Synthesis report of the
Organised by Asia Pacific Mountain Network (APMN) of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), together with Small Earth Nepal (SEN), and Eco Singapore, the ‘South and Central Asia Regional Virtual Consultation on Youth Perspectives on Rio+20’ attracted 550 participants from 38 countries. They made 400 contributions in total. The central theme of the consultation was ‘From Rio 1992 to Rio+20and beyond: Where do we stand – How can we make a difference and promote green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication?’ The theme was further divided into three sub-themes:
· 09-15 May: After 20 years of Rio – where do we stand? What are the new issues and challenges?
· 16-22 May: Looking at the green economy for low carbon future in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development, and
· 23-29 May: Environmental laws and governance for establishing an institutional framework for sustainable development in South and Central Asia
After 20 years of Rio – where do we stand? What are the new issues and challenges?
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Mountain ecology is highly complex, reflecting interplay of several interdependent and inter-related features. About 10 percent of the world’s population directly depends on mountain resources. Mountains are a source of fresh water, minerals, timber and non-timber forest products, and biological diversity, among other things and their economic valuation are currently a seminal area of research and green accounting. Curiously, however, valuation of ecosystem services rendered by mountains limits its ecological protection (??? This needs elaboration).
Although the Rio 1992 was a major move towards sustainable future, the vision of the Rio remains mostly unachieved after 20 years. The biggest challenge before us is to speed up the process, in part to take on the drivers threatening sustainability itself. ‘However this will not be as easy as it seems. It’s largely because we have divergent views on the interpretation and implementation of the decisions made in Rio 1992. It is also because new problems and challenges have become global priorities such as climate change has become global priorities after 1992. Climate change is threatening earth’s sustainability, compelling the global community to make ever tough choices if they desire to protect mother earth. .
Global warming is at the very top of the list of new global priorities. Not surprising given that 11 hottest years since the industrial revolution occurred just in the last 13 years. Forest degradation, habitat fragmentation and associated loss of biodiversity remain an important concern. Water security has become a far more serious concern than ever before, and its inequitable distribution has further exacerbated the situation. Productivity of agricultural system has significantly gone down in many parts of the world mainly due to increase in extreme erosion of fertile top soil, limited irrigation facilities and increasing incidence of pests and insects. Natural disasters like recent earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, Pakistan floods in 2010 and Indian Ocean tsunami, large scale forest fires in USA and Greece , and glacial lake outburst flood risks in the Himalayan region have made the earth an increasingly hazardous place to live in. Depletion of earth’s vital eco system resources and rising cost of the production of basic goods and services, and changing weather patterns are other local and regional concerns. Social disparities and widening economic gaps, rapidly growing population, ever growing demands for energy, rising food prices, and shrinking natural resource base mirror some of the challenges associated with tackling global warming.’
Some of the problems facing South and Central Asian (SCA) countries in recent decades are partly due to the past (and ongoing) activities of the developed world. The developed or the so-called Annex I countries should compensate SCA countries for the losses. Technology transfer, capacity building, and scaled up funding are effective means to ensure development of long terms leadership in SCA countries to handle the problems and also reduce dependency on developed nations over time.
It is also important to consider the rise of China and India as new economic powers with higher overall emission than that of many developed nations. There is a need to develop balanced views that are acceptable to all three types of stakeholders, namely (i) developed nations, (ii) rising economic powers and (iii) other countries in the region which are simply suffering from the problem without contributing much green house gas emissions. Some recent scientific findings, including the contribution of Atmospheric Brown Clouds and black carbon (“soot”), to the regional and local warming process, with impact on the rapid rate of glacier melting, need to be considered
There is a need of developing environmental scenarios based on spatial and temporal as well as other dimensions and compare them against the unsustainable practices of the people in the anthropocene (new “man-made” geologic epoch). To address these problems, there is a need to improve information and knowledge base about natural systems, their interactions with the anthropogenic process, without compromising economic benefits (with very limited flexibility) arising thereof.
The role of youth seems much more critical than has been perceived so far, not only because youth are ‘part of present development process and future leaders’. They are seen not only as ‘an icon of someone who is full of energy’, but also seen as being full of full of ideas, rich in knowledge and understanding of the issues, committed to bring most awaited positive change in our society by catalyzing the development process and also by leading by examples. It is not wise to rely on the few existing mechanisms to address entire gamut of problems that emerged - in the 1960s and became global priorities after the 1990s. In this context, youth need to be involved as ice-breakers to change the status quo or business as usual approach to enhance community awareness, advocate environment and climate actions at local, national and international levels, to promoting research & climate friendly development, to enhance institutional mechanisms, to put pressure on national governments and international communities to give proper attention to issues with transboundary implications and most importantly to identify the missing links and communities that are still too far away from climate change discussions and to reach them and ensure that their voices inform climate change debate and policy.
Youth are not only future policy makers; they are also important component of every small and big ‘ongoing development’ and need to be considered in any development process right from the very beginning.
Looking at the green economy for low carbon future in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development
The new concept, green economy, is still is in its infancy so its comprehensive analysis is necessary before switching to it. The term “Green Economy” incorporates many sectors and issues facing Earth, so it is like a Green Umbrella providing shelter to the Earth. There should be equitable distribution of resources and opportunities, adoption of sustainable lifestyles to make sure that the Earth is handed over to the next generation in no worse condition than the present generation inherited it from their predecessors.
Developing a “low carbon society” is a great goal but what can be the realistic rate of developing it to a level that enables up to arrest, if not reduce, global, national or local CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions? Otherwise, it would be like trying to fill a bucket of water when a hole at the bottom allows more water to leak out than is put in. [needs more clarification]
As Mahatma Gandhi aptly put it, “The resources are enough for everybody’s need but not for greed”. The earth’s resources should be used wisely ensuring that their present use will not, in any way, affect their future use. Some indicators of green economy are use of renewable energy, transformation of waste to energy, green cities with sustainable transport, efficient water supply system, organic farming, eco-tourism, etc. These need to be scaled up.
Energy is and will be a major driver of the green economy. Bio-fuels, solar powers, wind mills, micro hydro projects, etc offer tremendous scope to South and Central Asian countries – especially their rural parts -to transition to a low carbon pathway. However, there is a huge gap in research for their proper harnessing for benefiting the community, so the time has come to ramp up applied or transformative research.
Agriculture, forestry and tourism are the backbones of any economy in South and Central Asian region so these three sectors – the so called low hanging fruits - should aim at being “green” to set the overall tone. .However owing to unstable economy and research gaps, switching to green economy is quite a challenge. Moreover, the situation of aid dependency by developing countries on developed countries is counterproductive in the long. Therefore, donor oriented programmes need to be shifted to self sustained programmes, so there should be “an exit strategy” to reduce foreign money flow in the development sector. If we are compelled to accept development aid, we should have our priorities clear, for example, which sectors can best use that aid.
Sustainable development should come from the grass root. If the communities are adequately incentivized, motivated and directed with guidance and support, then sustainability is no longer a question. Unfortunately, developing countries exporting youth labour to other countries and propping up their economies with remittances. In the short term, this may be good but in the long term who shall the country rely on? A big question for us. Upland people are conserving the mountain environment and lowland people are getting ecosystem services as a result, so there should be a strong mechanism for Payment of Ecosystem Services (PES) between the upland and lowland communities.
There needs to be a move away from dependency on fossil fuel. One example from Brazil that can be replicated in the region is: production of ethanol (biofuel) as a substitute for fossil fuel, since ethanol can easily be produced from waste straw of rice and wheat, which are abundant in this region. Another replicable example is “car pooling”. Also, the region consists of many barren and degraded areas, so these can afforest or reforested with fast growing species of plants so that forest and livestock productivity can be increased, thereby enhancing the livelihood of farmers contributing to slope stabilization.. Farming of medicinal plants by mountain community has a great potential for economic development of rural communities.
In case of tourism, which is a major industry in this region with great growth potential, there should be Tourism Impact Assessment (TIA) for sustainable tourism development. TIA should take into account customary practices, cultures, indigenous and local knowledge -and local economy. . We have lots of resources so they should be explored and turned into sellable products. There should be licensing mechanism for harvesting medicinal herbs in our localities, and we should ensure sure that our local and indigenous intellectual property is documented and protected. . A majority of tourism places are facing problems related to pollution and poor sanitation. Therefore, it is better to promote village level tourism (with ‘home-stay’ concept) where the waste can easily be managed by the community and the livelihood enhanced. Women’s role in mountain tourism should be acknowledged and they should be empowered to own, manage and promote ecotourism business as they are the backbone of the rural society. Transboundary cooperation should be ramped up to facilitate eco-tourism in border areas.
Green economy will invariably create green jobs. The steps for transitioning to creation of green jobs are that the workers need to be trained for efficient use of resources by providing on-the-job or off-the –job trainings, strong relationship need to be maintained among renewable energy industries, training providers and universities to support the sharing of knowledge. Strengthening of private sector and public private partnership (PPP), and linking of client, company and financing institution are needed to achieve long term sustainability. The economy of developing countries is growing; however, their capacity to develop and use transformative technologies is very limited. Therefore, there should be technology transfer from developed nations to developing nations, which is also a way of fostering north-south cooperation. But first we should explore those technologies, including alternative options.. For example, we have lots of technologies and resources for the construction of green roads. Bioengineering techniques can be used but the big question is how effectively we are using them. We should also increasingly use and upscale indigenous technologies that are cost effective, climate friendly and appropriate. Currently, a good number of transformative technologies are being developed in laboratories – they then need to be tested and commercialized before they can reach the mass. As the cutting edge research and development work is being done in the west, lots of scientists are migrating to developed countries: brain drain is a great loss to developing countries. CSA countries need to rethink strategies to stem brain drain.
Good and promising initiatives should be paid by the government and there should be good governance in service delivery and resource distribution mechanism of the state. Environment should be integrated in all sectors like agriculture, industries, business, service sectors to promote sustainable development.
“Youths” are seedlings, as seedlings do not turn into plants unless sowed in soil, provided with water and other required materials. Youth requires skills so as to function, but skill is not an alien thing, it has to be developed. The voice of youth should inform every decision making process as decisions made today will affect the youth tomorrow; therefore, youth need to be seen as stakeholders. Also, the old school of thought that ignores youth is not working. Youth have the power to change, are capable and energetic and skilled and have clear idea of what their future should look like. Therefore, they should have at Rio+20 meeting in 2012.
More heads are better than one: many innovative minds can have a wider impact than a single one. So it is high time for the youth not only to sit together and build a pyramid of novel ideas to save the planet earth for ourselves and the future generation, but also to move the ground and be the real player so as to translate the idea of ‘green economy’ into a pathway to sustainable development. Let us join our hands to protect our mother earth and pool our knowledge and skill sets to bring about a Green change, not climate change.
Environmental laws and governance for establishing an institutional framework for sustainable development in SCA
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Environmental law and guidelines have governed virtually every economic or environmental activity these days. The governance structure is a complex mix of state and local laws, regulations, policy choices, and science and health concerns. One cannot undermine its grave importance and role in transforming our society in order to safeguard our planet, which has so far been caught in a mess due to anthropogenic activities. We need to transition to a cleaner and greener society.
The major concern of the virtual consultation participants was the weak implementation and enforcement of the existing environmental law and regulations. Most said that the legislation and regulations are adequate but there is virtually no or weak implementation. Vested interests, corruption, political patronage of criminals, lack of trained manpower, lack of accountability and monitoring are factors contributing to the present environmental woes. To address the existing environmental “lawlessness” there is a need to promote the concept of political ecology, which looks at how political, economic and social factors impinge on the environment bringing about changes, and vice versa.
In the virtual consultation, various issues were raised. The issue of integrated water resource management to tackle water-induced disasters was flagged. . There was a call for result-oriented policies in sectors like health and sanitation, industry, transport, agriculture and forestry. Clean development mechanism (low/no GHG emission) and REDD++ were also flagged as mechanisms for environmental and natural resource conservation. Emphasis was placed on enhanced regional cooperation to facilitate sustainable development through mechanisms such as expertise and knowledge transfer, technology transfer and development of low carbon strategy. Developing a regional framework for facilitating trans-boundary tourism in the HKH region would not only increase the scope of opportunity for local community but also open channels for dialogue to resolve pending issues in the region. Many ideas in the discussion advocated r the inclusion of the youth’s voice in policy formulation. Out of the box thinking like the establishment of International Environment Criminal Court, was also flagged in this discussion.
Although the time frame allotted for the discussion is over, there is no doubt that youth of today will be relentlessly advocating for sustainable development and raising their voices against malpractices that are harmful to the environment.
It is to be hoped that the youth discussion on Rio+20 agenda that has been initiated will continue in one form or another into the future: to 2012 and beyond.
For more information, pls contact Mr. Tek Jung Mahat at tmahat@icimod.org.
Complete details about the virtual consultation at http://www.icimod.org/?q=3374 .
