Preserving life on an unsustainable earth

Harry Surjadi, Journalist, Jakarta, hsurjadi@yahoo.com

The Earth cannot go on like this. Unsustainable development threatens its health and the health of the billions of people who call it home. And despite a litany of reports, gatherings and special bodies, such as Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring 1965, the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the establishment of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983, Brundtland Report's Our Common Future 1987 and the Earth Summit in 1992, the threat remains.

The world's forested area has declined from 11.4 square kilometers per person in 1970 to only 7.3 km2 per person at present.

Forest Watch Indonesia reported in 2002 that the deforestation rate in the country had been about two million hectare per year since 1996. In 1980, the rate of deforestation was estimated at about one million hectares per year, and in the 1990s the figure was 1.7 million hectares per year.

The World Bank estimates that by 2005 all lowland forests in Sumatra will be gone, while in Kalimantan the lowland forest will disappear by 2010.

In addition, nearly 70 percent of the world's major fish stocks are overfished or are being fished at their biological limit, to meet the growing demand for fish and fish products.

It is estimated that worldwide, soil degradation affects over two billion hectares of land. Almost 60 percent of the world's large rivers have been diverted to meet the growing demand for water, especially for agriculture.

According to the 2000 International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources-World Conservation Union (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species, a third wave of a major global species extinction is emerging.

In the 1997, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants listed an extraordinary number (34,000) of plant species. About 11,046 species were threatened with extinction and 816 species had already become extinct.

Indonesia has lost some 20 percent to 70 percent of its original habitat types. Species extinction is estimated at one per day.

The 1998 Reefs at Risk Report estimated that as much as 58 percent of the world's coral reefs are at high to medium risk from human impact. In Indonesia, it is estimated that only 6.2 percent of all coral reefs are still in very good condition, 23.7 percent are in good condition, 28.3 percent are in relatively good condition and 41.8 percent are in damaged condition.

The Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000 report predicted that over half of the world's coral reef areas may be lost in 30 years if efforts to conserve them are not enhanced.

Poverty has increased in some countries, and the gap between the richest and poorest countries has increased. Based on an international poverty line of US$1 per day, about 1.2 billion people live in poverty. A large majority of these people are in Asia, with about 522 million in South Asia and 267 million in East Asia, including Southeast Asia.

The Asian economic crisis that began in 1997 has led to substantial short-term increases in poverty, particularly in Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. In Indonesia, the poverty rate almost doubled from 1996 to 1999.

Approximately 826 million people worldwide were thought to be chronically undernourished from 1996 to 1998, of which some 792 million lived in developing countries. In some of the poorest countries, one in five children still fails to reach his or her fifth birthday, mainly owing to infectious diseases related to the environment.

More than 20 million women continue to experience ill health each year as a result of pregnancy. The lives of eight million of these women are threatened by serious health problems, and about 500,000 women, almost 90 percent of them in Africa and Asia, die from pregnancy and childbirth-related disorders.

More than one billion people are without access to adequate water supplies, and 2.4 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. Diarrhea diseases, largely preventable through access to safe drinking water, sanitation and clean food, claim 1.5 million lives a year among children under five years of age.

The Earth's climate is now changing. According to Inter- Governmental Panel on Climate (IPCC), the Earth's atmosphere near the surface warmed overall by between 0.4 degrees and 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years.

Given all these developments, the United Nations, during its 55th General Assembly, decided to organize a summit to review any progress achieved on the environmental front over the last 10 years ahead of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. And the summit will be called the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) will act as the preparatory committee for the WSSD. And during the 10th session of the CSD, professor Emil Salim of Indonesia was elected committee chairman.

The UN General Assembly has also decided to organize a third and final substantive preparatory session at the ministerial level in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. This session will be held from May 27 to June 7.

The 10-year review of progress achieved since the UN Conference on the Environment and Development should focus on the implementation of Agenda 21 and other outcomes of the Conference, which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997.

Of the utmost importance is that the summit, including the preparatory process leading up to it, ensures a balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection, as these three things are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development

UN Resolution 55/199 encourages effective contributions from and the active participation of nine major groups at all stages of the summit's preparatory process. The nine major groups, as identified in Agenda 21, are children and youth, indigenous people, non-governmental organizations, women, workers and trade unions, scientific and technology communities, local authorities, farmers, business and industry.

Will the summit result in the sustainable development of Earth? Yes, if the Earth is no longer dominated by a small group of people, made up of world leaders, the heads of multinational corporation and the heads of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. The Earth belongs to the people, not international institutions.