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  CNN.com, 21 Feb 05
Report looks at environmental impact of Asian tsunami
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Coastlines already damaged by pollution and man's poor land management suffered more from the southeast Asian tsunami than those with healthy coral reefs and other natural protection, the U.N. environment chief said Monday.

This is one of the conclusions of a United Nations interim report on the environmental impact of the tsunami that is estimated to have killed at least 170,000 people in 11 countries in Asia and Africa, U.N. environment agency Executive Director Klaus Toepfer told world environment ministers. The report will be made public Tuesday during the weeklong meeting of the U.N. Environment Program's top decision-making body, UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall said.

"Those coastlines with intact coral reefs, mangroves, vegetated dunes and robust coastal forests came off better than those degraded by pollution and insensitive land use," Toepfer said. "So the environment is not a luxury ... It is an economically important insurance policy whose wisdom we ignore at our peril," he said. "Coral reefs and mangroves are absolutely vital in safeguarding people living in those areas," Marion Cheatle, UNEP's senior environmental affairs officer, told journalists during the launch of a U.N. report reviewing the major environmental issues of 2004.

The report, "Geo Year Book 2004/5," quotes a preliminary report by an Indian institute that showed mangrove forests in Pitchavaran and Muthupet regions of south India acted like shields and bore the brunt of the tsunami. Tens of thousands of people are still missing, presumed dead from the December tsunami that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates cost the fishing industries of the seven countries hit hardest by the catastrophe U.S. $520 million (euro 398.3 million).

On Thursday, the Rome-based U.N. food agency said 111,073 fishing vessels were destroyed or damaged; 36,235 engines were lost or damaged beyond repair; and 1.7 million units of fishing gear -- such as nets, tackle, and similar equipment -- were destroyed. The seven countries studied are India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Toepfer also said that for UNEP to be more effective he is immediately going to invest 30 percent of the agency's reserve funds in UNEP'S regional offices so that they may deal better with issues that are relevant to the countries they cover.

IOL Science and Tech, 21 Feb 05
Appeals for action resound at conference

By Bogonko Bosire Nairobi - Appeals for the world's governments to renew efforts to protect the Earth's ecology resounded here on Monday as the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) opened its week-long annual governor's conference.

"The environment is not a luxury," said Unep chief Klaus Toepfer as he welcomed more than 1 000 delegates, including some 70 environment and finance ministers, to the agency's Nairobi headquarters. "Well-nurtured, nature is a life-safer," he said. "It is an economically important insurance policy whose wisdom we ignore at our peril."

The 23rd meeting of Unep's Governing Council kicked off less than a week after the landmark Kyoto Protocol on global warming took effect and as the devastating impact of last year's tsunami disaster is still being assessed. Both are expected to top the agenda during the five-day conference which, among other things, is expected to issue a report on best environmental practices for countries to follow to prepare for and recover from disasters like the December 26 tsunami that killed nearly 290 000 people.

Toepfer described the tsunami as "a shocking event of Biblical proportions" and said the world had to unite to address the consequences as well as adopt policies to mitigate its impact and the prospects for future similar crises. The report will make clear that "if you have stable nature, healthy coral reefs, healthy mangroves, healthy seabeds and well-vegetated coastlines", they can safeguard against similar catastrophes, officials said last week.

As they consider Unep's agenda for 2005, the delegates are also looking beyond the tsunami to the latest information on climate change and the link between ecology and sustainable development and poverty eradication.

"Protection of the environment is no longer a matter of choice," Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said in his keynote address at the opening ceremony. "The survival of humanity depends on the decisions and actions that we adopt today." He called for universal adherence to the Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force on February 16 without the support of the United States, the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases. Kibaki said the treaty, which calls for developed nations to make cuts in such emissions, was "an historic step for mankind" that nonetheless had to be built on.

"Now, we must chart the way forward, to inspire creativity and new solutions, forge new partnerships, bring new technologies and devise novel financial instruments," he said. "The pessimists are now silenced, a pleasant change, let's keep it that way," Kibaki said, urging all developed nations to accept Kyoto "for the sake of sustainable development of this planet."

Another focus of the conference will be the disappointing performance of sub-Saharan Africa in meeting the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a UN-backed series of yardsticks for improving the quality of life in the developing world by 2015. According to Unep's 2004 annual report, northern Africa and Asia have either met or are generally on track to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 and improve access to primary education. But sub-Saharan Africa "stands out for showing no progress across the entire breadth," it said. "All indicators here are pointing at the wrong direction."

Toepfer argued that meeting the MDGs would require concerted action on environmental protection. "Environment is the golden thread, the red ribbon, running through and all around the MDGs," he said, calling poverty "the most toxic element in the world." "The planet's environmental services, its natural capital, are as important for overcoming poverty as the world's human and financial capital," Toepfer said.

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