Jeanne hit in 2004, and Dennis was expected to dump 4 to 6 inches of rain over much of
the island, with some areas getting up to 10 inches.
The Dominican Republic issued a tropical storm warning for much of its southern coast, and
Jamaica also issued a hurricane watch. The government of the Cayman Islands issued a
hurricane watch late Tuesday.
The government of Cuba has issued a hurricane watch for eastern Cuba, including the provinces
of Las Tunas, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.
16
Dennis' formation makes July 5 the earliest date in recorded tropical storm history that four
named storms have formed in the Atlantic basin, the hurricane center said. Tropical storms
Arlene and Bret preceded Dennis and Cindy, but neither reached hurricane strength.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
ROE Media Update 5 July 2005
BBC World News, 5 July: Europe bans chemical use in toys
The European Parliament has voted to permanently ban the use of a group of
chemicals to soften children's toys following health concerns.
Phthalates have been linked to damage to the reproductive system, and an
increased risk of asthma and cancer.
They are also used in the manufacture of lubricants and solvents, and are
found in cosmetics, medical equipment, paints and packaging.(………..)
MEPs voted to ban the use of six types of phthalates in children's toys.
Three types were banned outright, and the others will be barred from use in
toys which can be put in the mouth.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4651391.stm
_____________________________________________________________________________
17
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
DAILY NEWS
5 July, 2005
====================================================================
ANNAN VEHEMENTLY CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATS
IN IRAQ
Vehemently condemning the recent spate of attacks against diplomats in
Iraq, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he hoped the
incidents would not weaken the resolve of the international community to
stand with the Iraqi people at this critical juncture in their history.
"The Secretary-General is deeply dismayed by the rash of attacks in recent
days against representatives of the international diplomatic community in
Iraq," spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement condemning the
incidents, including the kidnapping of the chargé d'affaires of Egypt, as
well as the attempted assassinations of diplomats from Bahrain and
Pakistan.
"There can be no justification for the targeting of diplomats," Mr.
Dujarric said, adding that the Secretary-General expected that the
perpetrators of these acts would be quickly apprehended and brought to
justice.
***
SITUATIONS IN AFRICA KEY TOPICS FOR SECURITY COUNCIL IN JULY,
PRESIDENT SAYS
The Security Council will devote a considerable amount of its time this
month to various situations on the African continent, and will also
spotlight the Council's role in humanitarian crises, the new President of
the 15-nation body said today.
Briefing the press on the Council's work programme for the month of June,
Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece said that once again a large
number of African issues would be at the forefront of the discussions.
Earlier today, the Council had been briefed on the situation in the
Central African Republic (CAR), and the members' main concerns following
successful elections in that country were respect for human rights,
institution-building, restructuring of the national military forces and
economic reconstruction, Ambassador Vassilakis said.
On 11 July, the Council would discuss the situation in Ethiopia and
Eritrea, including exploring every option help the Horn of Africa nations
break their ongoing boundary deadlock, including a Council mission to the
18
region.
Later in the month the Council would also hear an oral briefing on the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which demanded urgent attention as
preparations were underway for the holding of elections – the first to
take place in the country in over 40 years, Ambassador Vassilakis said.
On 14 June, the Council was set to address the situation in Somalia, he
said, adding that there was an impasse regarding the Somali Government's
relocation, which was causing concern. There was a need for dialogue among
the country's leaders to ensure that their location plan was implemented
and that the country's reconstruction was allowed to begin.
On the 22nd, the Council would be briefed by the head of the UN Mission in
Sudan (UNMIS) Jan Pronk, hopefully along with a representative from the
African Union (AU). Mr. Vassilakis said the situation in Sudan's Darfur
region remained worrying, requiring political will to move forward on both
political and humanitarian fronts.
Concerning the Middle East, Council members would hear the regular monthly
report by Alvaro de Soto, in his first briefing to the Council in his
capacity as Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and
Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. Also coming due was
the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL).
On 12 July, Greece's Foreign Minister was expected to head up a public
meeting on the Security Council's role in humanitarian crises. Mr.
Vassilakis said that Greece expected the discussion to focus on how, in
maintaining peace and security, the Council tried to break the conflict
cycle and prevent situations from deteriorating further.
***
UN-BACKED CONFERENCE SEEKS TO CLOSE LOOPHOLES AGAINST NUCLEAR
TERRORISM
Seeking to close loopholes that could help terrorists get their hands on
nuclear material, hundreds of delegates from 90 countries are meeting in
Vienna this week to strengthen a United Nations-backed treaty with
amendments to avert theft and smuggling of such materials and sabotage of
nuclear facilities.
“In short, the amendments now before this conference are vitally important
and, if adopted, will take another significant step in reducing the
vulnerability of States Parties, and, indeed, the entire world,” UN
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Deputy Director General David
Waller told the opening session yesterday.
19
He noted that the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear
Material (CPPNM), drawn up in 1980, is not sufficiently comprehensive for
today’s world since it protects nuclear material used for peaceful
purposes while in international transport, but “most fundamentally” covers
neither the physical protection of nuclear material in peaceful domestic
use, storage and transport, nor nuclear facilities themselves.
“The proposed amendments would remedy these shortcomings,” Mr. Waller
said. “They would also provide for expanded cooperation between and among
States regarding rapid measures to locate and recover stolen or smuggled
nuclear material, mitigate any radiological consequences of sabotage, and
prevent and combat related offences.”
The Vienna-based IAEA is the depositary of the CPPNM, which currently has
111 States Parties. It is the only legally binding international treaty
providing physical protection of nuclear material and ensuring improved
security in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks against
the United States. Since then a group of experts has been working on
strengthening its safeguards.
***
AHEAD OF RAINS, UN STAFF RUSH TO RELOCATE REFUGEES IN SOUTHERN
CHAD
United Nations staff in remote southern Chad are rushing to relocate an
estimated 10,000 refugees who fled unrest in the Central African Republic
(CAR) over the past month, and are already showing signs of malnutrition,
as the onset of the rainy season threatens to cut them off from all aid.
“Our Chadian partners say that by mid-July, wide areas will likely be cut
off by flooding,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron
Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva today. “So we will need to move
fast.”
UNHCR is deploying 11 logisticians, field officers, protection officers
and extra drivers to relocate the 10,000 refugees, many of whom fled with
nothing and are now scattered among 17 villages near the Chadian town of
Gore. One option being considered is to move them to Amboko camp near
Gore, which already hosts some 13,000 CAR refugees, could hold up to
27,000 people and could provide health care services, water and sanitation
facilities.
Pending relocation, UNHCR has been distributing emergency plastic
sheeting, blankets and high-protein biscuits provided by the UN Children’s
Fund (UNICEF). Local villagers are also offering what help they can. The
refugees have been living in flimsy, makeshift shelters built of leaves
and sticks.
They brought no food with them, and many children and women are showing
20
signs of malnourishment. They are eating whatever they can find in the
bush – mainly roots, wild fruit and leaves. They are drinking local river
water and there is no proper sanitation.
The latest refugees fled northern CAR during the first three weeks of June
following an incident between Government forces and unidentified armed
groups. Although no new attacks have been reported since 3 June, they say
they have no intention – at this point at least – of returning anytime
soon, citing fear of further violence.
There are already 30,000 CAR refugees in southern Chad. The majority of
them arrived in 2003 after a military coup. Chad is also hosting more than
200,000 refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan who are currently housed
in 12 camps in the eastern part of the country.
***
UN SUSPENDS FOOD SHIPMENTS TO SOMALI TSUNAMI VICTIMS AFTER SHIP IS
HIJACKED
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended all shipments
of humanitarian assistance to Somalia following the hijacking of a
chartered vessel carrying food aid for 28,000 tsunami survivors, the first
time in the agency’s history that a ship carrying relief food has been
commandeered.
The decision, taken because of the insecurity of Somali waters, will be
reviewed depending on the release of the food, vessel and crew, who are
apparently being held for $500,000 ransom. WFP assists some 275,000
Somalis with 3,000 tons of food each month and currently has about two
weeks’ worth of food stocks in the country.
“If there is a quick, favourable solution, we hope there will be no major
interruption of WFP operations in the country," WFP Country Director
Robert Hauser said yesterday. “But for now, the waters off the Somali
coast present too great a threat to send further shipments.”
The St. Vincent and the Grenadines-registered MV Semlow, with 10 crew and
850 tons of rice on board, was hijacked on 27 June about 300 kilometres
north-east of the capital Mogadishu, some 60 kilometres off the coast,
while en route to the Puntland. The company hiring the boat has indicated
that the pirates are asking for a $500,000 ransom.
“We remain hopeful that the humanitarian cargo on the MV Semlow will be
allowed to continue its journey to Bossaso in the north-east of the
country unconditionally,” Mr. Hauser said.
WFP has been in regular contact with community elders and local
authorities and a Transitional Federal Government mission went yesterday
to Harardheere District to facilitate the release.
21
The agency regularly ships humanitarian cargo by sea from Mombasa in Kenya
to various destinations in Somalia, totalling some 22,000 tons since
January. The seized cargo would feed 28,000 Somalis whose lives were
devastated by the December tsunami for two months.
WFP chartered the ship from Motaku Shipping Agency in Mombasa. The crew
includes a Sri Lankan captain, a Tanzanian engineer and eight Kenyan crew
members.
***
UN-BACKED GENERIC MEDICINES FACTORY BEING SET UP IN AFGHANISTAN
A project, co-sponsored by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
got under way in Afghanistan today with the arrival in Kabul of donated
production machinery for the country's first-ever generic medicine
factory, which will eventually produce 300 million to 400 million tablets
of safe, urgently needed analgesics and antibiotics for local use.
The machinery will equip a newly-constructed factory named Baz
International Pharmaceutical Company Limited. The locally produced generic
medicines will significantly improve the availability of safe, effective
and affordable medication in the country, UNDP said.
The plant will be fully Afghan-owned and will be managed by Dr. Karim Baz,
an experienced local doctor. Approximately 40 local employees will be
taught relevant operating skills and production technology.
The "Afghan Generic Medicines Project," initially launched in 2002, brings
together private and public partners, including the Swiss non-profit
organization Business Humanitarian Forum (BHF), the Brussels-based
European Generic Medicines Association (EGA) and the UNDP Country Office
in Afghanistan.
Currently, one-quarter of all Afghan children die before the age of 5,
often due to the lack of proper medication for treatable infectious
diseases.
***
HEADS OF PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS MEET IN SENEGAL TO REVIEW PROGRESS
AND NEEDS
Reviewing the progress made by West African peacekeeping missions, their
chiefs today called on the international community to redouble its efforts
to strengthen humanitarian assistance for all needy countries in the
region, especially for the drought-stricken Sahelian countries facing
famine, the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA) said.
22
In their one-day meeting in Senegal's capital, Dakar, the five Special
Representatives of Secretary-General Kofi Annan (SRSGs) noted that the
Consolidated Appeals Processes had brought in funding that was well short
of what was required.
Meeting under the chairmanship of SRSG Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UNOWA
head, were Daudi Mwakawago of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL),
Pierre Schori of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), Abou Moussa of
the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and Joao Honwana of the UN
Peace-Building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS) to update the
developments in their missions.
The Special Representatives stressed the importance of steady progress
towards the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections in Liberia and
the reform of its security sector, and said they also hoped for early
finalization of the Economic Governance Action Plan, UNOWA said.
The five noted with satisfaction the supplementary accord for Côte
d'Ivoire of 29 June, called the Pretoria Declaration, and said it had
given renewed impetus to the peace process, "failing which individual
sanctions might be invoked," UNOWA said.
They also expressed the hope that political leaders in Guinea-Bissau would
do everything to ensure that the second round of elections would take
place in the same calm conditions as the first round and that they would
commit themselves to accepting the results.
Though Togo has no peacekeeping mission, the SRSGs called on the
Government to continue its efforts towards reconciliation after the
disputes over its April elections scattered thousands of refugees into
neighbouring countries.
With UNAMSIL withdrawing at the end of the year, they also discussed
residual problems in Sierra Leone, the future UN presence there and the
possible impact on peace-building efforts in nearby countries, UNOWA said.
Meeting after the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR)
conference that took place in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in late June, they
called on their Intermission Cooperation Working Group to explore a
regional DDR approach that would include countries that do not host UN
peace missions.
***
ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF SREBRENICA MASSACRE, UN RECOMMITS TO
REHABILITATION
As the United Nations prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the fall of
Srebrenica during the Balkan wars, a senior official has reaffirmed the
UN's commitment to help heal the wounds in the town that was the site of a
23
massacre of Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces after they took
over the town designated by the Security Council as a "safe area."
Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and
Communications, said he hoped that the tragedy of Srebrenica, the worst
massacre in Europe since World War II, had taught the global community an
important lesson on the need to respond resolutely to systematic attempts
to terrorize, expel or murder an entire people.
"As the Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed in his 1999 report on the
Fall of Srebrenica, the international community as a whole must accept its
share of responsibility for its response to the ethnic cleansing campaign
that culminated in the murder of some 7,000 unarmed civilians in
Srebrenica," Mr. Tharoor told the UN News Service after meeting at UN
Headquarters in New York with two survivors of the massacre.
"Ten years after those tragic events, they continue to haunt us and serve
as a reminder that such atrocities must be met with all necessary means
and that there must be the political will to carry the policy through,"
said Mr. Tharoor, after discussing UN rehabilitation efforts in Srebrenica
with Munira Beba Hadzic, Director of Bosfam, a Bosnian non-governmental
organization (NGO) involved in an income-generating project for female war
victims in the Srebrenica region, and her colleague Magbula Divovic, both
survivors of the Srebrenica tragedy.
"You will see; we will succeed," were Ms. Hadzic's parting words to Mr.
Tharoor after the meeting.
Today, various international development projects are underway in the
Srebrenica region, including a UN Development Programme (UNDP) regional
project which aims to improve local governance and the general
socio-economic environment. These projects are being undertaken in close
cooperation with the local authorities with an understanding that it is
upon the people of the region now to make these international assistance
and resources productive and functional.
Founded during the war in 1994, Bosfam promotes reconciliation and strives
to improve the quality of life for the local population by setting up
income-generating projects. It began with knitting and weaving programmes
to provide occupational therapy for women victims of the war.
***
2005 WORLD SUMMIT MUST CONSIDER WAYS TO PROTECT, PROMOTE WOMEN'S
RIGHTS – UN OFFICIAL
With many competing interests and expectations vying for attention in the
run up to the 2005 World Summit, world leaders must make sure that any
decisions they take in September will ultimately promote and protect the
24
rights of women, the top United Nations adviser on women's issues said
today.
Addressing the opening meeting of the 33rd session of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Rachel Mayanja,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser to the on Gender Issues and
Advancement of Women stressed the 23-member expert body's tireless
commitment to that aim – ensuring that real-life benefits were the guiding principle in gauging
how women could gain from decisions taken by the
international community.
The 23-member Committee of experts, which monitors implementation of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, also worked diligently to highlight the specific areas of concern
in each of the States parties that came before it for a constructive
dialogue about their compliance, Ms. Mayanja said.
She added the Committee's approach to gender equality, as reflected in its
general recommendations, statements and concluding comments, made it very
clear that States parties to the Convention were obliged to tackle the
structural causes of discrimination against women. Only by challenging the
ingrained and systemic roots of women's inequality would true equality
with men be realized, she said.
***
ANNAN URGES CARIBBEAN LEADERS TO BE BOLD ABOUT POLICIES FOR
REACHING MDGS
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the leaders of the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to devise national development strategies
"bold enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)" aimed at
reducing or eliminating socio-economic ills by 2015.
In a message delivered by Under-Secretary-General Anwarul K. Chowdhury to
the meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in St. Lucia on Sunday, Mr.
Annan said to reach those goals developing countries should have the
implementation of their plans well in hand by next year and rich countries
should support them on aid, trade and debt relief.
The Secretary-General also called on the Caribbean leaders for support in
several areas, including UN reform, assistance to Haiti, a CARICOM member,
and strengthening international human rights activities.
***
SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICA'S PROBLEMS IS WELCOME, UN OFFICIALS SAY
Welcoming the spotlight thrown on Africa's problems by this week's Group
of 8 (G8) Summit in Scotland, United Nations officials today said Africa
25
had never faced such vast challenges.
At a news briefing in Geneva, UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman
Christiane Berthiaume asked "Why does Africa need help?" and answered,
"Because Africa has never been worse off."
She noted Africa had received publicity from both last Saturday's Live 8
concerts and the 6 to 8 July summit in Gleneagles, and she expressed the
hope that the G8 meeting would raise the financial support and the level
of engagement from the participating countries.
While the rest of the developing world had made progress in the fight
against poverty and hunger, she said, the situation in Africa continued to
deteriorate, with one-third of the 852 million Africans suffering from
malnutrition, two-thirds of the world's AIDS cases occurring on that
continent and with the capacity of its governments weakening.
Each year 6 million Africans died from preventable causes, such as
malnutrition, unsafe water, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she added.
HIV/AIDS had taken the lives of one-third of health workers in Lesotho and
was killing 2,000 teachers each year in Zambia, while a total of 8 million
African farmers, more than the total number of farmers in Europe and North
America, had died in the pandemic.
Despite the alarming numbers, WFP had received only $67 million out of the
$405 million it needed for Africa this year, she said.
The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), welcoming the G8 Summit in
Gleneagles, saw a mixed picture on the continent, with most sub-Saharan
countries likely to miss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of
reducing or eliminating a large number of social ills by 2015, but with
many countries having put in place improved governance, accountability and
aid management and being on track to meet some of the targets.
"The introduction of more rigorous expenditure and tracking systems in
several countries has improved the quality of social spending, boosting,
for example, school enrolment in places such as Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia,
Uganda and Mozambique," it said.
Over the past decade African economies had grown at an annual average rate
of 3.7 per cent, "the highest in the world," but the continent needed an
annual average growth rate of 7 per cent to produce a sustainable effect
on poverty reduction, it said.
Reducing poverty in Africa was not just a question of doubling aid. While
its value in meeting the MDGs could not be minimized, the quality of aid
had been compromised by donors' restrictive delivery methods and by poor
governance on the part of beneficiary countries, ECA said.
"Regional integration could help to overcome some of these problems," it
26
added.
***
AUSTRALIAN PARK ADMINISTRATION, MEXICAN CONSERVATIONIST WIN UNBACKED AWARDS
An Australian marine park administration that seeks to preserve the
world's largest collection of coral reefs and a Mexican champion of nature
and wildlife conservation have won a United Nations-administered
environmental prize.
This year's Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Protection, a biennial
award made possible through a donation to the UN Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said of
Oman, went to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and
Ernesto C. Enkerlin-Hoeflich.
They were chosen by the Bureau of the International Co-ordinating Council
of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.
The GBRMPA, principal adviser to the Australian Government on managing the
park, received the prize for its crucial contributions to the conservation
of the Great Barrier Reef, a critical global resource. Guided by the
principle of balancing conservation and sustainable use, the GBRMPA has
created an innovative framework that, whilst allowing for reasonable human
use, will still ensure the healthy survival of the coastal and marine
ecosystems.
Enkerlin-Hoeflich (Mexico), President of the National Commission on
Natural Protected Areas of Mexico (CONANP) was honoured for his
outstanding contributions to nature and wildlife conservation, ecological
research and environmental education. During his four-year tenure at
CONANP, which is charged with the conservation of all protected areas in
Mexico, five new sites have been incorporated in the World Network of
Biosphere Reserves.
***
UN CHILDREN'S FUND APPEALS FOR NEARLY $1 MILLION FOR TOGOLESE
REFUGEE CHILDREN
With 8,000 Togolese children living with Ghanaian host families, after
they and their relatives fled the violence that followed Togo's disputed
April elections, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today issued
a crisis appeal for nearly $1 million to fund local education, sanitation
and special medical care.
UNICEF Ghana sought funding of $946,000 to "ensure that at least 90 per
cent of the 8,000 child refugees of Togolese origin in Ghana and 4,000 of
27
the host communities' children access an 'integrated' education package of
early childhood care, primary schooling and psychosocial support" over the
next 18 months, the agency said.
The funds would also be used to halt the transmission of Guinea Worm in
Ghana's Volta Region and in the border areas by strengthening
surveillance, training local health workers and improving school
sanitation facilities in the endemic communities, as well as in
communities which risk becoming endemic, it said.
The money would also pay for monitoring the Togolese child refugees in
Ghana and ensuring that they have a protective environment, UNICEF said.
Most of the refugees and their hosts share a common local language, Ewe,
but the level of poverty is high and the social infrastructure is poor, it
said.
***
UN AGENCIES BRING ASSISTANCE TO FLOOD-HIT INDIAN STATE OF GUJARAT
United Nations agencies are providing aid to the Indian state of Gujarat,
where the situation in several districts is reported to be critical after
unprecedented heavy rains and flooding killed more than 130 people, led to
the evacuation of half a million more, and affected power and water
supplies to several thousand villages.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is assisting the state government by
supplying emergency items such oral rehydration salts, a treatment for
dehydration caused by diarrhoea, vomiting and heat exhaustion, and
chlorine tablets for water purification.
UN World Health Organization (WHO) staff at field offices are monitoring
the health and sanitation conditions in the affected districts. The UN
Population Fund (UNFPA), whose concerns include reproductive health
issues, is also monitoring the situation closely.
***
ZIMBABWE: UN ENVOY ON HOUSING EVICTIONS CONTINUES TOUR
The United Nations Special Envoy looking into humanitarian aspects of the
evictions of thousands of poor Zimbabweans from illegal housing and
businesses today extended her visit to the southern African country by
almost a week until Friday and was setting out for the southern African
country's second city.
On her way to Bulawayo by road, Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who is also
the Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT),
was scheduled to stop in Midlands Province. She also planned to visit the
28
western Victoria Falls district, her agency said.
Ms. Tibaijuka, who arrived on 26 June for about a week, has been reviewing
the Government's arrangements for the displaced, its provision of
alternative housing and basic needs during the southern African winter, as
well as the response of UN agencies in the country, it said.
Last week, the Special Envoy met with Zimbabwe's Ministerial Task Force
coordinating Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Restore Order) and was
present at the official launch at Whitecliff Farm of the new GariKai
housing reconstruction programme. She was shown many resettlement sites
the Government and local authorities had prepared for new homes and
markets.
She talked with local authority officials and the affected communities in
Headlands and Rusape, as well as in Mutare. She also held talks with
Manicaland Province Governor Tinaye Chigudu and talked to displaced
families camped in a local sports ground.
Ms. Tibaijuka has been hearing reports from ordinary citizens and
representatives of faith-based organizations and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). In the capital, Harare, she met with international
and local NGOs and women's groups as she visited sites where people has
been evicted, such as Mbare, Hatcliffe Extension and Porta Farm.
Ten United Nations special rapporteurs on several human freedoms and
rights issued a 24 June statement expressing concern about the "recent
mass forced evictions in Zimbabwe and related human rights violations" and
raising questions about the negative effects on supplies of water and
food, education and health care, including HIV/AIDS treatment.
***
UN URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME CHIEF URGES ARCHITECTS TO HELP
IMPROVE SLUMS
With major cities becoming more and more crowded, the head of the United
Nations programme for sustainable housing and urban development has
challenged architects to use their expertise and take the lead in the
global race to improve living conditions of nearly 1 billion slum dwellers
around the world.
"Despite significant efforts by the international community, governments,
the private sector, civil society and professionals, living and housing
conditions, particularly in developing countries, have not improved," said
Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (
UN-HABITAT).
There were now more slum dwellers in the world today than three decades
ago, and their number was rapidly increasing, she said in a statement
29
delivered on her behalf by the head of UN-HABITAT's Global Division, Mr.
Lars Reutersward, at the 22nd World Congress of the International Union of
Architects, in Istanbul, Turkey.
"This is the great challenge for us all. UN-HABITAT considers architects
and planners, both in their policy-making and professional capacities, as
key partners in taking up this challenge," she said, adding: "We believe
that the International Union of Architects, representing nearly
one-and-a-half million professionals worldwide, has a significant role and
contribution to make in raising awareness of these trends and in bringing
about change."
Ms. Tibaijuka said that the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world were
not limited to developing countries. Many cities in the North were also
witnessing inner city decline, persistent unemployment, social exclusion,
and urban sprawl. These issues could not be taken lightly because they
undermined decades of achievement and social and economic progress. They
represented patterns in the use of land, water and energy that were simply
unsustainable.
***
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES GET NEW HOMES AFTER ISRAELI DEMOLITIONS
THANKS TO UN AGENCY
With the homes of nearly 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip demolished or
damaged beyond repair by the Israeli military since the start of the most
recent outbreak of violence, the main United Nations agency helping
Palestinian refugees has handed over 109 new homes to 116 families from
Rafah refugee camp, the last part of a five-phase project.
"These homes are the visible expression of UNRWA's pledge to provide
shelter for all these refugees made homeless by the conflict that has
raged since September 2000," the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement.
The 72 buildings opened yesterday will house some 670 refugees. The
overall project has provided a total of 431 new homes, and this last phase
was funded by donations from Spain, Ireland and un-earmarked contributions
to UNRWA's emergency appeals for a total cost of $2.2 million.
Plans for an additional 1,210 funded shelters for 1,285 families are
currently underway in Rafah but UNRWA still needs some $28 million to
cover the backlog requirement for a further 1,263 new shelters to house
1,352 homeless refugee families throughout the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA Commissioner General Karen Koning AbuZayd has urged the
international donor community to increase its financial support for the
Agency's re-housing activity and its plans for the post disengagement era
after Israel's projected withdrawal from Gaza later this year.
30
These plans include major improvement of the refugee camps, major
infrastructure development projects and expanding the Agency's current Job
Creation and Microfinance and Microenterprise programmes. "These projects
are aimed at making the refugees feel a tangible difference in their
lives, which should help to put the peace process in the region back on
the right track," Ms. AbuZayd said.
According to UNRWA statistics, by end of December 2004 a total of 2,991
shelters, home to over 28,483 people, had been demolished or damaged
beyond repair in the Gaza Strip since the violence began in 2000. There
has been a halt in house demolition since the beginning of this year, the
agency said.
***
UN REFUGEE AGENCY URGES KAZAKHSTAN NOT TO FORCIBLY RETURN UZBEK
RIGHTS ACTIVIST
The United Nations refugee agency today urged authorities in Kazakhstan
not to forcibly return a well-known Uzbek human rights activist, who was
arrested along with his family yesterday in the Kazakh capital, Almaty,
after having fled there following the recent military crackdown in his own
country.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
Lutfullo Shamsuddinov was arrested Monday following a request by the Uzbek
authorities to extradite him.
“UNHCR is extremely concerned at the arrest of a refugee under its
mandate, and is urging the Kazakh authorities not to forcibly return Mr.
Shamsuddinov to Uzbekistan. Under the 1951 Geneva Convention, it is
forbidden,” said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond in Geneva toda.
Mr. Shamsuddinov arrived in Kazakhstan on 25 May and was registered at
UNHCR two days later. After a thorough refugee status determination
process, he and his six dependent family members were recognized as
mandate refugees on 24 June. “His case was submitted to a third government
for urgent resettlement and we have now received word from that government
that in principle, it is willing to accept the request, Mr. Redmond said.
The arrest in Kazakhstan comes as 29 Uzbek refugees in neighbouring
Kyrgyzstan are also in detention following a request for extradition by
the Uzbek authorities.
“As you know, UNHCR organized a meeting with governments here in Geneva
last Friday for urgent resettlement of the 29, as well as for humanitarian
evacuation of some 450 other Uzbeks who have sought refuge in Kyrgyzstan
and are currently at the Sasik camp near Jalal-Abad,” said Mr. Redmond,
adding: “Our bureau for the region indicates there has been a positive
31
response so far from a number of governments, but I cannot at this time
give you specifics.”
***
UNESCO CHIEF DEPLORES JOURNALIST’S MURDER IN RUSSIA AS BLOW
AGAINST DEMOCRACY
Raising his voice yet again in defence of freedom of the press, the head
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (
UNESCO) has condemned the murder of a journalist in the Russian Federation
republic of Dagestan as another blow against an essential component of
democracy.
Magomedzarid Varisov was killed in his car on 28 June in Makhachkala,
capital of Dagestan. Director of the Republican Centre of Strategic
Initiatives and Political Technologies, he wrote a column of political
analysis in the newspaper Novoye Delo. According to the Centre for
Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES, Moscow), the newspaper had
received repeated phone call threats against him.
“A well-known journalist and political analyst, he paid with his life for
his commitment to reporting and disseminating information,” UNESCO
Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said in a statement.
“Everywhere in the world, the existence and safeguarding of a free and
independent press are essential components of democracy, crucial for
informed debate in every society that respects the rule of law and
promotes the universal values of the Declaration of Human Rights. I trust
that authorities will investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to
justice,” he added.
Mr. Matsuura’s statement was the latest in a long series of condemnations
he has issued recently over attacks on journalists around the world.
UNESCO’s mandate includes the defence of freedom of expression and press
freedom.
***
BIRD FLU STILL OF CRITICAL CONCERN, NEEDS MORE INTERNATIONAL
ATTENTION – UN OFFICIAL
Bird flu, which health officials fear could mutate into a deadly human
pandemic, in a worst-case scenario, remains a critical concern in many
Asian countries and requires more attention by both affected states and
the international community, according to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“Eradication of the virus from the eight affected Asian countries will not
be easily achieved,” FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech told an
32
international conference on bird flu in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday.
The meeting is jointly organized by FAO, the UN World Health Organization
(WHO) and the intergovernmental World Organization for Animal Health
(OIE).
“We notice with considerable relief that a recent joint WHO/FAO/OIE
mission to Viet Nam concluded that there is currently no evidence of virus
change and that the virus is not as widely spread among humans as
initially thought,” he added, noting that there was therefore no need at
the moment to raise the level of pandemic alert.
“But there is also no reason for complacency,” he declared. “The virus
continues to circulate in poultry and wild birds and requires highest
attention. Many questions remain unanswered and more research and major
investments for national and regional control operations are required.”
WHO is concerned that continuing transmission from birds to humans might
give avian and human influenza viruses an opportunity to exchange genes,
facilitating a pandemic that in a worst case scenario could kill tens of
millions of people worldwide. The so-called Spanish flu pandemic of
1918-1920, unrelated to the present virus, is estimated to have killed
between 20 million and 40 million people around the world.
Mr. Domenech called upon affected countries to share information openly
about their prevention and control strategies and stressed that in some
countries, such as Viet Nam, where the virus is widely spread, massive
vaccination could be the only way to reduce infection in poultry to
protect humans.
He advised against the use of antiviral drugs such as amantadine, an
important anti-flu drug meant for humans, following its reported use by
Chinese farmers to treat major bird flu outbreaks among chickens. “The use
of an anti-viral drug in poultry will create drug resistance and will
hamper the treatment of avian flu in humans,” he said, calling on the
Chinese authorities to be more transparent about their control strategies.
There have been more than 100 reported human infections, about 50 of them
fatal, since the first case linked to widespread poultry outbreaks in Viet
Nam and Thailand was reported in January last year. Nearly 140 million
domestic birds have died or been culled over the past year in South-East
Asia in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.
***
For more details go to UN News Centre
33
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
5 July 2005
Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric,
Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**SG/Iraq
Good afternoon. I’ll start off with a statement on Iraq.
“The Secretary-General is deeply dismayed by the rash of attacks in recent days against
representatives of the international diplomatic community in Iraq. He vehemently condemns
these incidents, including the kidnapping of the chargé d’affaires of Egypt, as well as the
attempted assassinations of diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan.
“There can be no justification for the targeting of diplomats. As with earlier attacks
against the United Nations and other international actors in Iraq, the Secretary-General hopes
that these latest attacks will not weaken the resolve of the international community to stand with
the Iraqi people at this critical juncture in their history. The Secretary-General expects that the
perpetrators of these acts will be quickly apprehended and brought to justice.”
**SG Travels
Turning to the Secretary-General’s travels, yesterday he told African leaders that this
September’s Summit will be an opportunity for all humankind. Noting that Security Council
reform was being discussed at the African Union Summit taking place in Sirte, Libya, the
Secretary-General told the gathered leaders, “I urge you to seize this precious opportunity.”
He noted the key goals he intends to push in September that affect Africa, including the
need for breakthrough on aid, trade and debt; the importance of strengthening UN
peacekeeping; the call on leaders to affirm the principle of the responsibility to protect; and the
proposal to transform the Human Rights Commission into a Human Rights Council.
The Secretary-General, in his speech, announced the creation of a UN Democracy Fund,
which will provide assistance to countries seeking to re-establish or strengthen their democracy.
A number of Member States have already indicated their intention to contribute to that Fund.
We have copies of the press encounter available upstairs.
The Secretary-General is now travelling from Libya to London and, as you know, he is
scheduled to attend the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland later this week. He was also in
London on Saturday afternoon, before going to Libya, where he and his wife, Nane, attended
the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, aimed at the leaders gathering at the G-8 summit. The
Secretary-General later made a brief appearance on stage, telling the crowd that “the whole
world has come together in solidarity with the poor”.
**Zimbabwe
Turning to Zimbabwe, Anna Tibaijuka, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy is
continuing her visit to that country. Today, she is scheduled to travel to the city of Bulawayo.
Miss Tibaijuka has now extended her visit until Friday. She is making an assessment of the
eviction of some 200,000 people in and around the urban areas of the country. To that end, she
34
has met with officials, evictees, UN agencies and NGOs. And she is expected to report back to
the Secretary-General at the end of her trip.
**Security Council
Turning to “oil-for-food” matters, we have received no objections from the Security
Council regarding access by the Volcker Committee to the unofficial notes of the Security
Council’s informal consultations. We will now be working closely with the Volcker Committee
to insure the full transfer of those notes to Mr. Volcker and his team.
On the Security Council, today the Council members held consultations on their
programme of work for July. These are the first under the new Presidency of Ambassador
Vassilakis of Greece. The Ambassador will brief you on the Council’s programme of work at
about 1:15 in this room, following the end of consultations. Council members will also be
briefed today on the situation in the Central African Republic by the Secretary-General’s
personal representative for that country, General Lamine Cissé. And we flagged the SecretaryGeneral’s report on the Central African Republic to you last week.
**Democratic Republic of Congo
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in an update we received from the
UN peacekeeping forces in the eastern part of that country, they’re telling us the latest
operation, called Operation Falcon Sweep, began today and will continue until mid-July. This
operation is being undertaken by a quick reaction force composed of two Pakistani battalions,
Guatemalan Special Forces, as well as troops from the National Congolese army, with air
support by Indian attack helicopters.
The purpose of the operation is for the UN mission to assert control of areas in South
Kivu province. It also hopes to bolster the confidence of the local population in the UN
peacekeepers and to carry out effective search missions, with a view of flushing out armed
groups from that area. And we will provide you with updates as they come in later in the day.
**Kosovo
Over the weekend, the UN Mission in Kosovo was attacked in Pristina. No one was
injured, but three vehicles in the main UN compound were damaged.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, Søren Jessen-Petersen,
strongly condemned the attacks, which also targeted the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe and a government building. But he was relieved that no one was injured.
Saying that such actions won’t be allowed to damage the democratic process in Kosovo,
Jessen-Petersen also appealed to the public to come forward with any information, as
investigations into these explosions continued.
**Afghanistan
Also over the weekend, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan,
Jean Arnault, encouraged all those in Afghanistan who have not yet turned in their weapons to
complete the disarmament without delay.
He noted that to comply with electoral law, senior public officials must resign from their
positions to compete in the upcoming elections, while those who command or belong to armed
35
groups must disarm. Arnault said that the door for registering to compete in the elections
remains open until July 7. We have a press release available upstairs with more information.
**WFP – Somalia
A couple of more items. The World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday suspended all
humanitarian shipments to Somalia, following last week’s pirating of a WFP-chartered vessel
off Somalia’s coast. The ship had been carrying two months worth of food aid for 28,000
tsunami survivors.
WFP’s decision was taken because of the insecurity along Somalia’s coast, but will be
reviewed based on whether or not the detained food, vessel and crew are released. It is the first
time in WFP’s history that a ship carrying food aid has been pirated.
**UNHCR
UNHCR reports that its staff is rushing to relocate some 10,000 refugees in remote areas
of southern Chad. The refugees from the Central African Republic may soon be cut off from
help by the start of the rainy season.
And in other news, UNHCR says it is extremely concerned by the detention of a highprofile Uzbek human rights activist in Kazakhstan. The agency is urging the Kazakh authorities
not to forcibly return Mr. Lutufullo Shamsuddinov to Uzbekistan, saying that would be a
violation of the Geneva Convention. We have more on that from UNHCR notes upstairs.
**CARICOM
In a message sent to the leaders of the Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, the
Secretary-General urged them to develop national strategies that are “bold enough to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals by 2015”.
In remarks to CARICOM heads of government meeting in Saint Lucia on Sunday -- the
message delivered by Under-Secretary-General Anwarul K. Chowdhury -- the SecretaryGeneral said to reach that goal developing countries should have their plans under way by next
year. He said that developed countries should support them with action on aid, trade and debt
relief. And the full statement is available upstairs.
**ECOSOC
And today, the Economic and Social Council is having a meeting of the Executive
Secretaries of Regional Commissions on achieving development goals, including the
Millennium Development Goals. The executive secretaries from Asia and the Pacific, Europe,
Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Africa and West Asia are all listed to speak.
**Women
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW, began
today in New York meeting to discuss the reports of the following eight countries: Benin,
Burkina Faso, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Gambia, Guyana, Ireland, Israel and
Lebanon.
**C8 UNICEF
36
And lastly from UNICEF, young people from a UNICEF Children’s Summit, or what
they’re calling the C8 meeting in Scotland, have come up with a list of recommendations for the
G-8 summit. Their manifesto includes a call for immediate access to free and quality education
for all children and action for children and young people affected by HIV/AIDS. And we have
the full copy of their manifesto available upstairs. And that is it for me. Any questions?
**Questions and Answers
Question: On Iraq, in the last few days we have seen there have been a kidnapping of an
Egyptian envoy, an attack on a Pakistani envoy, an attack on a Bahraini envoy, a killing of four
staffers at the Baghdad airport. Has the United Nations taken notice that it has enough
protection from Coalition forces?
Spokesman: Yes, we did take notice ... I read out a statement right at the beginning of
the briefing on that effect.
Question: Indonesia says it will not accept the findings that a tribunal is necessary for
what happened in East Timor. What’s the UN response?
Spokesman: I’ll get you some guidance on that right after the briefing.
Question: Did the complaint from the Iraq UN ambassador on the Marine’s killing his
relatives reach the Secretary-General and if so, any comment from the UN?
Spokesman: Not that I’m aware of, but I can check.
Question: The documents that have been requested by the Volcker Committee, how
many are there and any [inaudible].
Spokesman: I’ll try to be brief, because we’ve had extensive discussions on this here.
They are informal notes taken by the United Nation’s Secretariat staff of Security Council
informal consultations. And these notes began in 1992.
Question: Some are surprised and wonder why it’s taken... why they haven’t been
handed in already? Are there any more documents? Or is this the end of it?
Spokesman: No, this resolves that issue regarding those notes.
Question: The [inaudible] reported that oil-for-food committee... the Volcker
Committee... may expand its investigation and go back on oil-for-food as far back as 1991 or
the 2.2 escrow account set-up. Is that a possibility, if they go back to investigate that? [Second
Reporter: There was no oil-for-food, was there? First Reporter: No, there was no oil-for-food.]
Spokesman: I’ve not heard anything to that effect.
Question: Can you give us an update on how long Anna Tibaijuka is expected to be in
Zimbabwe and when her report is going to come out?
Spokesman: Until next Friday. And then she will report back to the Secretary-General.
Question: How long would that report take?
Spokesman: We would expect her to report back to the Secretary-General very quickly
after that.
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Question: After the report ... what will be the next step?
Spokesman: He’ll decide on what the next step will be. Any other questions?
Question: Every year, they run the United Nations Handicap at Monmouth Racetrack in
New Jersey. And considering what the UN has been going through and the media coverage and
the investigations, I was wondering if you’d comment on the fact that the winner was “Better
Talk Now”, third place “Request for Parole”, other losers were “Licensed to Run”, “Shake the
Bank” and “Gunning For”. Do you have any comment on the placing and outcome of this race?
Spokesman: I think there was no insider betting involved in that race.
Question: More trouble ahead on oil-for-food perhaps? Or money [inaudible] ahead for
the US?
Spokesman: No comment. Thank you.
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