/IPS ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN/ VENEZUELA: NGO Strength Big Factor in Sustainable Development

By Estrella Gutiérrez Reprint | | Print |

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, Mar 8 1997 (IPS) - The emergence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as a driving force toward global sustainable development is one of the more positive results of the 1992 Earth Summit, according to leading Venezualan environmental official Arnaldo Jose Gabaldon.

He credits environmental NGOs for the widespread compliance of all nations with the commitments made at the Rio de Janeiro Summit to preseve the environmental integrity of the planet.

Gabaldon, who served as Latin America’s First “Prime Minister for the Environment” is a member of the Earth Council, created after the Rio summit to promote environmental solidarity worldwide among all environmental groups.

The Earth Council has organised the “Rio plus Five” conference in Rio de Janeiro March 13-19 to review progress and decide on new strategies on preserving the environment. The Rio forum precedes a special session of the UN General Assembly in June to debate the creation of a global authority to police accords.

The Rio forum also will discuss the points to be included in a projected “Earth Charter” whose comprehensive character will parallel the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. The Charter is due to become effective in the year 2000.

Another issue on the agenda is economic globalisation, the establishment of regional commercial alliances, and the pathway of progressive competition among nations.

Gabaldon told IPS that since the so-called “Earth Summit,” “there has been significant progress at the legal level” and the creation in some cultures of a “new consciousness of sustainable development.”

But, he added “at the global level, the deterioration of the environment continues and there has been no significant change regarding widespread introduction of unsustainable development technique or philosophy.”

“Many of the preliminary initiatives outlined at Rio have not been complied with – in particular the technical and financial assistance that the Industrialized North promised to provide to developing countries of the South,” he said.

This lack of support had been a “blatant setback” to improving the environmental situation in equatorial countries, which comntained a disproportionate amount of the earth’s bio- genetic resources. A knock-on effect of the failure to provide needed resources had been the increase in poverty levels since 1992, he said.

Statistics compiled by the Earth Council showed that the gap between the world’s rich and poor has doubled in recent years, while 100 of the planet’s countries now experience worse indices of poverty than fiftee years ago.

Poverty contributed not only to human insecurity but to environmental jeopardy just as surely as unbridled consumerism in the North despoiled the integrity of the earth, he said.

One quarter of the earth’s population consumes three quarters of the earth’s resources, while simultaneously producing three quarters of the planet’s solid waste, according to the Earth Council.

For Gabaldon, one positive milestone along the road opened at the Rio Summit is that multinatonal financial institutions have increased their funding for environmental projects. They have also increased their demands that nations respect environmental integrity if they wish to receive funding for their development projects.

Concerning compliance of Latin American nations with Agenda XXI, the Rio document commiting the nations of the world to preserving the environment – Gabaldon noted some “like Costa Rica” have “done their work well.” Bolivia, also had done notable work and, in December “had the courage to convene a presidential summit regarding sustainable development.”

But in general, progress has been inadequate, and in some countries – such as Venezuela – the topic of sustainable development “is still an illusion that haunts the margin of political debate.” In other countries, Agenda XXI has been similarly marginalized, if not ignored, he said.

NGOs need to “express the importance of coordinated international and global effort to ensure that civil societies assume the sort of local and global responsibilities which must be shouldered if we are to deal with immense environmental problems that respect no boundaries,” Gaboldon said.

Environmental organizations are going to be a determining factor in provoking necessary change, he said. “They are also needed to demonstrate that the security of humankind ultimately depends on a shift in attitude which makes these changes possible.”