THREATS TO ENVIRONMENT ADDRESSED BY ASIA-PACIFIC COUNTRIES
Press Release
ESCAP/246
THREATS TO ENVIRONMENT ADDRESSED BY ASIA-PACIFIC COUNTRIES
19951122 BANGKOK, 22 November (UN Information Service) -- Concerned about the threat of an ecological disaster in the Asia and Pacific region brought about by a prospective doubling of the population by the year 2040, policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, media representatives and business people from some 40 countries met today at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok to carve out an action plan, which will be adopted by their Environment Ministers later this week.The Asia-Pacific region has become the most populous in the world, with more than three billion people. The impact of just meeting the basic needs of the expected population growth will put great pressure on the environment. Most acute among the environmental problems in the Asia-Pacific region are land-degradation and large-scale urbanization, which have brought about unhealthy human settlements, air and water pollution, strains in water supply, solid waste overload and overburdened infrastructure.
The Asia-Pacific region is especially vulnerable to higher seas and hotter temperatures as a result of climate change because of its vast extent of coastlines and the large amount of productive land in the low-lying areas.
During the next few days, non-governmental organizations will be working closely with the media to try to build consensus on sustainable development and discuss the role of the media and those organizations in turning around current trends. Priority activities are to raise public awareness and promote public opinion and networking for sustainable development.
Opening the NGO/Media Symposium today, the Executive Secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Adrianus Mooy, attributed the greater involvement of the general public in environmental activities to the wider media coverage and increased awareness campaigns by ngos.
The Minister for Science, Technology and the Environment of Thailand, Yingpan Manasikarn, said Thai ngos were most active in the areas of rural
community development and working with children and youth. They had already contributed to policy research and promoting environmental education and awareness.
Earlier in the day, opening a senior officials meeting, which brought together 40 countries of the region, Mr. Yingpan Manasikarn said that "to prosper and even to survive in the new `environment context', subregional, regional and international movement needs to be accelerated".
In his statement to the meeting, Mr. Mooy, Executive Secretary of ESCAP, stated that despite Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and more than 2000 bilateral and multilateral treaties, the global environment in general, and that of Asia and the Pacific in particular, continue to deteriorate due to continued poverty, unsustainable economic growth and a massive increase in population.
Mr. Mooy said that a very important impact on the environment came from the population, which continues to increase and would double in the next 44 years. "The children of our second generation will see 3.3 billion more people in the region. The requirement for food will double and the need for water and sanitation will quadruple. The consumption of energy and manufactured goods will increase fivefold", he said.
The Ministers will join their delegations on 27 November for a "regional earth summit" to adopt the Regional Action Programme for Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development, 1996-2000, designed to meet the challenge.
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