Fernando Scodro - 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit)

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development owes its existence to the United Nations General Assembly’s Resolution 44/228. Adopted on the 22nd of December of 1989, this document decides to convene a conference which should “elaborate strategies and measures to halt and reverse the effects of environmental degradation in the context of increased national and international efforts to promote sustainable and environmentally sound development in all countries.”
The conference was more effective in the precedents it set, such as NGO participation, and willingness to talk about climate change and its effects on developing countries. The weakness of the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21 and the Statement on Forests did not undermine the impact these documents had on the world stage. The other two documents associated with the conference, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biodiversity, had a deeper impact on the world community with the binding character of its Protocols and commitments.

Sinan Akanay - Causes and effects of Desertification

According to article 1 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. As a matter of fact, desertification is one the most worrying and challenging problems we are facing today and in the future. While climate change is one of the reasons for desertification worldwide, the main cause of it remains human activity. The paper focuses on some of the main causes and sometimes global effects of desertification.

Allison So - Global Environmental Facilities (GEF

The Global Environmental Facilities was organized in 1991 as an initiative to assist funds for developing countries focusing specifically on environmentally-friendly development. Many controversies stirred upon the intention of this organization, mainly questioning if it serves good or bad to a country’s development. The paper addressed to examples of the different role of Global North and Global South interacts with the GEF. The paper further discusses the relating idea of the Globalization phenomenal that exist side by side with the evolvement of the GEF.

Anne Jakobsen – Virguna National Park

The 1972 World Heritage Convention strives to protect both cultural and natural sites. One of these natural sites is Virunga National Park in The Democratic Republic of Congo. It has been on the Danger List since 1994 due to the refugees populating the park because of the Rwandan Civil War, it now again under tremendous threat do to the recent uprisings in the Kivu province. The Park contains tremendous value due to its mountain Gorillas, Hippos, Flora, Fauna, and several other types of vegetation that contributes to its unique biodiversity. The paper discusses the relationship between humans and the environment in relation to Virunga National Park and the World Heritage Convention’s mission.

Welcome!

In a world with more devastating natural disasters; in a world with rising oceans; in a world with melting polar caps, a debate about the environment is inevitable. The PO 231 World Politics class is taking an initiative to contribute to this ongoing discussion by making Environmental Protection the central topic of the course.

On October 18^th and 21^st, the class will be presenting their papers all of which addresses the issues with topics that analyze not only specific processes and institutions such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change but also broader socio-economic issues related to Environmental Protection such as Food and Agriculture, Natural and Cultural Heritage and Development.

More specifically, the Conference will be separated into two different parts. During the first day we will be looking at global issues with and hearing the following presentations:

Air, water and land pollution	Donna AL-SUDAIRI
Biological diversity	Edward WHITE
Climate change	Courtney QUINNEY
Desertification	Sinan AKANAY
Development	Anthony CONNOR
Food and agriculture	Stefan PADURARU
Human rights and security	Natan BOGIN
Natural and cultural heritage	Pauline GUILLONNEAU
Tourism	Volker ARRINGER
Transport	Keith RIORDAN

During the second day we will be focusing on the global processes that have started as a response to the Environmental problem and hearing the following presentations:

United Nations Environment Programme	Sebastiano LUSTIG
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change	Zoja SURROI
Global Environmental Fund (1991)	Tsz Lun (Allison) SO
Agenda 21 (1992)	Linda KNAYER
Millennium Development Goals (2000)	Lewis SANDERS
1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands	Felipe JORGE
1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention	Anne JAKOBSEN
1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit)	Fernando SCODRO