Number of questions: [20]
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Posted on 11/04/2007 20:12:44 |
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How i can possitive effect in environment
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farrokh (from United States of America)
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Hi Farrokh:
Simply, think of the ecological consequences of the daily activties you partake. For example, minimize the times you drive a car. This will require some planning so that you get all the chores you need to be done on one execursion. Another example is to recycle, separate your thrash. Think before you print and print double sidded even if it means getting a slightly more expensive printer. Hope these help. But there are numerious sites that provide all kinds of advice. Check for the local Sieera club as I see you are located in the States. Or any other environmental NGO.
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Posted on 11/04/2007 19:47:12 |
With respect to the question "What is the role of people to maintain ecology and environment?" that someone made you before. I want to know if there is any document with concrete proposals to instruct people, that you can recomend.
Thank you.
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Mariana Saidon (from Argentina)
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Hi Mariana:
It all depends on the context and the individuals. But you should check the UNEP DCPI website for more information and if the information is not there, I urge you to contact one of the staff in that division for advice and direction. Good luck!
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Posted on 11/04/2007 15:28:27 |
Dear Sir,
In discussing consequences of policy responses on human well-being and poverty reduction, the MA points to the importance of policy coherence, suggesting that responses designed for one regime should not lead to problems in other regimes. Since responses designed for distinct regimes may aim to achieve different and sometimes contradictory objectives, how can such policy coherence be achieved in practice? If policy coherence can indeed be achieved, what indicators or measures can be used to identify or quantify incoherence?
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Alex (from Switzerland)
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Hi Alex:
A perfect example of policy coherence is that between climate change and biodiversity. Aforestation is one policy advice for providing carbon sinks within the climate regime. But aforestation can be deterimental for biodiversity if monoculture is adopted or if deforestation is pursued just in order to achieve credits under the aforestation regime. There has been a number of initiatives presently nder way where experts and policymakers from both regimes are talking to each other and exploring polcies which are synergistic and produce positive outcomes for both regimes. You may want to see a aper which I co-wrote with Asmita Bhardwaj which is on the IISD web site where we developed a quantitative indicator that can provide a rough estimate the degree of policy coherence between environmental regimes and even with the development regime.
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Posted on 11/04/2007 15:07:24 |
Dear Anantha Duraiappa
The first question I just want to know is why the earth in Nairobi somewhere is red, not the black, if any mineral beneth the earth, but as I know, In Nairobi, it is lack of the minerals. maybe some sufaces of the earth, the wind block the upper surface?
And the other question is that some grasses and plants in Masai Mara National Park are very nice, green, fertilizer, however, it seems that grasses beside the road arent very nice, yellow and plain outside the gate of Masai Mara National Park. Like this kind of phenomenon is damaged by human beings?
Thank you for your kind assistance.
Jenny
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Jenny (from China (People's Republic of ))
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Hi Jenny:
I am afraid I dont have any answers for you. I suggest you write to my collleague at ICRAF (a research cente"Nyabenge, in nairobi that does a lot of soil related work) who may be able to answer your questions. His name is Meshack and his e-mail is M.NYABENGE@CGIAR.ORG
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Posted on 11/04/2007 10:01:47 |
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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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Hi:
I believe I had answered this is a previous question from Qatar. I repeat by saying that the best education is learning by doing and the sub-global assessments provides a unique mechanism to achieve this. The end goal is to develop a epistemic community adopting the MA conceptual framework as a development planning tool and not just an enviornmental assessment methodology.
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Posted on 11/04/2007 08:02:58 |
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I am from Brazil and work on forest issues. Forests are among the most diverse ecosystem on the planet; they provide us a wide range of environmental services. Logging has been the predominant economic activity in the forests. Sustainable forest management is one of the alternatives to reconcile sustainable production of forest products and environmental services. However, sustainable forestry has been threatened by illegal logging activities and consequently international trade in illegally harvested timber has increased. In your opinion, what are the measures to combat illegal logging and associated trade in timber given that there is no multilateral environmental agreement on forests?
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Sofia Hirakuri (from Brazil)
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Dear Sofia:
I believe certification provides a possible answer to the problem you raise. The main criteria for success is that countries adhere stricitly to the certification process. But we must also be cautious that the certification programs do not become as disguised barriers to trade. Moreover, there is also the issue that was raised by the former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahatir, that there is a level of forest harvesting that should be allocated to each country beyond which it must show that the timber comes from sustinable practises. This brings us to thresholds and how much is necessary to be maintained and how mcuh can be cut. It is a difficult issue which I believe the ITTO looks at. So, there is no MEA on forests but there is the ITTO that may provide the answer.
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Posted on 11/04/2007 07:19:51 |
Dear Anantha,
I was curious how do you see the role of the private sector, particularly MNCs in addressing MA challenges? Are you familiar with cases of companies' engagement in a process - through engagement in a political process and through own practicies?
Thank you very much!
Zinaida
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Zinaida (from Ukraine)
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Dear Zinaida:
Unileve was a strong supporter of the MA and in fact was represented on the Board. Shell is another MNC which is beginning to show environmental awareness. I see the private sector as an inegral player in addressing MA challenges. But on the contrary where some people believe that the MA challenges can be addressed through market forces, there needs to be strong public sector guidance in mobilzing the private sector to take on the challenges put forward by the MA.
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Posted on 11/04/2007 07:15:21 |
I believe that Economics, in the larger context, is a zero sum game, as well as a game where muscle wins over reason. Even if no one else apparently loses in a transaction, it is the environment that loses.
How do you think transfer of 'wealth' or rather 'well-being' is eventually going to be achieved, at least to the extent of what has been agreed in multi-lateral fora, such as the Millenium Development Goals ( very lofty, as far as goal setting is concerned ) - how is the funding going to be done without the crippling system of interest-bearing 'international aid' ?
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Raghavan Guruswamy (from India)
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Dear Raghavan:
A zero-sum game is a bit harsh! It does not have to be that and in fact can be turned into a cooperative Nash solution which produces the maximum benefits for all players. The zero sum game comes about when there are incomplete rules governing the game. Take for example the environment. One rule that is not part of the game is the internalization of environmental externalities.
But you also look at economics in too a narrow perspective. You focus on the efficiency aspects which I do agree has dominated the economics profession. But if you go back to the forefathers like Adam Smith and others, social issues like equity, fairness etc were very much on their minds.
I am surprised that you state that the MDGs are lofty goals. Take for example MDG1- eradicting exterme poverty which is basically reducing the number of people living on less than a dollar a day. There are about a billion odd people who fall into this category. The global economy in 2005 was approximately 43 trillion. All it takes to achieve MDG1, I believe, is by a simple lump sum transfer of 365 billion annually (0.8% of global GDP).
The point I want to make is that equity and fairness is what we should be striving for if sustinability is to be achieved. I believe this is the point economists like Amartya Sen have been trying to make in defense of the MIllennium Declaration versus the MDGs
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Posted on 11/04/2007 06:54:13 |
Dear Mr. Duraiappah,
what do you think about the relationship between trade liberalization and the degradation of global ecosystem?
Thank you very much.
Xiaomei
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Xiaomei (from China (People's Republic of ))
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Dear Xiaomei:
There is no doubt that trade liberalization has been a factor in the degradation of global ecosystems. But it must also be acknowledged that trade liberalization has also caused many countries and individuals to improve their well-being, not just matreial well-being but also health, security etc. The challenge is to harness the positive forces of globalization while minimizing the negative consequences. In fact, UNEP had this theme as one of the two main discussion issues at its recent Governing Council meeting. The meeting produced some specific recommendations that the environmental ministers developed and presented to UNEP for consideration. You can see these at the website but please feel free to drop me a line if you cant find it. My e-mail is anantha.duraiappah@uep.org
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Posted on 11/04/2007 06:48:51 |
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I am interested in the Capability-Freedom Framework as a paradigm to focus attention on the strengths of the economically poor (and of other stakeholders) and as a means to identify possible ways to augment their livelihoods. Perhaps linking this framework to an ecosystem approach could help in the development of specific policies relevant to different sectors and ecosystems. What kind of policy work is going on in this area? What are the prospects that policy making bodies would be willing to incorporate such Bottom-Up frameworks to guide decisions? Are there any such instances currently?
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Suneetha (from India)
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Dear Suneetha:
You ask a question which is very dear to my heart and research. I started work in 2000 trying to make the links between the Capability-Freedom framework and ecosystem services. You might see wome of that in the MA conceotual framework as many of the constituents are framed within the Capability framework, i.e., the ability to versus just the end state. This captures the agency aspect of well-being which is a critical component of the Capability framework.
I take guidance from the instrumental freedoms framework that Amartya Sen developed as the policy implementation farmework for enhancing Capabilities. However, the five Instrumental Freedoms (IF) he identified leave out the environmental or ecological component. In my work for UNEP as a consultant developing their Poverty-Environment framework, I expanded this list to include ecological security as the sixth freedom. You can download this document from the UNEP web site under the Poverty-Environment Initiative. The idea was to test this framework which was called the IF-If framework which stands for Instrumental Freedoms- Instituional Frameworks.
However, you must realize that the Capabilit framework is still viewed by many as theoretical. I find this absurd as you correctly point out as a bottom up approach. However, it takes a holistic approach and many of the present initiatives including ODA is sectorally driven. Therefore , environmental ODA rarely talks to infrastuture ODA which tals rarely to agricultural ODA etc.
The UNEP Poverty-Environment framework embraces the IF-IF approach and it was adopted by its governing council which are member states. The mandate is there and the next challenge is to implement it at the national level with the support of the countries as well as the international donor community.
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