Addressing the first day of the GEF Assembly on behalf of the national and international NGO community today, CSE Director Anil Agarwal said that the GEF must remember it is impossible to delink local environmental problems from the global. "When does biodiversity conservation stop being a local environmental issue deeply connected with the livelihoods and knowledge of innumerable, poor rural communities of the world and when does it start becoming a global issue, is very difficult to define," said Agarwal.  

Stressing the importance of linking the Copenhagen Agenda, which addressed poverty alleviation, and the Rio Agenda, which addressed environmental concerns, Agarwal said the GEF should play an important role in their integration. "Many global environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity and desertification are deeply connected with the issue of global poverty," he said. While the process of growing forests to fix carbon and hence control climate change is linked to land use systems, and local livelihoods built around agriculture, forestry and pastureland management. Similarly, it is local communities who are the keepers of the world’s biodiversity and the knowledge of their use.

He said the GEF must be an institution with a genuine learning culture, and must do more to ensure that the global environmental concerns are integrated into the non-GEF operations of its three Implementing Agencies, the World Bank, UNEP, and UNDP. Besides, the number of Implementing Agencies must because increased to include the involvement of NGOs and community based organisations.

Agarwal said that the 21^st century will have to see such a Facility built on new and more dynamic principles of global environmental cooperation, where sharing of global resources like the atmosphere and the oceans is built on the Polluter Pays Principle, rather than aid.  

"The need to share the Earth equitably, peacefully and sustainably has never been greater, " he said. He pointed out that learning to live with nature is not possible without learning to live with each other. He urged the GEF to become an institution that sees sustainability as much from the eyes of the poor, as from the eyes who have it all.

No scope for strategy change, says World Bank official

At a meeting with the Centre for Science and Environment, representatives from Nagarhole and the Indian Government, the World Bank says Ecodevelopment Project strategy is non-negotiable

"For three years now we have been fighting the Ecodevelopment Project," said J K Babu, a Jenu Kurumba adivasi from Nagarhole National Park, at an informal meeting between the Indian government, the World Bank, and the Centre for Science and Environment at Vigyan Bhawan, the venue of the GEF Assembly which started today. Babu was referring to a pilot US $ 67 million GEF - World Bank project, to "reduce the dependance of local people on the forest".  

But despite severe opposition from the local tribes living inside Nagarhole and other National Parks in India where the project is to be implemented in its pilot phase, World Bank Social Development Officer S Satish said at the meeting that "there can be no discussion on strategic changes".

The Ecodevelopment Project was to be implemented in Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka, Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan, Buxa Tiger Reserve and Palamau Tiger Reserve in Bihar and Gir National Park in Gujarat.  

Though the draft Project document has references to "local people’s participation", in reality, the tribals living inside the national park area have been told to move out without their consent. "In Nagarhole the government has already rehabilitated six, sometimes seven times in the name of wildlife conservation," said Babu. "They have given us matchbox houses, with no livelihoods, and turned us into slaves who work for low wages," said Babu. He said that they had not succeeded in getting across their opposition to the programme despite writing to several people in the government and the World Bank.

At another meeting held on Sunday, CSE Director had pointed out that the decision to move out communities living in the forest had not been taken on any scientific grounds. He had quoted the case of Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, where local people were forbidden to graze buffaloes a few years ago. Recently, however, a research study has proved that the move had a negative impact, since it led to the overgrowth of weeds, and interfered with the birds’ feeding. As a result, the star attraction of the Sanctuary, the migrating Siberian Crane, has stopped visiting the park, much to the dismay of the international conservation community.

At today’s meeting, the two NGOs pointed out that the funds allocated for the Ecodevelopment would not be used properly. "I am told that millions will be spent on the project," said Babu. "I don’t know what millions are, but I think the millions are not required." He said the people of Nagarhole had prepared a local plan of their own, which segregated areas which can be used by the people for collecting minor forest produce such as honey, while other parts of the park would be left undisturbed. However, the Indian government and the World Bank had not responded to their plan.

"Our futures must not be decided in America or in New Delhi" said Babu. "they must be decided by us in Nagarhole."  

BACKGROUND
The Ecodevelopment Plan is part of the GEFs commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). According to the circulated draft, what the plan comes down to basically is that each household living in and around a National Park where the project is to be implemented will receive a paltry sum of Rs. 3,300 per year, for three years. For this small amount, the people are expected to give up their dependance on the forest for minor forest produce. No alternative arrangements are made to provide the people with livelihoods.  

The larger issue, however, remains that though a Tribal Self-Rule Bill has been passed, the adivasis living around forests are not consulted before a Project that will affect their lives so drastically is put together.

Educate every MLA and MP to crack the environmental degradation problem, says Kiran Bedi

A meeting of eminent people to the GEF Assembly, including the former executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mostafa Tolba, senior police officer Kiran Bedi, media person Rahul Dev and environmentalists Anil Agarwal and M S Swaminathan puts forward a six point agenda for global and local environmental governance

On the second day of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Assembly today, the Centre for Science and Environment organised a meeting of participants to the Assembly, as well as eminent citizens of Delhi. CSE director Anil Agarwal sparked off the debate, by defining the challenge before the gathering of national and local experts. "Every pond, every lake and every tree needs to be looked after," he said. While the need for a system of global governance of the environment was becoming increasingly apparent, he said, it would have to be a system that encourages local participation in conservation, and an increased role for civil society.

Mostafa Tolba pointed out that equity issues were not just relevant between rich and poor countries, but also within countries. In the US for example, a rich one percent owns more economic assets that 90 percent of the population. He questioned if this could be considered healthy growth.

Firebrand police officer Kiran Bedi, who is currently working on a special group set up by the Lt. Governor to deal with Delhi’s environmental problems, said that the only way to ensure that every tree and pond was looked after was to educate and sensitise MLAs and MPs to environmental problems. "They have a constituency to go back to, so if they are provided with some sort of incentive to pass on the message to their constituency, the we have made a beginning," she said.

While agreeing with Bedi, Vibha Parthsarthy, principal of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, said to educate the politicians or even children, there is a need for educational material which is just not available. "Most of the material that is available on the Net for example, comes from a different context," she said. "It worries me that the children of today are becoming arrogantly knowledgeable, but are dangerously out of tune."

Rahul Dev, anchor person of the popular TV news programme Aaj Tak, said that he and others in his profession often felt guilty because theirs was a medium that spread contributed to creating artificial needs. "I do not have to expand on the role of advertisments in increasing global consumerism and leading to unsustainable lifestyles," he said. "We are currently vehicles of consumerism, but we should make a conscious effort to become vehicles to check this consumerism."

Well known agriculturalist Professor S K Sinha from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) pointed out to the dangers of food security becoming a means of global colonisation in the future. "Food is going to become a subject of subjugation, and Asia and Africa will be affected," he warned. "We are leading up to a global village, where the more rich and powerful countries will control the poorer ones." 

While summing up, Agarwal listed the six major recommendations of the meeting:

• The importance of strengthening the civil society, including academicians and NGOs, at the global level.
• Efforts towards developing a greater confidence towards global integration which should lead to an understanding that there would be greater compliance by those who are responsible for environmental degradation.
• Valuation of natural resources after consulting interdisiplinary groups, such as economists to get a trurer picture.
• Financial incentives to encourage environmentally friendly behaviour.
• Social education to the media, politicians, and the public at large.
• Respect for diversity, and localisation of environment management systems.

"GEF activities in biodiversity serving nothern country interests"

Are rich countries using the GEF to pilfer biodiversity from the poor?

At a workshop on The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Biotechnology organised by the Centre for Science and Environment at the venue of the GEF Assembly in New Delhi, it was pointed out that GEF money allocated for biodiversity conservation was being largely allocated to prepare lists of medicinal and food plants. Such `inventories’ make the information easily available to transnational pharmaceutical and seed companies, who use it for their own commercial benefit. The CSE presentation questioned the interests of such investments on part of the GEF, since the TNCs were the ultimate benefactors.

CSE pointed out that the GEF had done little or nothing to promote the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), of which it is the financial mechanism, to ensure that the financial benefits of biotechnology research reached the local communities, from whom the knowledge initially originated. The CBD has strongly supported the concept of benefit sharing.  

Reacting to the presentation, Mario Ramos, senior environmental specialist with the GEF secretariat, said that benefit sharing was not on GEF’s agenda because it had not received guidance from the Convention. "Guidance from the Conference of Parties of the CBD has focussed on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity," he said. "We have received no instructions on benefit sharing because countries have not agreed on how to proceed."

Ramos emphasised that countries like India should not wait for an international response, but should take precautions against such pilferage of biodiversity. He agreed with senior Indian agriculturalist, Dr M S Swaminathan, who said India should put in place a biodiversity legislation. CSE director Anil Agarwal emphasised the need for exchanging experiences with other countries. He quoted the example of Vietnam, where the situation is similar to India’s. "There too, there was outrage and anger when indigenous plant species were patented by multinational companies, but very little is being done to prevent it in the future. As in the case of Basmati rice in India, there is a lot of heat, but no light."

Director of the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) in Kerala, P Pushpangadan, quoted a specific example of how benefit sharing can be out into practice. In the course of their research, TBGRI scientists found that the Kani tribals of the Western Ghats used a particular herb, Arogyapacha, as a tonic to prevent fatigue. Further research led to the development of a drug called Jeevani. TBGRI sold the manufacturing rights to a local pharmaceutical company, and created history by declaring that 50 percent of the license fee and royalties would be handed over to the Kani tribals.  

"It is time that on both the national and international level, the issue of benefit sharing and biotechnology are given immediate attention," concluded Agarwal.