Latam and Caribbean Prepare for Rio+10 Summit
Copyright 2001 Inter Press Service
October 22, 2001
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 22 - Foreign and environment ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean are meeting this week in Rio de Janeiro to sign a declaration warning that nearly 10 years after the Earth Summit -- held in the same city -- extreme poverty continues to threaten sustainable development.
The regional preparatory conference is debating the position to be taken by Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+10, slated for September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The officials are discussing a broad range of questions, from biodiversity and deforestation to pressing environmental problems faced by cities.
The final version of the text hammered out at various meetings over the past year, to be approved at this week's regional preparatory conference, underlines that the consolidation of democracy has brought greater participation by civil society and raised public awareness on environmental problems in Latin America. However, the draft document states that the predominant model of production and consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean poses a threat to environmentally sustainable development, due to the resultant extreme poverty and heavy foreign debt burden, which the text says must be eased.
The foreign ministers will meet with the officials participating since yesterday in the 13th regional forum of environment ministers in Rio de Janeiro, to sign the document to be sent to the Johannesburg summit.
The summit will assess compliance with the commitments assumed in "Agenda 21," the program in which the heads of state and government agreed in 1992 to make efforts to move towards sustainable development.
Environment officials have been meeting in subregional groupings, a mechanism similar to that used in other regions, to prepare the regional position of Latin America and the Caribbean.
After several meetings of government technical representatives on the environment, the necessary consensus was achieved to draft a final document, Ana Bianchi, with the Argentine Foreign Ministry's office on environmental affairs, told IPS.
The first part of the text is a confirmation of the principles and commitments assumed at the 1992 Earth Summit. It also outlines international accords that have arisen since then.
Another chapter mentions the "hurdles" and "lessons learned," highlighting the advance made by political democracy in the region as the biggest achievement.
It also states that despite the efforts made by poor countries to create a political climate favorable to investment, the development and transfer of cleaner technologies has been slow.
The document also rejects practices that distort international trade, urging industrialized countries to eliminate subsidies for farm production and exports, and to improve access to markets by poor countries.
According to Bianchi, "that paragraph was practically taken from a document of the Cairns Group," the forum of 18 -- mainly developing -- agricultural exporting countries opposed to the protectionist practices of the European Union and the United States.
A clause suggested by Brazil also rejects the use of environmental standards as hurdles to trade.
In addition, the text rejects the mushrooming of regional and subregional forums and conferences, which it says overwhelm governments in the region and often leads to their failure to live up to their commitments due to a shortfall in economic and technical resources.
The regional position document also demands that a fund set up at the Earth Summit ease eligibility requirements for obtaining funding for projects by taking into greater account the environmental priorities of Latin American countries, rather than the demands of the industrialized North.
The problem of extreme poverty and its effects on the environment, and the need for effective global cooperation in poverty alleviation, are also discussed.
The same clause calls for a more critical vision of globalization, and a recognition that it can deepen existing problems like social exclusion.
Another suggestion is that economy, social and environment officials work together in policy-making, instead of continuing to work in an isolated manner.
Bianchi said the South Africa conference would present "a historic opportunity to see where we have fallen short or gone wrong, and where we need assistance."