1999 EarthAction Report
Since EarthAction was launched at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992, our Network has grown to include over 1,600 organizations in more than 140 countries and thousands of legislators, journalists, and concerned individuals worldwide. In the past seven years we have produced and distributed over a quarter of a million Action Kits focused on some of the world’s most serious environment, development, peace and human rights problems. Each of our Kits has linked accurate information with recommendations for timely, meaningful action.
What follows is a report on many of the issues upon which we have campaigned. On these and other issues, we will continue to press for meaningful action from policy-makers. We believe it will take clear communication, creativity, persistence and vigilance on the part of many people around the world to move us toward positive solutions to these global problems. To that end, we will continue our efforts to expand the EarthAction Network.
This can feel like a difficult, challenging time to be working for peace, justice and protection of the global environment. But it is the only time we have.
We want to thank again all the organizations and individuals who have used our Action Kits, and who, by working together, are helping to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.
Protect Our Ozone Shield: In 1992, we targeted a meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on protection of the ozone layer. We asked Partners to press their governments to take a firm stand to ban all ozone-depleting chemicals and to increase their financial contributions to the Multilateral Ozone Fund (MOF) set up to help developing countries phase out these chemicals.
Over the last several years the Montreal Protocol has been strengthened and throughout the world the production and the use of ozone-depleting chemicals are being steadily phased out. Many such chemicals, however, are still in existence, particularly in developing nations and the former USSR, and illegal production and smuggling of CFCs has become a growing problem. Scientists estimate that if production levels continue at their current pace, well over one million tons of CFCs will be manufactured over the next decade. Since CFCs made today can enter and react with stratospheric ozone for over one hundred years, continued production will contribute to significant levels of ozone depletion, affecting living systems the world over, until well into the next century. Financial contributions to the MOF are still much slower than hoped for.
While the phasing out process is going all too slowly, the World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that the 1998 ozone hole above the Antarctic was the largest and strongest ever recorded. It lasted over 100 days. They reported that the ozone layer deficiency for 1998 over latitudes at least 60 degrees south was 25% greater than the overall average for the 1990s. As the amount of ozone in our atmosphere decreases, the ultraviolet radiation from the sun that reaches our planet increases. Scientists are documenting the many harmful effects this is having to life on earth.
Protect Clayoquot Sound: One of Canada's Last Unspoiled Temperate Rainforests: EarthAction campaigned to garner worldwide support for the local and indigenous peoples of Clayoquot Sound, calling for protection of their forest and an end to clearcut logging. After years of work, the campaign has paid off—MacMillan Bloedel, the largest logging corporation in the area, are currently in the process of transferring their tree-farm license to a new company that is majority owned by First Nations (indigenous) peoples. This new company is dedicated to eco-certified logging and limiting future logging to areas already partially logged. Pristine areas will be used for eco-tourism and other uses that leave the forests intact. The local people, with the support of the British Columbian and Canadian governments, have applied to have Clayoquot Sound designated a ‘UN Biosphere Reserve.’ A decision is expected in November. The campaign to protect Clayoquot is close to being a resounding success, in which EarthAction played a significant part.
Change the World Bank: We joined widespread international calls for the World Bank, often a promoter of environmental destruction and social disintegration since its creation in 1944, to radically alter its work. We asked EarthAction Partners to contact their Finance Ministers, urging them to demand at the World Bank’s 50th Anniversary meeting, that the Bank: 1. Stop funding destructive megaprojects like dams, 2. Massively increase its lending for basic health care, education, clean water and family planning, and 3. Use its funds to lend directly to the poor for small-scale community-based projects.
Over the five years since this campaign, the World Bank has continued funding large-scale infrastructure projects including dams, roads, fossil fuel based energy development and mining. They are, however, engaged in several reviews of their lending policies and are including input from the public.
Overall, the Bank has increased its lending for health and education. In 1998, the International Development Association, the branch of the Bank that lends to the poorest countries, increased their loans for educational projects to US$1.1 billion, up from $255 million in 1997. Year by year, they are also increasing their “micro-credit” or small-scale loans for community-based projects.
Rwanda and Burundi: In the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which over half a million people died, we called on governments to support the work of the International Tribunal set up to prosecute those responsible, to increase aid to Rwanda and Burundi, and to enforce the UN arms embargo on the former Rwandan government and other extremist groups. Since then, constrained partly by lack of resources and political support, the Tribunal’s work has gone on painfully slowly—over 300 people await trial, and only one has been convicted. The Rwandan government is also conducting its own trials. Over 300 people have been tried so far, and some executed, though human rights groups have called some of these trials unfair. Meanwhile, 130,000 people still await trial in Rwandan jails. Although international aid to Rwanda and Burundi has increased since EarthAction’s campaign, much money that was promised has not yet materialized, partly due to the caution of donors since the Rwandan army’s involvement in the invasion of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998. Rwanda itself continues slowly to recover from the genocide, but in general the situation in the Great Lakes Region of Africa remains violent and volatile, with international efforts to contain and resolve the conflicts there still too meager.
Stop the Poisoning of Our Seas: In May 1996, world leaders attended a meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to review the state of the world’s oceans. EarthAction’s Partners called on them to negotiate a treaty to ban production of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and to draw up national plans to prevent disposal of sewage and industrial waste in the world’s oceans.
Last year in Montreal nearly 100 countries agreed in theory to restrict the use of the “dirty Dozen”—12 of the most toxic pesticides and industrial chemicals and byproducts that linger in the environment. Now these countries are deciding just how strict the ban will be on these Persistent Organic Pollutants. They are set to come up with a treaty by the end of next year, with hopes that each country will ratify it by 2005. Environmentalists want the POPs to be banned now, while the chemical manufacturers are arguing that they need not be totally eliminated, but rather should be properly “managed.”
In addition, most governments have still not produced comprehensive national plans to prevent land-based ocean pollution, despite promising to do so.
Save Africa's Last Rainforests: This Action Kit sought support for campaigners in Gabon who were fighting to protect the internationally-important Lopé Forest Reserve from destruction by government-supported multinational logging firms. EarthAction asked for letters to be sent to the President of Gabon urging him to refuse permission for any further logging in the reserve, and to work to ensure that no logging was allowed in any of Gabon’s protected areas.
In 1997, in response to increasing international pressure, in which EarthAction played a significant role, the Gabonese government reversed its decision to allow logging in the Lopé Reserve and instead strengthened legislation to protect this important area. This was a significant success for EarthAction and other networks working on the issue.
Death of an Island: EarthAction called for international support for the people of Yamdena Island, Indonesia, who had been fighting a six-year battle to save their forests and their local economy from destruction by government-supported logging companies. EarthAction recommended letters to the Indonesian Forestry Minister, urging him to cancel the logging concession on Yamdena and recognize the peoples’ traditional land rights. In mid-1998, following the forced resignation of Indonesian President Suharto, a new Forestry Minister told the islanders that logging on the island would stop, following the recommendation of the area’s Regional Governor. This is a promising development. So far, however, this promise has not been kept—the logging continues and Yamdena’s people are still waiting for their land rights to be recognised.
Justice for Alexander Nikitin: Former Russian naval captain Alexandr Nikitin was arrested in 1997 by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB – formerly the KGB) for passing information about pollution from Russia’s aging and dangerous nuclear submarines, none of which was classified, to the Norwegian environmental group Bellona. This is a key test case for the right to expose and protest against environmental destruction in the former Soviet Union. EarthAction asked people to write to the Russian government expressing concern about the treatment of Nikitin, and urging them to transfer his case to the High Court to ensure him a fair trial. Nikitin’s case was not transferred. In October 1998 a St Petersburg Court ruled that the case against him for ‘treason and espionage’ was not proven. But they ordered the FSB to investigate Nikitin’s case further. Nikitin appealed to the Russian Supreme Court, which upheld the earlier verdict. Although Nikitin was finally released from FSB isolation in December 1998, he remains under house arrest in St Petersburg, awaiting a retrial, which could take months or even years. He is currently appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. International support for his case is still needed.
Save Imataca: Protect a Pristine Venezuelan Rainforest: EarthAction supported the campaign by Venezuelan indigenous groups and environmentalists to repeal Presidential Decree 1850, issued in May 1997, which gave almost half of the protected Imataca rainforest reserve over to mining interests, and left less than 4% of the reserve fully protected. We urged the Venezuelan government to repeal the Decree, to recognize the land rights of Imataca’s indigenous peoples, and to ensure that the reserve was protected from logging and mining.
Even as our Action Kit went out, the situation in Imataca went from bad to worse, as the government began building an electricity power line through the reserve, mainly to provide power to the mining firms which are destroying much of the nation’s rainforest cover. Direct action protests by thousands of indigenous Indians led to stand-offs with the army, arrests and even deaths.
In February 1999, Hugo Chávez, the newly elected President of Venezuela, took office. During his campaign, he promised to repeal Decree 1850. He has not yet kept this campaign promise, and, unfortunately, just recently announced that the power-line project would continue. Since his election, however, he has taken the important step of appointing an indigenous woman as Venezuela’s Environment Minister, who is committed to repealing the decree.
A special National Constituent Assembly will be convened this year to rewrite Venezuela’s Constitution. More than 400 indigenous delegates participated in the National Council of Indigenous Peoples of Venezuela to prepare their proposal for the new constitution which among other issues, presents their position on their rights to their traditional lands and resources. For more information contact the Indigenous Federation of Bolivar State at <[email protected]>.
Supporting Nigerian Democracy: EarthAction supported Nigerian democrats’ calls for an international oil embargo on Nigeria as the best way to encourage its brutal, repressive and corrupt military regime to restore democracy. Unfortunately, the world’s governments resisted this call, preferring instead to take symbolic action against the regime, suspending it from the Commonwealth following the execution of environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. In late 1998 and early 1999, following the death of Nigeria’s dictator, General Abacha, local and national elections were held in Nigeria. In February, Nigeria’s former President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was elected as the new President. He is scheduled to take office on May 29, 1999. Whether President Obasanjo will tackle Nigeria’s important issues of stable democracy, poverty, corruption, environmental destruction and the abuses of the oil companies remains to be seen.
Nigerian activists and their supporters elsewhere are calling on President Obasanjo to: 1. Repeal all oppressive and unjust laws, 2. Establish a transparent process to write a democratic constitution that will ensure minority group rights and protect all human rights, and 3. Withdraw military forces from the Niger Delta, and work with the people of the Delta and the oil companies to bring an end to pollution and oppression throughout the region and to make restitution to the citizens of the Delta for loss of life, livelihoods, and destruction of their environment.
Improving the United Nations: Ever since our launch at the Earth Summit, members of the EarthAction Network have been campaigning for a more democratic and effective United Nations. A recent survey of EarthAction Partner Organizations shows that more than 90% favor a fully independent International Criminal Court, a UN Volunteer Force for rapid deployment to conflict zones, a strong Environment Council, and a democratic People's Assembly, among other improvements in the UN system.
Achieving these goals is a long-term task and will require persistent public pressure, but one major development in July 1998 showed that progress is possible. An agreement was reached to create an International Criminal Court, which will come into force once 60 nations have ratified it. Countries that voted against the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court include China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, Yemen and the USA. The Court will have jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity (including rape and forced prostitution) if national courts aren't taking action. It will have an independent prosecutor, which means that NGOs and others can bring crimes to its attention.
A potential source of weakness for the Court will be that either the state where the crime was committed or the state of nationality of the accused have to give their consent before the Court can act. (The only case where a government cannot block an investigation of its own crimes is if the UN Security Council brings the case to the Court.) This means that reigning dictators will often be able to avoid prosecution so long as they hang onto power. Nonetheless, the creation of the Court is a major step forward for international law. The next step is to ensure that the treaty establishing the Court is ratified by as many nations as possible.
The recent crisis in Kosovo highlights again the urgent need to strengthen the UN's capacity to keep the peace and protect human rights. In late 1998, EarthAction sent a letter to the world's heads of government and foreign ministers warning that without far-reaching improvements in the UN system the world would find itself powerless yet again to prevent the next Rwandas and Bosnias. Within a few months, our warning had come true with a vengeance.
Once again we have witnessed the horrors of "ethnic cleansing," which (regardless of the eventual outcome) national governments elsewhere were unwilling or unable to prevent, and international preventive diplomacy happening too late to forestall disaster. We have seen the NATO powers deliberately avoiding the UN Security Council, because the big power veto is sure to paralyze it. We have seen indicted war criminals from Bosnia who should have been arrested by international forces there, but who were allowed to go free by Western governments unwilling to take the political risks to arrest them, moving on to Kosovo to continue their murderous work.
Until we have a more democratic UN with the authority and the means to confront mass murderers, we are all too likely to see more such atrocities in the future. On this issue as on others summarized in this report, EarthAction will continue its efforts in the years to come.
Ending the Nuclear Threat: EarthAction has run several campaigns calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the world, and has urged governments to begin negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention as a way to achieve this. Twice since our campaigns began—in both 1996 and 1997—the UN General Assembly has adopted resolutions calling for just such a Convention, and in 1997 a model Convention, drafted by the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, was circulated in the UN. In May ’97, after India and Pakistan both tested nuclear weapons, the Indian Prime Minister called for negotiations to begin on such a Convention.
In a related campaign, EarthAction supported a call for the UN General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the World Court on the legality of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons under international law. This campaign, led by major peace organizations, was successful. In 1996, the World Court issued its decision that the use, or threat of use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal under international law.
Despite wide demand for the abolition of nuclear weapons, there remain 36,000 nuclear weapons in the world, five thousand of which are on alert, ready to be launched at a few minutes' notice.
Population and Development: EarthAction’s population and development campaign has run through the Cairo Population Summit of 1994, the Social Summit of 1995 and the Women’s Summit of the same year. We have always pressed for governments to increase spending on basic healthcare, education and family planning programmes—especially for women and girls—either as a percentage of national spending, for developing countries, or as a percentage of aid, for developed countries. We have also urged governments to support the principle of the ’20:20 initiative’, under which northern governments would commit 20% of their development aid, and southern governments 20% of their national budgets, to meeting basic human needs. Over the years, a growing number of countries have committed themselves to the 20:20 principle.
In general, however, overseas aid from northern countries is actually lower now than it was in 1993, and even within the amounts that are spent, the proportion given for population programmes has decreased. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that aid donors need to be giving annually a total of $5.7 billion for population assistance to meet the goals agreed in Cairo—in fact, the current total is $1.9 billion. Regrettably, most developing nations have not significantly increased their spending on basic healthcare programmes either.
Preventing Disastrous Climate Change: EarthAction has campaigned for seven years for firm government action to prevent disastrous climate change. We have consistently called for large and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the development and promotion of sustainable energy sources, and the adoption of a system of ‘contraction and convergence,’ which over a period of time would equitably share carbon dioxide emissions rights among the people of the world, within a safe global limit.
The seven years since the Earth Summit have seen massive government inaction on climate change—despite mounting evidence that global warming is already affecting the planet. We have also seen a concerted effort by oil producing nations and corporations against any meaningful action aimed at reducing consumption of fossil fuels. Scientists consistently say that emissions of greenhouse gases need to be cut by between 50% and 70% just to stabilize the levels of gases in the atmosphere. Yet at Kyoto in 1997, industrialised country governments agreed to a total cut of just 5% below 1990 levels by the year 2012—and it looks possible that the Senate of the United States, the world’s biggest polluter, will not even accept that cut. Even if the Kyoto target is met, it will be cancelled out by growth in emissions in the developing world, leading to an estimated 30% increase in global emissions by 2012. Though a number of developing country governments are promoting the ‘contraction and convergence’ concept, it is still a long way from being accepted as policy. There remains much work to be done to get governments to agree to substantial cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and to begin a global energy transition to renewable, sustainable sources of energy for the new millennium.
EarthAction’s next campaign will focus on climate change.
Preserving Biodiversity: Some scientists estimate that as many as one species every twelve minutes may be currently becoming extinct across the world as a result of human activity. At the 1992 Earth Summit, 157 governments signed the Convention on Biological Diversity, in which they promised to take steps to maintain and protect the biological diversity of their own nations. EarthAction ran two campaigns, in which we pressed governments to ratify the Convention, to take steps to collect information on their country’s species and to ensure their protection.
Since then, over 140 countries have ratified the Convention, which has now become legally binding. In 1998, the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, launched a project designed to help governments inventory their nation’s biodiversity and draw up action plans to help preserve it. This initiative is funded by the Global Environment Facility, and is a useful step forward. However, the wider picture is still deeply worrying. Despite the ratification of the Convention, the world’s rainforests are still disappearing fast, coral reefs are threatened by overfishing, ozone depletion and climate change, and many other habitats continue to fall victim to the expansion of agriculture and urbanization. Many governments—including those responsible for rainforest destruction—continue to pay lip-service to the idea of species preservation, but very few have spent serious money on it or made it of central importance in their national policies.
Supporting the Amazon Indians: EarthAction's Partners have engaged in several campaigns calling for the land rights of Brazil’s indigenous peoples to be fully recognised by the state, and pressing for demarcation of all Indian territories as soon as possible. In 1996, we joined with other campaigners to press for the repeal of Decree 1775, which allowed commercial interests to challenge proposed demarcations of Indian land, which had been guaranteed by the 1988 constitution. Indians fear a flood of challenges, and a change in status for many of their lands, which could leave them open to invasion by loggers, miners and ranchers.
Despite widespread international pressure, Decree 1775 was not repealed, and challenges to demarcations are still being made. However, the flood of revisions to Indian land titles, which was feared, has not materialized. Perhaps mindful of the controversy, the government has only altered or overturned 8 demarcations since 1996. Nevertheless, significant areas of land have been lost for the Indians. Furthermore, the demarcation process, which was supposed to be finished by 1993, is still only half-complete, and the Brazilian government—now without a parliamentary majority, and under pressure from commercial interests—is dragging its heels over the process.
Ending the Toxic Waste Trade: EarthAction has twice campaigned to end the dangerous trade in toxic wastes between rich and poor countries. In 1994 we called for the trade in such wastes from the North to the South to be outlawed. The following year, despite opposition from some rich nations and corporations, these calls met with partial success. The Basel Convention on toxic waste exports was amended to ban the export of wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries. In 1996, we called again for countries to swiftly ratify this amendment in order to bring it into force. So far, though, the ratification process has gone painfully slowly. Of the 62 nations needed to ratify the amendment to make it law, only 13 have so far done so. On the positive side, toxic waste producers have failed in their attempts to shorten the list of illegal wastes and to reduce the number of countries where toxic wastes could be dumped.
Preventing Desertification: EarthAction has run many campaigns on land degradation, urging governments to first negotiate and then ratify the UN Convention on Desertification, and to fund and support the creation of national action plans to tackle the problem as required by the Convention. Since 1993, the Convention has become legally binding, with over 140 countries having now ratified it. And though desertification is still a major global problem, there are encouraging signs of government action—particularly in Africa, where the problem is extremely serious. In 1998, EarthAction, in co-operation with UNEP and the Environmental Monitoring Group in South Africa, produced an awareness-raising Action Kit designed for use at the grassroots in South Africa, to help engage civil society in the government’s national action plan to combat desertification. Other sub-Saharan African nations, including Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, are drawing up national action plans.
Funding from Northern nations to support this process has increased since 1993, but more money and attention is needed to protect the Earth’s fertility and capacity to produce food. In the US, EarthAction has been collaborating with the Natural Heritage Institute to create a coalition of NGOs, businesses and others to raise awareness of the issue and to press for ratification of the Convention by the US Senate. The Desertification Coalition has succeeded in getting the Convention "upgraded" to be one of the Administration's priority treaties for Senate ratification in 1999.
We want once again to thank everyone who has contributed their time and resources to help mobilize world-wide political will on some of the most important issues facing the human race.
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