Number of questions: [4]
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Posted on 23/04/2008 21:23:19 |
I'm thinking of doing some timber business in CI (Cote D'Ivoire), but began to realize the huge de-forestation that's occurred there and I think elsewhere in Africa as well.
I don't speak much French, and would like to have a good reference in Abidjan or elsewhere who speaks English, that can help inform me regarding the ethics of doing timber business there.
By this I mean, allowing for the huge de-forestation that's occurred in CI, what their rate of replanting is, how long it takes the trees to grow, and what the short and long terms prospects are for adequate 'greening' in that country might be.
From a couple of maps I noted on the web, it seems as though a large amount of the damage- as relates to environmental issues and/or global warming- has already been done, but I don't need to add my own guilt to that with the possibiliy of a business deal down there relating to timber exports, unless I think there is real hope that this resource base can be turned around sufficiently well.
Can you point me to someone who knows the government's rate of replanting, how long it takes various varieties of trees to re-grow, and how long they've had this/these programs in effect?
BOB LIEBMAN, former momentarily Congressional Candidate, possibly but not probably again this year, and attempted businessman and/or consultant
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Bob Liebman (from United States of America)
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Dear Bob,
One of the active business participants at our Business for the Environment Summit (B4E) in Singapore this year was the Asian forestry company APRIL. On the details of the forestry industry in the Ivory Coast, maybe they and a local forests ministry or research institute would be best placed to give you relevant data. I would also look at cases online on the site of the Forest Stewardship Council, at: www.fsc.org/en/. Consider also the report card by the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations, available at: www.unep.fr/scp/wssd/csd/manufacturing.htm. The Council may have data on the Ivory Coast. Colleagues in UNEP are doing broader level work on state of the environment in Africa, payment for ecosystems services and pilot projects in the field of organic / sustainable agriculture.
When you ask about "the ethics of doing timber business", you of course touch on CSR issues such as stakeholder engagement, reporting progress, accountability and bribery & corruption. On the latter, consider the guidance material, case studies and activities under the UN Global Compact at: www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/transparency_anticorruption/index.html. There are also guides on stakeholder engagement and reporting, among others those by the organisations AccountAbility and Global Reporting Initiative with whom UNEP DTIE works regularly on performance indicators, improved information management systems etc.
All the best with your business endeavours,
Cornis
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Posted on 23/04/2008 15:18:31 |
My name is Patricia Bangura. I resides in NJ for the past 14yrs and it was one monday afternoon, watching a documentary about cry Freetown, when i realized that, I have not done anything to help the innocent children of my country Sierra Leone. I thought about forming an organization here in Nj to help with needy children in Sierra Leone. This is my first time doing this, so can I get help on how to start this organization.
Thanks.
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patricia bangura (from United States of America)
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Dear Patricia,
You are touching on a social area in which fellow UN agencies such as UNDP and UNICEF have greater competence and core activities. What is of interest of course is the integration between environment and social issues. Consider for example how the lives of needy children can be improved through environmental education and their involvement in environmental / conservation projects. Do have a look at the children & youth work done by UNEP, profiled online at: http://www.unep.org/Tunza/ .
Consider also local level projects, such as waste clean up and recycling in an urban environment, that involve local communities and entrepreneurs. Examples of these can be found under the Seed Initiative of UNEP/UNDP/IUCN; see: www.seedinit.org. Maybe you can contact a local NGO network in an African country and help set up a new partnership, similar to those featured by the Seed Initiative.
Thank you for your interest,
Cornis
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Posted on 23/04/2008 05:28:40 |
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What strategies do you propose for educating policy-makers in your area of specialization ?
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Centre for Environment Education (from India)
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Dear CEE,
Part of the "education" is to have managers from companies interact with leaders from Government, NGOs and other stakeholder organisations, giving them exposure to a dialogue that UNEP helps to facilitate on burning environmental issues of the day. What worked very well during the Business for the Environment (B4E) Summit in Singapore this week was the use of workshops in three hour parallel sessions. During these decision-makers from business and expert organisations joined participants in a series of roundtable discussions with some presentations in between. Presenters joined different tables to interact with participants. What we saw in Asia is a real interest in getting to know more about environment, climate and corporate responsibility issues. Responsible competitiveness is an important issue for Asian countries today. During B4E participating consultants gave good ideas of problems they experience when working with companies. Our international panelists were able to give them advice and ideas of what is being done in other parts of the world.
A difficulty in this terrain of knowledge sharing and capacity building is of course that impact is difficult to measure and plays out over the longer term. When working in the terrain of soft technologies (eg environmental management tools and business approaches) as opposed to hard technologies (eg renewable energy technologies), it remains more complicated to quantify results. This is a challenge all organisations active in our line of work faces.
Thank you for your question. My discussions with participants in Asia again confirmed the importance of education, of the young and old!
Cornis
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Posted on 23/04/2008 01:02:49 |
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Hello, I am Vincent Maltase and I am a student at Prairie State college. i would like to know what exactly you do in your job, such as what your responsibilities? what is the biggest problems you plan on solving and how can these be fixed? thanks for your time.
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Vincent Maltase (from United States of America)
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Dear Vincent,
Within UNEP, I am based in our Business & Industry Unit and responsible for Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility (CESR) issues. Part of our work in this field includes convening large conferences such as the Business for the Environment Summit (B4E) where we have senior managers from companies discuss topical environmental issues with NGO and other stakeholder representatives. The agenda of the 2008 B4E Summit gives you an indication of the approach followed and type of issues discussed, one overarching one today being climate change. A key problem for us is speeding up the pace of change to address environmental issues, both ensuring the right legislation is in place and industries are taking voluntary action to complement these. To speed up action, we need to work with research institutes and business organisations to make sure more companies, including small ones, see the business case for integrating environmental considerations into their daily operations. We are currently also encouraging companies to introduce climate startegies and sign up to the UNEP - Global Compact - WBCSD "Caring for Climate" initiative. Once companies have signed up to our initiatives, the key is to ensure there is real follow up action. We for example ask companies to report annually what they are doing, and what results they are accomplishing against clear goals and targets they set for themselves. To do our work more effectively, we of course need more effective use of networks in different regions and countries to help us, and more public / private funding for our activities. In the CESR field, like in many other activities, we need to work with not only Environment but also other (eg Industry, Finance, Development Cooperation) MInistries to do our work more effectively. This is part of integration and taking environmental issues mainstream.
I hope this answers at least in part your question thank you.
Cornis
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