Page:Brundtland Report.djvu/319

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

A/42/427
English
Page 319


If the NGO community is to translate is commitment to sustainable development into effective action, we will need to see a matching level of commitment from the governmental and intergovernmental communities, in genuine partnership with NGOs. The success and cost-effectiveness of NGO action is to an important degree a function of their spontaneity and freedom of action.

Both among NGOs and amongst governments, we must find ways to engender a new period of international cooperation. The urgency of our tasks no longer permits us to spill our energies in fruitless and destructive conflict. Whilst we fight our wars of ideology on the face of this planet, we are losing our productive relationship with the planet itself.

David Bull
Environmental Liaison Centre
HCED Public Hearing
Nairobi, 23 Sept 1986

4.1 Increase the Role of the Scientific Community and Non-Governmental Organizatons

66. Scientific groups and NGOs have played – with the help of young people[1]– a major part in the environmental movement from its earliest beginnings. Scientists were the first to point out evidence of significant environmental risks and changes resulting from the growing intensity of human activities. Other non-governmental organizations and citizens' groups pioneered in the creation of public awareness and political pressures that stimulated governments to act. Scientific and non-governmental communities played a vital role in the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.[2]

67. These groups have also played an indispensable role since the Stockholm Conference in identifying risks, in assessing environmental impacts and designing and implementing measures to deal with them, and in maintaining he high degree of public and political interest required as a basis for action. Today, major national 'State of the Environment' reports are being published by some NGOs (in Malaysia, India, and the United States, for instance).[3] Several international NGOs have produced significant reports on the status of and prospects for the global environment and natural resource base.[4]

68. The vast majority of these bodies a-e national or local in nature, and a successful transition to sustainable development will require substantial strengthening of their capacities. To an increasing extent, national NGOs draw strength from association with their counterparts in other coutries and from participation in international programmes and consultations. NGOs in developing countries are particularly in need of international support — professional and moral as well as financial to carry out their roles effectively.

/…
  1. The importance of involving youth in nature conservation and environmental protection and improvement activities emphasized in many presentations at WCED Public Hearings. See, for example the report 'Youth Nature Conservation Movement in the Socialist Countries' to he Public Hearing at Moscow, December 1986.
  2. For an overview of the role and contribution of NGOs to environment and development action at the national and international levels, see 'NGO and Evironment-Development Issues', report to NCE by the Environment Liaison Centre, Nairobi, 1986. It includes a selection of 20 case studies of successful NGO environmental action around the world.
  3. NGOs in Chile, Colombia, the Federal Republic of Germany, and Turkey have also published 'State of the Environment' reports. Official reports have appeared in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines. Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United States, and Yugoslavia.
  4. See, for example, the annual State or the World report by Worldwatch Institute, the World Resources Report by World Resources Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development. and the World Conservation Strategy by IUCN.