WHY THE MILLENNIUM GOALS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR

My message to both the World Economic Form and the World Social Forum is the same: we won\'t achieve human security for all without taking global commitments to human rights and human development more seriously, writes Mary Robinson, executive director of The Ethical Globalisation Initiative, former president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this article, Robinson writes that we must first be more rigorous in holding governments accountable for the obligations they have made, most recently in the UN Millennium Declaration, adopted in September 2000. The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development estimated that an additional USD 50 billion a year in global development spending would be needed to achieve the MDGs. Given the current budgets for military spending in nations around the world, that figure shouldn\'t daunt the international community. The MDGs should not be perceived as ends in themselves but as benchmarks of progress. They can be powerful tools for change because they are recognised by the UN and by the international financial institutions --the World Bank and IMF. Now we need to embed them solidly in the broader framework of human rights.

STRIKING A NEW BALANCE, NATIONALLY AND GLOBALLY

The 4th World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, comes not a moment too soon: as 2004 begins, conflict and terrorism continue to grab the headlines, while issues of inequality and injustice are not given the urgency they require, writes James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank. The dialogue in Mumbai can help restore a development oriented global agenda. Tackling with all our collective might the HIV/AIDS pandemic, coming to grips with climate change and our degraded oceans and freshwater supplies, seeing to it that all children everywhere attend primary school are front-burner issues. They need to be on a par with pensions, health care, unemployment, and other domestic issues that government leaders tend to focus on. We can begin to solve the problems of imbalance only if we forge a new development path linking economic growth to social and environmental responsibility. Without enlarging the real opportunities available to all citizens, markets serve only the elites. This means providing everyone the chance for a life that is secure -- with a right to expression, to learn, to a clean environment, to development, for women, and for the disabled and disadvantaged.

Ecobreves – CENTRAL AMERICA: Forestry Program Mission Accomplished

The Regional Forestry Program of Central America (PROCAFOR), ended its operations after setting up more than 100 production groups involving Indians and peasant farmers, who now sustainably manage the forests.

Ecobreves – COSTA RICA: Promoting Sustainable Tourism

Twenty initiatives for rural and village tourism in the southeastern Costa Rican highland region of Talamanca, will become a pilot project in 2004 for Central America and will be prepared to obtain the Sustainable Tourism Certificate.

A Mixed Decade for NAFTA Environment Accord

NAFTA's parallel "green" agreement, the only one of its kind, marks its tenth anniversary with the same limited budget it had when it was created and has processed 42 denunciations.

Biodiesel Trains on the Right Track

Some 580 trains in Brazil will be run on fuel that contains soybean oil, which is a renewable energy source and produces less pollution than fossil fuels.

The Threat of Not-So-Free Trade

Few in Central America are celebrating the end of the ninth round of free trade treaty negotiations with the United States. Peasant farmers warn of the loss of thousands of rural jobs and an increase in poverty, which already affects more than half of the region's population.

Ten Years of NAFTA

Amidst both enthusiastic applause and loud condemnation, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) reaches its 10th anniversary on Jan. 1, 2004. Relegated to the back seat, environment and labor rights have been only accessory issues in that trajectory.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Onions as Psoriasis Treatment

A salve based on onion extract, manufactured in the eastern Cuban province of Guantánamo, is proving an effective substitute for steroids in treating psoriasis, a non-contagious skin disease that causes inflammation and dryness

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: The Battle Over Used Tires

Importers of used tires for retreading have won the latest battle in Brazil. A Supreme Court ruling on Dec. 12 authorized imports for the BS Colway firm, despite efforts by the Brazilian Environment Institute to ban the deal.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Hydroelectric Firm Helps Animals

The state-run electric company Edelca, which builds and operates several hydroelectic dams in southeast Venezuela, turned in 95 rattlesnakes (Crotalus terrificus) to laboratories of the Central University to produce a snakebite serum.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Noisy Power Plant Shut Down

The Environment Ministry of Guatemala ordered the closing of the U.S.-based Duke Energy plant due to noise pollution, which was affecting the residents of several communities along the country's southern coast.

Ecuadorian Micro-Entrepreneurs Set Sights on E-Commerce

More than 6,500 families in Ecuador sell their products via the Internet to Europe and North America -- and promote sustainable social, economic and environmental development.

Guatemala's Agrarian Time-Bomb

Guatemalan farmers say that land titles for just 162 farms have been issued since 1997. They accuse the Alvaro Portillo government of failing to comply with the land distribution that was agreed under the peace treaty that put an end to 36 years of civil war.

Curbing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Efforts are underway to convert 20,000 hectares of Brazilian pastureland back into the rich forest ecosystem it once was. Picking up the bill are polluting companies that want what is known as a carbon dioxide "sink" to clean up their sins against the environment.

Ecobreves – Colombian public transport to use natural gas…

The Colombian government, local Bogotá officials and business leaders signed an agreement to train a thousand mechanics in the capital in order to speed up the conversion of public transportation to natural gas, which produces less pollution than gasoline.

Ecobreves – URUGUAY: Montevideo Seeks Healthy City Status

The Uruguayan capital's government has applied to the Pan-American Health Organization for formal membership in the Healthy Municipalities and Communities Network, which the regional agency has been operating since the 1990s.

Ecobreves – MEXICO:: Fruit to Fight Poverty

Mexican scientists are working to turn 'pitaya' and 'xoconoxtle', native Mexican fruits, into products for export -- and catalysts for development for poor communities.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Pinabete Tree Traffickers Arrested

Eight people were detained in Guatemala in early December for trafficking in 'pinabete' (Abies gatemalensis), a plant that is on its way to extinction and is used illegally as a Christmas tree.

Ecobreves – COSTA RICA: Safe Haven for Leatherback Turtle

Around 4,000 leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are rescued each year in Costa Rica from their nests that are threatened by floods or human movement through the nursery in Las Baulas Marine Park, on the country's northern Pacific coast.

Bacteria Eat Up Oil in Antarctica

Argentine scientists are developing a biological process for combating oil spills in the extremely cold temperatures of the immense ice-covered continent.