Biodiversity > Speeches and Statements
Delivered by
Dr. Charles McNeill, Environment Programme Team Manager
United Nations Development Programme
For UNDP -- the capacity development agency of the United Nations which is on-the-ground in 166 countries -- biodiversity has everything to do with improving the lives of the poor and advancing sustainable development. In the words of UNDP’s Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown, “For rural people living in poverty, development can’t happen without biodiversity”.
As we all know well, the poor, especially in rural areas, depend on biodiversity for food, fuel, shelter, medicines and livelihoods. Biodiversity also provides the critical ‘ecosystem services’ on which society as a whole depends, including air and water purification, soil protection, disease control, and reduced vulnerability to natural disasters. Indeed, biodiversity frequently provides the ‘welfare system of last resort’ for poor people and communities.
In the discussions here over the next three weeks, it is critical that we recognize these inter-relationships and their impact on the poor. Biodiversity loss exacerbates poverty, but likewise, poverty is a major threat to biodiversity.
One of the most important recent developments in this regard is the increasing recognition that the protection and sustainable management of biodiversity is central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals – known as the ‘MDGs’ – a set of measurable, time-bound development targets agreed upon by 189 world leaders in September 2000. Although only one of the MDGs (Goal 7, on ‘environmental sustainability’) deals explicitly with biodiversity, the wise use of biological resources clearly underpins the full range of development priorities encompassed by all eight MDGs.
The delegates gathered here in this room understand this and we would be remiss not to take advantage of the strategic opportunities offered by the MDGs to advance the integration of biodiversity concerns into the productive sectors of agriculture, fisheries, forests, energy and transport – where there are real threats to biodiversity.
A key opportunity lies in the 2010 target established by our last Conference of the Parties in The Hague and later endorsed by the Johannesburg World Summit. Articulating the 2010 target as a vital milestone towards achieving the 2015 MDGs ensures a single coordinated global effort, which of course would make it much more likely to achieve both sets of targets than if we work in an isolated manner.
Significant progress has already been made in this direction. For example, last year in London, the CBD Secretariat working in partnership with UNDP and UNEP, and the United Kingdom, along with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and The Nature Conservancy, jointly organized two important meetings. One was entitled, “Biodiversity after Johannesburg: The Critical Role of Biodiversity in Achieving the MDGs” and the other entitled “2010: The Global Biodiversity Challenge”. We learned a lot from each other at these meetings, but we need to continue to advance our thinking on the links between the 2010 biodiversity target, environmental sustainability and the MDGs.
In this spirit, it is extremely encouraging that this COP will be considering ‘Official Document #33’: “The Programme of Work of the Convention and the Millennium Development Goals” (UNEP/CBD/COP/7/20/ADD1).
Another example of progress is the UN Secretary-General’s ‘Millennium Project’ which is working to develop viable and effective strategies for meeting the MDGs. UNDP is closely involved in this effort and I am happy to report that biodiversity issues are being deeply integrated into the work of the Task Forces of the Millennium Project.
In addition to supporting the processes of the Convention, UNDP -- through capacity development, knowledge management, policy advice and advocacy -- is supporting more than 140 countries in their work to maintain and sustainably use biodiversity. In fact, a recent survey of UNDP Country Offices found that biodiversity is one of their highest priorities.
To date, UNDP has directed over $2 billion through grants and other financing to developing countries for biodiversity-related projects. The UNDP GEF programme for example supports some 200 full-size projects and 30 medium-size projects in 141 countries.
Through the GEF Small Grants Programme, more than 3,000 biodiversity projects of community-based organizations and local NGOs have been funded in 73 countries for a total of more than $58 million.
Another key UNDP programme, the Equator Initiative, is a partnership with the governments of Canada and Germany, and with BrasilConnects, Conservation International, the International Development Research Centre , IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, Television Trust for the Environment and the United Nations Foundation.
We were pleased, on behalf of all the Equator Initiative partners, to accept the CBD Secretariat’s invitation to host the Equator Prize 2004 right here within the context of COP 7, and it gives me particular pleasure to recognize the 26 communities from 24 countries here in the plenary who are Equator Prize 2004 finalists.
You are welcome to join them at the Equator Prize 2004 Award Ceremony next Thursday evening, February 19th, at the Legend Hotel across the street from here, for a glimpse of how local communities are dynamically implementing the Convention on the ground.
UNDP was also delighted to accept the invitation of the Secretariat to help in the Convention’s long-standing efforts to fully involve Indigenous Peoples and local communities. We are assisting by organizing on behalf of hundreds of local representatives, the ‘community dialogue space’ called the ‘Community Kampung’. The support from nearly 20 organizations to make the ‘Kampung’ a reality speaks to the widespread commitment to ensure that Indigenous Peoples, Mobile Peoples, and other community voices are an essential part of the discussions here at COP 7.
We encourage you to visit the Community Kampung just one floor below this plenary in this building to hear concrete stories of community success and to dialogue with the people who demonstrate on a day-to-day basis how development and biodiversity goals can be achieved together.
On behalf of UNDP’s Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown, and UNDP staff throughout the world, we wish you highly productive deliberations.
The world is depending on us. Thank you.
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