To be part of the United Nations General Assembly

In December 2017, INBAR was officially confirmed as Observer to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).  The Assembly normally meets in September, and I attended the High-Level segment of UNGA for the first time from 24 to 30 September 2018.

 

Being at UNGA is a privilege, and being Head of Delegation means that I had access to all places in the UN Secretariat building without having to go through security checks.  INBAR has its own seat at the back of the main hall where the General Debate takes place.  The General Debate is effectively a list of speeches from Heads of State or the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  All countries have the opportunity to speak, and although they are supposed to stick to 15 minutes, many take more time to deliver their message.  The session goes on till late in the evening.

The speeches are very political, and are used to highlight main issues of concern.  For example, Cuba complained about the US Embargo, IRAN stressed the need to re-instate the nuclear agreement, Colombia expressed concern about refugees from Venezuela.  President Trump spoke and stressed unilateralism and patriotism as the hallmarks of current American Foreign Policy.

US President Trump is speaking in UNGA

Simply being at UNGA, classifies INBAR as a world player, and I strongly believe that it is worth-while attending the General Debate.  Several people we met made the point that UNGA is amazing networking opportunity, and my assistant Ms Li Ting managed to set up a number of important bilateral meetings.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Foreign Minister of Ecuador is the elected President of UNGA 73.  I know her from my IUCN days, as she was Regional Director for Latin America for a few years.  We tried to arrange a formal meeting in New York, but as President of UNGA, her schedule was so full that her office did not see a window for a proper discussion.  Fortunately, I had the opportunity to greet Maria Fernanda in the corridor during one of the days, and she recognized me.  She confirmed that she was aware of INBAR and the Ecuador Presidency of the Council, our Regional Office in Quito and about the discussions we are having with Ambassador Larrea in Beijing.

A blurred Maria Fernanda Espinosa

Jorge Chediek, Director of the Office for South-South Cooperation and Special Envoy of the Secretary General for South-South Cooperation has his office across the street from the UN Secretariat.  Jorge and I launched a joint INBAR-UNOSSC report during the South-South EXPO last year in Turkey, and I was very happy to see that the cover of the book is framed on the wall of the office.

In November this year, UNOSSC will organise the South-South Expo in New York.  It will be smaller than the last EXPO in Turkey, and Trustee Jan McAlpine will represent INBAR.

We discussed the meeting to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA +40) that will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in March next year.  INBAR will be offered space for a bamboo/rattan exhibition and we may organise a joint side event for bamboo and rattan for south-south in practice.  In December this year, UNFCCC COP24 will take place in Poland, and we talked about organising a joint event in the China Pavilion at COP24.

Finally, Jorge asked if we could help to secure furniture for his office or for a new meeting room, as a means to showcase bamboo furniture in the UN Headquarters.  I explained that INBAR has several Chinese Strategic Partners, and they may be interested to promote their products, provided the UN makes publicity about their products.  I will follow up when I am back in Beijing.

Li Ting, Jorge Chediek, HF, Ajita Singh

I also had meetings with Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), and with Zhu Juwang, Director for Sustainable Development in DESA and acting Director of United Nations Forum on Forests.  I think that Liu Zhenmin is the most senior Chinese in the UN Secretariat.

I thanked Mr Liu for his help in our getting the UN Observer status and he expressed the hope that our being in New York for UNGA is useful.  He stressed that UNGA as a major networking exercise, being part of UNGA is politically and strategically important.  He referred me to Juwang for discussions about cooperation.

Greeting Liu Zhenmin, UNDESA

Juwang is relatively new in the job, and we had a very constructive discussion.  He labelled himself as an ambassador for bamboo in New York and a friend of INBAR.  Juwang proposed that INBAR and DESA sign a MoU to agree on cooperation in a number of areas, including his offer for INBAR to use his offices during future visits to New York, so that we have a base from where to operate.

With Zhu Juwang from UNDESA and UNFF

The Embassy of Togo in Beijing had put Li Ting in contact with the entourage of President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo.  He spoke at the UN General Assembly, and agreed that we could have a brief meeting to talk about bamboo and rattan in Togo.

We had a very friendly, casual discussion in the corridor of the main hall.  The President is aware of our office in Kumasi and he is keen to develop both bamboo and rattan in the country.  We talked about the challenges of not having enough skilled labour and I explained that we can organise training for local staff.  We discussed the way in which this could be done, and he asked me to follow up with his office.

Briefing the President of Togo, HE Faure Gnassingbé

I explained that INBAR has launched the Global Assessment of Bamboo and Rattan (GABAR) and President Gnassingbé is keen for us to carry out an assessment in Togo.  He mentioned that most bamboos in Togo are rather thin, and therefore may not be suitable for construction or flooring.  We agreed that we need to find out more about this.

I also explained that household energy from bamboo is another potential development path, and he was not aware of this.  He agreed that this could be very important.

The INBAR seat at UNGA is in the back of the main hall, together with other Observers, and behind us is the seat of the Pacific Island Development Forum (PIDF).  Secretary-General Francois Martel was there, together with his communications officer.  I first met Francois last year during the Belt and Road Initiative launch meeting in Beijing, and Francois took part in the INBAR Congress BARC 2018 in June this year.

We spent some time in the delegates lounge to talk about future cooperation.  Francois told me that PIDF has prepared a proposal for the establishment of a regional bamboo training centre in Fiji, and he has discussed this informally with the Embassy of China in Fiji.  A recent workshop reviewed the proposal, and a report about the workshop will shortly be published.  I knew about the workshop, and had sent a video message, and the workshop report is co-branded with IBAR logo.  The proposal will formally be submitted by PIDF to the Chinese Embassy in Fiji in the coming weeks, and if it is successful, INBAR will have an advisor in Fiji, as we are written into the programme.

Discussions with Francois Martel, PIDF

Francois also briefed me about the side event that PIDF will be organising during the climate meeting in Poland in December this year.  He is working with the organisers of the Fiji pavilion of COP24, and he invited INBAR to participate.  As we will be there anyway, I agreed that we will join PIDF.

One of the evenings, I had a very nice dinner with Achim Steiner and his wife Liz, and we talked about the role of bamboo and rattan for sustainable development, and the impediments to create upscale efforts.  We agreed that the main constraint may be the relatively high price of bamboo products compared to plastic and soft wood.  This is difficult to address in a short time period, but with increasing global recognition of the dangers of plastic pollution, and a few successful case studies of bamboo production, the tide will turn.

With my good friend Achim Steiner

Inter Press Service (IPS) is a global news agency.  Its main focus is the production of news and analysis about events and processes affecting economic, social and political development. The agency largely covers news on the Global South, civil society, and globalization.  IPS has written one or two stories for INBAR during the 20th Anniversary and BARC, and prepared a proposal for cooperation with INBAR, but we have not yet decided how to proceed.

Farhana Haque Rahman, the Director General of IPS was at UNGA, and she proposed that we aim at producing a few strategic stories, linked to some of the upcoming events where INBAR will be present.  To smooth the way, she offered for IPS to prepare two features related to bamboo based on interviews with INBAR DG and quotes from Chinese authorities especially.  One story could focus on innovation, in advance of G-STIC and the other one on Madagascar and Cameroon to be targeted for issuance before the November event at COP24 in the China Pavilion.

With Farhana Haque Rahman from Inter Press Service

During the June Bamboo and Rattan Congress, I had a meeting with the delegation from Nepal, headed by the Minister for Environment.  Following this discussion, the Embassy of Nepal in Beijing informed u that the Foreign Minister of Nepal, HE Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, wanted to make contact during UNGA.  I met Minister Gyawali in the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN, and talked about the opportunities that bamboo provides for Nepal.  Minister Gyawali is keen for something to happen, as he sees the opportunities, and he knows that Nepal could do more.  I talked about the construction opportunities for classrooms and learning centres, and he was happy to hear this, but stressed that Nepal is no longer looking for emergency response, but for long-term solutions.

He is very keen to carry out an assessment, as he claims there is bamboo everywhere, but they don’t know how much and what to do with it.

Talking with Nepal Foreign Minister, HE Pradeep Kumar Gyawali

In 2016, I met HE Amina Mohammed when she was Minister for Environment in Nigeria. UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez has subsequently appointed her as UN Deputy Secretary General (DSG), and we tried to set up an appointment in advance of our trip to New York.  After a lot of effort, we managed to arrange a meeting on the last day.  When we finally met, DSG turned out to be very interested in what we are doing.

DSG and I talked about bamboo in West Africa, and whether it could be incorporated in the Green Wall of Africa.  I explained that bamboo will not thrive in the Sahel, but south of the real desert there are opportunities. Natural bamboo occurs in the south of all countries along the coast of West Africa.  DSG thought this is an opportunity to consider.

DSG told me that the Climate Summit next year will be a watershed moment, and the Secretary-General himself is pushing for this.  They are looking for action, and she offered for INBAR to be part of the event, which will take pace during UNGA next year.  She stressed that they only want organisations that will deliver and are ready to put efforts into this.  She asked me to write to her with ideas and she will put me in contact to the Head of the Climate Team.

With UN Deputy-Secretary-General, HE Amina Mohammed

DSG also talked about the Horn of Africa, and she explained that Secretary-General Gutierrez will travel to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia in early 2019.  She asked if bamboo will grow there, and I explained that Ethiopia and Eritrea are INBAR members.  She asked me to send more information about resources and value chains.

I had brought a nice present in the form of a vase with very fine bamboo weaving, produced by one of the master weavers in Meishan.  DSG was impressed and immediately found a place for it on her shelf.  She took away the vase that was there, and replaced it with the bamboo creation.

My last meeting in New York was very strategic, as we had recently received notice from the authorities in Paramaribo that Suriname was not happy with its INBAR membership.  During the UNGA General Debate speech of Suriname Foreign Minister HE Yldiz Pollack-Beighle, she mentioned that Suriname wants to introduce sustainable forest management practices, but they are looking for help.  She also stressed that they want to avoid further forest degradation.  I believe that bamboo could play a role in this, and I therefore went to meet her after the speech.

Suriname Foreign Minister HE Yldiz Pollack-Beighle

She was aware of INBAR, and was very happy that I reached out.  She introduced me to Kitty Sweeb, who is both Deputy Permanent Representative of Suriname to the UN and Deputy Foreign Policy Coordinator in the Office of the President, and we agreed to meet later in the day at the office of the Mission.

Ms. Sweeb explained that with the change of Government a few years ago, the contacts with INBAR were lost, and the current Government is asking what the benefit is of remaining with INBAR.  I explained that we could provide support, if we knew who to talk with.  I promised to try and find a solution for the outstanding membership dues payments, and Ms. Sweeb will discuss with her Minister and others who would be the best liaison for INBAR.

We also talked about the next steps in Suriname, and Ms. Sweeb agreed that a national consultation meeting would be extremely useful, to get everybody on board.  When I explained that I could give a speech in Dutch she became excited, as many people in Suriname are more comfortable speaking Dutch.  We parted with big smiles, and Ms. Sweeb thanked me for trying to find a solution to the issues.

With HE Kitty Sweeb in the Suriname Mission to the UN

It was a busy week, but very productive, and we managed to position bamboo and rattan on the global stage.

 

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Bamboo, rattan and FOCAC

This year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) took place in Beijing, China.  The event, hosted by President Xi Jinping brought together delegations from Africa and China led by their Heads of State and Ministers for Foreign Affairs, to talk about building a “China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era”.  I was privileged to be invited as the Head of the only Inter-Governmental Organisation with its Headquarters in China – the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR).  The presence of so many key people in Beijing also provided an opportunity for additional discussions.

INBAR has 19 Members in Africa, and the continent has abundant bamboo and rattan resources.  FAO statistics amount to 3.6 million hectares of bamboo, but this excludes figures for most of Central Africa.  I therefore estimate the total bamboo cover to be in the order of 6 million hectares, which is similar to the bamboo natural capital in China!

Our members in Africa are considering bamboo and rattan for a variety of purposes, depending on the country and its domestic development priorities.  Bamboo is used for household energy throughout the African continent, either as fuelwood or as charcoal.  We are particularly keen to promote bamboo charcoal, as research has shown that it has no sparks, little smoke or smell, but it has similar calorific values as traditional wood-based charcoal.  Most importantly, charcoal made from bamboo is sustainable, as bamboo re-grows naturally, and it is based on legitimately harvesting “woody grass” poles instead of illegally cutting trees.

But bamboo is also used to produce furniture, construction panels and other materials, and this is an area where China has a lot to offer, as bamboo has been part of Chinese culture for centuries.  China has a well-developed bamboo research community, a productive bamboo industry worth 30 Billion US Dollars per annum, and many institutes that can provide training and capacity building.  I was therefore very happy to learn during the FOCAC Ministerial discussion on Sunday morning 2 September that bamboo is mentioned in the 2019-2021 FOCAC Plan of Action.

INBAR can play the bridge between China and Africa with respect to bamboo and rattan development, and I was pleased to be able to make that point during a live interview with Ms Hou Na from the China Global Television Network (CGTN).

We are already providing such a link with China in East Africa, where the Netherlands and China have agreed to jointly support the establishment and strengthening of bamboo enterprises in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda through a technical assistance project.  We will develop new connections in other parts of Africa, as INBAR has signed an agreement with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support bamboo development in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Madagascar, which builds on a current IFAD/EU-funded project.  Chinese technical expertise is expected to bolster the project through training and capacity building with additional support from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.  Finally, we are also discussing project ideas in Africa with the new International Development Cooperation Agency of China.

INBAR already has two Regional Offices in Ethiopia and Ghana to facilitate these connections, but we are lacking a presence in Central Africa.  A key event for INBAR during FOCAS was the signing of the agreement for the establishment of the INBAR Regional Office for Central Africa with Cameroon Minister for External Relations HE Lejeune Mbella Mbella during his presence at FOCAC.  The signing ceremony at the Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon to the Peoples Republic of China during the afternoon of Sunday 2 September 2018 was another milestone for INBAR.

With Cameroon Minister for External Relations HE Lejeune Mbella Mbella

The FOCAC plan of action provides a strong foundation to work with our Members in Africa, and to mobilise Chinese support for technical assistance and investment opportunities in bamboo development.  One of the ways in which this will materialise is the establishment of a China-Africa bamboo training centre, with which INBAR will closely cooperate to create targeted capacity building initiatives.  I was thrilled that President Xi mentioned the establishment of the China Africa Bamboo Centre during his key-note speech at the opening ceremony of FOCAC on Monday 3 September, as this really put bamboo on the political map.

On Tuesday morning 4 September we were approached with the offer to meet Republic of Congo President HE Sassou Nguesso.  INBAR has no Members in the central Congo Basin, and the Republic of Congo has a lot of forest.  I believe that it may be beneficial for the country to join INBAR, so I agreed to meet President Sassou Nguesso, and I was able to make that case during a short meeting with the President in the evening.  Congo borders Cameroon, and the new office in Yaoundé would be helpful in providing technical assistance and general support.  I also mentioned the planned China-Africa Bamboo Centre, and President Sassou Nguesso was keen to have young people from Congo trained in bamboo development techniques.

With President of Republic of Congo HE Sassou Nguesso

Finally, FOCAC was an opportunity for the President of Madagascar, HE Hery Rajaonarimampianina, to spend some time in Beijing, and one of his activities on Wednesday 5 September was to visit INBAR Headquarters and the bamboo showroom in the building next door.  I had the privilege of showing President Rajaonarimampianina the many applications made from bamboo, and we talked about the opportunities for landscape management and economic development with bamboo.  He was very interested, especially in the household items, flooring, curtains and charcoal made from bamboo.

With the President of Madagascar, HE Hery Rajaonarimampianina

Madagascar has more than 40 species of natural bamboo, so there is real potential for development of small and medium bamboo enterprises.

All-in-all a few busy days, but some good achievements for INBAR and bamboo and rattan in Africa.

2017 – a good year for bamboo and rattan

Happy New Year from the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation

Last weekend, I attended the China Council for International Cooperation for Environment and Development (CCICED) as delegate and international Member. This is a first for INBAR, and the first time that I attended the Council as a full member.

I have been at CCICED meetings before; the first time many years ago when UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner attended as then IUCN Director-General, and I was a member of the support team from the IUCN Asia Regional Office. Last year, I attended as a special guest, but this time I was fully engaged. I spoke at several sessions and moderated the discussion about green investments along the Belt and Road.

This is an auspicious time for the Council. With the change of tone in Washington DC after the election of US President Donald Trump, and the direction provided by China President Xi Jinping during the 19th Party Congress, China is reaching out to the wider world. The Belt and Road Initiative that was launched earlier this year, is a clear example of the new role that China intends to play as world leader for sustainable development. CCICED is looking at ways and means to “green the Belt and Road”, and the discussion that I moderated was part of this.

I have attended the Belt and Road launch earlier this year, and was struck at that time by the fact that President Xi stressed the point that all developments along the Belt and Road should be green, and that sustainable development was more important than pure economic development. He has embellished on this during his speech at the Party Congress, and the concept of Eco-Civilisation is now embedded in China’s domestic and international policy.

I first learned about Eco-Civilisation during the Eco-Forum Global(EFG) in Guiyang in 2015, and again in 2016. INBAR was present at the EFG to talk about our experiences in South-South Cooperation, and to explain how bamboo and rattan play a role in sustainable development. Eco-Civilisation is sustainable development with a Chinese flavor, adding cultural and political considerations to the common three components of sustainable development. Eco-Civilization is a balance between economic development, social considerations, nature conservation, cultural heritage and the political framework.

The over-arching message is to work with nature in order to deal with the big challenge of society, and this is a message that INBAR has been sharing for years. We have published a report about our experience together with the UN Office for South-South Cooperation. During the recent South-South Development Expo in Antalya, Turkey, I was very proud to launch this publication, together with UN Special Envoy for South-South Cooperation Jorge Chediek.

Jorge Chediek and Hans Friederich

The report is an amazing record of some of the successes that INBAR achieved during the past decades, which are all about working between our Members. Currently, there are 43 governments that have ratified the INBAR Establishment Agreement, with Brazil the latest. We raised the Brazil flag during the 20^th Anniversary celebrations on 6 November 2017 – just over one month ago. Cambodia and Timor Leste have formally announced that they want to become Members, and Fiji has indicated that it is very interested as well, so we may have 46 Members by the end of 2018. What we are still lacking is members in Europe, and I continue to talk with friends and colleagues in European Capitals and Embassies of European nations in Beijing about the relevance of what INBAR stands for.

This brings me back to the CCICED, and China’s role in the international sustainable development arena. When I was in Kew Royal Botanical Gardens earlier this year in June to launch the Global Checklist of Bamboo and Rattan, the representative from the Embassy of PR China to the UK made the point that the historical Silk Road started in Beijing and ended in London. This logic is currently also applied to the new Belt and Road Initiative, and it was repeated by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond yesterday during his visit to China. It would therefore make sense for Europe to join INBAR as well.

The role of China in the wider world was stressed again during the keynote speech at CCICED by Minister for Environmental Protection Li Ganjie, who made the point that China will assume its international environmental responsibilities. This followed similar statements during the 23rd Conference of Parties of the Climate Change Convention in Bonn last November, where China stressed that it will continue to fulfill its obligations under the Paris Agreement, and that it will play a strong role in global climate change mitigation and adaptation discussions. I had the pleasure of meeting the former China Climate Change negotiator Xie Zhenhua during COP23, and we discussed bamboo benefits for climate change.

China Climate Negotiator Xie Zhenhua

When the international role of China is discussed, I always make the point that the nation also leads in the development of a global bamboo community, both for environmental and climate action objectives as well as the manufacturing of low-carbon products. I realise it is a niche-market, but it is an important niche that is worth USD 30 Billion in China alone, and which could grow rapidly around the tropics with political will, financial support and targeted capacity building.  We have just been informed that INBAR is now recognised as Observer to the United Nations General Assembly, and this will provide me with a platform from where I can raise awareness at the highest political level of the benefits that bamboo and rattan can bring to help countries reach their Sustainable Development Goals.

2017 was a good year for INBAR, and 2018 promises to be an equally important year, as we will host the global Bamboo and Rattan Congress from 25 to 27 June 2018 (BARC2018). That will be an opportunity to highlight some of the recent innovations and developments and we hope to agree on several new partnerships and launch a few new joint programmes of work.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the INBAR Headquarters 

Greening “One Belt-One Road” with bamboo and rattan

Greening “One Belt – One Road” with bamboo and rattan

This morning, I attended the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) Annual General Meeting for a discussion about the greening of the “One Belt One Road” initiative. President Xi Jinping launched the Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road in 2013, as two major regional cooperation efforts, and they are now referenced as the “One Belt One Road” initiative.

At the heart of “One Belt – One Road” lies the creation of an economic land belt that includes countries on the original Silk Road through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as a maritime road that links China’s port facilities with Southeast and South Asia and the African coast, pushing up through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean. But it has developed into a major Regional development plan, and an opportunity to promote South-South cooperation amongst the 60+ countries involved.

Another Chinese innovation is the concept of eco-civilisation, which was incorporated into the Communist Party of China Charter at the 18th National Congress in 2012, indicating that it has been elevated to the center of China’s national development strategy. The core aim of eco-civilization is to balance the relationship between humanity and nature. Eco-civilisation is based on the socio-economic-environmental triangle of sustainable development, but also takes into account cultural and institutional considerations.  I have talked about eco-civilization in previous reports about the Eco-Forum Global in Guiyang, Guizhou.

This CCICED meeting in Beijing brought together a group of experts to present their thoughts and recommendations about greening the “One Belt-One Road” initiative, and I was given the opportunity to speak about bamboo and rattan. I presented the International Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) as the first Inter-Governmental Organisation based in China and I explained how bamboo and rattan contribute to all 5 aspects of eco-civilisation.

• Economically, bamboo and rattan currently represent a market value of nearly USD 60 billion, with China as the dominant producer and Europe and USA as the two main consumers.
• Environmentally, bamboo and rattan provide opportunities for sustainable natural resources management, land restoration, climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. I reminded the audience that the Giant Panda depends on healthy bamboo vegetation for its survival.
• Socially, bamboo and rattan cultivation and small and medium enterprise development provides jobs and income for local poor communities. Some 7.5million people are engaged in bamboo industry in China and this is expected to rise to 10 million by 2020.
• Culturally, bamboo and rattan have been used for construction and production of furniture and household utensils for thousands of years, while bamboo is a traditional source of household energy. Both plants feature in local village life and play an important role in many traditions and ceremonies.
• Institutionally, bamboo development requires inter-sector coordination, as the plants and their products fall under the purview of several authorities, including those responsible for forestry, agriculture, environment, rural development, energy and small scale industries.

Wayanad Bamboo in India. Photo: Wikimedia

I reminded the audience that bamboo and rattan grow in many of the countries covered by the “One Belt One Road” initiative, and I made the point that bamboo and rattan therefore are excellent opportunities to promote green development in these countries. I explained that China is already providing training and capacity building for bamboo entrepreneurs, and promoting South-South collaboration in the field of bamboo and rattan development, bilaterally and through INBAR.

There is progress, and there are positive signs for global bamboo and rattan innovation and development. But – with proper planning and increased coordination, we can do a lot more!

Bamboo at the Biodiversity Convention

Last week I was in Korea, where I attended the last two days of the twelfth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This meeting is simple referred to as CBDCOP12. I was there together with the new INBAR Director of Communications and Outreach, Michael Devlin, and we had a busy few days.

CBDCOP12 was organised in a sky resort in Pyeongchang, some three hours drive from Incheon International Airport. It was cold in Pyeongchang, and the discussions took place in large tents. Picture delegates sitting at their desk with coats, scarves and even hats and gloves – that was CBDCOP12!

This is not the first time that I attend such a meeting. When I worked for IUCN, I participated in several “COPs”, and they have always seemed special events. Most of the time during the plenary meetings towards the end of the COP is spent on debating the details of text of various documents, and there is no longer room for presentation of new thoughts or discussions of substance. That happened in the preparatory meetings and earlier in the first week. Towards the end of the COP, there are only side events where substantive issues are presented and debated.

INBAR hosted one of the side events this year, and the main aim was to launch the nine finalists of the TVE Biomovies competition. Ethiopia is the Chair of the INBAR Council, and I was very happy that the Head of the Ethiopia Delegation to COP12, Dr. Gemedo Dalle Tussie, gave the opening remarks at our side event. The Biomovies competition asked young media people to propose scripts for short videos. The judging team chose the 9 most promising proposals, and the film-makers were given financial and technical assistance by TVE to produce their video. This year, we had three categories: a) bamboo and rattan, b) renewable energy and c) protecting the world’s environment. INBAR was the sponsor for the bamboo and rattan category, and therefore we hosted the launch of the final videos.

The winners were nine interesting films with different perspectives. The bamboo and rattan finalists are from Bolivia, Nepal and Zimbabwe. The Bolivian video describes a bamboo clump that is dreaming of flying. The pole is cut and the material used to make a kite. The film ends with the bamboo flying, and the message that you can do anything with bamboo! The Nepal entry describes a boy who is drawing a picture and who is slowly losing his pens, his drawing and even his clothes. The message is not to ignore the values of bamboo. The video from Zimbabwe is a series of short interviews with poor kids on the streets of Harare or Bulawayo who make a range of things from bamboo and rattan. The message is that bamboo is very versatile and its uses are unlimited. All nine films are now on-line and we are asking the public to watch and vote!

We also used the side event to talk about a project in India that INBAR was involved in from 2000 to 2003. We were very fortunate to get the perspective on Mr Hem Pande, the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in India, who joined us briefly at the event. The project aimed at helping poor farmers in an area that had been devastated during brick making, and the top soil had been stripped for several metres. INBAR and its local partner Utthan started a re-planting project with bamboo, which was very successful. We published a report “Greening Red Earth” and a few years after the project ended Utthan received the Alcan Sustainability Prize.

Earlier this year, I wondered what had happened, and asked one of my colleague to go back to the same place and have a look, take some photos and talk with local people. The result was not as imposing as we had hoped, as there is no large bamboo forest! But, the results are actually very impressive. Farmers have used bamboo as the keystone in an integrated agro-forestry and inter-cropping system, and as a result they are now doing well, gaining at some 10% of their income from bamboo. Bamboo provides all kinds of obvious services and it is a source of material for furniture making and construction. We started with a few hundred hectares in 2000 and now Utthan has covered 85,000 hectares. It is a real success story, which we will present in a new publication later this year.

Apart from hosting the side event, we also participated in the general discussion, and in the corridors I bumped into old and new acquaintances. Many former IUCN colleagues were at the meeting, and it was very nice to renew contacts with former staff and peers. I also met with representatives of the INBAR network, and especially the dinner with Vice Minister Adobo from the Philippines and his whole delegation was a very nice experience.

We also had meetings with representatives from Korea. Discussions with the Department of Forestry focused on the possibility of Korea becoming a member of INBAR. We talked with a delegation from Damyang Province, as this is where the World Bamboo Fair and the World Bamboo Congress will take place next year in September. INBAR still has to work out what it will do in Damyang, but it is clear that I will be back in Korea next September!

Back in Vietnam to discuss bamboo and rattan

I lived in Vietnam from 1994 to 2000, and visited several times until 2004, when I moved to Switzerland.  I have not been back since, and all-of-a-sudden found myself back in Hanoi.

The reason was two-fold. One the one hand, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is the focal point for INBAR in Vietnam. They had sent a message that they would like to discuss future collaboration between INBAR and Vietnam. One the other hand, INBAR received messages from SNV – Netherlands Development Organisation in Hanoi who are supporting the Provincial authorities in Thanh Hoa Province in their efforts to develop a bamboo strategy and action plan for the province.

I therefore travelled to Hanoi for a day of discussions with MARD and SNV. I also met my old friend Nguyen Minh Thong, who took over from me as IUCN Country Representative when I left late 1999, and who is now the Country Representative of Fairventures Worldwide. Thong is also advisor to the Vietnam Green Building Council and he talked passionately about the opportunity to use bamboo as a sustainable building material in Vietnam.

I stayed in the Sofitel Plaza, which used to be the Meritus Hotel when my wife and I lived in Hanoi. We used to be members of the hotel’s fitness club and swimming pool in the late nineties, as we lived nearby. I went in search of our old house near Truc Bac Lake and found this has not changed much from the outside. Getting to places on foot is a challenge in Hanoi, as there are so many motorcycles and mopeds, and the pavements are often occupied with parked cars, hawkers or groups of people playing a game or chatting.

Lac Trinh street in Hanoi

My discussions at the ministry and SNV were very constructive. Vietnam is very keen to develop its bamboo resources. According to MARD, out of the total area of nearly 14 million hectares of forests in Vietnam, 518,000 hectares are bamboo forest, and 673,000 hectares are mixed tress and bamboo forest. In addition, there are 87,000 hectares of bamboo plantation. This is a total of 1.278 hectares or roughly 9% of the total forest area in Vietnam. Thanh Hoa has the largest area of Luong bamboo (Dendrocalamus barbatu) in Vietnam, with over 80,000 hectares of natural bamboo forest and 71,000 hectares of planted bamboo, largely under household management.

Both MARD and SNV are asking INBAR to provide technical support in developing bamboo utilisation plans at national and provincial level. MARD explained that the main missing link is market access and appropriate technology for bamboo development, but they are also looking forward to working together on sustainable production of rattan.  Thanh Hoa Province is partially looking at its internal market, but SNV agreed that technology transfer is a key issue for the province as well. I took on board all the requests and comments, and we will discuss internally how best to respond, but it seems to me that INBAR has fantastic opportunities in Vietnam.

In the evening, I took a taxi to the centre of old Hanoi – Hoan Kiem Lake. This is a historical part of town, which still looks the same as in the early nineties. I read in the local newspaper – Vietnam News – that at a workshop earlier in the week, architects and cultural experts had agreed that no new high-rise buildings should be constructed around the lake to maintain the current outlook.

Hoan Kiem lake in central Hanoi

It was a joy to saunter around the lake and to lose myself in the old town. Hanoi is a very social city with people sitting on small stools along the road and on terraces and porches, chatting, drinking and eating.

What a pleasure to be in Hanoi again.  The discussions I had with MARD and SNV suggest that I will be back before too long.

 

Tch–Tch–Tch–Changes

         

It may not be front page news, but next year there will be a major shift in the management of two of the world’s largest environmental organisations.   What will this mean for future global nature conservation policy?

In 1980, the collaboration between the largest environmental NGO in the world (WWF International), the largest international network of organisations dealing with biodiversity and nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) resulted in the publication of the World Conservation Strategy.  This was widely acclaimed as the blueprint for the concept of sustainable development.  The sequel, “Caring for the Earth – a strategy for sustainable living” was published by the same three organisations in 1993 as a response to the Rio Earth Summit.  From 1988 to 2000, IUCN, WWF and UNEP also managed jointly the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, the global biodiversity institute responsible for biodiversity assessments and policy advice, which is now part of UNEP.

During the past decade, collaboration between the three organisations has not been as productive as it was in the eighties and nineties.  Recent announcements may well herald a major change.  WWF has advertised the position of Director-General, as the incumbent Jim Leape is leaving in early 2014.  IUCN announced on its web-site last week that its Director-General Julia Marton-Lefèvre is also stepping down in 2014, and the process for her replacement has started.

What will this transition bring for the future?  Will IUCN and WWF get closer, or move further apart?   Can we expect some new joint action in the village of Gland in Switzerland where both IUCN and WWF have their Headquarters?  Could the economic crisis in Europe encourage a Secretariat shift towards the East or towards the South where UNEP is located already?  What about a new major IUCN-WWF-UNEP initiative to set the scene for the future?

Time will tell…..

Stop the smog

Reading about the smog in Singapore, and listening to the recent debates makes me wonder. The world seemed to treat this disaster as an unexpected happening, and urgent political discussions are taking place in the region to try and address the problem.

photo from http://www.washingtonpost.com

But, rather than trying to deal with the symptoms of smog and air pollution, the international community should address the cause of the problem. The burning of forests to clear land for plantations is something that has been going on for years in many of the Southeast Asia nations, and it is an issue that has occupied local and international environmental NGOs for a long time.

Illegal forest clearing is one of the main causes for greenhouse gas emissions, causes major hardship for local communities, destroys the ecosystem for charismatic species, often lowers the groundwater table and eventually makes the land useless for agriculture. It is a one-way ticket to disaster, and the governments of the affected countries know this, which is why forest clearing is illegal. Yet – it still happens at a staggering scale.

Riau Province, Indonesia
Photograph: Aswaddy Hamid/Reuters

In recent reports, local subsistence farmers are being accused as the main culprits, but a 2012 study by Greenpeace clearly points the finger at large business enterprises. These companies manage to get away with the illegal logging as a result of a mixture of local political support, corrupt management practices and financial pay-offs, made possible through a lack of enforcement capacity by the authorities.

The international community should help, and this could be through pressure from multinationals working at the end of the supply chain on the suppliers, through technical advice and support from international aid organisations and NGOs, by strengthening local communities and by physically helping the authorities to extinguish the fires.

Forest clearing is a problem that has simple solutions – deal with the greed and corruption of bad companies, support those that are following the law and help local communities to take charge of their territory. Naming and shaming may be a very effective way to start.

ODA and SDGs

The High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda today released “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development,” a report which sets out a universal agenda to eradicate extreme poverty from the face of the earth by 2030, and deliver on the promise of sustainable development.

The Panel was established by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and is co-chaired by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

One paragraph in the summary struck me in particular, as it emphasises climate change as a key factor in development:   “Above all, there is one trend – climate change – which will determine whether or not we can deliver on our ambitions. Scientific evidence of the direct threat from climate change has mounted. The stresses of unsustainable production and consumption patterns have become clear, in areas like deforestation, water scarcity, food waste, and high carbon emissions. Losses from natural disasters–including drought, floods, and storms – have increased at an alarming rate. People living in poverty will suffer first and worst from climate change. The cost of taking action now will be much less than the cost of dealing with the consequences later”

The panel decided that the post-2015 agenda will be driven by five big, transformative shifts:

1. Leave no one behind. We must keep faith with the original promise of the MDGs, and now finish the job. After 2015 we should move from reducing to ending extreme poverty, in all its forms.

2. Put sustainable development at the core. We must act now to halt the alarming pace of climate change and environmental degradation, which pose unprecedented threats to humanity. We must bring about more social inclusion.

3. Transform economies for jobs and inclusive growth. We call for a quantum leap forward in economic opportunities and a profound economic transformation to end extreme poverty and improve livelihoods.

4. Build peace and effective, open and accountable institutions for all. We are calling for a fundamental shift – to recognize peace and good governance as core elements of wellbeing, not optional extras.

5. Forge a new global partnership. Perhaps the most important transformative shift is towards a new spirit of solidarity, cooperation, and mutual accountability that must underpin the post-2015 agenda.

All this requires money, and this reminded me that a few days ago, I read in the Dutch news that former Minister for Development Cooperation, Jan Pronk resigned from the Dutch Labour Party (PVDA), in protest of the Dutch government decision to slash its development cooperation budget. As a result of his influence when he was minister in 1975, The Netherlands is only one of the five countries that have consistently exceeded the UN target of 0.7%GNP, together with Denmark, Luxemburg, Norway and Sweden. Since 2010, the development cooperation budget has been reduced significantly and the latest budget cuts may reduce it further to below 0.7% in 2013 and down to 0,55%GNP in 2017.

The Netherlands is not the only country that is reviewing its development cooperation. The OECD reports that overall development assistance fell by 4% in real terms in 2012, following a 2% fall in 2011. The projections for 2013 are not any better.

How are we going to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals if there is no money to pay for it?

 

How to make international agreements more effective?

The world has created a number of international bio-diversity related Conventions, as a means to control degradation of the global natural environment.  During recent discussions, the question was asked how some of these so-called Multilateral Environmental Agreements could be made more effective. The challenge is how to make the obligations of the Conventions stick at national level, as all international agreements have to respect the sovereignty of individual nations.

When countries ratify a Convention, one of the commitments is to implement in their national laws the obligations that they have under the international agreement. In reality, proper enforcement under national laws is often lacking, and there are no real penalties for non-compliance.

For example, a country that has ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), but that does not protect its species will not be charged a large amount of money to compensate for the damage. Nor are there other real sanctions, apart from “name and shame”. All the Secretariat of the CBD can do is to write a letter of complaint to the Head of State of the affected country.

The situation is slightly different for those international agreements that encourage parties to the convention to nominate specific areas for protection. If countries endanger a global heritage site protected under the World Heritage Convention, the area may be listed as a “site in danger” and eventually be taken off the record as penalty for non-compliance. However, any compensation for the destruction of the site is up to the discretion of the country, and there are no penalties for not doing so.

The Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild fauna and Flora (CITES) can impose trade restrictions on parties that do not fulfil their international obligations. This is serious as CITES estimates that the regulated global wildlife trade is between USD350m and USD530m per year.  But critics argue that the multibillion-dollar illegal trade in wildlife is a growing problem, and a big reason is nations’ failure to enact stiff penalties for traffickers or enforce wildlife laws already on the books.

It is great to have a range of international nature conservation agreements, but if we want to get serious about biodiversity conservation, breaking the rules should be punished – one way or another. Don’t you think so?

What meaningful sanctions should nations agree on, to encourage compliance to the international conventions?