Colombo, Sri Lanka, 10 December 2003 (IUCN)
Over the next three days, experts on conservation and development issues, gathered in Colombo for the Regional Conservation Forum (RCF), will discuss and seek to define Asia's environmental priorities and actions for the next five years. IUCN - The World Conservation Union and the government of Sri Lanka are leading the effort, hosting a Forum that brings together representatives of governments, non-governmental organizations, research and scientific organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors, UN bodies, eminent scientists, members of the corporate sector, and conservationists from 23 countries in the Asia region and beyond.
The Forum aims at identifying critical environmental and conservation issues facing the region as well as facilitating a broad-based agreement, across the environment and development constituency, on how best to address these concerns.
"The main objective of the Forum is to ensure that environmental and conservation efforts in the region are science-based, relevant, effective, compatible, and connected as necessary to achieve agreed conservation and sustainable development goals," says Ms Aban Marker Kabraji, Head of the IUCN Asia Regional Office.
The Forum, taking place from 10-13 December, will focus on four main themes: From the Mountains to the Sea: how to manage ecosystems as landscapes; Conservation as a Poverty Reduction Strategy: supporting livelihoods and minimizing insecurity and vulnerability; Benefits Beyond Boundaries: how do we manage protected areas after World Parks Congress 2003; and The Failure of Cancun: trade globalization and poverty.
Says Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro, IUCN President: "Conservation of natural resources is a fundamental necessity for economic development. By focusing on ecosystems and livelihoods, the Forum will set a new conservation agenda for Asia, one that puts human wellbeing centre stage."
The RCF will provide the voice of Asia to the World Conservation Congress, the highest governing body of IUCN, to be held in November 2004, in Bangkok, Thailand.
SETTING THE SCENE IN ASIA: THE ISSUES
Asia is the most highly populated region of the world and contains more than half of the world's population. Initially endowed with rich biological diversity and extensive natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable, the region now suffers from severe environmental degradation and depletion. These, in turn, entail further loss of livelihoods, especially in the marginalized, poor communities, and amongst indigenous peoples.
Asia has an extensive protected areas (PA) network and there have been many conservation successes. Although the extent of PAs increased in South and South-East Asia over the past 20-30 years, with many countries boasting extensive protected areas, the region's PA system as a whole remains under severe threat.
Asia's mountain areas--including the world's highest mountain ranges, important "water towers" for half the world's population, source of three of the largest rivers in the world, areas of great biodiversity, centres of culture and traditional knowledge--are facing great ecological pressures and suffering from conflict, resource degradation and huge disparity in sharing of benefits from use of resources.
Asia's wetlands--some of the most important tropical wetland ecosystems in the world--are under threat, particularly due to the increasing population, reclamation, overexploitation and degradation of watersheds. Asia's marine and coastal ecosystems are threatened by overexploitation, pollution, destructive fishing and poorly planned development.
The Forests--which harbour a great percentage of the world's flora and fauna--suffer from population pressures, unsustainable extraction and conversion to agricultural land. Non-timber forest products have great economic potential, but remain under-utilised, whilst valuable traditional knowledge is being lost.
Asia's drylands--covering some 1.7 billion hectares of dry sub humid, semi-arid, and arid land reaching from the Mediterranean coast to the shores of the Pacific--are at risk of serious degradation, threatening to exacerbate poverty in these regions and imperil the livelihoods of those most dependent on natural resources.
IUCN'S RESPONSE
"Through its new Asia Programme, IUCN is working to reverse the degradation of ecosystems, thereby ensuring that they continue to provide vital services to half the world's population," says Ms Kabraji. "At this meeting of members and partners of IUCN, we will sharpen our strategies, forge new partnerships, and develop a framework to lead the region into a sustainable future."
The IUCN Asia Region encompasses some of the world's most biodiversity rich areas, some of the world's mightiest rivers, ancient, rich and diverse cultures, the world's most populous regions, and faces some of the most pressing environmental and conservation problems. The Region extends from Pakistan in the West to Japan in the East, Indonesia to the South and Mongolia to the North, covering 23 countries in the Region.
IUCN maintains secretariat offices in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Regional Office is located in Bangkok Thailand. There are 136 IUCN members in Asia--including 11 State members, 20 government agencies, 103 NGOs, and 2 affiliates. Almost all the major nature conservation NGOs in the region are IUCN members. Members, secretariat staff and a large global network of over 10,000 scientists and experts organised in six Commissions jointly work on bringing about the vision of IUCN: a just world that values and conserves nature.
IUCN SRI LANKA'S COMMITMENT TO CONSERVATION
IUCN Sri Lanka has supported national initiatives for sustainable management of biodiversity and for enhancing local capacity for environmental management. Responding to issues critical to the country's future, IUCN Sri Lanka works as a catalyst for policy formulation, habitat and species conservation, protected area management and in promoting environmental awareness.
IUCN members in Sri Lanka are the driving force behind the Union's work in the country. The State member is the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, and three government agencies in addition to eight NGO members. By hosting the RCF, Sri Lanka has demonstrated its commitment to managing its environment in a holistic manner and reiterated its role in the rapidly developing context in Asia.
Says the Honorable Rukman Senanayake, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources: “We have a formidable and up-hill task of achieving a sustainable economic growth of 10% in the coming years. Natural resources management issues are always interrelated with the development policies of the economic sectors including Agriculture, Industry, Energy and Tourism. The most crucial task, being a developing country, is to strike a balance between the two, which could guarantee the sustainability of both.”
For more information contact the World Conservation Union
Visit: http://www.rcfasia.org and http://www.iucn.org/places/asia
Please also see:
2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; http://www.iucnredlist.org/
Over the next three days, experts on conservation and development issues, gathered in Colombo for the Regional Conservation Forum (RCF), will discuss and seek to define Asia's environmental priorities and actions for the next five years. IUCN - The World Conservation Union and the government of Sri Lanka are leading the effort, hosting a Forum that brings together representatives of governments, non-governmental organizations, research and scientific organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors, UN bodies, eminent scientists, members of the corporate sector, and conservationists from 23 countries in the Asia region and beyond.
The Forum aims at identifying critical environmental and conservation issues facing the region as well as facilitating a broad-based agreement, across the environment and development constituency, on how best to address these concerns.
"The main objective of the Forum is to ensure that environmental and conservation efforts in the region are science-based, relevant, effective, compatible, and connected as necessary to achieve agreed conservation and sustainable development goals," says Ms Aban Marker Kabraji, Head of the IUCN Asia Regional Office.
The Forum, taking place from 10-13 December, will focus on four main themes: From the Mountains to the Sea: how to manage ecosystems as landscapes; Conservation as a Poverty Reduction Strategy: supporting livelihoods and minimizing insecurity and vulnerability; Benefits Beyond Boundaries: how do we manage protected areas after World Parks Congress 2003; and The Failure of Cancun: trade globalization and poverty.
Says Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro, IUCN President: "Conservation of natural resources is a fundamental necessity for economic development. By focusing on ecosystems and livelihoods, the Forum will set a new conservation agenda for Asia, one that puts human wellbeing centre stage."
The RCF will provide the voice of Asia to the World Conservation Congress, the highest governing body of IUCN, to be held in November 2004, in Bangkok, Thailand.
SETTING THE SCENE IN ASIA: THE ISSUES
Asia is the most highly populated region of the world and contains more than half of the world's population. Initially endowed with rich biological diversity and extensive natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable, the region now suffers from severe environmental degradation and depletion. These, in turn, entail further loss of livelihoods, especially in the marginalized, poor communities, and amongst indigenous peoples.
Asia has an extensive protected areas (PA) network and there have been many conservation successes. Although the extent of PAs increased in South and South-East Asia over the past 20-30 years, with many countries boasting extensive protected areas, the region's PA system as a whole remains under severe threat.
Asia's mountain areas--including the world's highest mountain ranges, important "water towers" for half the world's population, source of three of the largest rivers in the world, areas of great biodiversity, centres of culture and traditional knowledge--are facing great ecological pressures and suffering from conflict, resource degradation and huge disparity in sharing of benefits from use of resources.
Asia's wetlands--some of the most important tropical wetland ecosystems in the world--are under threat, particularly due to the increasing population, reclamation, overexploitation and degradation of watersheds. Asia's marine and coastal ecosystems are threatened by overexploitation, pollution, destructive fishing and poorly planned development.
The Forests--which harbour a great percentage of the world's flora and fauna--suffer from population pressures, unsustainable extraction and conversion to agricultural land. Non-timber forest products have great economic potential, but remain under-utilised, whilst valuable traditional knowledge is being lost.
Asia's drylands--covering some 1.7 billion hectares of dry sub humid, semi-arid, and arid land reaching from the Mediterranean coast to the shores of the Pacific--are at risk of serious degradation, threatening to exacerbate poverty in these regions and imperil the livelihoods of those most dependent on natural resources.
IUCN'S RESPONSE
"Through its new Asia Programme, IUCN is working to reverse the degradation of ecosystems, thereby ensuring that they continue to provide vital services to half the world's population," says Ms Kabraji. "At this meeting of members and partners of IUCN, we will sharpen our strategies, forge new partnerships, and develop a framework to lead the region into a sustainable future."
The IUCN Asia Region encompasses some of the world's most biodiversity rich areas, some of the world's mightiest rivers, ancient, rich and diverse cultures, the world's most populous regions, and faces some of the most pressing environmental and conservation problems. The Region extends from Pakistan in the West to Japan in the East, Indonesia to the South and Mongolia to the North, covering 23 countries in the Region.
IUCN maintains secretariat offices in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Regional Office is located in Bangkok Thailand. There are 136 IUCN members in Asia--including 11 State members, 20 government agencies, 103 NGOs, and 2 affiliates. Almost all the major nature conservation NGOs in the region are IUCN members. Members, secretariat staff and a large global network of over 10,000 scientists and experts organised in six Commissions jointly work on bringing about the vision of IUCN: a just world that values and conserves nature.
IUCN SRI LANKA'S COMMITMENT TO CONSERVATION
IUCN Sri Lanka has supported national initiatives for sustainable management of biodiversity and for enhancing local capacity for environmental management. Responding to issues critical to the country's future, IUCN Sri Lanka works as a catalyst for policy formulation, habitat and species conservation, protected area management and in promoting environmental awareness.
IUCN members in Sri Lanka are the driving force behind the Union's work in the country. The State member is the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, and three government agencies in addition to eight NGO members. By hosting the RCF, Sri Lanka has demonstrated its commitment to managing its environment in a holistic manner and reiterated its role in the rapidly developing context in Asia.
Says the Honorable Rukman Senanayake, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources: “We have a formidable and up-hill task of achieving a sustainable economic growth of 10% in the coming years. Natural resources management issues are always interrelated with the development policies of the economic sectors including Agriculture, Industry, Energy and Tourism. The most crucial task, being a developing country, is to strike a balance between the two, which could guarantee the sustainability of both.”
For more information contact the World Conservation Union
Visit: http://www.rcfasia.org and http://www.iucn.org/places/asia
Please also see:
2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; http://www.iucnredlist.org/