CHARLES McNEILL Environment Programme Team Manager, UNDP. Mr Minister, Chair, Executive Secretary, Distinguished Colleagues,

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1 CHARLES McNEILL Environment Programme Team Manager, UNDP Mr Minister, Chair, Executive Secretary, Distinguished Colleagues, Good morning, and welcome. This is indeed a very exciting time in history for those of us committed to biodiversity and for those of us who are convinced about the pivotal role of biodiversity in human development. Lading up to and beyond the Johannesburg World Summit, and judging by media coverage and a host of other indicators, it seems clear that there is a rapidly growing global constituency even a movement for the issues we are so committed to. And in the few minutes I have to speak with you, I would like to briefly explore what has contributed to this growing constituency since I think it is important to know how we got here as we deliberate on our next steps as a biodiversity community. I will then suggest three avenues of approach that may help us expand even further the momentum that has been achieved. (1) Certainly one key factor in building this constituency has been the accumulated merit of your own efforts for more than a decade in support of the Biodiversity Convention. Also, the relative boldness of the decision on the 2010 target taken by Ministers at CBD COP VI has attracted attention and support. (eg Hamdallah Zedan) (2) The unprecedented international consensus in December 2000 on the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that evolved from this declaration has also contributed. Also within the Millennium Declaration, the Secretary General gave special mention to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment an important initiative that many of you in this room helped bring into existence. (eg Walt Reid) (3) 1

2 Another turning point took place in early It was then that in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Environment Ministers of the 15 megadiverse countries adopted the Cancun Declaration creating the Group of Like-Minded Megadiverse Nations thus making it clear that biodiversity is a very high priority for the nearly 50% of the world s people who are caretakers of some 70% of the world s biodiversity. (eg Alberto Glender) (4) The UN Secretary General s own boldness in specifically including Biodiversity and Ecosystems within his WEHAB framework of focus for the World Summit must be acknowledged. Then, thanks to the contributions of many of you in the room today, the WEHAB paper on Biodiversity strategically and accurately positioned biodiversity and ecosystem services as underpinning not only the other WEHAB areas, but also the MDGs and sustainable development itself. Or, as Peter Schei likes to say Biodiversity is the insurance policy for life itself! (5) Next on my list, the high visibility that Biodiversity received throughout the Johannesburg Summit was remarkable. Whether in thewomen s Tent, or the Indigenous Peoples caucus, or Plenary session itself, biodiversity was everywhere. Further evidence is provided by the many biodiversity-related decisions taken including the reference to the 2010 target. A list is in your packet. (6) The work of many of you just two months ago here in London in the first of this two part workshop series on Biodiversity After Johannesburg moved our agenda further. In that workshop entitled The Critical Role of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals we looked carefully at each of the MDGs at biodiversity s links to Poverty, Hunger, the empowerment of Women, Education, Child Mortality, Maternal Health, HIV/AIDs, TB and malaria. It became clear that no self-respecting strategy to achieve the MDGs would dare to overlook biodiversity issues. This is not only because the proper management of biodiversity is key to getting to the goals but also because in order to sustain our gains to have the achievement of the MDGs be lasting we will need to continue to manage our biodiversity and ecosystem services carefully. (Special thanks to RSPB, The Nature Conservancy, DFID, the Equator Initiative, CBD and UNEP-WCMC for this meeting.) 2

3 (7) Importantly, the CBD build on this effort during the SBSTTA and Multi Year Plan of Work meetings the very next week by deciding to continue to explore this critical nexus between biodiversity and the MDGs in future Conference of the Parties meetings. (8) Another extremely important process that is somewhat unexpectedly helping to build the biodiversity constituency is the UN Millennium Project. This is an analytical effort on behalf of the Secretary General and directed by Jeffrey Sachs which will assess the most feasible pathways to achieve each of the MDGs, and how much it all will cost. Interestingly, the Millennium Project is paying particularly close attention to the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in achieving the MDGs in the context of the Task Force dealing with Ensuring Environmental Sustainability. (David Brackett, Peter Schei, etc.) (9) Further support for our work is evidenced by the just-concluded 11 th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development. There the decision was taken to focus one of the upcoming 2 year CSD cycles on the Biodiversity, Forests and other related issues. (10) I would add one last event or encouraging trend to our list. That is the development of a very special, and quite powerful, partnership that has grown between our own organization, UNDP with UNEP and with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity. Today s meeting, and the earlier one in March on Biodiversity After Johannesburg are evidence of this. It is clear to me that this constructive and synergistic trend will continue. Each of you can surely add many more such events or trends to the list I have just reviewed with you. But whether the list has 10 or a hundred items, what is more important to note is that it all adds up to a tremendous new momentum in support of our work a kind of wind at our backs. But I certainly do not want to suggest that it is time to congratulate ourselves or to rest on our laurels. 3

4 In fact, I would suggest that in order to enhance or even to just maintain this new momentum we need to be vigilant and extremely active in the coming months. In particular, I will argue that we must maintain and, in fact, intensify our efforts to address the following three challenges: First One of the greatest threats to our continued momentum is the great difficulty we face in the biodiversity community in establishing a base line, and in setting goals and assessing our progress towards meeting them. That is one of the key reasons that we are together today. Second We must also ensure that the environmental community, of which we are certainly a part and the development community which could be seen to be represented by the MDG advocates continue to move closer together rather than further apart. Just two months ago here in London during our earlier Biodiversity After Johannesburg meeting, the Rt Honorable Clare Short went to great lengths in her discussion with us to endorse and applaud the rapprochement between these two communities that occurred in Johannesburg. She tanked all of us for so seriously tackling the role of biodiversity in eradicating poverty and in human development in general. We must continue this. Third A related challenge is the perceived lack of alignment across the various international goals and targets. For example, we have the CBD and Johannesburg Plan of Implementation target to: significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by the year 2010 and Under MDG 7 on ensuring environmental sustainability we have an even more slippery and elusive target: to reverse the loss of environmental resources! We really must bring these processes together by proposing a framework that is relevant for both the 2010 and the MDG targets. My sincere hope is that in our deliberations over these three days, we will make real progress in coming to grips with these targets 4

5 In particular, I would hope that our work on the 2010 target will attract the attention of those working on the MDGs so that, for example, one or more of the indicators we identify could be adopted within the MDG framework. Perhaps they might even decide to entrust us, or to ask for our help with, the measurement of that troublesome target reverse the loss of environmental resources. In view of the almost universal support for the MDGs, and the fact that the Secretary General, the entire UN family, and most bilaterals are highly focused on them it is clear that the MDGs will dominate the development agenda for the next 12 years. It will probably also receive a solid proportion of the world s development assistance funding. The MDG campaign will also impact the work of the key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport, economic planning, etc. that will either help extinguish, or help protect biodiversity. So we must ensure that the MDG campaign does not go astray by overlooking our issues. Quite the contrary, as I have been arguing, the MDG campaign must build on the contribution that biodiversity and ecosystem services have to make to achieving the MDGs. And it is up to us to make this happen. We have made real progress over the past few years in integrating our issues into the wider development agenda. Now, beginning today, let us take this to a whole new level. We in UNDP are delighted to be able to work with each of you on these enormously dynamic and critically important issues over the next few days. In fact, we also look forward to working with you over the months and years to come until 2010 and then 2015, at a minimum! Thank you. Other Contributors to New Momentum: - Eco-agriculture concept that integrates agriculture and biodiversity rather than pitting them against each other. - Ramsar Convention s embracing of development agenda. - Advocates of biodiversity as a development issue 5

6 - Biodiversity as GEF focal area. Optional Point: Finally, the recent and powerful emerging realization that the past decade has been characterized by really tremendous success at the local community level is supporting our efforts. Among many other sources, Worldwatch 2003 reports that since Rio where the real action and achievement for sustainable development has been in villages and communities and cities throughout the world. The lack of real progress at the global level does not mean that innovative and successful biodiversity conservation and sustainable use is not happening. It is and through the Equator Initiative and other efforts focused on the local level we are seeing important developments that need support to grow their impact. 6