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Asia-Pacific Adopts Environment Strategy

The strategy wisely calls for a new "polluter pays" principle, making companies and individuals bear the cost of their destruction, by Philip Gorton
BANGKOK: The formulation In February of a regional strat cgy aimed al flailing the decimation of Asia's environment goes a long way towards balancing development priorities with the preservation of natural resources.
A five-day meeting in Bangkok brought together en viroruncntal experts and government officials from Asia and the West to work out a first-ever plan to keep population opment from destroying the
The strategy. If imple mented by Asian government, would drastically alter the de cay of the environment that sustains millions of people. In the Asia Pacific region, there arc 800 million people surviving on less than US$1 a day.
The "Regional Strategy on Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development" is being proposed for endorsement by the UN Economic and Social Commission (or Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). A UN En vlroiuncnt Programme (UNEP) official expects the strategy will be endorsed during ESCAP's annual meeting tn
April.
Never before have regional planners made environmental concerns the top priority in development plans.
Indeed, years of neglect have left Asia's environment devastated. Chemicals have been dumped into streams and rivers. Tt>e air In the grandest Aslan citics is toxic with fumes
Nearly 5,000 hectares of tropical forest are destroyed daily, according to UN Food and Agriculture Organisation consultant Juan Mercado.
Asia Pacific countries need to restore and rehabilitate tropical rainforests. Countries that liavc already Jost substantial tracts of rainforest urgently need to draw up realistic plans to increase their forests
The symbiotic relationship between man. beast and the wlkierncss has been disrupted almost beyond repair. Millions of peasants suffer from waterborne diseases, unhealthy food
and a poor living environment.
Development plans throughout Asia liave benefit ted big business--of the determined lo export resources abroad—at the expense of the poor fanner. But the new strategy offers hope.
Landless peasants can be given a chance to improve their income by planting trees *and restoring degraded land. Already the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Asian governments and private charities are assisting in the replanting efforts.
The plan is to promote economic prosperity through efficient exploitation of the environment: to put back what is taken out so it can keep giving.
The- strategy was formulated with the understanding that
there Is a link between poverty and the environment that can no longer be ignored.
Equal distribution of all resources to individuals, not btg government and big business, was designated as a priority by government and non-govern-ment officials attending the Bangkok meeting last February.
Development plans should halt, not aggravate, the growing problems of diminishing forests, polluted waters and global warming, notes the strategy which makes over 70 specific recommendations lo regional planners.
Despite the bold wording of the document, it recognises that no specific development scheme can be forced on regional governments. Each country, with varied resources and divergent levels of eco-
nomic and population growth must formulate Its own national plan
Above all. human beings— their economic and social well-being—have been given a priority in the new strategy. Government need to first consider the benefits of development to rural villagers before implementing large scale Cilans. Employment that will ecp environmental destruction to a minimum and education In preservation need to be stressed.
Nearly a quarter of the region's 3 billion people live below the Internationally-accepted poverty line, according to United Nations statistics The population has doubled since i960, putting new strains on fragile ecologies
Old and inequitable land
tenure systems that marginalise farmers and landless peasants are often the culprit.
One means of balancing growth with preservation is the providing of incentives for rural business enterprise. A concerted effort to do so can stem urban migration that has created vast, rat-infested ghettos tn many of the region's leading cities.
But bringing the strategy into action is easier said than done. First of all. many governments tn the region exert only limited control on big business and multinational companies that snap up contracts to exploit natural re sources. Bribery is often rampant in government circles.
Even if education programmes permeate school systems. a mere under standing of environmental decay may be enough to halt the overwhelm-
ing "powers that be."
Secondly, bureaucracies in Aslan developing countries often stifle such initiatives. Top-heavy government planning. often keeps such strategies from trickling down to the village level.
Thirdly, villagers have other priorities. Making a living is often easier to do exploiting the environment for quick pocket money. Animals and trees are targeted for fast money.
When government do not appear concerned with degra dation. villagers look around them and see a need to take what they can while it lasts.
Environmental education "sliould include the promotion of a caring attitude and commitment to the planet." says the strategy.
But the strategy notes that many countries tn the Asia Pa
cific region just do not have enough money to participate in new strategy. Money from outside. most likely from developed countries in the West, will be essential to gel the plan off the ground.
The strategy estimates very conservatively that this will cost US$5 million annually
The best way to ensure the preservation of the environment is by including environ mental assessment studies In a country's development strat-cgy. For this to happen, environmental agencies need to be empowered to block unsound development plans.
These same agencies need to be in a position to take legal action against polluters. The strategy wisely calls for a new "polluter pays' principle aimed at making companies and individuals bear the cost of their environmental destruction.
"Mechanisms could be established to ensure that long-term social costs of de plc lion of natural resources arc t efleeted in the price of goods .cud services." reads the strul-e. —Depthnews Science