outreach informal 2 day 8

Disasters continue to cause an unacceptable loss of human lives and economic and societal harm. In 2011 alone, 302 disasters caused 29,782 deaths, affected 206 million people and caused losses of US$366 billion, writes Loy Rego, Mainstreaming DRR and Adaptation. The proportion of the world population living in high risk areas is significant… More

The UNDP Equator Prize is awarded biennially to acknowledge and advance community-based sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities, write Dearbhla Keegan, Oliver Hughes, and Whitney Wilding, UNDP Equator Initiative. The award recognises the success of local and indigenous initiatives in improving rural livelihoods, conserving biodiversity, developing sustainable natural resource management and building communities’ resilience to a range of natural and man-made pressures… More

Soil is the interface between earth, air and water, and hosts most of the biosphere. As soil formation is an extremely slow process, soil can be considered as a non-renewable resource, writes Pia Bucella, Environment Directorate-General, European Commission. It provides us with food, biomass and raw materials, as well as storing, filtering and transforming many substances, including water, nutrients and carbon. In fact, it is the biggest carbon store in the world (1,500 billion tonnes)… More

Disasters – a growing problem with differentiated impact

Resilience to disasters and climate change received little prominence in the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Implementation – the disaster analysis now looks very dated, writes Debbie Hillier, Oxfam GB. There was no mention of resilience, only five mentions of vulnerability (to anything), and only two mentions of climate change adaptation, but they are now all issues of growing concern… More

Towards a climate resilient state

In the last few years, there has been a slow but steady increase in awareness of the links between conflicts and environmental degradation, writes Janani Vivekananda International Alert. It is now recognised that climate change consequences are likely to accelerate or multiply conflict risks in fragile or conflict-affected states when they interact with other pre-existing features. Moreover, fragile and conflict-affected states are often too weak to cope with climate change effects… More

When I received the UN Forest Hero award in New York earlier this year, it was a proud moment for me as a Brazilian writes Paulo Adario Campaign Director of Greenpeace Amazon. As I stood next to others who worked to protect forests in Indonesia, Cameroon, Russia, and Japan, I thought of my home: the Amazon… More

On Sunday 29th April, Stakeholder Forum and UNEP organised a one day workshop on a Rio+20 agenda issue that has gone from being an ordinary, process-related discussion, to a hotly contested theme writes Jan-Gustav Strandeneas, Stakeholder Forum. IFSD – the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development – has become an issue fraught with passion, positions and bracketed language, with delegates eager to expose its intricacies and civil society adamant about the inclusion of human rights… More

Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Country of residence: Kenya
Current Position: Programme Officer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)… More

Working Group I discussed new CST paragraphs as they were presented individually, and the Co-chair strongly discouraged delegates from adding additional text or requesting changes in placement until all the text was available, writes Emma Puka-Beals, Mount Holyoke College… More

Quote of the day

Some have dreams of Rio that reach far into the future. I have a very concrete dream. It is just around the corner: ready to happen – just waiting for some bold Rio negotiators to make it happen. What is that dream? That one year after Rio, all large companies of the world – almost a hundred thousand – will be measuring their impact on sustainable development; and share that knowledge through sustainability reporting.

Teresa Fogelberg, Deputy Chief Executive, GRI

Outreach is a multi-stakeholder magazine which is published daily at Rio+20 Intersessional and Preparatory Meetings. The articles written are intended to reflect those of the authors alone or where indicated a coalition’s opinion. An individual’s article is the opinion of that author alone, and does not reflect the opinions of all stakeholders.

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